From a month ago: Let's rehash it...

I am sick and tired of hearing the same debunked Republican talking points regurgitated over and over again in attempts to scare the American people away from a health-care reform bill that would have a Public Option. OPTION. As in, you DON'T have to choose it. Here's a video in which former Governor Dr. Howard Dean slams (in the nicest way possible, even though it must be incredibly frustrating to refute this garbage time and time again) Norah O'Donnell of MSNBC's onslaught of bogus accusations. I mean it's like she literally collected the worthless dribble that's been sliding out of Mitch McConnell's mouth for the last four months and put it into the teleprompter...Here's the video:



Thanks to crooksandliars.com for the video.

Shameless Self-Promotion Content: My Bands.

You might know by now that I have some other past times besides politics...okay, I have one: Music. I currently play drums in two bands based out of Dayton, Ohio. Colonial is a band I started last year with two friends but has now been reduced to a two-piece outfit. My roommate and friend Matt Ewald is responsible for the guitar playing while I take care of the drums. I'd describe our sound as a throwback to the late '90's hardcore/screamo sound. Think bands like Neil Perry, Joshua Fit For Battle, La Quiete, and Raein. Other people have described us as emo-violence.
I have also fairly recently started drumming in a power-violence/hardcore/thrash band called Damages. James does the vocals and used to play in Hex Noir (A Dayton black metal band) while still currently occaisonlly doing stuff with his pet project known as Altars (I have done some drumming for this as well). Ryan, ex-Hex Noir bassist, plays the four string for us in Damages while Justin, who was in Hex Noir for all of 30 seconds, plays guitar in Damages.
Tonight Damages will be playing a show with Punch (SF), Regrets(CHI), and Rad Company (DYT) at 214 Shroyer road in Dayton, Ohio. Pretty excited, seeing as the other bands are excellent and Damages played well at our last show. We will have our demo tapes as well as cd-r's and some badass looking t-shirts. Get down.
The last was filled with so many good shows that I was able to particpate in with both of my bands. It really reminded me how much I miss being able to play all the time. There's talk of a Damages/Black Kites mini-tour in August. This would be a phenomenal thing.

Republicans! WHAT?!

More on Republican's and their ridiculousness tomorrow.

Robert Greenwald's Rethink Afghanistan Campaign

Robert Greenwald and Brave New Film's have been working hard on their Rethink Afghanistan campaign to bring about more public awareness to the staggering toll the war has taken on Afghanistan's innocent civilian population. Most people's connection with the war seems to be through mainstream media sources or the stories they catch in the newspaper which, while providing content relating to military causalities and Taliban deaths, hardly ever delve into the grim reality of the civilian death toll.

Rethink Afghanistan Part 4

It's the elephant in the room that people refuse to recognize or simply just lack a real grasp of: We are murdering thousands of innocent people. Yes, we all know the old caveat "war is hell", but that shouldn't act as a blanket statement of comfort for the American people (let alone the Afghani people).

When does this end? It's not like some day we're going to kill the last member of the Taliban and they will become some sort of figment of history. As long as we keep making their country resemble the surface of Mars, we will continue to do the Taliban's recruiting for them. We're fighting a war against intangible enemy fueled by ideology that thrives in its' underdog status. Theres got to be a more effective way to curtail them because the current method is not working. There is no justice here. No liberation. Just annihilation

If we want to rid Afghanistan of as much terrorism as we can, then we must change the approach. All of the money that we funnel into guns, bombs, tanks, and body armor could be spent on rebuilding their country, feeding them, clothing them, et cetera. These are all things that would GREATLY improve America's image in the eyes of the average Afhangi citizen, because after all, that's what we really are trying to acomplish here.
The numbers are staggering. 235,000 people are living in tents in camps because of U.S. airstrikes that have obliterated their homes and jobs. People are starving to death. Everyday that this continues, more and more people in Afghanistan join up with the Taliban because they are fed up with America trying to liberate them with bombs.

