Ahab Has A Blog.

Linked is just one story about local legislators protecting corporate interests, killing capitalism, and royally fucking the public. There are many more stories like this, these days. They reveal a concerted policy on the part of communications companies to prevent competition: apparently, they can't even compete even with volunteer efforts.

Apparently, communications companies have found local legislators easier targets when trying to make it illegal to give away Internet access for free. Let us be clear about this type of policy: it is not captalist, it is not free market, and it is not good for the public. We are certain that if you probed deeply enough, you could find grounds to jail these servile toadies for bribery and send them to pound-you-in-the-ass prison.

By the logic these companies employ, there should be legislation against public water fountains. If, say SBC communications has such a problem with legitimate capitalism, they should establish operations in Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, or any number of other countries where government power and private interests conspire against We The People. But as far as we are concerned, these companies can go fuck themselves.

In which , we see the Democrats preparing to lose 2008 as soon as possible:

In all the talk about Hillary as a front-running Democratic presidential candidate for 2008, there are precious few Democrats who will speak publicly about what many consider obvious: Republicans hate her as much as Democrats like her, and it's hard to imagine -- her efforts at moderation on abortion notwithstanding -- how she wins over enough swing voters to put her in the White House.

Last night, David Geffen dared to speak the words. As Lloyd Grove reports in this morning's Daily News, Geffen said during a question-and-answer session in New York that Hillary "can't win, and she's an incredibly polarizing figure." Although Geffen has poured buckets full of money into Democratic campaigns over the years, it sounds like he's unenthusiastic about dropping cash on a second Clinton's run for the White House. "Ambition," he said, "is just not a good enough reason."

That is called, in my neck of the woods, "retahded". Bush is an incredibly polarizing president, and - with the help of cowardice like the above from Dems - that's why he won re-election. Because he animated more of his supporters than the other side because he clearly believes his own propaganda and doesn't give a frozen rat turd if you like him. Apparently, the Democrats can't field a candidate unless the inauguration speech can start with "You like me! You really, really like me!". Amazing that these Beltway types still don't get it, even when they just had their noses rubbed in it. And get their noses rubbed in it day in and day out. Pathetic.

Let me repeat: swing voters don't put you in the White House; people who go to vote and vote for you put you in the White House. I don't know why Dems persist in thinking that elections are won by taking your base for granted and ass-kissing the fence sitters. Bush won by pushing the fence sitters over the other side and thus getting a standing ovation from the occasional voters on his side.

Americans may not know if Siberia is part of Alaska, or whether Mexico is the nearest foreign country from Chicago, but they know when someone is trying to sucker them with a soft, evasive sell better than just about anyone (what nation is the target of more crappy marketing?). And so, in politics, we prefer the "honest lie": when someone speaks what they believe, even if it's obviously untrue (WMD in Iraq, anyone? Saddam-Osama connection? Pakistan is our friend? Russia is our friend? France is not our friend? Saudi Arabia is our friend?). "The guy may be not be the sharpest tool in the shed but at least you know he's not trying to fuck you."

Dems may start winning again when they shitcan the fake-ass yuppies and old school hippies, and unionist dinosaurs running the show now and get some straight-talking punks out front: prosperity is good, but all Americans need the opportunity to take part, not just those who've already succeeded; we are an inclusive nation from our founding, but we cannot include those who wish to destroy inclusiveness; we need to protect American workers against unfair competition and unfair employment practices, but we cannot afford to protect our workers from competition and progress.

And so, Hillary's recent abortion overture is a good step - who wants more abortions? Dean in the DNC might be a good step - yeeaaarggh! Only time will tell - but I mention those two precisely because Dems - Dems! FUCKING DEMS! have dropped them like a stage diver dipped in shit becuse they were accused of being "too liberal" even when a disinterested analysis of their policies shows otherwise. Ask yourself - did Republicans ditch Bush because liberals thought he was "too conservative" for the swing vote?. Craven approval-seeking is a guaranteed road to failure: it stinks of fear, and fear stinks of "loser" and Americans don't like losers.

blah blah blah

so kenny g is an annoying prig, which is why we listen to his show, but clearly he didn't deserve getting shitcanned by federal censorship gangsters. there's been a lot of talk on WFMU about his time in a re-education camp, so since they can't talk about it for fear of the powell brownshirts, i fucking well can.

we think after he was forced to change the name of his show by said brownshirts as an extra-legal "enforcement action", he taunted them. well, he did. he said, in discussing the texan-mafia pressure to alter his show, "i'll tell you something else: i don't like black people". any idiot this side of a local commmunist party meeting and/or christian identity movement circle jerk could tell it was an ironic comment on free speech, but FUCK THIS: IF YOU CAN"T TWEAK THE NOSES OF THE FEDS, THEN FREE SPEECH HAS NO FUCKING MEANING AT ALL. IF A METEOR FALLS ON THE WHITEHOUSE, I"M GOING TO BE OUT ON THE STREETS HOLDING A SIGN SAYING "IT MUST HAVE BEEN GODS WILL" you arrogant fucking twits.

what the fuck is going on.

