Archive for September 18th, 2005


Minuteman-style border patrol is over in no time

Bob Morris @ Sep 18th 2005 10:02 - Category: Unfiled ;

Every time racist immigrant vigilante groups called an action in
California these past few months, they were confronted by much larger
groups of militant counter-protestors. And every time, they turned tail
and ran, whining all the way about those horrid leftie/commie/Latinos
who opposed them. They try to bully the defenseless
but when faced with actual resistance, they appear gutless. Bullies
often
are.

After touting their plans for months, organizers called off
their Minuteman-style patrol of the California-Mexico border this
weekend after a minor scuffle with counterdemonstrators and a far lower
turnout than expected.

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Something new to worry about

Bob Morris @ Sep 18th 2005 09:49 - Category: Unfiled ;


You’ve probably never heard of it, but
…

It’s endemic to the Southwest…
It’s spreading with global warming…
It’s annual economic costs are in the
millions…
and it’s a biological agent covered under the
recently enacted Anti-Terrorist and Effective Death Penalty Act

What is it?

Coccidioidomycosis. AKA Valley Fever. Also


C. immitis, a soil fungus, inhabits a unique ecologic niche in the
topsoil of the lower Sonoran life zone. The
infectious propagules are arthroconidia, single-cell fragments of mycelial
threads, which become easily airborne to cause inhalation exposure. In the
alveoli, arthroconidia undergo dimorphic transition to spherules, which fragment
into endospores. When released from the spherule, each endospore can act as a
new infectious unit in vivo. C.
immitis, one of the most virulent and infectious fungal pathogens, poses a
serious occupational hazard for laboratory personnel, especially in areas where
the disease is not endemic and workers are less likely to practice biohazard
safety level (BSL)-3 containment, which is required for the handling of this
pathogen. The serious biohazard potential of C. immitis has led to its
inclusion among the biological agents covered under the recently enacted
Anti-Terrorist and Effective Death Penalty Act, which regulates interstate
transport of infectious materials.



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FEMA, slow to the rescue, now stumbles in aid effort

Bob Morris @ Sep 18th 2005 01:12 - Category: Unfiled ;

Nearly
three weeks after Hurricane Katrina cut its devastating path, FEMA -
the same federal agency that botched the rescue mission - is faltering in its effort to aid hundreds of thousands of storm victims, local officials, evacuees and top federal relief officials say.



The federal aid hot line mentioned by
President Bush in his address to the nation on Thursday cannot handle
the flood of calls, leaving thousands of people unable to get through
for help, day after day.

Doesn’t sound like they’re trying overly hard, does it?



Visits to several towns in Louisiana
and Mississippi, as well as interviews with dozens of local and federal
officials, provide a portrait of a fragmented and dysfunctional system.

Bush’s reaction? No new taxes,
instead he will use this as an excuse to gut social spending. It’s
quite contemptible, isn’t it, using a disaster as a pretext to slash
spending on schools, health care, highways, infrastructure, etc.
Meanwhile the Halliburtons will make billions of the rebuilding. This
will be a huge transfer of wealth from the public to an already wealthy
few.

All the more reason to get in the streets on Sept. 24.

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FEMA City Florida

Bob Morris @ Sep 18th 2005 01:06 - Category: Unfiled ;

Eighteen months after Hurricane Charley, with no homes for the
displaced to move into, FEMA plans to evict them from the camps they
set up for them..

“Personally, I think there will be riots here if
they try to evict people,” said Tiffanie Weygart, a high school junior
who was spending time last week with some friends on the
otherwise-deserted main street of FEMA City, her family’s home for most
of this year. “We’ve got old people, we’ve got a lot of new babies.
Where are they supposed to go?”

Little low-income housing has been built, the working class has no
place to move into that they can afford. It’s happening in Florida,
it’ll happen in New Orleans too. Lots of pricey homes and condos and
hotels have been built, but nothing for the low-income people who used
to live there.

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Two legends. DTK/MC5 and Sun Ra

Bob Morris @ Sep 18th 2005 01:02 - Category: Unfiled ;

The Sun Ra Arkestra
was the original interplanetary space jazz band. They started in the
50’s, have influenced countless musicians, and can’t be imitated, don’t
even try! Wondrous cacaphonies of horns envelop you, sometimes
squawking, sometimes melodic, always changing.

DTK is Mike Davis, Dennis Thompson, and Wayne Kramer of the MC5,
one of the genuine revolutionary bands of the late 60’s. They took it
all to new levels, both politically and musically. (Lead singer Rob
Tyner and rhythm guitarist Fred Smith died of heart attacks in the
90’s.)

Both bands played last night at Royce Hall at UCLA. It was quite amazing.

81 year old Marshall Allen fronts Sun Ra now. He looks and acts 50. The
band has mellowed a bit over the decades, so perhaps now they’re just
circling Saturn, not Pluto. Where they were twenty years ago is where
others might want to go now! To play seriously avant music, you need to
be excellent musicians. They are. They were also about the first to mix
musicial cultures in what is now called world music.

The MC5, what can I say, I’ve followed the band since day one and am
happy to report they blew the roof off. People were dancing in the
aisles. Guest vocals by Handsome Dick Manitoba, Lisa Kekaula, and Greg
Dulli made it even better, and Wayne Kramer remains a stunning guitar
player with the ferocious Thompson/Davis rhythm section churning underneath.

The finale, with everyone onstage, was the MC5’s “Starship” merging into Sun Ra’s “We Travel the Spaceways.”

Tomorrow night, also at Royce, Kris Kristofferson and Steve Earle!

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