Carole Keeton Strayhorn held a press conference outside the central library to talk about the budget. What ensued was definitely off the books listen to her sound off on city spending, mayoral forums, and more.
Sure, it's way far out from the election, but never too early for a forum! Lee Leffingwell and Brewster McCracken laid out their platforms at a Democratic-backed forum this week, and the Hustle was there for posterity. (Not to mention the free grub).
One note: Carole Keeton Strayhorn was supposedly scheduled to attend the forum; according to the planners, she canceled, but her campaign says they never signed-on in the first place. Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of the Hust where she speaks on the matter.
Party time! The council members in the mayors race Lee Leffingwell and Brewster McCracken kickoff their respective campaigns, and the Hustle is there to schmooze. Also featuring Chris Riley and Obama organizer Temo Figueroa
Finally! Following months of speculation over when he would enter the mayoral race, Lee Leffingwell announced Saturday morning from the steps of his boyhood home. The Hustle is on the scene.
The Hustle bears witness to the announcement of former gubernatorial candidate and self-described ornery grandma Carole Keeton Strayhorn for mayor. It's fun for 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds, and 40-year-olds of all ages!
Nationally and locally, it was a banner year for politics - and the Chronicle's video-blogs City Hall Hustle and Hail to the Hustle were there. We've compiled the Hustle's Top 10 moments, so allow us to enumerate our year-end retrospective.
Hust FM is feeling pretty subdued this week, what with the recent death of City Hall regular Jennifer Gale. One thing the Hust suggests you do right now is make a donation to House the Homeless during their thermal clothing drive.
Other topics this week include the Draft Lee Leffingwell for Mayor PAC kickoff, the deluge of council campaign announcements, coming today from Rick Cofer, Chris Riley, and Bill Spelman, and a quick council agenda wrap-up. The listen's about 11 minutes long.
State "resign to run" laws mean Lee Leffingwell can't do any campaigning for Mayor until January without triggering a special election but that doesn't mean a band of supporters, including some political heavyweights, can't float the idea like so many kegs. The Hustle documents.
This is it! The Hustle's partying down with 3,000 rabid Democrats for Barack's historic win, and our season finale - but not before interviews with ladies of the Central Texas House, Donna Howard and Valinda Bolton. Plus: where are the Hustle's previous guests now?
In installment uno of the the Hustle's election night two-fer, we count down to Barack o'clock with Mayor Will Wynn, judicial candidate Woodie Jones, and Texas Senator Kirk Watson, at the Travis County Dems' Downtown bash.
The Hustle chats up Central Texas pols running for all manner of seats: U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett, Texas House member Valinda Bolton, Texas House candidate Larry Joe Doherty, and judicial candidate Woody Jones. All this, and a socialist sandwich too.
Despite some goofy voter fraud allegations, early voting is underway and high turnout has the Hustle going bananas. Featuring U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega, Texas Rep. Dawnna Dukes, and other sundry politicos.
Joe the Plumber (and his cuz, Joe Six-Pack) have garnered more attention than Bill Ayers and Barack combined, but what do we really know about them? The Hustle investigates, waxing a debate recap (and John McCain's eyebrows) along the way.
"That's right - the Hustle is here, Audio ChronCast style, blowin' up the spot like Bill Ayers! Above is the first episode of HUST FM, a political discussion between yours truly, Wells Dunbar, and Hustle co-creator, Mike B. We're hustling on the highway, behind the mighty wheel of Mike's '97 Ford Expedition, on the way to edit the latest edition of Hail to the Hustle. (Hey, if you wanna help HUST FM go green, we'll take a hybrid.) The debate is on our mind, along with the racist, xenophobic, and anti-intellectual agit-prop increasingly gurgling up from the right."
In this inaugural episode, we tackle the first presidential debate, the worldwide economic crisis and McCain's "suspended" campaign. It's all in a day for the Hust'.
If you're anything like The Hustle, you caught some of the Republican National Convention - albeit probably peering between your fingers, eyeing the screen in nauseated disbelief. If you didn't catch it, The Hust' recaps the RNC while recuperating at conservatism's spiritual home - the golf course. Featuring John McCain, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and more.
