Nowadays I work at the University of California San Francisco in the Library. Specifically I am a document indexer for the Tobacco Control Digital Collections. What I do is review internal documents from the tobacco industry and assign metadata to them so that they can be searched in more diverse ways than simply by keyword. In other words, I log information such as Author, Title, People Mentioned, Companies Mentioned, and so forth. It's a good cause and of course I see some scandulous and fascinating documents flit across my computer screen. Another part of the library's tobacco-related holdings is the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (LTDL). This is a massive collection of millions of documents which are available due to the settlement of that big lawsuit against the tobacco industry.
If you are interested in this subject this a powerful resource. But even if you don't particularly consider yourself a Tobacco Control Activist, you may be interested in browsing our "Popular Documents" page, which tends to feature a few particularly scandulous examples of the tobacco industry's internal dialogue. Like the proposal for Fat Boys brand cigarettes aimed at "the inner-city Black smoker", or "Plans for positive exposure in women's magazines"

on a lighter note:

ALL HAIL the feline zeppelin maritime animation society!!

Here's a story about a veteran from the last action we took against Iraq: John Muhammad. It's an interview with his ex-wife, whom he'd threatened to kill.

He told her that black soldiers had been discriminated against. One incident in particular left him seething. After he was accused of tossing an incendiary grenade into a tent, Muhammad was hog-tied, arms and legs cuffed behind his back, he told his wife. When a siren sounded to alert the troops to a possible gas attack, no one gave him a gas mask. By the time he learned it was a drill, he had been humiliated in a manner that he never forgot, she said.

Another article: an interview with the man who helped them buy the car in NJ. Far from an accomplice, he just thought he was helping a couple people who were down and out. Here's one more article about Muhammad's smuggling of Malvo out of Antigua.

On Veteran's Day I shudder at the rhetoric of our president (not elected by me), as he turns a blind voice to our past "mistakes" of the past when he threatens outlaw regimes that seek and possess the tools of mass murder. Who bully or ignore the voices of the international community? Who are the only ones to have actually used the ulitmate weapon of mass destruction and, while keeping their own, seek to thwart others from developing the same technology (and thus having a tiny fraction of the destructive force that our nation holds? not to mention our conventional weaponry)? Who have been cited by Amnesty International for actions which are contrary to their own Constitution? And while an American could never be guilty of a war crime by definition, it turns out that we can sue terrorists in civil court it turns out. Absurdity is alive and sick and well. Here's more from FindLaw on the ICC issue.

Look in the mirror W. It's your own fucking mirror, but the rest of this country (should) belong to all of us.

NOT IN OUR NAME is a new anti-war group, which I know little about, except that they got the name right. That's exactly how I feel. Except also powerless to stop it at this juncture. GWB and cronies have waged an effective domestic campaign, though a somewhat sloppy one in international quarters, but they've gotten enough sign-off from the UN and even a partisan group of millionaires (i.e. Congress) that they can now put the ask for forgiveness not permission doctrine in effect for any atrocities to follow.

I work for the state these days, so I have today off. And I give thanks and pay tribute to all the veterans, whether war time or not, for their sacrifice and strife. I don't necessarily feel so generous toward the men who have ordered them about.

The truth about blogs from today's Doonesbury!

It's good to hear my pal Morford is appreciating Boondocks and at least trying to get into Doonesbury. I had the same problem with Doonesbury for years. It's placement on the Editorial page of many papers is telling. I was like isn't it always about Watergate?

The key, I found is to pick up old Doonesbury books in used bookstores, and slowly catch up. They are easily digestable and each are inextricably set in their moment in time. Skewing hypocrisy and harassing the politicos (pardon the redundancy). Whether it's Frank Sinatra or Al Haig or USA Today or (recently) David Geffen, or... okay there really is a LOT on Watergate & Kissinger.

Uncle Duke is a good point of entry, esp. for folks who already have a thing for Hunter S. Thompson. Duke has been ambassador to China, GM of the Redskins, a Zombie in Haiti, and an Enron bagman; versatile, incomprehensible, stoned. If you really want to bone up on the cast history (the strip has been running for 31 years, so it's not surprising if you get a little lost), the website has a section of cast bios. I just realized, he started the strip the year I was born.

Gary Trudeau is really something special. I could go on. But I won't. Here's an interview from '99 in Salon which I haven't read yet. Blogs can be good for bookmarking. :)

News on the memorial to murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. An interesting story and what sounds like a cool artwork.

First Frickin' Fridays #2 tomorrow night!

Tomorrow is the 2nd Installment of First Frickin' Fridays.
It's a chance to voice your yawp at the trough with anyone else who (shows up and) cares about
the underground nightlife in the Bay Area. I'll conduct focus groups and surveys, plying you with
likker and prying out the deepest darkest details of your art scene opines.
DETAILS ARE HERE. Also checkout photos from the first
FFF, and both recap of the whole show and recent developments on the
topic of post-9/11 humor. Plus Mike Dingle's list of alternative news sources.

The show is tomorrow (Friday 10/4/02) at 21 Grand, fine
underground art and performance in Oakland. Catch it if you can.