I am a Radiohead (on a hill)

Since March of this year I have been living on a mountain/hill near the city centre of Aachen, Germany. I absolutely love it here because I can walk into town in 10 minutes (walkability, new urbanism and some other terms that cause me to giggle, come to mind). What’s even nicer though is to just have to walk out the front door and farther up the hill to have some quality-alone-time. So when the new Radiohead album came out a few weeks back, that’s where I went to listen to it. Especially the song Faust Arp fit extremely well with a sunset/rain clouds backdrop on this hill (smoking materials optional). It fit so well I was even thinking about putting together a video, but didn’t because of obvious copyright issues. Now I really which I had done that.

Why? This past weekend the Radiohead gang did a web-stream that included some experimental videos. Including this one:

Pretty cool “Jigsaw falling into place” video after the jump.
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congress overturns presidential veto first time in century

Congress. We help you water your lawn.

President Bush suffered the first veto override of his seven-year-old presidency Thursday as the Senate enacted a $23 billion water resources bill despite his protest that it was filled with unnecessary projects. The vote was 79-14 to pass the bill.Senate overrides Bush water projects veto - Politics - MSNBC.com

To bad congressional powers can’t be used on on something worthwhile like war spending, or healthcare for poor children or rebuilding New Orleans. Because that would just be insane.

AT&T Whisteblower: Feds also listening in on Web traffic, email - not just phone

Americans were rightly outraged when they learned Bush and Co may be listening to select phone conversations. Let’s see what happens when they find out Bush/NSA also monitors Web traffic, email, and anything else that may come across AT&T’s routers:

It would be difficult to say whose e-mail, text messages or Internet phone calls the government is monitoring at any given time, but according to a former AT&T employee, the government has warrantless access to a great deal of Internet traffic should they care to take a peek.

As information is traded between users it flows also into a locked, secret room on the sixth floor of AT&T’s San Francisco offices and other rooms around the country — where the U.S. government can sift through and find the information it wants, former AT&T employee Mark Klein alleged Wednesday at a press conference on Capitol Hill.

“An exact copy of all Internet traffic that flowed through critical AT&T cables — e-mails, documents, pictures, Web browsing, voice-over-Internet phone conversations, everything — was being diverted to equipment inside the secret room,” he said.

Klein, who worked for more than 20 years as a technician at AT&T, said that the highly secretive electronics-focused National Security Agency began working with telecom companies to gain wholesale access to vast amounts of data traveling over the Internet.

(…) Klein said only a management-level employee with NSA security clearance was allowed inside, but documents he obtained form AT&T showed that highly sophisticated data mining equipment was kept there. ABC News

Bush’s approval at record low, ‘besting’ Nixon’s

Buried at the end of a USA Today story you’ll find this nugget:

Meanwhile, Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they “strongly disapprove” of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974. USA Today

Congratulations.

Mukasey nomination as AG goes ahead

Mukasey did not answer questions on what he considers torture so Democrats said they would block his nomination as new US Attorney General. Makes complete sense to me as it was a straight forward, yet incredibly important issue and he simply refused to answer important questions on the subject. There is no way in hell I’d trust a guy like that. But then this:

Judiciary Committee endorses AG nomination on 11-8 vote

Despite the criticism they have heaped onto President Bush’s attorney general nominee over the past few weeks, Democrats appear to lack the gumption necessary to do everything possible to prevent Michael Mukasey from becoming the country’s top cop. The Raw Story

If only the Democrats had a majority in the House and Senate (they do). Then they could stop being such fucking douchebags and finally stand up to an administration that has been in the minority since 2004. Seriously, what are they doing?

Supermodel ‘rejects dollar pay’

The Dollar is doomed!

The world’s richest model has reportedly reacted in her own way to the sliding value of the US dollar - by refusing to be paid in the currency.

Gisele Bündchen is said to be keen to avoid the US currency because of uncertainty over its strength.

The Brazilian, thought to have earned about $30m in the year to June, prefers to be paid in euros, her sister and manager told the Bloomberg news agency. BBC

Gore: No equal time for nutcases

Where was THIS Gore in 2000? Watch him slam CNN’s and the mainstream media’s practice to always show two sides to every story, no matter how ridiculous the “opposing view” is. (For example showing a Holocaust survivor splitscreen next to a Holocaust denier.) The good part starts at minute 2:13.