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Recent Posts

  • 2007 SXSWi Plans
  • Rebuilding My Library
  • My SXSW Interactive Schedule
  • Hegel, Marx and the evolution of dialectical materialism
  • Democratic National Convention Night 1
  • This weekend, NYC!
  • Fahrenheit Facts
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Rebuilding My Library

Hurricane Katrina destroyed many things in our home, the greatest loss for me being nearly all of my 400+ volume library. I worked very long and hard to build that collection and it was the physical representation of my autodidactic being. I'll never really replace the library but I've already started to construct its replacement. So far I'm up to about 25 40 titles.

Here's what I need to complete a basic foundation of my most essential books:

Novels:
A Good Old Fashioned Future – Bruce Sterling
A Place So Foreign – Cory Doctorow
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
The Baroque Cycle – Neal Stephenson
Borges: Selected Fictions and Selected Non-Fictions
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Crash – J.G. Ballard
The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon
Crystal Express – Bruce Sterling
The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
Distraction – Bruce Sterling
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom – Cory Doctorow
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
His Dark Materials trilogy – Philip Pullman
Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
Islands in the Net – Bruce Sterling
Lolita – Nabakov
The Man in the High Tower – Philip K. Dick
The Moviegoer – Walker Percy
Mumbo Jumbo – Ishmael Reed
Naked Lunch – William Burroughs
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Garcia Marquez
Pattern Recognition – Bruce Sterling
Remembrance of Things Past – Marcel Proust
Schizmatrix  - Bruce Sterling
Snowcrash – Neal Stephenson
Still Life with a Woodpecker – Tom Robbins
The Stranger – Albert Camus
Tent of Miracles – Jorge Amado
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller
UBIK – Philip K. Dick
Ulysses - James Joyce
V For Vendetta – Alan Moore
Virtual Light – William Gibson
Watchmen – Alan Moore
White Noise – Don DeLillo

Advertising:
The Cluetrain Manifesto
My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising
- Claude Hopkins
Ogilvy on Advertising - David Ogilvy

Architecture/Urbanism:
Architecture & Disjunction – Tschumi
Breathing Cities – Nick Barley
Flesh – Diller + Scofidio
Mutations – Koolhaas, et al.

Graphic Design:
Grid Systems in Graphic Design – Muller-Brockmann
History of Graphic Design – Meggs
Life Style – Bruce Mau

Theory:
A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History – Manuel De Landa
America – Jean Baudrillard
The Anti-Aesthetic by Hal Foster
The Arcades Project – Walter Benjamin
Capitalism & Schizophrenia Vol I & II – Deleuze & Guattari
Capital Volume I – Karl Marx
Empire – Negri & Hardt
Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers – Lechte
Illuminations – Walter Benjamin
Introducing Critical Theory
The Society of the Spectacle
– Guy Debord

PopTech:
The Age of Spiritual Machines - Ray Kurzweil
Blink - Malcom Gladwell
Cradle to Cradle
Emergence
- Stephen Johnson
Freakonomics - Leavitt & Dubner
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
Tomorrow Now - Bruce Sterling
The Wisdom of Crowds

Art:
Art in Theory: 1900-2000
Art Since 1900 – Rosalind Krauss, Hal Foster, et al.
Conceptual Art
Constructivism
– George Rickey
Duchamp by Calvin Tomkins
The Duchamp Effect
The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths
– Rosalind Krauss
Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art

Programming/Computation/Tech:
Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL: From Novice to Professional - W. J. Gilmore
Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition - Eric A. Meyer
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville
PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution - Chris Lea, et al
Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook - Dan Cederholm

October 18, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

My SXSW Interactive Schedule

SXSW 2005

Friday

Pick up my badge

Lunch at Las Manitas

Meet up with Blake & Nix for cocktails

Dinner & Drinks with Kleiner (Hoover’s or Kleiner’s choice)


Saturday

Breakfast at Las Manitas

SXSW Morning Panels:
10:00
The Imagination Challenge: Points of Departure for Design in the Knowledge Age

Lunch

SXSW Afternoon Panels:
2:00
Opening Remarks: Jeffrey Zeldman
3:30
How to Hot-Wire the Creative Process
5:00
How to Make Big Things Happen With Small Teams

