• Here's a bit of news I found from the fascist thugs at the Drug Enforcement Administration... Did you know that your tax dollars are being used to promote a right political organization?
  

  Yep, it's true. I found out by taking a look at the DEA's website and found this speech to the "Conservative Political Action Committee" by DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson. Now I won't say that the Hutctchinson doesn't have the right to push his drug prohibition message on his own time. That's free speech. However, the DEA is tax payer funded. To use my government's (and yours) web servers to not only promote this speech but also the "Conservative Political Action Committee" is wrong.
  

  If you want to support this PAC, great... send them a contribution. But don't use my tax dollars to fund your cause!
  

• Boycott-Riaa.com: US Appeals Court Reinstates Digital Recording Suit
  

  Here is the synopsis courtesy of AJY of AJY.net: District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled that the five major record labels must prove they own thousands of music copyrights as well as prove those copyrights were not used to monopolize and stifle the distribution of digital music. " Definitely a twist in this ongoing saga.

• The Blogging Phenomenon: An Overview and Theoretical Consideration - Please contact me with your critiques, flames, suggestions, etc. as I will publish a revised version of it sometime later this spring.
  

• Well the American press is reporting on Bush's amazing remarks in China, but they are downplaying their significance. Here is one example from The NY Times
  

US President George W Bush has ended his visit to China with an appeal for greater religious and political freedom.


In a speech to university students broadcast live across China, he said America had proved that freedom did not bring chaos, and religious faith provided a moral core for a nation.


He said religious believers made good citizens, and dissent did not mean revolution.

Quotation taken from: BBC
posted by J.M. Branum at 5:17 PM | link

I've decided to take the plunge tonight into internet radio. I've done some stuff in the past with www.radio1austin.com but it has been a long time since I did that.

Anyway, my program is pretty weak right now (it takes forever to get your mp3's re-ripped to the right bitrate and uploaded) but over time hopefully it will be a decent representation of the kind of music I dig.

Anyway, if you want to check out the very-beta version of it: click here.
posted by J.M. Branum at 11:24 PM | link

Tonight has been such a nutty night for blogging. I actually have a few hours to kill in my favoritist of all favorite hobbies! Woohoo!

Ok, here's the real deal... First, The Galaxy is online. (the Arts & Entertainment magazine of Southwest Texas State University, the college I was at before moving back to Oklahoma.) Not much is up on the site yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing what it might amount to.

Second . . . shoot I forgot what I was about to say...
posted by J.M. Branum at 10:19 PM | link

• Howdy Folks, a tribute to Will Rogers and the official state poem.

Here are some of the folks I've been listening to lately...

• Cake - that song "Short skirt, long jacket" is kick***. If I can find a girl that has "fingernails that shine like justice, and a voice that is dark like tinted glass," who "is fast and thorough and sharp as a tack." I would be a happy man. --- Which while I'm on the subject, I do want a woman. Not in a desperate sense, of wanting just anyone, but rather in the sense of wanting the one.
  

  God is right. (Ok, He always is, but that's beside the point.) It is not good for a man to be alone.
  

  Anyway, on to other thoughts...
  

• Nick Drake - Vagrantcafe has a great introduction to his music: A way to blue
  

• I really have been enjoying a couple of mainstream artists who are way underrespected by the ihavebettertastethanyou musical snobs. One is Alanis Morrissette, and the other one is Creed. I'll refuse to hide in the corner for enjoying either of them. In fact I'll beat you into submission if you speak against them.
  

• Nickel Creek - I especially like the song "Tom Bombadill's house," which is a perfect instrumental impression of the magical chapter of the same title in the first volume of the Lord of the Rings.
  

• Balldowse
  

• PFR - I really like their song "Walking in Amsterdam."
  

• My friend Tim Burger introduced me to Pete Stewart and Deniison Whitmer. Very, very enjoyable.
  

• I've been digging on U2 a lot lately, mostly Joshua Tree and the new album (I forgot its name.).
  

• Of course, listening to the stream at KTSW, college radio at its finest. If you're on broadband, their 128k stream sounds incredible. --- Wow, tonight KTSW is spinning some good stuff.
  

