New ads from the ACLU

It's time to get angry about what this administration has done to our country. From an unnecessary war to secret prisons to promoting hate and intolerance to spying on Americans without warrant, The Bush administration has destroyed every tenet of our open society. They have created an atmosphere of lies, corruption, incompetence and fear, and it's time to put a stop to it. The ACLU is putting forth a campaign to bring Bush and his fellow criminals to account and to preserve American democracy. The public needs to know how those who took an oath to protect the Constitution have instead sought to dismantle it.

Stuart Davis

I was reminded of the genius of Stuart Davis while watching a show on PBS last night. He was truly at the frontier of what made the modern art/pop art movement so great in the middle of the 20th century. His use of high contrasting colors and not quite abstract shapes along with embedded words in his paintings really reflects the changes in the landscape as brought on by the rampant commercialism of the times in which he lived. Peruse some of his works here.

New Stella Photos

Featuring our favorite little elf.

WFMU on the Download

The best radio station in the world offers free downloads of a wide variety of music and sounds in MP3 format, all 100% legal and free. You won't find U2, or Madonna files here, but you may find something just as good if not better. Think of it as my gift to you for Happy/Merry Festivus.

Prelinger Archives

A great resource for unusual and otherwise unavailable ads, images, movies, sounds and propaganda, all downloadable for free.

Kill The Patriot Act

Now is the time to express to your Senators that you won't stand for the Bush administration to continue to break the law. The New York Times broke the story about how Bush signed secret permission 2002 to allow domestic spying and phone tapping, circumventing legal procedure and breaking the law. Furthermore, the administration pressured The New York Times not to publish the story. Those are the acts of a dictator, not the president of a free country. Now the Bush administration wants to make many provisions of the Patriot Act that limit civil liberties permanent. Let Bush know that won't fly. Contact your senators here and tell them not to renew the Patriot Act until the Bush administration is held accountable.

Frontline: The Persuaders

On Frontline the other night I was captivated by their episode on the psychology behind selling. Whether it's a soft drink, an airline or a war, those who want to sell something seek to ply us with our own emotions. The entire episode is available online.

Bill Moyers at the National Security Archive

A terrific speech by Moyers on firsthand knowledge of a misguided entrance into war, the Freedom of Information Act, the importance of the first amendment and the unprecedented secrecy of the Bush administration. "It's an old story: the greater the secrecy, the deeper the corruption."

Steve Bell

British cartoonist Steve Bell on how he came to draw Bush as a monkey. His is perhaps the best portrayal of the supreme leader in ink or pixel.

Letters from children to Christopher Walken

An odd page on an odd but interesting site. It's sort of difficult to determine the intent of the site's creator, but amusing nonetheless.

Jitensha Studio

Sort of a cousin in philosophy to Rivendell Bicycles, Berkely based Jitensha Studio carries a line of unique parts and produces classic lugged steel frames.

George Retseck Illustration

A tremendously talented technical illustrator, George Retseck has done illustrations for scientific publications and interestingly the last couple of Bridgestone Bicycles catalogs that have become popular collector items even after the company ended sales of bicycles in the U.S. His style is remniscent of Daniel Rebour, the great French illustrator from the middle 20th century.

Clinton Says Bush Is 'Flat Wrong' on Kyoto

The last legitimately elected president of this country has weighed in on the unfounded claims of Bushco that reducing greenhouse emissions would somehow damage the U.S. economy.

Sweet smell strikes again in NYC

A mysterious sweet smell has enveloped parts of New York City for the second time in seven weeks.

New Stella Photos

Stella has had a great past few weeks. Here are some highlights.

Bad Movies

While searching for the current featured movie, I came across this informative source for bad movies.

King Kong returns to the Empire State Building

In Peter Jackson's latest big budget three hour long movie, the story returns to the site of the first Kong movie. At least in principle. The Empire State Building of Jackson's film is largely comprised of pixels. The amount of detail achieved, including more than 90,000 period-specific buildings of the digital New York City of 1933, sounds very impressive.

Oprah boosts Dave

Last Thursday's appearance of Oprah Winfrey on The Late Show with David Letterman brought in the highest ratings the show has had in quite some time. I saw the show and found it fairly entertaining, but was hoping for more antics such as Dave chasing Oprah around the stage with a fire extinguisher a la Richard Simmons.

Gold hits 22 year high

Gold is now at $500 an ounce, a 22 year high. Sorta makes you wish you put your money into gold instead of a Playstation 2 a few years back, doesn't it?

Four years later, U.S. still unprepared for terrorist attacks

It seems that Bushco is ignoring the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, a group headed by Republicans, to improve the nation's security. What?!? Apathy, recklessness, corruption and incompetence in the Bush administration?!?

Ford appeases the American Taliban by pulling its ads from gay publications

Apparently caving to threats of boycott by radical fundamentalist hate groups isn't such a stretch for Ford, considering its history.