Dinner @ Casino El Camino

8:00pm · 10:00pm
Opening Party
frog design (804 Congress)

10:00 - Till
AMODA Digital Showcase @ Copa Bar


Sunday
9:00
Breakfast at Little City

SXSW Morning Panels:
10:00
Emergent Semantics
11:30
How to be Beautiful: More Hi-Fi Design With CSS

12:45
Lunch at Iron Works

SXSW Afternoon Panels:
2:00
Keynote Speaker: Malcolm Gladwell
3:30
The Elements of Meaningful XHTML
5:00
How to Incorporate Stunning Multimedia Into Your Accessible Site

6:00pm · 8:30pm
2005 SXSW Web Awards Ceremony
Downtown Hilton Hotel (500 E 4th St)

9:30pm
Pluck Web Awards After Party
The Cedar Door (201 Brazos St)


Monday
9:00
Breakfast at Little City

SXSW Morning Panels:
10:00
Does Design Matter?
11:30
How to Inform Design: How to Set Your Pants on Fire

12:30
Lunch at the Exhibition Hall / The Bloggies

SXSW Afternoon Panels:
2:00
Keynote Interview: Ana Marie Cox
3:30
The Flash vs. HTML Game Show
5:00
Design Eye for the Idea Guy

Dinner at Guero’s
Cocktails downtown
(Mungu?)


Tuesday
9:00
Breakfast at Las Manitas

SXSW Morning Panels:
10:00
Typography for the Screen
11:30
Web Design 2010: What Will the Web Look Like When It Turns 20?

Lunch - ?

SXSW Afternoon Panels:
2:00
Keynote Conversation: Alex Steffen + Bruce Sterling
3:30
How to Think About Democracy and Technology

7:00pm · 11:00pm
Bruce Sterling / SXSW Interactive Festival Closing Party
American Legion Hall of Honor (2201 Veterans Drive)

Cocktails downtown afterwards

February 23, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hegel, Marx and the evolution of dialectical materialism

hegelmarxbenj

Course Outline
11 Weeks

The purpose of this course is to gain a comprehensive understanding of Marxist critical & cultural theory from Marx to Postmodernism.

Section 1: Understanding Hegel & the Dialectic
Weeks 1-2

Objective:
To gain a basic understanding of Hegel & his ideas of Absolute Spirit, the Dialectic and other fundamental ideas from the POS.

Readings:
W.M.F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit
Alexandre Kojeve, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel
Lloyd Spencer, Introducing Hegel, 2nd Ed.
http://www.wpunj.edu/cohss/philosophy/courses/hegel/

Section 2: Understanding Marx
Weeks 3-4

Objective:
To gain a clear understanding of Marx’s ideas about Capital, Class Struggle, Superstructure, Infrastructure, Dialectical Materialism, Absolute Spirit and other ideas / ideology related to the grand narrative.

Readings:
Karl Marx, Capital I
Marx and Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader
Michael Hardt's Notes on Capital

Section 3: Lukacs, Gramsci and the development of Western Marxist Theory
Weeks 5-6

Objective:
To gain a clear understanding of both Gramsci and Lukacs’ criticisms and readings of Marx and their ideas in regards to the development of contemporary critical theory.

Readings:
Georg Lukacs, The Lukacs Reader
Georg Lukacs, History and Class Consciousness
Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks
Antonio Gramsci, The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Writings 1916-1935

Section 4: The Frankfurt School
Weeks 7-9

Objective:
To gain an understanding of the full development of Marxian Critical Theory in the work of the first true cultural critics, Benjamin, Adorno, Horkheimer and Marcuse.

Readings:
Theodor Adorno, The Adorno Reader
Theodor Adorno, The Culture Industry
Theodor Adorno, Aesthetic Theory
Walter Benjamin, Illuminations
Walter Benjamin, Reflections
Max Horkheimer, Critical Theory
Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment
Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man: Studies in Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
Herbert Marcuse, Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the rise of Social Theory
Herbert Marcuse, Towards a Critical Theory of Society

Section 5: Jameson and the further development of Marxist Theory in the Postmodern Age
Weeks 10-11

Objective:
To gain an objective understanding of the position of Marxist Theory in the postmodern age through Frederic Jameson's theories of postmodernism as a condition of the fully realized, last stage of capitalism.