Okay, so it ain't Denver -- but the Hustle observes the Obama acceptance speech alongside progressive PAC Annie's List at their watch party at the Belmont Downtown. State Reps. Eddie Rodriguez and Elliott Naishtat are in the house, along with some outre convention clips you probably missed. It's way beyond the hall!
Part 1 features Howard Dean, Matt Glazer, Rick Noriega, Wesley Clark, Paul Krugman, Jim Hightower, Crawford director David Modigliani, plus other various and sundry liberal types.
In Part 2, Nancy Pelosi's in the hizzouse to discuss impeachment, FISA, and Net neutrality - plus Al Gore?
Jeremy Scahill, author of "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," on Iraq and Democratic timidity - July 19th, 2008, at Netroots Nation in Austin, Texas.
From partying with Will Wynn to chillin' with Allen Demling, City Hall Hustle bum-rushes the election night parties in a politico-packed election special you (and our elected officials) won't soon forget.
Peep "Poppin' E: Election Reception Roundup," featuring Wynn, Lee Leffingwell, Randi Shade, Laura Morrison, Cid Galindo, and many, many others, hosted by the City Hall Hustler himself, Wells Dunbar.
Atlanta, GA -- Investigators confirmed today that Arthur Slugworth, president of Slugworth Chocolates Incorporated and independent advisor to PepsiCo, has been implicated in the scandal involving two former Coca-Cola employees found guilty of engaging in the theft and sale of Coca-Cola intellectual property to PepsiCo.
"Hard to believe that so many years later, old Slugworth may very well still be up to the same shady dealings," remarked Justice Department official Ann Livingston. "We cannot comment any further on the case at this time, but I can assure you we are taking this matter very seriously and will leave no stone unturned."
Federal agents became aware of Slugworth's role after being tipped off by another Coca-Cola employee who Slugworth also approached. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the plant worker described the incident:
"He tried his best to get me involved. I was running through an alley one day and he abruptly stopped me in mid-step with a demented grin and said, 'Your reward will be $1.5 million of these. Think it over, will you? A new house for your family, and good food and comfort for the rest of their lives.' I don't know what the hell he was talking about. My family and I like our house just fine."
Legal analysts speculate that a racketeering indictment could be imminent and likewise capable of ending the confectionary mogul's reign of terror.
"We at the CMG Group believe that Slugworth is to Pepsi what Cheney is to the White House -- the man behind the wheel," claimed Patrick Carlson, head of the New York-based food industry watchdog group. "This is one incredibly well-seasoned rogue agent we're talking about here. Do you see any Wonka products around anymore? No sir. Putting those kids up to obtaining an Everlasting Gobstopper was just an act of subterfuge designed to distract Willy Wonka from the mole right in front of his very eyes. Slugworth successfully passed himself off as Wonka assistant Mr. Wilkinson, and Wonka paid through the nose."
PepsiCo declined to comment on either Slugworth or Wilkinson.
Yeah, so sometime between Thursday @ 3pm and Friday @ 3pm, my place got robbed. My computer set up got so jacked, it's not even funny. Lost all my Ning Bulb stuff, my MIDI keyboard, all the connectors for my camera, etc. I lost a Nikon N55 camera and my dead uncle's Fender Stratocaster.
It sucks. If I could only get my hands on those bastards...
So I think I'm going to be out of commission for a little while, at least when it comes to noggin' bloggin'. It's going to be awhile before I can upload any pictures, before I can upload any videos, before I can make any music.
I'm going to try not to let this get me down, though this hit hurts pretty hard. If you guys could keep an eye out for my stuff, on Craigslist, or any pawn shops you happen to run into, I'd appreciate it.
Here's the inventory:
E Machine model no. D6417, 15" flat screen monitor,
silver and black
M-Audio Oxygen 8, 25 key MIDI keyboard, silver and black
Nikon N55 camera, silver
'84 American Fender Stratocaster, tuning gauge on neck,
In reference to the April 25th Ning News, I'd just like to point out that it may be futile to wish the French the best on their election...they're kinda fucked either way.
