Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Muse in the Morning by Robyn
• Six In The Morning by mishima

Featured Essays for February 12, 2011-

• While you were sleeping by ek hornbeck
• Lessons from the long-term unemployed by gjohnsit
• Born in Coon Rapids, Died in Helmand Province by Jacob Freeze

DocuDharma

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Thousands rally to demand Algerian leader quits

AFP

1 hr 16 mins ago

Turn Left Racing.  Hairspray (not the good 1988 version).  Austin City Limits has Pearl Jam.  Also the best movie about politics ever (and it’s not Snow White).

My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.

Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don’t have men killed.

Oh?  Who’s being naive, Kay?

• ABC Family– Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Enchanted
• AMC– The Godfather x 2
• Animal Planet– Must Love Cats, Pit Boss (premiers)
• Bravo– House marathon
• Comedy– Wedding Crashers, The 40 Year Old Virgin
• Disney– Phineas and Ferb Rollercoaster: The Musical, Fish Hooks x 2 (premiers)
• Discovery– Flying Wild marathon
• E!– Pride & Prejudice
• ESPN– College Hoopies, Pittsburgh @ Villanova
• ESPN2– College Hoopies, Detroit Mercy @ Butler, Wichita State @ Northern Iowa
• Food– Cupcake Wars marathon
• FX– Step Brothers
• History– Bigfoot!
• Lifetime– Because I Said So, Nights in Rodanthe
• MTV– Baby Boy
• Nick– iCarly, True Jackson VP
• Oxygen– The Notebook x 2
• Sci Fi– Eyeborgs, Iron Invader x 2
• Spike– On Deadly Ground, Under Siege
• TBS– Get Smart
• Turner Classic– The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind
• TNT– Shooter (again), Fight Club
• Toon– Hoodwinked, God, the Devil and Bob
• USA– Sex and the City, The Break-Up
• Vs.– Bullriding
• VH1– Hustle & Flow x 2, Take the Lead

Give this job to Clemenza.  I want reliable people, people who aren’t going to be carried away.  I mean, we’re not murderers, in spite of what this undertaker thinks…

Later-

I went to the Police like a good American.  These two boys were arrested and brought to trial.  The judge sentenced them to three years in prison, and suspended the sentence.  Suspended sentence!  They went free that very day.  I stood in the courtroom like a fool, and those bastards, they smiled at me.  Then I said to my wife, for Justice, we must go to The Godfather.

Bonasera, we know each other for years, but this is the first time you come to me for help.  I don’t remember the last time you invited me to your house for coffee… even though our wives are friends.

• Comedy– Employee of the Month, American Pie
• FX– Mission: Impossible 2
• Sci Fi– Triassic Attack
• Spike– Kill Switch
• TBS– Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Road Trip
• TNT– Unleashed, Rumble in the Bronx
• USA– Burn Notice x 2
• Vs.– D-League Hoopies, Wizards @ Energy

SNL– Russell Brand and Chris Brown.

Boondocks– Wingmen, The Venture Brothers– Past Tense

You never think to protect yourself with real friends.  You think it’s enough to be an American.  All right, the Police protects you, there are Courts of Law, so you don’t need a friend like me.  But now you come to me and say Don Corleone, you must give me justice.  And you don’t ask in respect or friendship.  And you don’t think to call me Godfather; instead you come to my house on the day my daughter is to be married and you ask me to do murder…for money.

America has been good to me…

Then take the justice from the judge, the bitter with the sweet, Bonasera.  But if you come to me with your friendship, your loyalty, then your enemies become my enemies, and then, believe me, they would fear you…

Like Robinson Caruso (it’s primitive as can be), The Whale is kinda sorta based on a real life incident, the sinking of the Essex by a Sperm Whale.

Now if you think this dense symbolist tome is grim (and long and boring too), you may be grateful that Melville spared you the rest of the tale.  Far from “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”, in fact there were several survivors including Captain George Pollard Jr. who seems remarkably un-Ahab like to me.

In terms of length they drifted through the Pacific for three months (“Still no sight of land, how long is it?”  “That’s a rather personal question, sir.”) and, in desperation, ate the Captain’s cousin (“I’d rather eat Johnson, sir!”).

