Cy Hersh speak to the ACLU

In this speech he drops a bombshell that he left out of his New Yorker columns:

And basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children, in cases that have been [video] recorded, the boys were sodomized, with the cameras rolling, and the worst above all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking. That your government has, and they’re in total terror it’s going to come out. It’s impossible to say to yourself, how did we get there, who are we, who are these people that sent us there.

We've known for a long time that there were more videos that hadn't been released. And we knew that they had to be even worse that what had come out so far. And there it is, and, no, it can't really get much worse from here.

Am I blogging yet?

Yes, I haven't posted here for 3/4 of a year.  No, I am not off the face of the earth.  Yup, I'm busy.  I'm so glad we can talk like this. 
 
Capsule update, and promises to write again soon:
 

• I am now working at Yahoo! as part of their search engine (technically, I work for Overture, a subsidiary of Yahoo)
• I commute daily to Sunnyvale, CA in the heart(?) of Silicon Valley (about an hour each way--yikes!)
• I am not producing any events at the moment--no regular series and no one-off's in the works right now
• I am not writing enough :-(
• I AM on a big acting kick; I appeared in an on-stage episode of the Twilight Zone earlier this year and am currently co-starring in the first ever stage version of Zippy the Pinhead (more links on that anon).  The show is going GREAT.  I'm having a blast, and it's been well-received.  You'll hear a lot more on this in upcoming posts.
• I am off to San Diego this week for Comicon to help Attaboy sell stuff and soak in the pop culture mega-blast!

Expect more posts soon.  Sorry to have been silent so long, though I've been better about my email-list.  Sign-up to it, or just read it online if you'd like.

GO SEE Night of the Living Dead@!@!

Spanganga
presents a stage adaptation of Night of the Living Dead. Featuring some of the madfuckingeniuses involved with their version of Reservoir Dogs. Hal Robins & John Hell lend their voices to this production, in addition to the likes of Bucky Sinister, Jon Fast and Paul Addis onstage. And your not-particularly-humble author appears in a pre-recorded segment. I havent' seen it yet, but all the reports back have been very positive.
Check the Spanganga
homepage for warning n' such (and, fyi, the vegetarian I know who saw it had no problem). Check the dates and ticket availability here, the
show runs through November 9th.

Two articles on Texas re-districting

The Washington Post delivers two insightful articles on the Texas Republicans re-districting powerplay. The first
deals with the legal issues involved the Democrats have filed suit claiming it to be unconstitutional and illegal; citing several experts, the article's thrust is that this is uncharted legal and constitutional territory. The other article covers
the diversity on the political spectrum of the Democrats who would be ousted by the news districting scheme--including some who vote with GOP frequently and who benefit the state by their senority.

If you are curious and want to geek (yes, as a verb) about more general redistricting stuff, there are links here to
all manner of redistricting sites, including those for each of the 50 states (hmmm, not quite Maine seems to be missing, I wonder why. Indiana makes up for it by having several sites for some reason). Here's
the California site
which has links to redistricting in the news stories, and maps of 2002 party registration by country which is interesting to look at.

I now know more than is useful about this. From here on I will begin purposefully forgetting it.

THE FINAL FFF!!

That's right, I'm bringing my First Frickin' Fridays series to an end this Friday. I'll have the wonderful help of omnimedia maven Univac. We'll make fun of Ahnold and show cool videos and play great music. You can show up and drink. :) Come out to 21 Grand this Friday.

How to share power during the occupation from Slate

"On Saturday, the leaders of France, Germany, and Britain will meet in Berlin to discuss how to deal with the U.S. request for postwar assistance. This news flash bears repeating: Our key allies over the past half-century are meeting to form not a common Western position on how to deal with Iraq but a common Western European position on how to deal with us—and in a form that does not include any Americans. Meanwhile, France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg are putting together a European defense force independent of NATO (i.e., free of U.S. control). "

Wunderbar, n'est-ce pas? Fred Kaplan writes the War Stories column in Slate (and the occassional article on a Thelonius Monk re-issue. I never miss one of his articles (for long). He offers great insight on the military machinations of our nation and others. And suggests much more diplomatic and sensible solutions than our administration would ever bother to consider.

Here's the New York Times article on the upcoming meeting between France, Germany and Britain. Meanwhile, Josh Marshall asks what does hording contracts for U.S. companies including Haliburton & MCI have to do with our reticence to share control in Iraq?

Assertive Hill tests Bush veto

Promising news. This article tracks a recent wave of Congress defying the WHouse's agenda. Overtime, travel to Cuba, and turning back new FCC regulations all got enough support to carry them through despite threats of a veto. This is an excellent sign for the return of checks and balances instead of the partisan dictatorship we've been living through with Republicans controlling both houses and lockstepping with that creep in the Oval Office. Here's another article on these developments from Christian Science Monitor.