In the second round of their election, they have Nicolas Sarkozy, a fascist who can fix their economy, and Segolene Royal, a socialist who will improve social services even further by running the country's already-flounderng economy into the fucking ground with unsustainable economic and social policy. Really, many of the French are right in looking at it as a choice between two methods for failure...it's just a matter of which is the lesser evil...economic or social failure.
Kurt Vonnegut, the American author of such celebrated works as "Slaughterhouse-Five," died last night at the age of 84.
Vonnegut's 8 rules for writing fiction:
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
Vonnegut grades his own works:
Player Piano: B
The Sirens of Titan: A
Mother Night: A
Cat's Cradle: A+
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: A
Slaughterhouse-Five: A+
Welcome to the Monkey House: B-
Happy Birthday, Wanda June: D
Breakfast of Champions: C
Slapstick: D
Jailbird: A
Palm Sunday: C
Kurt Vonnegut in the Rodney Dangerfield flick, Back to School:
"I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I'm dead."
Dallas, TX -- Ray Krebs, who serves as Ranch Foreman at the Southfork Ranch, husband of Donna Kulver Krebs, bastard son of Jock Ewing, and the occasional lover of both Lucy and Sue Ellen Ewing, shocked scientists worldwide with his announcement claiming responsibility for the Citric Acid Cycle, better known as "the Krebs Cycle", in what is projected as one of the year's most potentially nasty custody battles.
"Goddamn right that's my son," Krebs remarked. "He was born on a scorcher of a day back in July of 79. I was unloading some new steers out on Southfork Lot 40, and it just popped into my head. It was simple then and it's simple now. Citrate synthase, decarboxylation, yada yada yada. The details aren't important. What's important is that he's my son. The cycle pretty much cycled itself that very day and a son of pure Krebs blood was born."
After jotting down the revolutionary biochemistry breakthrough upon a bag of feed, Krebs returned to work and never gave the matter another thought until a few decades later.
"I was thumbing through a magazine just last week and it turns out some German named Hans Krebs claimed he was the father years and years ago. Now that's a big load of bull. Come to think of it, we were missing a few bags of feed that summer. In any event, I decided then and there that I couldn't neglect my first born any longer. Sometimes a man has to face the music."
"Sometimes a man has to look his son in the eye and say, 'who's your daddy?'" added Krebs.
Krebs then reiterated his firm intentions of seeking custody rights of the cycle, compensatory damages for the missing bag of feed from living descendants of the late Dr. Hans Krebs, as well as filing suit for "the Krebs cycle" to be legally renamed "the Ray Krebs cycle".
That's right, I said it. And no, I'm not a misogynist. I'm just the kind of guy that values the free exchange of information, the kind that we've been seeing as a result of this whole Web 2.0 thing-a-ma-jig. The types of websites that have been springing up, like Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, and Digg, to name a few, have revolutionized the web as we know it, and, personally, I'm all about it.
But the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) want to cry like a bunch of bitches, take their media and go home.
Exaggerate much? I've been known to from time to time, but I'm not really that far off the mark here. Maybe you've heard about the many frivolous lawsuits that the RIAA has brought forth, suing the pants off of everyday Americans for file-sharing and other copyright "violations."
Take the example of Brittney Chan, a 15 year old file-sharer. The RIAA sued her parents, unsuccessfully at that, and then turned around and sued her. The fact of the matter is, that these trials are costly, and ineffective, but the RIAA uses these lawsuits as a way to strong-arm the accused into settling out of court. There are hundreds (probably even thousands) of examples of the RIAA suing innocent people, people who have actually purchased the mp3s on their computer, as well as dead people, and, ludicrously enough, people who don't even own a computer. Check out this article at arstechnica about it: here.
Here's another example. The RIAA has instituted what they call a "clean slate" program, a website where you can go and admit your guilt of file-sharing under the false-guise of forgiveness. Anyone who would actually go and do this it out of their fucking mind. It's actually just another way for the RIAA to try and pressure you to settling out of court, to get you to pay out the ass for the egregious crime you've committed: sharing a couple of mp3s. There's an article on p2pnet about it: here.
What about the MPAA? You might have seen a story that broke yesterday about the MPAA implementing the use of DVD-sniffing dogs in Asia to combat copyright infringement and illegal film distribution. These guys actually have trained canines to sniff out optical discs at airports. Insane. Check it out: here.