Well, it wasn’t the Royal Navy–

Dear Sir, I am glad to hear that your studio audience disapproves of the last skit as strongly as I. As a naval officer I abhor the implication that the Royal Navy is a haven for cannibalism. It is well known that we now have the problem relatively under control, and that it is the RAF who now suffer the largest casualties in this area.

Now you might think after an experience like that you’d be as reluctant as John Harrison (who got terribly sea sick during his trip to Lisbon testing the H1 and never sailed again) to return to whaling, but Captain Pollard got another command, the Two Brothers.

Which promptly sank off French Frigate Shoals near Hawaii.

After that crews were understandably reluctant to sail with him and he ended his life as a night watchman on Nantucket where he met Melville (who was a customs inspector, you can’t make any money writing) after the book’s publication.  It’s said they got along quite well.

While the Essex is as lost as the Pequod, marine archaeologists have recently found the wreck of the Two Brothers and there’s an interesting article in The New York Times about it.

No ‘Moby-Dick’: A Real Captain, Twice Doomed

By JESSE McKINLEY, The New York Times

Published: February 11, 2011

On Friday, in a discovery that might bring a measure of peace to Captain Pollard, who survived his second wreck (though his career did not), researchers announced that they have found the remains of the Two Brothers. The whaler went down exactly 188 years ago after hitting a reef at the French Frigate Shoals, a treacherous atoll about 600 miles northwest of here. The trove includes dozens of artifacts: harpoon tips, whaling lances and three intact anchors.

The discovery is believed to be the first of a Nantucket whaler, one of an armada of ships that set sail during the early 19th century when the small Massachusetts island was an international capital of whaling. It was a risky pursuit that led sailors halfway across the world – and sometimes to the bottom of the sea.

Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Muse in the Morning by Robyn
• Six In The Morning by mishima

Featured Essays for February 11, 2011-

• Our Global Elites by ek hornbeck
• Business: The Rising Price of Groceries and Twitter by TheMomCat
• Reporting the Revolution: Day 18 by TheMomCat
• UPDATED: Mubarak Resigns and Flees Cairo? by Edger
• Limiting Caregiver Benefits – VA’s Fault? by jimstaro
• Injustice at Every Turn — Part III: Health Care by Robyn
• Typical Products of Afghanistan and the USA by Jacob Freeze
• Original v. Cover — #65 in a Series by curmudgeon

DocuDharma

Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown on ABC, otherwise solid premiers.

Listen to me. What happened between Mrs. Robinson and me was nothing. It didn’t mean anything. We might just as well have been shaking hands.

• AMC– Rocky V
• Bravo– Ocean’s Thirteen x 2
• Disney– Wizards of Waverly Place, Fish Hooks, Phineas and Ferb (premiers)
• Discovery– Gold Rush (last week’s and new), Flying Wild (premier)
• E!– The Soup (premier)
• ESPN– Hoopies, Lakers @ Knicks, Suns @ Jazz
• ESPN2– High School Hoopies, Oak Hill Academy Va @ Christ School NC
• FX– Wanted, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
• History– Top Shot (this week’s)
• Nick– Fred: The Movie
• Oxygen– Just Friends x 2
• Sci Fi– Merlin (premier)
• Style– My Girl
• TBS– Bedtime Stories x 2
• Turner Classic– The Graduate, Gumped
• TLC– Say Yes to the Dress marathon (with premier)
• TNT– Shooter, Righteous Kill
• Toon– Generator Rex (premier), Clone Wars (Third part of the Mortis Trilogy, premier)

It’s like I was playing some kind of game, but the rules don’t make any sense to me. They’re being made up by all the wrong people. I mean no one makes them up. They seem to make themselves up.

Later-

Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don’t listen to him. Remember that – do not listen.

• AMC– Cujo
• Bravo– Donnie Brasco
• Oxygen– License to Wed
• Sci Fi– Being Human (this week’s), Merlin (Instapeat)
• Spike– The Exorcist (the good one)
• TBS– Secondhand Lions
• Turner Classic– Pretty Woman
• TV Land– Hot in Cleveland x 3
• VH1– Lemmy

Dave hosts Ed Helms, Ted Alexandro, and The Dears.  