Readings:
Frederic Jameson, Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
Frederic Jameson, Marxism and Form

August 24, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (5)

Democratic National Convention Night 1

mrcarter

What a great way to kick things off! The party is united in a way that I have never seen. They are toting a powerful internationalist, centrist platform that points out all the ways that the Bush administration has divided and weakened America. Kerry’s call against Bush-bashing was heeded exceptionally well. Tonight’s speakers instead focused on the philosophical differences between both the parties and their candidates.

All in all the Democratic Party presented America with a portrait of itself as a wise, strong and unified force that wants to fix what’s been done to this country over the past four years.

Here are my running notes:
The first thing you notice when you watch these political conventions is the crowd. It’s amazing how diverse this crowd is. Diverse, dressed down and revved up for victory. The people at this convention are people like you and me. Democrats also showed that they can get down! People were excitedly dancing and singing throughout the entire evening.

Vice President Gore:
I love his snidely funny self-deprecation when it comes to the coup d'etat of the 2000 election. His aw shucks, “I love this country" routine is endearing and disguises an angrily progressive side that has been coming out in fierce arguments lately. Tonight he focused on the failure in 2000 and then closedthe book on it forever.

He first pauses to make two points 1. “Every vote counts” 2. “What happens in a Presidential election matters, a lot.” It matters to us and our families. He’s basically saying, “Look at me and remember what happened in 2000.” Look at where we are now compared to where we were. We need to come together as One Nation, One People to move forward.

Next he addresses those that voted for Bush in 2000. “Ask yourself, When you voted for Bush, did you expect all of things that have happened over these four long years to occur? Look at the economy, our national security, racial equality, our environmental quality, and the education of our children. What happened to “compassionate conservatism”?”

Next he calls on Nader voters to realize there are profound and essential differences between the Dems & Repubs.

The closure of his speech with its near apology and thanks to Clinton combined with he and Tipper’s kiss, that smartly mocks the one they gave each other after his acceptance speech, closes the door on the heartbreak of 2000. It sets the tone of a new Democratic party, ready to overcome obstacles and unafraid to redefine itself as a party. It also sets the tone for the themes to come, a stronger, wiser, more united America.

President Carter:
Carter’s stoic, internationalist speech said everything that needed to be said about the Bush administration’s foreign policy. Let’s not forget that President Carter is a Nobel prize-winning human rights activist and as such he travels the world doing his good work. His comments lead one to believe that he has spoken personally to global leaders who feel alienated by this policy. It’s always nice to see elder statesman Carter speak, he conveys a sense of wisdom, strength and a kind of old-school American honor not seen everyday in our present nation.

It was so smart to cast him against type in tonight’s speech. Instead of focusing solely on his work towards global peace, he pointed out his years of Navy service. Years spent under the presidencies of Truman and Eisenhower, presidents, he points out, that honorably served their country. As a result, they knew that military engagement was something to be used with restraint and judgment, and with a clear sense of mission. He slyly points to Bush’s dubious record of military service and shows that it makes him a weak military leader.

His jab against Bush disguised as praise for John Kerry was brutal, “ our Democratic Party is led by another naval officer, one who volunteered for military service. He showed up when assigned to duty and he served with honor and distinction.” Did you hear that America?? HE SHOWED UP. Unlike our current President who was playing water polo in the pool of luxury apartments with stewardesses and other millionaire playboys.

President Bill Clinton:
President Clinton proved again tonight that he is the most important politician of our times. He is a masterful orator, a brilliant tactician, eloquent, persuasive, and deeply passionate about the future of this nation and its citizens. He gave a perfect speech tonight clearly drafting out the major philosophical difference between the Democratic Party and the GOP.

This passage just nails it so perfectly:
“Democrats and Republicans have very different and honestly held ideas on the choices we should make, rooted in fundamentally different views of how we should meet our common challenges at home and how we should play our role in the world. Democrats want to build an America of shared responsibilities and shared opportunities and more global cooperation, acting alone only when we must.

We think the role of government is to give people the tools and conditions to make the most of their lives. Republicans believe in an America run by the right people, their people, in a world which we act unilaterally when we can and cooperate when we must.

