the breath of the morning

A shot from my new WALL-E series on flickr. He makes a fun prop.

turned the power to the have-nots

I meant to post this last week, but a lack of time and then the power outage delayed it. Ron Paul was recently on CNN urging his supporters not to vote for either John McCain or Barack Obama but to support third-party candidates, such as Bob Barr or Ralph Nader. Here's the speech Paul gave, in which his does a good job explaining how our political system is so slanted against anyone from outside the two major parties. He also addresses why it's time to abandon the idea of voting for "the leser of two evils" and instead vote third party in an attempt to shake up the politcal landscape.



And here's an interview with Paul and Nader on CNN talking about the same subject (and featuring CNN hack Wolf Blitzer):

the great gig in the sky

Richard Wright, keyboardist and a founding member of Pink Floyd, died Monday after a battle with cancer. He was 65.

say the right things when electioneering

For anyone that actual pays attention to real news, it is becoming pretty obvious the facade that Sarah Palin is a "maverick," reformer, and fiscal conservative is crumbling fast. One of Palin's most repeated claims is that she said "Thanks, but no thanks" to Congress over the "Bridge to Nowhere"--a claim which has been overwhelming proven false. Not only was Palin originally for this pork-barrel project, but when Congress killed the bridge, she kept the several hundred million dollars in earmarks that had already been appropriated for it. Yeah, she's a real maverick.

Lest anyone complain about me only choosing one source, here's a wide variety of reporting issue:

The conservative Wall Street Journal was one of the first to widely report that Palin's claims were false.

Even FOX News(!) reported her support of the bridge project and the huge number of earmarks requested by Alaska:



CNN's take:


MSNBC's Keith Olbermann:


Olbermann on newer Palin developments, including that she used government funds set aside for travel expenses while living at home:


Then there's the story about how she promoted the Alaskan National Guard General who originally criticized her and then changed his tune.

And just for giggles, here's Jon Stewart comparing how different McCain and Bush really are, based on McCain's convention speech:

it starts when you're always afraid

Terrorism
-noun

1.	the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.

2.	the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

3.	a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

This video is disgusting. The Republicans have shown time and time again that they have no qualms about using the September 11th attacks as a tool to advance their political agenda. John McCain clearly has decided to take up one of President Bush's favorite tactics: using the American people's memories of 9/11 to frighten them into giving the government more power to curtail civil liberties and increase the powers of the executive branch. What McCain is basically saying in that video is "vote for me or you'll die." Downright shameful.

What kind of government do we have when those in power repeatedly show graphic footage of American civilians being killed in order to frighten Americans into giving up their freedoms, but banning footage of American soldiers' coffins coming home from Iraq so people won't get discouraged about the war?

the sky is filled with light

Justin, Perry, Daniel and I headed up to Lexington last Sunday night for my second (and unless someone commits to going to one of the November shows with me, probably last) show of Nine Inch Nail's Lights in the Sky 2008 tour. Great show; right up there with the Cleveland one. The crowd was a little mellower than in Cleveland, which makes it strange that I got much clearer shots at that show. While Perry and I ended up a little closer to the stage than Jon and I had been at the first show, we also ended up on the right side of the stage (which you can clearly see from the pictures).

The band was on top of things yet again. A lot of the same great songs from the first show were just as good this time--"Head Down," "Reptile," "The Warning," and "God Given" especially. As always "Terrible Lie" was another highlight of the night. After playing it for twenty years, Trent Reznor still pours everything into it. I couldn't believe we got to hear "The Great Destroyer"--best song of the night; "The Beginning of the End" and "Ghosts 14" were two new standouts as well. In fact, I liked the whole "Ghosts" mini-set even better this time. The only real disappoint was not only did we get "The Frail" without "The Wretched" but the exclusion of "The Big Come Down" left us without any real songs from The Fragile. Overall it was another unbelievable show and it left me eager for November. Seriously. Any takers?

All my photos from the concert can be viewed at my flickr page.


999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March Of The Pigs
Head Down
The Frail
Reptile
Closer
Gave Up
The Warning
The Great Destroyer
Ghosts 21
Ghosts 14
Ghosts 19
Piggy (Ghosts version)
The Greater Good
Pinion
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
Ghosts 31
Only
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole

(encore)
Echoplex
The Beginning Of The End
God Given
Hurt
In This Twilight

Discipline

Closer

The Warning

The Great Destroyer

Wish

The Hand That Feeds