" A description of America, what makes life in America the way it is, a description of the values of the American people, how our government relates to its people "



- Agenda for Bush's televised speech to the youth of China

• MSNBC: Russian ultimatum--- Russia gives IOC president 24 hours to address what it calls 'unfair judging' or it will leave Olympics
  

• MSNBC: Killed by captors, Video shows kidnapped reporter Pearl is dead - What incredibly sad news. I heard today on NPR's All Things Considered that Pearl's now-widowed wife is 7 months pregnant with their first child. Anytime a journalist is killed is a very sad thing, but especially under these circumstances. I think we forget what sacrificed journalists go through to bring us the truth.
  

• AP/Washington Post: Bush backs Columbian crackdown on rebels --- Crazy whack. This has all the makings of Latin American Vietnam war.
  

• The Independent: Geneva conventions are outdated, says US envoy --- Even more crazy whack. I still wonder why the US is strident against granting Geneva convention protections... are they torturing the detainees or what? What are they hiding? If everything is on the up and up, then why not grant them Geneva Convention status?
  

• The Independent: Middle East slips towards war as Arafat peace offer rebuffed
  

• BBC: Bush takes message to Chinese youth --- This story has some of the best news I've heard in some time. Here are some excerpts...
  
  US President George W Bush is due to end his visit to China on Friday with a speech on American values which will be broadcast live across the Communist state. . .
  

  Aides to the president were quoted as saying the scheduled speech at Tsinghua University would be a call to new generations of Chinese to espouse American values such as freedom, openness and faith.
  

  Mr Bush would seek to convey a "description of America, what makes life in America the way it is, a description of the values of the American people, how our government relates to its people", said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
  

  It would "challenge these young people to find those best values in this society as it moves through this period of rapid change", National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice added.
  

  At his news conference with President Jiang on Thursday, Mr Bush already strongly defended the right of Chinese people to be "free to choose how they live, how they worship and how they work". . .
  

  Wow!!! On national television Bush is going to speak out in favor of religious and political freedom!!! This is such an answer to prayer, to actually have a President who will speak out against the evil that is being done to men and women of faith in the most populous nation on earth.
  

  But if the visit appears to have achieved few concrete results, reports from the presidential banquet on Thursday suggest a much warmer atmosphere.
  

  Mr Jiang danced with Mr Bush's wife Laura as well as Condoleezza Rice and the wife of the US ambassador to American favourites such as "Moon River", played by a Chinese military band.
  

  And, according to Mr Fleischer, he serenaded Mr Bush with the Italian aria "O Sole Mio", backed by an accordionist.
  

  "He was kicking up his heels and singing songs," said Mr Fleischer. "It really was just a delightful touch."
  

  I am impressed by Bush's diplomatic abilities. I still am not (and doubt I will ever) be a full-fledged member of the Dub-ya fan club (sorry but appointing fascists to cabinent positions is hard to forget), but I am starting to like him a little more. Bush's interactions with Jiang and with Putin remind me so much of how Reagan & Gorbechav's friendship helped open the door to friendlier relations with the Evil Empire.

  
  

• BBC: A profile of Chinese President Jiang
  

• In pictures: Koreans protest against Bush
  

• BBC: Analysis: Neither enemies nor friends
  
  President Bush wants China to give a clear commitment to end such exports. China has made such promises before, but this time America wants it in writing.
  

  Mr Bush is also reported to be deeply unhappy about the treatment of China's millions of Christians. As a born-again Christian himself its a very personal issue for the US President.
  

  He is expected to push China hard to recognise the Vatican and the Pope's leadership of the Catholic church, and to legalise the tens of thousands of underground church groups across China that are currently forced to practice outside the law.
  

  Reading this story and the stories before it from the BBC, I am appalled that I had to read these stories in the British press. Why isn't the US press reporting on Bush's stands for religious freedom in China? I guess the big media giants can't afford to offend the totalitarian oppressors of the Chinese people, if they want to cash in on the furthering enslavement of those people.
  