There are no experts. You probably know as much about possession than most priests. Look, your daughter doesn’t say she’s a demon. She says she’s the devil himself. And if you’ve seen as many psychotics as I have, you’d know it’s like saying you’re Napoleon Bonaparte.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 50 Top Stories.

1 Mubarak falls as a million Egyptians march

by Mona Salem, AFP

49 mins ago

I know the Egyptian Revolution has been big news, but also over the last few days a story has been developing about how Bank of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have been hiring law firms and private security companies to attack progressive institutions and individuals.

In summary the story goes like this-

Security Firms Pitching Bank of America on WikiLeaks Response Proposed Targeting Glenn Greenwald

By: emptywheel, Wednesday February 9, 2011 8:49 am

On Saturday, private security firm HBGary Federal bragged to the FT that it had discovered who key members of the hacking group Anonymous are. In response, Anonymous hacked HB Gary Federal and got 44,000 of their emails and made them publicly available.

…

As TechHerald reports, among those documents was a presentation, “The Wikileaks Threat,” put together by three data intelligence firms for Bank of America in December. As part of it, they put together what they claimed was a list of important contributors to WikiLeaks. They suggested that Glenn Greenwald’s support was key to WikiLeaks’ ongoing survival.

Now at the time the big joke was these security firms had the sadly mistaken impression that Glenn Greenwald is the kind of person who would respond to blackmail threats by putting “professional preservation” before “cause” and principle.  But the rabbit hole is deeper than that Alice.

Among the hacked documents was a Power Point presentation that laid out the plan of attack which included leaking false documents to destroy credibility and paying professional trolls $2000 a day to disrupt social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and political blogs like… well, this one.

HBGary Fees: "Dam It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta"

By: emptywheel, Friday February 11, 2011 8:05 am

This is a social media consultant, someone we know from the team’s plans they intended to deploy on Facebook and Twitter in false personas ultimately aiming to destroy the credibility of anti-Chamber activists.

These are just reasonably skilled trolls.

And for that, they wanted to charge $2,000 a day.

To put it in even more stark perspective, consider one ultimate target of the campaign: the men and women SEIU organizes pushing back against the anti-worker policies of the Chamber. Many of these workers-the kind of people who keep your building clean or care for you when you’re sick-make as little $12/hour or less (though the wages for nurses and other skilled medical care providers are higher).

These corporate spook assholes-in addition to targeting Americans for political activism-also think they’re worth 20 times as much as the people who care for the sick.

One the most interesing details is the identity of the firms proposing this scheme-

The Disinformation Campaign Bank of America Considered

By: emptywheel, Wednesday February 9, 2011 1:43 pm

Wikileaks has posted the presentation (.pdf) three security companies-Palantir, HBGary Federal, and Berico Technologies-made to Bank of America, proposing to help it respond to Wikileaks.

In addition to the degree to which the proposal emphasizes the national security ties and military background of the employees of the company (particularly Berico), the presentation fleshes out what the companies proposed.

…

(A)ccording to Tech Herald, the law firm pitching these firms, Hunton and Williams, was itself recommended to BoA by DOJ. As the presentation makes clear, these are significant government contractors. (Remember, we’re getting these documents because Anonymous hacked HBGary Federal, which was offering what it had collected to DOJ.) To what extent is what we’re seeing just an extension of what our own government is trying to combat Wikileaks?

Bank of America had not committed to the proposal.  Another group, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was already actively using HBGary to inplement their plan.

Hacked Documents Show Chamber Engaged HBGary to Spy on Unions

By: emptywheel. Thursday February 10, 2011 1:37 pm

(I)t appears that back in November the same parties involved in the pitch to Bank of America-Palantir, HBGary Federal, and Berico Technologies working through Hunton and Williams-started preparing a pitch to the Chamber of Commerce. At that point, HBGary started researching anti-Chamber groups StoptheChamber.com and USChamberWatch. At one point, HBGary maps the connections between SEIU, Change to Win, and USChamberWatch as if he’s found gold.