Let's just get this out of the way: Bababooey, fuck the FCC, and fuck you too.

Now that that's over with, let's get to the point. Kenny G is a DJ on one of the last independent radio stations in the nation. He has - or perhaps had - a show called Anal Magic with Kenny G on WFMU. We liked the show. It is - or perhaps was - a guaranteed irritation. He could - or perhaps can - play a loop of a radio commercial for the movie Giant for an hour and a half, or play incredibly annoying songs mixed with tapes of himself yelling at other tapes of himself talking about what a lame-ass show he has and how he's not even there, it's just a tape and he's in Sweden. It's always annoying; it is - and we forget who coined this - Irritainment.

So his show on Dec 15, 2004 contained a lot of talk about how his show couldn't be called "Anal Magic" anymore because of the FCC. We thought he was joking, then we thought, maybe not, and then he spent the better part of 3 hours discussing listener suggestions for new names for the show - many of which he could not read over the air - and probably a full hour reading e-mail from rock and metal fans recommending what he should do with then show, and horribly mispronouncing the names of metal musicians and bands, whose fans think he should play more of the music they like. So far so good, and a pretty typical show (and for the record, we loved his total disregard for their suggestions AND agreed with them).

Then we decided to find out what that was about and found this message board thread that is now closed by the station manager in a rather ominous way. So what's up?

First, we think it's probably some personality thing, or someone having enough too much of whatever. And that's just life. But it reminds me of the UCC ad controversy in an unsettling way; too much apparent controversy over too little. Are some people making a big show of self-censorship for some reason? Which reason? All we want to know is: are the jackboots marching? Is the inevitable conflict that occurs in small, semi-democratic (and sometimes partly autocratic) organizations, particularly when their parochial politics come into conflict with, um, Reality? Or is this just stupid personality stuff? We hope it's the last; because that's life and we won't get my hairs up about it. If it's the second theory, We'll be upset, but life goes on. If it's the first theory (jackboots), I'm going to get right ugly on the world.

But it does seem like Kenny G has been done shit-canned, which is a motherfucking shame. See the WFMU schedule now, and from Google's cache.

Station manager Ken, if the American Fundamentalists (e.g. Kristian Taliban of Texass) are really beginning to lean on the station in some way, well, we can only say some of our party live in New England. We bet if we were pressed, we could buy a few RPGs off the IRA.

This has been a Very Special Episode of the SludgeReport. Lick my ass.

America just elected the guy who "isn't concerned" about getting the guy who did this:

Remember in 2000 when the Dubya campaign said of Gore "Do you really trust this guy to keep oil prices low?" Guess what, oil prices went up under Dubya, and went up on the news of Kerry's concession (and by conceding before the votes were counted, Kerry just gave credence to the claim that he doesn't have the backbone to be President; he should have said "I'll concede if, when the votes are counted, I have lost Ohio").

Unless, of course, America didn't elect that guy (and the CEO of the company that makes voting machines for Ohio made good on his promise to Dubya to "deliver" him Ohio's votes.

But really, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Next up: invasion of Iran, worldwide chaos, global economic depression, rising theocracy in America, the twilight of freedom in America, and nuclear terror in retaliation for the invasion of Iran.

It's an unlikely course of events. But now that Chief Justice Rehnquist has been hospitalized with cancer, a horrible possibility arises. Remember the 2000 election? Rehnquist torpedoed his own legacy by ushering in the Bush presidency on legal arguments that were transparently trumped up to achieve the desired political end (shut up already - if you don't know this to be true, you're as American as borscht). It was a 5-4 decision.

If Rehnquist quacks his last quack before the election - only a week away - the court could end up short a justice, with a presumable 4-4 tie in the event of an ideologically-based ruling on some election challenge. That would leave President Bush in a position to name a replacement to grant an election in his favor.

If that happens, fellow Americans, we are fucked. That is the worst conflict of interest imaginable in the American system of democracy; the electorate would be neutered in its role of granting legitimacy to the Government ("We the Appointed..."). It would completely de-legitimize the presidency and make Florida 2000 look like a polite disagreement over tea. It's not likely to happen, but this is getting a little creepy; should Rehnquist die of a heart attack or disappear, Soviet-style, with a "cold", it's quite possible the ability of the Second Amendment to protect The People against their government will either be proven beyond doubt or thrown into the trash heap of historically disproven fallacies.

The best defense against this is the Senate. I do believe there are enough Republican Senators with a conscience to vote against an emergency Supreme Courty appointee clearly designed to steal the election. But if not, God help us all; the yawning abyss of chaos lies beneath the next step (watch it, that last one's a doozy!).

And God help you all this somehow prevents the Red Sox from claiming the World Series: the backlash could reduce "fly-over country" to "charred fucking hole in the ground" country.

Worth reading, especially for those conservatives, especially of the chickenhawk variety, who think that all miltary people are conservatives. Leadership Matters.

Whatever their political leanings, real leaders have to deal with the truths on the ground. Here's a good quote: Leadership must demonstrate a hard-headed, stubborn and almost masochistic recognition of the truth, the harsher the better.