They think the role of government is to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of those who embrace their political, economic, and social views, leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves on matters like healthcare and retirement security. Since most Americans are not that far to the right, they have to portray Democrats as unacceptable, lacking in strength and values. In other words, they need a divided America. But Americans long to be united. After 9/11, we all wanted to be one nation, strong in the fight against terror. The president had a great opportunity to bring us together under his slogan of compassionate conservatism and to unite the world in common cause against terror.

Instead, he and his congressional allies made a very different choice: to use the moment of unity to push America too far to the right and to walk away from our allies, not only in attacking Iraq before the weapons inspectors finished their jobs, but in withdrawing support for the Climate Change Treaty, the International Court for war criminals, the ABM treaty and even the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.”

He clearly shows just how divisive the Bush presidency has been in our own country while also keenly showing the difference between the two parties. He’s saying that although we are in the midst of one of the most challenging moments in American history we also have an opportunity to unite and move to a progressive future. One in which all Americans, regardless of economic status, can participate.

My party has rung the bell tonight, both as a warning of the imminent danger that the Bush administration poses to our nation and as a rallying call for us to come together. In the words of President Carter, “Ultimately, the issue is whether America will provide global leadership that springs from the unity and integrity of the American people or whether extremist doctrines and the manipulation of truth will define America’s role in the world.

At stake is nothing less than our nation’s soul. In a few months, I will, God willing, enter my 81st year of life, and in many ways the last few months have been some of the most disturbing of all. But I am not discouraged. I do not despair for our country. I believe tonight, as I always have, that the essential decency, compassion and common sense of the American people will prevail.”

I hope to God he is right. The alternative, for me, is unfathomable.

July 27, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend, NYC!


On Friday I’m leaving for NYC with a bunch of my best pals. I’ve compiled a list of things I’d like to do along with some useful links for our benefit:

The Basics
The Gershwin Hotel
7 E. 27th Street (right off Madison Ave.)
28th street station on the R or W line

MTA
Subway fares & maps.

Music
PS 1 / warm-up series
E to 23 St/Ely Ave. Exit onto 44th to Jackson Ave. Walk two blocks south on Jackson to 46th Ave.
July 10th
Chicken Lips (Steve “Fela” Kotey DJ set, Big Bear, U.K.)
Miles Maeda (World Evolution Productions, All World, San Diego)
+ a special guest
Now in its seventh year, Warm Up brings together music and visual arts with performances by local and international DJs and live bands, drawing thousands of people each week, including artists, families, and club-goers to dance, relax, and cool off in an innovative architectural installation in P.S.1’s outdoor galleries. Opening July 3, Warm Up 2004 will be held for 10 weeks, each Saturday afternoon through September 4, from 3 p.m. – 9 p.m. Admission is $8.00.

Art Exhibitions
MoMA
E train to 23 St./Ely Ave., Queens. Follow the signs to the 7 Local train to 33 St.
Humble Masterpieces
This exhibition features nearly 120 simple objects, from Post-It® notes to paper clips, Band-Aids to Bic pens. We use items like these every day, but chances are we will not pay them much attention. While modest in size and price, these objects are indispensable masterpieces of design, deserving of our admiration.
Projects 81: Jean Shin
Jean Shin will use work garments donated by MoMA staff to create a site-specific mural and corresponding hanging sculpture in the lobby at MoMA QNS.

