Dave Brubeck Quartet - “Take Five”

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Monterey Jazz Festival. Dave Brubeck played at the first, and he’s back for his 14th festival appearance for the 50th. Congratulations to all involved! You can hear complete sets from many of the musicians (including Brubeck) at NPR here.

Meanwhile, here’s Brubeck, with Paul Desmond on sax, performing one of their classics (in 5/4 time).

I haven’t been posting much because I’ve been busy packing for a move, calling to get utilities switched over and all the fun stuff that goes along with a move.

Being a boater in south Florida, I’ve been following a story out of Miami this past week. Very very sad. I’ve been sick about it. You really do have to be careful when boating between here and the Bahamas, or if you’re just out there fishing. This is not a case of piracy (these two fucktards are lying about what happened), but anyone who thinks there’s not pirates out there is crazy.

Then this morning I get a call from the harbormaster at our marina telling me our boat is listing. OMFG!! We’re 50 miles away from the boat and couldn’t get there soon enough. Visions of all our hard work and $$$ sinking. Ends up a fuse blew, and the batteries went dead. So……the bilge pump didn’t work. It’s rained an ENORMOUS amount here in the past week, and being that the boat is right on the coast, it got hammered. There was alot of water in the engine compartment, which leaked into the aft cabin. A mess. But…… the boyfriend got everything fixed and running again and we should be ok. Whew!! That was scarey! After the move we’ll have to do some work in the cabin and get things back to normal. But atleast it’s still floating!!!

Anyway……I’m just going to post some news from the day, and hopefully we’ll get back to it tomorrow. Hope you all had a good day!

TRANSCRIPT REVEALS IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES BY BUSH (But of course Nancy just told us again the other day impeachment has never been on the table and never will.) One of the things brought out in this transcript of a conversation between Jose Maria Aznar of Spain, Bush and Condi Rice is that Saddam was willing to go into excile prior to our invasion.

A COUP HAS OCCURED Daniel Ellsberg speaks at an American college symposium on Sept. 20th

SENATOR DURBIN CALLS TWO YEAR LAG IN CRIB RECALL INEXCUSABLE. I call it criminal.

NEW CITIZENSHIP EXAM……could you pass?

SENATE VOTES TO ADD 4 MILLION KIDS TO HEALTH CARE PROGRAM (here comes the veto) The Hate Crimes Bill attached to the Pentagon bill passed, too.

SENATE DROPS DETAINEE RIGHTS LEGISLATION (two steps forward, one step back)

NEW HOME SALES LOWEST IN 7 YEARS

GOVERNOR OF ALABAMA STAYS TOMMY ARTHUR’S EXECUTION (not so he can have DNA testing to prove if he’s innocent or guilty, but to wait on a new lethal injection to be used)

I’m still in a state of shock over the Senate voting for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment. How very depressing that we’re going down the same road we’ve been down before. Don’t these idiots know that Iran is not Iraq? They have a friggin army and they won’t just sit still and take it. Man oh man….. I just can’t believe it. Two words….we’re fucked.

from Save The Internet.Com

We-ve just been handed another view of Verizon’s gatekeeper tendencies with a report Wednesday night that the company’s wireless arm is blocking pro-choice text messages.

According to the New York Times, Verizon Wireless has rejected Naral Pro-Choice America efforts to use Verizon’s mobile text-message program to communicate to its membership.

Such text messaging is an important new tool for advocacy organizations seeking to educate and alert their members. Verizon decision to block this new form of political speech interferes with its users- right to get information that they choose to receive.

The move gives off a familiar scent - and puts Verizon in the same league with its cohorts at AT&T, who in August censored the live Webcast of a Pearl Jam performance that included criticism of President George Bush.

The truth is that whenever given the choice, phone companies will opt to discriminate against content they don-t like. Such efforts to stem the free flow of information should be a wake up call for anyone concerned about phone company plans to begin filtering Internet content.

Verizon and AT&T routinely rail against Net Neutrality as a “solution in search of a problem.” They swarm Washington with lobbyists offering promises never to interfere with the free flow of online content. And then they lobby for new laws that will allow them to do just that.

AT&T and Verizon share a history of breaking trust with the public, including handing over customer phone records to the government - and then seeking immunity from prosecution for doing so; promising to deliver services to underserved communities and then skipping town; pledging never to interfere with the free flow of information while hatching plans with the likes of Cisco and Viacom to build and deploy technology that will spy on online traffic.

read more at SAVETHEINTERNET.COM

The Center for American Progress

State-by-State Cost Breakdowns

The Bush administration submit a request for an additional $42.3 billion in war-related funding to Congress today. This is on top of the extra funding already allocated to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, which means that they are, in effect, requesting a supplemental for the supplemental.