The equation is seemingly simple one: The more we do to ruin the lives of Afghani citizens, no matter how inadvertent or noble we thought our intentions to be, we will continue to the hearts and minds and strengthen the Taliban's motives and reasoning.

Post-Election Violence in Iran

As I'm sure many of you have heard, the post-election violence has reached unprecedented heights as the Iranian people take to the streets in support of their allegedly defeated candidate Mousavi.

The Huffington Post has been compiling twitter and other various live-blogging feeds from the ground in Tehran and other cities as the demonstrations continue to unfold. To subscribe to an RSS feed, click here.

While many in Iran and around the world have shown their support for the results, the suspicious nature of the circumstances should be noted. Leading up to the election, polls showed Mousavi carrying a hefty lead against the incumbent Ahmadinejad.

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks newscast had an excellent run down of what he says are clear indicators of coordinated state efforts to, at the least, influence the results and at worst, disregard the people's votes entirely.

Many around the world, and especially the Iranian's, are looking toward's President Obama administration for an opinion, a motion of support, et cetera but have only recieved brief acknowledgement. This seemingly strange silence is not without purpose as the administration clearly understands the precariousness of the situation. While the Iranian people clearly want acknowledgment and vindication, they want it on their terms and through their hands.

Expect more developments in the coming days, and continue to check The Huffington Post for more critical updates.

Dayton suffers another economic blow with the departure of NCR

The city of Dayton and National Cash Register have shared a unique history with one another, intertwined in communal growth and technological innovation. It was NCR, founded by John Patterson (whose name decorates many a fixture and street sign through out the city) in 1884, who spurred great economic growth around the Dayton municipality during the early part of the 20th century.

The student neighborhoods that so many University of Dayton students have come to know and revere were once the original housing provided to employees by NCR so they could live close to their jobs and maintain affordable and respectable homes. Although NCR extracted most of its' manurfacturing out of the city, it still retained corporate offices employing over 1,200 Dayton area people until now.

After rumors began circulating that NCR planned to pack it's final bags for Georgia, Ohio politician's began to scramble to prevent the exodus. Efforts made to communicate with the company were met with a wall of silence, despite Govenor Ted Strickland (D-OH) reportedly offering the company around 31 million dollars in incentives to say. There have also been allegations that Georgia may be using Federal stimulus money to purchase the building which will eventually be leased to NCR. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown has been said to be investigating that allegation and will be exploring what legal options, if any, Ohio may have concerning it. Finally, NCR released an official statement declaring their official intentions of moving their final offices to Georgia:

“The decision to consolidate functions in Georgia and build a technology-focused corporate headquarters campus is right in line with our business strategy to drive growth, improve our innovation output, increase productivity and continually upgrade our focus on the customer,” said Bill Nuti, NCR’s chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Aparrently their business plan does not account for the 125 year old relationship between Dayton and National Cash Register. This startling economic hit comes admist continually rising rates of unemployment, especially in the Dayton area, whose unemployment numbers have reached a towering 13% compared to the national average of 9.4%.

During it's tenure with the City of Dayton, National Cash Register, brought such innovation in cash registers and related products like integrated liquid-crystal displays, bar code scanning for retail, automated tellar machines, and self-check out equipment.

When NCR checks out of Dayton for the final time, it is predicted they will take over 1,200 jobs with them, leaving this increasingly desolate city in an even weaker economic position.

California Supreme Court dropped the ball...it's time for everyone else to pick it back up.

As you've probably heard by now, the California Supreme Court ruled to uphold proposition 8 today. In a move that shocked and disappointed many, a state commonly viewed by the rest of the country as more tolerant and progressive proved that the politics of fear and money will dominate policy as long as we, the people allow it.
When organization's such as ProtectMarriage.com (ad 1) (ad 2) are spewing such absurd fear-mongering, lambasting the television with their hate, it's unfortunately not that surprisingly that this has occurred. People are too easily swayed by their television.
I'll leave you with a parody of one of those ads.