The Whitney
945 Madison Ave. at 75th Street
6 to 77th Street (walk two blocks west to Madison Avenue)
Evidence of Impact: Art and Photography 1963–1978
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of intense activity and transition in American art, when boundaries previously drawn between art and popular culture were crossed. Photography played an active role in the art of the period, as artists who did not consider themselves photographers—Wallace Berman, Paul McCarthy, Dennis Oppenheim, and Adrian Piper among them—used the medium to document actions, probe gender or racial identities, or address the nature of photographic representation itself.
Cotton Puffs, Q-tips®, Smoke and Mirrors: The Drawings of Ed Ruscha
This landmark exhibition will present more than two hundred of Ed Ruscha's original works on paper, ranging from depictions of vernacular objects, trademarks, and gas stations, to renderings of words and phrases in countless stylistic variations. His use of unusual media, including fruit and vegetable juices, gunpowder, blood, and tobacco juice, further attests to the ingenuity of this major American artist.
Ed Ruscha and Photography
Since the beginning of Ruscha’s career as an artist in 1961, photography has been both an inspiration and a source of discovery for the artist. This important exhibition of Ruscha’s photographs, curated by Sylvia Wolf, includes rare pictures that have been tucked away in boxes in the artist’s studio and have remained unpublished and unseen. This exhibition will provide over fifty vintage prints and photographic studies.
Pop/Concept: Highlights from the Permanent Collection
In the early 1960s, a group of young American artists, including Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and Andy Warhol, captured the nation’s attention with works featuring images drawn directly from popular culture. The seemingly banal subjects and cool, detached techniques pioneered by the Pop artists overshadowed the conceptual attitudes that underlay their work. Conceptualism was seen as the exclusive purview of another group of artists, including Joseph Kosuth, Bruce Nauman, Lawrence Weiner, and the Fluxus artists, who used words and ideas as the materials of their art.
LOT-EK: Mobile Dwelling Unit
Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, the founders of the architectural firm LOT/EK (pronounced “low-tech”), reinvent conventional space with the discarded materials of everyday life, infusing vitality into the Duchampian method of incorporating found objects into one’s art. For this installation presented in the Sculpture Court as part of the Contemporary Series, LOT-EK exhibits their architectural prototype, the Mobile Dwelling Unit (MDU), a functional living space converted from a standardized shipping container.

Eyebeam
540 W 21st Street, (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
Prix Selection
Prix Selection at Eyebeam offers a look into the development and history of interactive art by presenting eight award winning works in the Interactive Art category of the Prix Ars Electronica, the world's oldest and most important competition in the cyberarts. These installations demonstrate the realization of artistic concepts through the use of new technologies with the potential to expand the radius of human experience and environment, as well as establish interactive art as one of contemporary culture's most powerful emerging forms. The exhibit is accompanied by the elobby, a lounge-library-screening area containing a rare selection of DVDs, catalogs and web interfaces that offer comprehensive view of the evolution and diversity of artist's approaches to new media. The elobby will also feature a looped screening of groundbreaking animations from the Ars Electronica Computer Art prize winners. Visitors may investigate these materials at their leisure as well as take advantage of the free wireless connectivity in the elobby.

Shopping
H&M
640 Fifth Ave at 51st St (212-489-0390). Subway: B, D, F to 47–50th Sts–Rockefeller Ctr; E, V to Fifth Ave–53rd St. Mon–Sat 10am–8pm; Sun 11am–7pm. AmEx, MC, V.
This trendy, inexpensive Swedish megamart opened in 2000. The three-story, 35,000-square-foot venue is constantly mobbed. Clothes are separated by various house brands, such as the trendy Impulse line and the sporty L.O.G.G. collection. You'll find a large selection of undies and accessories. There's also a makeup line and a plus-size women's collection.

Other Music
15 E 4th St between Broadway and Lafayette St (212-477-8150). Subway: R, W to 8th St–NYU; 6 to Astor Pl. Mon–Fri noon–9pm; Sat noon–8pm; Sun noon–7pm. AmEx, MC, V.
This wee audio temple is dedicated to small-label, often-imported new and used CDs and LPs. It organizes music by arcane categories (for instance, "La Decadanse" includes lounge, Moog and soft-core soundtracks); and it sends out a free weekly e-mail with staffers' reviews of their favorite new releases.

Printed Matter
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Strand Books
828 Broadway
(at 12th street)
NY, N.Y. 10003

Untitled (Fine Art in Print)
159 Prince Street 212.982.2088
Probably the best Graphic Design Bookstore in the city. Usually has the latest design books as well as classics like Müller-Brockman's Grid Systems. Back issues of Emigre.

Zakka
147 Grand St.
A very good selection of Design books and magazines - many from Japan. CD roms/fonts. Has a gallery space. Collectables (Toys).

St. Mark’s Books
31 Third Avenue New York, NY 10003
St. Mark's Bookshop was established in 1977 in New York's East Village, a community of students, academics, arts professionals and other eclectic readers. Our specialties include Cultural Theory, Graphic Design, Poetry & Small Press Publishers, Film Studies and Foreign & Domestic Periodicals & Journals.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

According to my conversation with Wesley yesterday and the rest of the guys on Sunday, my (very-loose)predicted itenerary is as follows:

Friday
Check in
Meet up with Wes
Cocktails
Dinner
Clubs on the West Side

Saturday
Galleries in Chelsea
Lunch
MoMA
PS 1 / Warm-up
We'll end up out late somewhere afterwards

Sunday
Shopping
Whitney
BBQ at Wes/Stephen's
Out in Brooklyn afterwards?

