This 4-minute video features the work of the official Texas State Photographer. Isn’t it refreshing to find a ‘State Photographer’ that does something besides follow the Governor around for photo ops?!

Wyman graduated from Texas Tech. When he graduated, he moved back to a ranch near Benjamin so he could begin his photography.

He lived in a dugout for a few months, to be in the middle of the roadrunners, coyotes, and snakes. His work is wonderful.

Whether or not you're from Texas, or just love the outdoors and wild life and fine photography, this will stir your heart!

Be sure to turn on your speakers.

Watch it here.

The Fracking process uses many chemicals injected into the ground. These chemicals are trade secrets and do not have to be legally disclosed. Pure insanity pumping chemicals into the earth, in such an uncontrolled and unknowing affect on ground water and other environmental effects.

“Hydraulic fracturing has been around since the 1940s but was a relatively uncommon practice until the past decade or so, largely pushed by energy services company Halliburton, led by then-Chief Executive Dick Cheney. During the Bush-Cheney administrations, oil lobbyists were been able to exempt fracking from federal water regulations because it was such an unexplored technique.”

The L A Times covers the issue of how undisclosed in both location and chemicals used for Fracking are widespread not only in California, but the whole U.S.

This 20 minute presentation at the TED conference this past February in Long Beach California is one of the best short overviews of Nuclear vs. Alternative solutions to the ongoing energy issue.

The Drug War in Mexico is taking a new turn. Well-armed non-state actors directly attack the State, can only signal a new dramatic escalation. L A Times Reports

"This really speaks to the incredible organization and firepower that the drug-trafficking organizations have managed to muster," said Tony Payan, a border expert at the University of Texas at El Paso. "These are organizations that are flexible, supple and quick to react and adapt. They no doubt represent a challenge to the Mexican state."

There is a fundamental shift in policy on both sides in the War to Control Drug Flow. The Cartels are directly fighting back against the Mexican State. The appearance of a new suppression agreement by the Mexican Government and the Cartels is bearing the fruit of direct challenge to the State.
Don’s on the ground report from Mexico , gives a look behind the curtain in the shift in policy that is causing the new escalation on both sides.

The Generals in the U.S., and military contractors must be salivating at more mayhem to support a failed U.S. drug policy.

Tom Russell nails it on the head. Worth a read to summarize the current Wild West.

I’ll watch it all go down from Ardovino’s Desert Crossing, the great bar and restaurant which sits up near Mt. Cristo Rey, overlooking the lights of El Paso. (Okay, there are a few good bars here.)Trains roll cross the mountain at happy hour and border patrol trucks chase illegals through these desperate, yucca-choked rocks and rills. Over yonder the ugly black border wall snakes across the sandy hills. The wall is our knee-jerk attempt to intimidate Mexican illegals who want to do the dirty work we shun. But this is still the old west, amigo. Those class equations have always been such. The Chinese built the railroads with a shotgun at their head, and their opium was always available in the back of the chop suey joints and whore houses. The “greasers” and “chinks” did the dirty work; and those red devil Apaches raided our horse camps until we sent Geronimo down to Florida to chill out. We’re getting it under control, ain’t we? It’s the coked-up, Manifest Destiny politics of Methland.

Where God and the Devil Wheel Like Vultures: Report from El Paso

If you are in the Stanford California area tomorrow. FCC hearing.
This is a huge deal coming down, as most Agonistas know. If you have
never been to a FCC hearing, it is well worth the effort.
http://www.savetheinternet.com/=stanford

Why do we do what we do? Why do Ian, Numerian, Sean-Paul Kelley, Don, Tina, Chicago Dyke, and so many others to mention that write and assemble BBPs (Boss Bodacious Postings)? Here is my take, they care about all of us on the Globe, and use logic and understanding of the subject matter to untangle and explain what is going on from their view point. Beyond understanding, the gift of creativity shines though in so many ways.

Oil is the mantra of this ocupation. The U.S. will leave Iraq only when the multinational oil barons secure the flow of Iraqi oil to power my car. I am as guilty as they are when I burn dinosaurs.

Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii talks about the oil leases being signed as the Dog and Pony show proceeds in Congress.

This year’s list of stories is released. Many are known to Agonist’s readers, however there are some surprises. Worth a quick click to view and scan. One that I have followed over the past year and noticed that there was a news blackout on the mass arrest of over 30 thousand individuals in massive sweeps nationwide, coordinated by the Feds.

Why would the Feds round up 30 thousand people, and not release statistics on the arrest, trumpeting Bush's muscle to rid the streets of miscreants.

One of the stories, #6 Operation FALCON Raids:

“Operation FALCON presents the first time in US history that all of the domestic police agencies have been put under the direct control of the federal government. The implications for American democracy are quite profound.
Operation FALCON serves no purpose except to centralize power and establish the basic contours of an American police state. It is not an effective way of apprehending criminals.”

Project Censored

"Project Censored is a media research group out of Sonoma State University which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media."