  American corporate media sucks!
  

  
  

Musiccity.com, the folks who run Morpheus have announced that the "rumors of reported security hole in Morphus are false." That is good to know, however it is sad when a big company can't use good grammar. Not to sound anal retentive, but it should have read "rumors of a reported security hole in Morphus are false."

I have very good news. Thanks to the support of Aaron of AJY Design, JMBzine will have faster and more stable webhosting, AND will no longer have the banner ads at the top of each page.

If any of my readers want to thank him, please send any web design biz his way. (Unless you're really cheap, in which case you should hire me.)
posted by J.M. Branum at 8:49 PM | link

• NY Times: Rumsfeld says Pentagon plan won't include lies - This is a step in the right direction, or maybe it is yet another lie.
  

• NY Times/AP: Rental car company to refund fines for speeding
  

• NY Times: Costa Rica's cattle country
  

• NY Times: A faded city brightens in Nicaragua
  

• MSNBC: Court to hear death penalty case, Appeal seeks to bar states from executing retarded
  

Correction

In a post yesterday, I posted the wrong comment for a story. So, I have deleted that section of the post, and have reposted the correct version of both stories below:

• MSNBC: Appeals court scraps rules that limit media ownership - This disgusts me.
  

• Yahoo News: Bankruptcies soar to record in 2001 - Thank goodness that Congress did something right for once and didn't change the bankruptcy laws. All of the Christian fundamentalists who support Bush and his buddies in the credit card industry in their push to do away with bankruptcy as we know it need to read their Bibles again. Our bankruptcy laws are based on the Biblical idea of the year of Jubilee.
  

• Yahoo/NY Times: Pentagon readies efforts to sway sentiments abroad --- The only thing surprising here is that they're telling us in advance that they are going to lie to us. How arrogant can the US military be to think this is a move that would support the democratic process?
  

• On the case of political prisoner Lori Berenson, we have two updates:
  
  NY Times/AP: Pardon Ruled Out in Peru for New York Woman
  
  • NY Times: Berenson Loses Peruvian Appeal of Her 20-Year Prison Sentence
  
  

• NY Times/AP: Supreme Court to Intervene in Internet Copyright Dispute
  

• School Grading Practice Upheld by Court
  

• NY Times/AP: Court to Consider Internet Sex Offender Lists
  

• NY Times/AP: Court Reviews Housing Eviction Law
  

• NY Times/AP: Tyson Granted Boxing License in Washington, D.C.
  

• NY Times: In a Shift, U.S. Uses Airstrikes to Help Kabul
  

• U.S. tightening rules on keeping scientific secrets
  
  Since Sept. 11, the administration has sought to clamp down on the flow of information on several fronts. In October, for example, Attorney General John Ashcroft told federal officials that the Justice Department would support them if they resisted freedom-of-information requests. But science has now become the leading edge of the crackdown.
  
  

  Yet another example of how Bush (who is looking more and more like either an bumbling know-nothing clown or a sinister fascist) is letting Ashcroft rape our democracy.
  

• Iranmania.com: Bush threats boost Iran-Saudi links: Saudi minister
  

  CORRECTION - This portion of the post is deleted. See the post for February 20th for the corrected version.
  

• The history of the Second Amendment (thanks to Scott Hannan for this link)
  

• Yard Dog Art Gallery --- an Austin, TX gallery that specializes in "folk art of the south"
  

• Sublime Stitching - hand embroidery from TExas
  

• Naughty Secretary Club includes music reviews of some of my favorite bands like Pedro the Lion, and an excellent guide to cool places to go in Austin.
  

• Smoking from all sides
  

• Confessions from a girl in love
  
  Well Bush has been claiming that he had a very limited association with Kenneth Lay, I remember a bunch of people having some concerns when the last president claimed "limited relations" with an intern. Of course the last president was screwing the intern, it looks to me like this president is screwing us.
  
  

• Guy Branum Fan Page A Page Devoted to Berkeley Quiz-Bowl's Most Famous Character, and the famous collegiate columnist who was roughed up by secret service agents after writing a column after Chelsea Clinton.