The MPAA, as well as the RIAA, are huge advocates of and lobbyists for DRM, or Digital Rights Management. This is the technology that keeps you from burning an mp3 that you paid for more than a couple of times. If you pay for it, shouldn't you own it? The RIAA and the MPAA don't think so. Not only this, but these two agencies are also lobbying for a complete and utter reform of the internet. They'd like to slap a copyright on anything they can get their hands on, which would pretty much destroy the progress of the social networking sites that we've seen thus far, and outlaw most the content we see on video-sharing sites and blogs. Here's another article on arstechnica about it.
The RIAA and the MPAA have waged war on their clientele, and I hope that their organizations go down in flames for it. Understandably, people are pretty pissed off about it, including myself. Gizmodo, the popular tech site, ain't none too happy about it either. So much so, that they've declared the month of March, "Boycott the RIAA month." You can check out an article about it: here.
If you haven't heard about this story, which broke yesterday, it's the beginning of something big. Viacom is suing Google for 1 billion bucks for copyright infringement on sites like YouTube and Google Video. Check it out. Things are only getting worse for file-sharers, information-sharers, and social networkers. Copyright law as we know it will most certainly need to be redefined, and who knows who is going to benefit from this surely imminent legislation.
Honestly, I don't think that these industries, no matter how powerful they are, will be able to completely halt the progress that has been made so far in the Web 2.0 world. E-Industries like Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and other big sites, have some lobbying money to throw around as well. They certainly won't just sit around and let these power-players fundamentally change the internet as we know it. But still, they've got their work cut out for them. We're at a critical juncture in this fight for the freedom of information.
The social networking phenomenon that characterizes Web 2.0 has fundamentally altered the ways that several industries have traditionally done business. It's a simple fact. When technological advances like these occur, it's tough, but you've got to adapt. The RIAA and the MPAA have no interest in doing so - they've opted to attack their clients and strive for the demolition of the web as we know it. I'm sure there are some of you out there, hopefully not more than a few, that would argue that file-sharing, and other copyright infringing practices are wrong, and that they've got a right to do this. I'll restate that I believe that there are ways that these media conglomerates can adjust healthily to these industry changes, without being a bunch of fucking douche-bags about it.
If you haven't heard about "scambaiting," it's a relatively recent phenomenon involving fighting back against the people who send you scam emails. Say, for example, you receive an email from an African emissary, who just so happens to have encountered a large sum of money - and he needs your personal contact info, or some of your money, in order to acquire this wealth. That's the scam. Any day of the week, you'd normally just delete this message.
But there are those out there that are taking this to another level. Instead of dropping this email in the junk folder, they're responding, doing everything they can to waste these spammers' time, energy and resources.
The most popular of the scambaiters is Mike Berry. His website is 419eater.com. He recently tricked two Nigerian scammers into reenacting the "dead parrot" sketch from Monty Python, which you can check out here.
You can check out this story on NPR about Mike Berry and scambaiting: here
I've recently been involved in some scambaiting myself. A week or two ago, I received an email from a terminally ill woman in Ghana. She needed my help in acquiring funds from her late husband, who had been assassinated by political radicals. So instead of deleting it, I continued to email back and forth with "Doris" - over 8 emails exchanged. I told "her" that I was in the Peace Corps, and that I was actually going to be in Cameroon (just about 1,000 miles away from where they were in Ghana), and that I would be willing to meet them halfway to exchange my personal info, which is what they were after. I was trying to trick them into driving 500+ miles to meet me, though I eventually came to a stalemate in my scambaiting. All they wanted me to do was to send them a copy of my drivers license and passport via email, which, obviously, I didn't do - so I think that they lost interest. The point being, I at least wasted an hour or two of their time, and I'm still going to try to trick them into meeting me at a later date.
Here's a video of Nigerian police busting an Internet cafe, where spam scammers were basing their local operations. Take a whiff.