Enforcing the Community's foreign policy orthodoxy
Glenn looks at the Foreign Policy wonks on the Democratic side, and how the neocon agenda runs through the thoughts of so called serious foreign policy thinkers.

Not only, according to this Democratic foreign policy expert, were there "good arguments" for attacking and invading Iraq (a country which neither attacked nor threatened to attack us), there are also now what Cohen calls "good arguments" for starting wars against two more countries (at least) that have also not attacked us

Even with the eventual slowdown in Iraqi operations and a possible new democratic prez in 08, the neocon flame will burn.

The Number One Rule of the bi-partisan Foreign Policy Community is that America has the right to invade and attack other countries at will because American power is inherently good and our role in the world is to rule it though the use of superior military force. Paying homage to that imperialistic orthodoxy is a non-negotiable pre-requisite to maintaining Good Standing and Seriousness Credentials within the Foreign Policy Community.

Glenn has been hitting on these so called serious thinkers for a few posts now, and how this line of thinking will continue to permiate the msm and so called policy trim tabbers out there in the world of well financed think tanks.
Read the rest of Glenn Greenwald's post

Chalmers Johnson pens a nice review of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA written by Tim Weiner on the CIA and how the seed of it’s current dysfunction were planted long ago. Couple the dysfunction with shaping intelligence for the Neoconmen, and a dim and disastrous outcome is all that come from this stupidity and ignorance. Maybe it is not a failure, from the point of view of high oil prices.

By 1964, the CIA's clandestine service was consuming close to two-thirds of its budget and 90% of the director's time. The Agency gathered under one roof Wall Street brokers, Ivy League professors, soldiers of fortune, ad men, newsmen, stunt men, second-story men, and con men. They never learned to work together - the ultimate result being a series of failures in both intelligence and covert operations. In January 1961, on leaving office after two terms, President Eisenhower had already grasped the situation fully. "Nothing has changed since Pearl Harbor," he told his director of central intelligence, Allen Dulles. "I leave a legacy of ashes to my successor." Weiner, of course, draws his title from Eisenhower's metaphor. It would only get worse in the years to come.

As we enter the deeper waters of Globalization and Absolute Advantage flow of liquid capital, the poisonous effects on our food supply can only increase. Bill Horne sums up the problem in a quick read.

Imported foods lack safety inspections

The FDA has a program called "risk based." As near as I can tell, this means that the FDA does not have the capability to inspect our imported food.

The FDA's current efforts are aimed at inspecting the highest risk items and to follow up on the products that are discovered to be bad by, you and me, the consumer. Of course, having the consumer become sick or die is the hard way to discover a problem.

New Tower Creates All Its Own Energy

The Arab world especialy Dubi, Bahrain, and environs are building wildly designed buildings, it's like in their DNA to build cool stuff. Even if the designs, construction expertise and such come from thousands of miles away.

"The tower's façade is to be built from a new generation of vacuum glazing that will only come on the market in 2008. The new top-quality windows are meant to largely shield the interior of the tower from outside heat -- indispensable in a region where outside temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer. This is made possible by a new breakthrough in the quality of the materials used: The new vacuum glazing windows transmit as much as two thirds less heat compared to today's products.

"Such a building has to work like a thermos flask," says DS-Plan's energy manager Peter Mösle. "It has to have a cooling effect in the summer and retain heat in the winter.""
DerSpiegel Online

Dave is a direct link from the Blues Masters that he learned from in the 70’s. Dave learned his craft from them before they passed. The other is Roy Rodgers. There are others, but these two are my favs.

They are both on tour this summer. Take the effort to attend a live show. For that matter support live music whenever possible!!

There's Evil on the lose in this country.

Dan Froomkin over at the WAPO runs up a good scan of the blogs about tonight’s speech by bush and the need to spend more lives and money. Froomkin asks some very basic questions to bush.

One should never underestimate the sheer volume of a president's megaphone. But beyond a certain point, it really does matter what he says.

* Will he acknowledge the real, specific concerns that many Americans have with this particular war and the way it's been waged? Or will he once again belittle the public angst by ascribing it to too much carnage on TV and a general aversion to warfare?

The human cost is un-measurable.

5.32 per Gallon
Add $3.00 War Tax to each gallon of fuel to pay direct cost of Iraq War. When Americans have to pay the direct cost each time at the pump or filling the propane tank at home, will action start to stop bush.

For a active duty military person to sign this is a huge step. You will face retaliation from the military. Don't forget this is all-volunteer military. This is a huge life altering decision by the signers of the Apeal to Congress for withdrawal from Iraq.

For the first time since Vietnam, an organized, robust movement of active-duty US military personnel has publicly surfaced to oppose a war in which they are serving. Those involved plan to petition Congress to withdraw American troops from Iraq.

