Properly Chilled
We probably have reached the point where everyone is a music junkie thus rendering the term a universal redundancy. Though there are people that take that personal obsession to the next level. Its not enough to be a listener anymore.
Properly Chilled opened its doors on January 18, 2005.
My name is Brandon, and throughout 2004 I was looking for a specific website I just couldn’t find. It’s not to say there aren’t plenty of good electronic music sites out there, there are tons, but I was looking for a site dedicated to Downtempo music and culture.
Has a nice selection of free mp3s. The default download method is through Quicktime, at least in Fire Fox. Natalie Walker’s vocal styling on No One Else reminds me of Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies. Some other featured downloads included Boozoo Bajou, Annie, and Cities Of Foam.
DOJ: NSA Could’ve Monitored Lawyers’ Calls
The National Security Agency could have legally monitored ordinarily confidential communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and their clients, the Justice Department said Friday of its controversial warrantless surveillance program.
At this juncture we’re at the level of school yard brats. They say its legal. Every argument given for the basis of that legality is dubious, mostly just lies said in the indignant voice of grey haired brats with their hands caught in the cookie jar. Reasonable Americans that care about the future of the republic point out the letter of the law. The right reponds its legal in a slightly louder tone. Principles have become a stranger in the house of conservatism and they mean to use all the power at their disposal to keep it that way.
When you give boys unlimited power and lots of neat technology toys to play with, what is inevitable, Dots: An Apparatus of Domestic Repression?
902nd warriors: I know you are out there on the front lines, collecting and analyzing dots to find a terrorist enemy. It is activity that on the one hand is less intrusive and politically motivated than anything in the past. Yet, at the same time, it is more diabolical because of its very pervasiveness and promiscuity.
The Pentagon “suspicious activity” database I revealed in December contained entries of anti-war and anti-military demonstrations, certainly suggesting that the military was conducting surveillance.
To understand what kind of surveillance though, one has to abandon the Nixonian model of surveillance for the purpose of harassing government opponents or selecting individuals to spy on because of their political affiliations.
Modern spying, at least of this type I’m discussing here, is not so individual-centric. Dot collecting and analysis mostly involves looking for potential threats when the individual is not necessarily known.
The “dots” are everybody and anybody that happens to for whatever reason gets caught in their throw of the intelligence fish net, like maybe your doctor or lawyer.
The good news, Senator Sets Hearing on Censure of Bush
The Senate Judiciary Committee has set a hearing for next Friday on the call by Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, to censure President Bush for his approval of a program to allow electronic eavesdropping without warrants.
Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of the panel, said he had decided to schedule the session after Mr. Feingold, in a television interview, pressed for hearings on the censure proposal.
Some Republicans have seized on the issue to rally their supporters by arguing that the censure plan is evidence that Democrats would try to take some action against Mr. Bush should they gain control of the House or Senate in the November elections.
Now that is funny. Republicans are warning America not to vote for Democrats in the mid-terms because if they get a majority Dems will hold Bush accountable to the rule of law.
The Christo-fascists movement rears its ugly head and takes another life, Police Charge Pastor’s Wife in His Slaying in Tennessee
The killing has roiled the town of Selmer, a southwestern Tennessee community about 80 miles east of Memphis where Matthew Winkler, 31, was known as an energetic and vibrant preacher at the Fourth Street Church of Christ, as well as a loving father and husband.
“I don’t know what her reason is,” said Betty Wilkerson, the church secretary. “I know we’ll probably find out in the weeks to come. But I’m not going to judge her.”
Considering Betty’s statement it sounds like the church of moral relativity. Cynicism aside this whole episode is going to be very tough on her three daughters. Whatever the problem was you would think that she would have thought of those children and what it would do to them first.
Our quote of the day from Glenn Greenwald, speaking of Ben Domenech, ” In many ways, he’s a poster child for the Bush movement.”
DUDLEY
I’m loathe to kill my brother
officers, Edmund.
EXLEY
Tell that to Jack Vincennes. To
Stensland.
DUDLEY
Jack was a shame, but Dick
Stensland had the audacity to try
to sell me my own heroin. Through
his whore girl friend. I sent him
to make the buy. The rest is
history.
EXLEY
Why?
DUDLEY
A vacuum, Edmund. That’s what we
have in Los Angeles. Sending
Mickey Cohen up created it. My
containment work maintained it.
Certain photographs guarantee it.
Organized crime has been held
back, but there’s still a demand
for the services it provides.
EXLEY
And now you’ll provide them.
DUDLEY
Absolutely. Prostitution and
gambling are victimless crimes.
The heroin we’ll run down to the
coloreds. Anesthetize them. As
long as it’s not a middle class
problem, no one will care. It’s
still a crime free city… for
respectable people.
from the screenplay L.A. CONFIDENTIAL by Brian Helgeland
Based on the novel by James Ellroy
The Long Goodbye 