Why not give this a try yourself? That is, if you've got the time. Just be careful who you're fucking with. You shouldn't use your personal name or email, or next thing you know, you might have a small army of pissed off Nigerians on your doorstep.
today i skipped out of work to catch u.s. senator barack obama's speech at auditorium shores in beautiful, overcast austin, texas. this is one of the first stops on senator obama's campaign to rally support for himself in the coming democratic primary elections. the crowd was estimated to be upwards of 15,000 strong, although if many of those people had the same motivations for being there as i did, that big round number doesn't mean much.
during the rally, which began with a couple musical and dance acts, the biggest keyword circulating was "katrina." i'm probably a part of the problem in the sense that i, too, have grown weary of hearing about dead bodies in the streets, the need to rebuild the city, and give give give. not that obama lingered on the point more than any other he addressed, but the opening acts had already run it into the ground by the time he got to it. it is an issue that needs to be readdressed, but the guilt trips will not gain my support. i bear no responsibility or duty, or even any connection, to the victims of katrina, and my heart goes out to them but my money's staying in my pocket - no, it's not my job.
that said, senator obama has my support if he needs it, and not necessarily because of his relatively unique position, but because - and i think i might speak for a lot of teens and twenty-somethings here - he's one of very few people, much fewer in the political arena, to come along in our lifetime that possesses many of the qualities i would like to possess as a forty-something. my vision for my 40-year-old ideal self looks very similar to obama from the impressions i get. he typically comes across, and did today, as measured, thoughtful, and thorough while possessing plenty enough strength to hold his own when pressed. he seems to look at a big enough picture of the world to satisfy many voters.
that brings me to the voters - today's turnout was a delightfully diverse representation. i had almost forgotten that obama is black - but was reminded by his evident ability to draw black voters to a political rally in decent numbers. not always an easy feat in austin, where the whites are many and the others are seldom seen without setting foot on the other side of that big heavily-trafficked fence.
i was also reminded that smokers are not popular with this crowd. very rarely has anyone ever asked me not to smoke, either directly or indirectly, and i do try to be somewhat considerate, but...to the girls on my left burying your faces behind your shirts and coughing pathetically as if you're not familiar with language as a common protocol for communication...
you should really see a doctor about that cough. hell, i'm even a smoker and i don't hack like that. also, you should try hanging out next to your car's exhaust pipes for a while if you really want a relative sense of scale. and maybe cutting back on the cheetos would be a good start to fixing your health problems, not worrying about second-hand anything. it's the second hand in the cookie jar that's the problem if anything.
I read a news-bit in the Chronicle this morning about a report that was recently released by the American Solar Energy Society. This document is the result of a massive collaboration by many of the nation's foremost scholars and scientists, detailing a multitude of practical measures to combat climate change.
For those of you out there that "believe in" global warming, and that concentrations of carbon dioxide produced by humans are adversely affecting the environment, you can view the report on ASES's website: here
For those of you stupid enough to buy into the "doubt" campaigns initiated by corporate interests and proliferated by the media, I hope you hit a displaced polar bear on the way to work (in your luxury SUV, no less), and die.
Bush said, "Today, we're fighting a new war to defend our liberty and our people and our way of life. And as we work to advance the cause of freedom around the world, we remember that the father of our country believed that the freedoms we secured in our revolution were not meant for Americans alone."
"He once wrote, 'My best wishes are irresistibly excited whensoever in any country I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom,'" Bush said.
this post is the very first fulfillment of a series of dreams itching for realization. we are a few of - we believe - the very best. at whatever endeavor we might embark upon, given one another's help. so why this infant website?
first, because it's accessible. it's cheap. it's something we can observe. i.e. it will grow as we pour our energy into it, in tangible ways, quantity, quality, you know. and it's a commitment that can be managed in the midst of other responsibilities.
second, we feel, as many of our intended audience does, that the quality of media, and moreover, information, has degraded significantly since an imaginary time none of us remember, where nobody was ever lied to and no truth was ever withheld.
third, there are lots of concomitant reasons that may be obvious but regardless don't merit mention here.
we represent the disabused. those who are no longer able, or who have never been able, to take much stock. we represent a variety of interests, skills, ideas, and attitudes that are not necessarily reconcilable. we don't needlessly reconcile where there is no meaningful conflict of interest. at least as i sit observing this amicable poker game, that's what i gather as what we're about.
it's tough to say "let's start a community and build something worthy of our pride" in good faith, but if it weren't for this attitude, none of us would be here, and neither would you.