The additional funds will bring the total amount of 2008 supplemental funding to $189.3 billion-a nearly 30 percent increase over the $142 billion that was requested in February of this year. The overwhelming majority-approximately $158 billion-will go to funding the war in Iraq. If approved, the total spending for the Iraq war would total $617 billion.

The National Priorities Project today released new calculations showing just what effect this surge in spending has had on taxpayers in each state. The interactive map below displays this data and shows state-by’state how much taxpayers have already spent, how much more they will likely spend this year, and what their total cost will be.

It is time to end this misadventure in Iraq and begin a phased redeployment of our forces over the next 10 to 12 months, while implementing a Strategic Reset in the entire Middle East. Until we do so, our troops and our national security will remain hostage to events on the ground.

read more and see interactive map HERE

By Andrew Stern
Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. unions, taking lessons and tactics learned from the effort to arrest organized labor’s long decline, say next year’s presidential election will be crucial to their resurgence.

“You have more ground-level, grass-roots excitement about this election — this is our election,” said Greg Denier of the Change to Win coalition, which is composed of seven unions representing 6 million workers.

Denier said union polls showed most Americans wanted their government to redress the balance toward workers hurt by spiraling health-care costs and the outsourcing of work by “abusive” corporations.

Despite the overall decline in union membership, some American unions led by the fast-growing Service Employees International Union have expanded by targeting entire industries, instead of individual employers, and by focusing on sectors where the jobs cannot move, such as janitors, health-care workers and retail workers.

Similarly, unions have tapped into technology that will help them get their members to the polls and identifies receptive voters by learning what magazines they subscribe to and other data.

By JOHN M. BRODER and JAMES RISEN
The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 - The American security contractor Blackwater USA has been involved in a far higher rate of shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq than other security firms providing similar services to the State Department, according to Bush administration officials and industry officials.

Blackwater is now the focus of investigations in both Baghdad and Washington over a Sept. 16 shooting in which at least 11 Iraqis were killed. Beyond that episode, the company has been involved in cases in which its personnel fired weapons while guarding State Department officials in Iraq at least twice as often per convoy mission as security guards working for other American security firms, the officials said.

The disclosure came as the Pentagon said Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had sent a team of officials to Iraq to get answers to questions about the use of American security contractors there.

The State Department keeps reports on each case in which weapons were fired by security personnel guarding American diplomats in Iraq. Officials familiar with the internal State Department reports would not provide the actual statistics, but they indicated that the records showed that Blackwater personnel were involved in dozens of episodes in which they had resorted to force.

read more HERE

By JEANNINE AVERSA
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - New-homes sales tumbled in August to the lowest level in seven years, a stark sign that the credit crunch is aggravating an already painful housing slump.

Sales of new homes dropped by 8.3 percent in August from July, the Commerce Department reported Thursday, driving down sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 795,000 units. That was the lowest level since June 2000, when sales clocked in at a pace of 793,000.

The home sales report came on the same day that the government reported a relatively brisk business growth rate in revised figures for the second quarter. But the 3.8 percent GDP figure was less than first estimated and it occurred before the credit crisis and its repercussions across the broad spectrum of the economy had taken hold.

read more HERE

The Associated Press

YANGON, Myanmar - Security forces fired automatic weapons into thousands of pro-democracy protesters for a second day Thursday, and the military government said nine people were killed and 11 wounded.

Tens of thousands defied the ruling military junta’s crackdown with a 10th straight day of demonstrations in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon. Security forces also raided several monasteries overnight, beating monks and arresting more than 100, according to a monk at one monastery.

The protests are the stiffest challenge to the generals in two decades, a crisis that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike, then expanded dramatically when monks started leading the marches. The crackdown has drawn increasing international pressure on the isolated regime.

Thousands of protesters ran through the streets of Yangon on Thursday after warning shots were fired into the crowds. Bloody sandals were left lying in the road.

“Give us freedom, give us freedom!” some shouted at the soldiers.

Ye Htut, a government spokesman, said riot police clashed with anti-government protesters in Yangon on Thursday, killing nine people and injuring 11. Thirty-one government troops were also injured, he said.

read more HERE