Tag Archives: Open Thread

Not In Our Name – The Pledge of Resistance Open Thread

Congress will soon be faced with a decision to continue funding the Occupation of Iraq.  To enablers of all parties: We will resist.

“The greatest Americans have not been born yet. They are waiting patiently for the past to die.”

edit: Sorry to have forgotten to note, that’s Saul Williams speaking truth to power.

The Pledge To Resist:

We believe that as a people living in the United States it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government in our names.

Not in our name will you wage endless war.
There can be no more deaths.
No more transfusions of blood for oil.

Not in our name will you invade countries, bomb civilians, kill more children, letting history take its course over the graves of the nameless.

Not in our names will you erode the very freedoms you have claimed to fight for.

Not by our hands will we supply weapons and funding for the annihilation of families on foreign soil.

Not by our mouths will we let fear silence us.

Not by our hearts will we allow whole peoples or countries to be deemed evil.

Not by our will and not in our name.

We pledge resistance.

We pledge alliance with those who have come under attack for voicing opposition to the war or for their religion or ethnicity.

We pledge to make common cause with the people of the world to bring about justice, freedom and peace.

Another world is possible and we pledge to make it real.

Militant Open Thread With San Diego Quarterly

The Calitics Quarterly Blograisers will be upon us in no time, and here’s numero uno.  The San Diego Calitics.com 3rd Quarter Blograiser will be held on September 19, 7pm at Firehouse American Eatery and Lounge in Pacific Beach.  We’ll have bloggers. We’ll have activists. We’ll have candidates for office. We’ll have others of note. We’ll have both alcohol AND food.  And you can’t beat that with a bat.

Tonight on the flip we’re dropping some new music from a classic source. Underlying message? You betcha.  Tonight with double the lyrical pleasure.  Public Enemy – Harder Than You Think

“Yo, what’s up with that brotha Chuckie D? He swear he nice.
I said ‘The brotha don’t swear he nice, he KNOWS he nice.’ Ya know what I’m sayin?
So Chuck I got the feeling you’re turning into a Public Enemy man.”

“Bring the Noise is the moment they feared. Get up and throw your hands in the air. Get up and show no fear. Get up if y’all really care.”

Detroit Cobras Open Thread

I’ve been a little MIA this week handling some things, but rest assured I’ve been watching.  Tonight I’m heading to the always special Casbah for the always special Detroit Cobras.  So a specially themed open thread to keep things from slipping through the cracks in the meantime and a special dedication to you, the Calitics community, without whom we on the other side of the editorial board would be lost.  We love you.  Be proud of your work.  Now write more =).

In case you need a hotbutton issue to get your engines revved up, the U-T’s own Ruben Navarrette has started digging into military service as a path to citizenship.  He points out the duplicitious nature of this plan without really listing all the fun ways that it invalidates so many other anti-immigration arguments.  Yup, there are jobs that American citizens won’t do (serve in the military).  Nope, immigrants are not inherently dangerous (or why train them in the deadly arts?). Nope, *we* don’t need to fight them “over there” (as long as someone fights them “over there”). Yup, immigrants should be entitled to government benefits as long as they work for them (GI Bill, government salary, etc.).  Nope, the United States is not just fine without increased immigration (or else we wouldn’t need them to protect the country).  Nope, immigrants aren’t unpatriotic (or else why would they be trusted to protect the country?).  What else am I missing? Chime in and accept your love over the flip.

Originally by Garnett Mimms in 1964, reprised by the Detroit Cobras in your favorite and mine, 2007.  And in my case, the darkness in which I was born? The Reagan years.

“As long as I have you”

Born in darkness
but I fought my way up to the sun
Had a lot of battles
some I lost and some I’ve won

But let me tell you, girl
you ain’t seen nothing yet
There’s nothing in this world
that I can’t get
As long as I have you
Long as I have you
As long as I have you

Give me mountains to crumble
and I’ll turn them to sand
Let me put this world
in the palm of your hand

Find some teardrops
but I sang my way out of the blues
Had to learn to stand up
even when they scared me out of my shoes

Say you love me
and I know that half the battle is won
Don’t cha worry about nothing
in your mind the best is yet to come

But let me tell you, girl
you ain’t seen nothing yet
There’s nothing in this world
that I can’t get
As long as I have you
Long as I have you
Every thing’s gonna be alright
And I won’t have to cry no more
All my troubles will be over
Long as I have you baby
Yeah

Friday Random Ten Open Thread

What’s up? What’s on your mind? What’s hopping this weekend?

This is my birthday weekend, so if you see me posting too much, chastise me.  Rock over California.

Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma
The Long Blondes – Autonomy Boy
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Red Eyes and Tears
Charlie Wright and the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band – Express Yourself
The Minutemen – History Lesson – Part II
The Rosebuds – Hold Hands and Fight
The Clash – All the Young Punks
Super Furry Animals – Sex War and Robots
2 Skinnee J’s – Pluto
Fischerspooner – Emerge (Adult Mix)

And hidden away below the fold and slipping in a little bit of social awareness, my personal rallying track for three full days of growing old but never mature:

Notorious BIG – Party and Bullshit (Ratatat Remix)…and yes, it has to be the remix. So

“Holla if you need me love I’m in the house”

Julia’s Birthday Open Thread

I missed a random ten because of YearlyKos and now it’s Julia’s birthday. So in light of both of those things, a super-deluxe musical open thread with linked videos for all and one of your very own on the flip.

Teddybears w/ Iggy Pop – Punkrocker
St. Vincent – Paris is Burning
Sea Wolf – You’re a Wolf
The Blow – Parenthesis
Rufus Wainwright – Going to a Town
Fionn Regan – Put A Penny in the Slot
Forro in the Dark w/ David Byrne – Asa Branca
Mark Ronson w/ Lily Allen – Oh My God
Matt and Kim – Yea Yeah
Datarock – Fa Fa Fa

Johnny Boy – You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes

“…and you get what you deserve”

Wednesday Open Thread

For the first time in over 10 days the sun is out here in Monterey. But hey, after 6 years in the Emerald City, I’m used to the gray…

  • Is free speech being lost in privatized SF parks, asks a Fog City Journal guest op-ed? Given how little public assembly space that city actually has, and the corresponding need for free, accessible community organizing space, this is a major concern.
  • Also from FCJ: SF Supes defeat 6-5 a measure to protect the health of Bayview-Hunters Point residents who are certain they’re falling ill from dust and possibly asbestos kicked up by Lennar’s redevelopment project. This is especially ironic to me, as my dissertation is in part about the earlier fight against redevelopment in the Western Addition in the 1960s. Then, as now, the city leaders chose to defend redevelopment in spite of its harmful impacts on the residents it was ostensibly there to help.
  • From the Sightline Institute comes this graph of how various kinds of cars compare in their CO2 emissions. The difference between a Prius’ emissions and those of an average passenger car are greater than the difference between that average car and an average SUV.
  • LAist is beating the drums for Ron Paul – and isn’t about to apologize for it. Sigh. He’s Barry Goldwater, Grover Norquist, and James Dobson all rolled into one. I dread the moment when the corporate powerbrokers see the opportunities inherent in Ron Paul’s 1890s approach to political economy, and how it motivates many Republican netrooters.
  • Whenever KEXP’s online stream gets choppy, or there’s a run of songs that don’t grab my interest, I switch the iTunes over to CBC Radio 3. Awesome stuff from our friends north of 49. This morning I heard something by Kwoon, a French band that bills itself as “post-rock” (sort of like Sigur Ros). A French animator, Yannick Puig, came up with a stunning, beautiful video for their song “I Lived On the Moon” – enjoy!

Open Thread

To be honest, I am not feeling particularly inspired to write something today.  There is not too much new to report on, plus I have been busy working on this site.  So here are few random thoughts and links.

  • Arnold is spending his birthday working on the budget, which he wouldn’t have had to do if he had engaged earlier on the issue.
  • Debra Bowen held the big hearing on the voting machines today.  Meyers is probably right about where this is heading.  I don’t think there is enough time to totally pull the machines before the election and have a reasonable replacement.  Now that we know where the vulnerabilities lie, we need to find ways to protect the machines for the near future, while we figure out a long term solution.
  • CMR has a response post by Mike Heald of the Western Law and Poverty Center up to an erranous Flash Report piece on Cal-WORKS.
  • I really do need to make it to my favorite indy music store to buy the new album from Tegan and Sara “The Con” here is a slide show with the first single “

Friday Random 10

1. Asobi Seksu – Walk On the Moon
2. Scratch Track – Ay-Yo
3. Bjork – Hyperballad
4. Mos Def – The Easy Spell
5. Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff – He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper
6. Tom Petty – Girl on LSD
7. The Pixies – Hey
8. Stellastarr* – A Million Reasons
9. Ghostface Killah – Shakey Dog
10. Otis Redding – Hard To Handle

And a bonus track for your melancholy pleasure. Death Cab for Cutie – I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Don’t skip the Secretary of State report on how your vote is currently about as safe as your MySpace password and enjoy the weekend.