Monday
Check out
Fly home

Woohoo!! I am fully stoked. As usual I will be snapping tons of photos for all to see.

July 06, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fahrenheit Facts

Redline Rants has posted a partial transcript of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. I read through the thing and culled the issues that most bother me. I’ve elaborated on some things and copied other parts verbatim.

It’s easy to point out some of the flaws in Mr. Moore’s cinematic style. He relies too heavily on pure emotional reaction and uses people’s pain to create audience reaction. Some say he unfairly uses off-camera and out of context footage to unfairly paint negative images of members of the White House staff. I agree with some of these points and disagree with others.

What comes through as the most important part of the film to me are the hundreds of factual truths that Moore drops throughout the picture that question the motives of the Bush administration. So without further ado;

Several facts about the Bush administration discussed in Fahrenheit 9/11 that demand their removal from office:

The general misconduct in the Florida elections should have never flown. Kathleen Harris should not have been both the chairman of his FL campaign and the person in charge of supervising the election. Why were those names stricken from the voter registries? The Supreme Court should never have ruled in Bush’s favor. Every study of the election post the SCOTUS decision showed Gore should have been deemed the winner.

In the first 8 months of his presidency he spent 42% of his time on vacation.

He did not hold a single meeting with his anti-terrorism chief in that time.

He ignored the August 6th PDB titled, Bin Laden determined to Attack Inside the United States.

He cut funding to the FBI prior to 9/11.

The Bin Laden family was evacuated from the United States to Saudi Arabia by the federal government before they could be routinely questioned. Why would you let people related to the man responsible walk away without questioning? How many other random Arabs and Muslims were interviewed and/or detained in the months following the attacks? Thousands of mostly uninvolved, innocent people were held. Some for weeks and months.

Bush has major ties to the Bin Laden family going back to the 70’s. The Bin Laden family directly invested in his company Arbusto and later Harken Energy, of which he was a sitting board member. The only possible reason the Saudis would have been interested in investing in his companies was to gain access to his politically powerful family. At the time that they held interest in Harken, George H.W. Bush was the POTUS.

Bush’s family is making loads of money through their position in the Carlyle Group, which owns United Defense, makers of the Bradley Armored Fighting Vehicle.

Six weeks after 9/11 Carlyle took UD public and made a one-day profit of $237 million.

The people of the United States of America pays G.W. Bush $400,000 a year. The Bush family has made a total of $1.4 Billion over several years from their Carlyle and Saudi relations. Where does their true allegiance lie?

Why wasn’t an investigation into the events of 9/11 started immediately? First, Bush tried to stop Congress from investigating 9/11. When Congress filed its findings the White House censored twenty-eight pages of the report. Then when he couldn’t stop Congress he tried to stop an independent 9/11 commission from forming. After the commission was formed when asked if he would testify before the commission he said, “This commission? Testify, I mean, I'd be glad to visit with them.”

Blocking Congressional and independent inquiry is a major break from the way things have always been done in America. Independent investigations were launched within days of both the Pearl Harbor invasion and the Kennedy assassination. These investigations are for the good of the country and its citizens. They reveal things that cause horrible events to occur in order that they not happen again. They also allow for swift retribution and give solace to those affected by tragedy. Why wouldn’t the President of the United States of America want this delivered to the people?

On September 13th, two days after the attacks, Crown Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia had a private meeting with George W. Bush. Bandar is so close to the Bush family that they have a nickname for him, Bandar Bush. By this time the government of Saudi Arabia had been reluctant to allow US officials to interview the family members of the 15 hijackers. They were also reluctant to freeze terror organizations bank accounts. Why? Was this what they discussed at this secret meeting? Or was it something else?