After appearing only seven weeks ago on the Internet, the Appeal for Redress, brainchild of 29-year-old Navy seaman Jonathan Hutto, has already been signed by nearly 1,000 US soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, including dozens of officers--most of whom are on active duty. Not since 1969, when some 1,300 active-duty military personnel signed an open letter in the New York Times opposing the war in Vietnam, has there been such a dramatic barometer of rising military dissent.

The rest here
The Nation
and here
An Appeal for Redress from the War in Iraq

It is always the hand full that turns the trim tab. ~ Peter C

Who said this back at the 1984 Republican Convention?

At the 1984 Republican Convention she appeared as the keynote speaker, delivering a speech in which she railed against "the San Francisco Democrats" for "always blaming America first." Using her identification as a nominal Democrat, her emblem as a neoconservative, she lent credence to the atavistic Cold War fear of homosexual subversion. Thus her most memorable performance was less as foreign policy mandarin than as J. Edgar Hoover in drag.

For the answer read the well written article by Sidney Blumenthal, that jogs the memory of the ascendance of the current crop of White House creeps, and their inability to read.

You may have to watch a short commercial if you do not have a subscription to Salon before reading the article.

Mugged by reality

Stevie and Jimmie Vaughan playing the same doubleneck guitar. Enjoy on this Satruday night.
Simply amazing.

Stevie Ray Vaughan passed over 16 years ago.

This is really a treat. ~spk

Why what happened at UCLA student tasering incident, and the Huston PD horse stomping and jail torture of striking janitors matters. The fact that these incidents displaying police actions with non-violent non-criminal types, are out in the open and remain unchallenged speaks to the lowest forms of governmental abuse of its citizens. The AbuGhraibization of the whole system from the Federal to Local is alarming. It’s a fine line for the Police dealing with psychopaths, violent jerks, and white-collar criminals (these are worst, Enron Haliburton), and dealing with the not so criminal, after all it’s hard to distinguish between a Dick Cheney with a Shotgun type and a Student typing away at a keyboard.
Admittedly there are many Peace Officers who do a good job and view their job as keeping the peace, hats off to you.

Rude Pundit’s full article

Are Mostafa Tabatabainejad screams any more profound than those of detainees at Abu Ghraib or at whatever shitholes the CIA uses in Jordan or Uzbekistan or where the fuck ever? Were his cries that he would comply once tortured heeded any more quickly than those who want to stop the drown reflex of waterboarding?

The Rude Pundit's said it before and he'll say it again: we live in Gitmo America. Sure, there's hope that in the future the cages will be rattled. But for now violence is out of the shadows and in our faces, and those who wish to create violence do so alarmingly without fear of reprisal.

Ted Koppel is airing the Iran special tonight on the Discovery Chanel at 9pm eastern and pacific times.

I watched Koppel on Meet The Press, and was surprised that this maybe an OK look at Iran. I hope that Sean Paul can watch and do an evaluation contrasting his visit with what will be a major source of information on Iran for U.S. viewers.

Koppel does bring up the subject of Oil, and how the worlds economy is in the hands of the Persian Gulf countries.

The web site at the Discovery Channel has lots of Koppel's video on demand from his two month visit to Iran.

Discovery Channel

Dan Froomkin over at the WAPO has an interesting question.

What will life be like with oversight? We've just gone through not only six years of congressional obedience, but six years of ignorance. Congressional oversight has historically put enormous amounts of important, otherwise secret information into the public domain -- about the government and the private sector alike. If you think bloggers have been a potent political force thus far -- just wait until oversight gives them better material to work with.

With the coming inquiries bound to bring into disinfecting light, the abuse and misuse, than most people perceive, will Congress be able to gather relevant information to clean up exiting laws or enact new laws to help control the abuses?
more

As the late great Frank Zappa once sung “It can’t happen here”. With the return of King George to take King George the Younger into the wood shed to reinstall the old guard, a lame duck Congress that will pass another bullet in our constitutional protections by allowing unsupervised children with guns and arrest powers to unfetteringly wiretap everyone everywhere at anytime.

With George Bush the Elder returning, the reintroduction of Frank Zappa’s take on the situation is necessary. About one minute into the video Frank states how could he possibly do worse than Bush Sr. This is from a German Documentary with some German language.

Billmon improves on the Newsweek cover Head on over to Billmon for some good ol reading about the pending Proctological Exam for the Rethugs

The coming

Social networking is a key element of finding individual acceptance into the group. The power leaders of such groups, understand that the desire to belong is a key driver in most humans. The rise of these Evangelical Churches is simply a reaction to the perceived uncertainties and fears of come what may. This new breed of Evangelical Church fills many needs of the parishioners, spiritual, economic networking for business, cloistered education from pre-school thru 12th grade, counseling, elder support networks, etc etc etc. The job of people like Pastor Ted Haggard is to create a warm welcoming atmosphere to keep people networked and to collect tithe, and deliver votes to Republican’s so they can vote in tax cuts for the uber wealthy, and wage foreign military occupations that are privatized with borrowed money.

A view of Pastor Ted's church