In the days and weeks after 9/11 President Bush did not send a single troop to Afghanistan, which is where we knew Bin Laden and the majority of al Qaeda were hiding out. In possibly the first meeting with Clinton appointed terrorism chief Richard Clarke, Bush, in Clarke’s words, “in a very intimidating way, left us - me and my staff - with the clear indication that he wanted us to come back with the word that there was an Iraqi hand behind 9/11 because they had been planning to do something about Iraq from before the time they came to office.” He didn’t even ask about al Qaeda.

Here’s Clarke’s recollection of a conversation with Donald Rumsfeld following the attacks, “when we talked about bombing the al Qaeda infrastructure in Afghanistan, he said there were no good targets in Afghanistan, let's bomb Iraq. And we said but Iraq had nothing to do with this. And that didn't seem to make much difference. And the reason they had to do Afghanistan first was it was obvious that al Qaeda had attacked, and it was obvious that al Qaeda was in Afghanistan. The American people wouldn't have stood by if we had done nothing on Afghanistan.”

When the campaign in Afghanistan finally started it was a show more than anything. We sent 11,000 troops over there. There are more police in Manhattan than that. What’s worse is that US Special Forces didn’t get to the area where Bin Laden was believed to be for two months. We gave him an eight-week head start to burrow into the underground and redistribute his network of terrorists.

Here’s some background on the Taliban regime that Bush&Co. went to such great lengths to topple. In 1997 while George W. Bush was Governor of Texas, a delegation of Taliban leaders from Afghanistan flew to Houston to meet with Unocal executives to discuss the building of a pipeline through Afghanistan bringing natural gas from the Caspian Sea. And who got a Caspian Sea drilling contract the same day Unocal signed the pipeline deal? A company headed by a man named Dick Cheney: Halliburton.

And who else stood to benefit from the pipeline? Well, Bush's number one campaign contributor, Kenneth Lay, and the good people of Enron, that’s who. Then in 2001, just 5 1/2 months before 9/11, the Bush Administration welcomed a special Taliban envoy to tour the United States to help improve the image of the Taliban government. Why on Earth did the Bush administration allow a Taliban leader to visit the United States knowing that the Taliban were harboring the man who bombed the USS Cole and our African embassies? Well, I guess 9/11 put a stop to that. When the invasion of Afghanistan was complete we installed its new president, Hamid Karzai. Who was Hamid Karzai? He was a former advisor to Unocal. Bush also appointed as his envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad who was also a former Unocal advisor. I guess you can probably see where this is leading. Faster than you can say Black Gold Texas Tea, Afghanistan signed an agreement with her neighboring countries to build a pipeline through Afghanistan carrying natural gas from the Caspian Sea. Oh, and the Taliban? Uh, they mostly got away. As did Osama bin Laden and most of al Qaeda.


Then on March 19th, 2003 America attacked Iraq, a sovereign nation. Why did we attack them? Let’s see what the leaders in the white house said during the time leading up to the war:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass destruction.

SECRETARY POWELL: Saddam Hussein is determined to get his hands on a nuclear bomb.

SECRETARY POWELL: Iraq currently possesses active chemical munitions bunkers, and mobile production facilities.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We know he's got chemical weapons.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists. Including members of al Qaeda.

VP CHENEY: There was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: It is only a matter of time before terrorists states armed with weapons of mass destruction develop the capability to deliver those weapons to US cities.

SECRETARY POWELL: What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.

PRESIDENT BUSH: This is a man who hates America. This is a man who cannot stand what we stand for. He hates the fact, like al Qaeda does, that we love freedom. After all, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time.

These were the reasons Bush defied the UN and rounded up his “Coalition Of The Willing” and invaded Iraq. We unilaterally invaded a sovereign nation and broke international law for the above reasons?

On May 2nd, 2003, after the majority of Iraq was successfully occupied by American forces, George W. Bush landed on the deck of an American aircraft carrier named Lincoln and declared “Mission Accomplished!” on the war in Iraq. But the mission was far from over. The total amount of Americans killed in Iraq before that day was 140. Since then 719 Americans have given their lives for this war. Over 5,000 more have been wounded. How can this man look at himself in the mirror every day?

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The transcript only covers the first 43 minutes of the film, so I can only comment on those parts of the film. Clearly Moore has collected numerous facts on the Bush admin's deceitful intentions. The question is whether it will do any good. I certainly hope that it does and I will do everything I can to get others to vote along with me.

July 01, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (4)

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