By the end of November, Barr starts working on a presentation outlining the difference between StoptheChamber and USChamberWatch, as well as “a link chart of key people in the distribution of information, background information on each individual and ways to counteract their effect on group.”

On January 13, HBGary believed they had signed a contract.

…

On February 3, law firm H&W came back to the three security firms and told them they’d be doing their Phase I work on spec, until the Chamber had bought into the full project. At that point, the firms put together a plan including a proposed February 14 briefing.

The Chamber issued a non-denial denial-

From the ChamberPot: A Carefully Worded Nondenial Denial

By: emptywheel, Thursday February 10, 2011 5:29 pm

Note, first of all, that they’re not denying hiring Hunton & Williams, the law firm/lobbyist which they hired last year to sue the Yes Men. They’re not even denying that they retain Hunton & Williams right now.

What they’re denying is that they-or, implicitly, Hunton & Williams, on their behalf-hired HBGary.

…

In other words, no, the Chamber has not “hired” HBGary. They’ve gotten HBGary to do a month of work for free to decide whether they want to hire them.

…

Now, back in my consulting days, when working with a primary contractor there were always several iterations of work between when we pitched the primary and when we all, jointly, pitched the client itself.

So, sure, the Chamber didn’t see this document. They saw one that proposed the same or very similar plots against citizen activists, probably completed a week or more later, probably containing a different level of  detail (other emails discuss a November 23 meeting with a revised proposal).

They didn’t hire HBGary and they didn’t read the particular document TP linked to.

But that is far short of denying that they’ve been discussing such a plot with HBGary and/or Hunton & Williams.

Other firms involved in this plot are trying to back away from it too-

Palantir Tries to Preserve Their Government Contracts

By: emptywheel Thursday February 10, 2011 8:23 pm

As a reminder, Palantir Technologies is one of the two other security firms that HBGary partnered with to try to get spying business with Bank of America and the Chamber of Commerce.

But perhaps more relevant is Palantir’s primary focus: working with the national security apparatus. They’ve done at least $6,378,332 in business with entities like SOCOM and FBI in the last several years. And while they say they have no plans to adopt “offensive cyber capabilities,” that’s not to say they’re not helping the government analyze data on our presumed enemies.

I would imagine Palantir has pretty good reason to know that the government will not do business with a contractor using the same technologies to target Glenn Greenwald (and maybe Brad Friedman).

At least not publicly. Remember-DOJ recommended Hunton & Williams (which put Palantir and HBGary together for the bid) to Bank of America.

Glenn Greenwald (remember him?) sums it up in his post today-

The leaked campaign to attack WikiLeaks and its supporters

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

Friday, Feb 11, 2011 05:12 ET

What is set forth in these proposals for Bank of America quite possibly constitutes serious crimes.  Manufacturing and submitting fake documents with the intent they be published likely constitutes forgery and fraud.  Threatening the careers of journalists and activists in order to force them to be silent is possibly extortion and, depending on the specific means to be used, constitutes other crimes as well.  Attacking WikiLeaks’ computer infrastructure in an attempt to compromise their sources undoubtedly violates numerous cyber laws.  

Yet these firms had no compunction about proposing such measures to Bank of America and Hunton & Williams, and even writing them down.   What accounts for that brazen disregard of risk?  In this world, law does not exist as a constraint.  It’s impossible to imagine the DOJ ever, ever prosecuting a huge entity like Bank of America for doing something like waging war against WikiLeaks and its supporters.  These massive corporations and the firms that serve them have no fear of law or government because they control each.  That’s why they so freely plot to target those who oppose them in any way.  They not only have massive resources to devote to such attacks, but the ability to act without limits.

…

There are supposed to be institutions which limit what can be done in pursuit of those private-sector goals.  They’re called “government” and “law.”  But those institutions are so annexed by the most powerful private-sector elites, and so corrupted by the public officials who run them, that nobody — least of all those elites — has any expectation that they will limit anything.  To the contrary, the full force of government and law will be unleashed against anyone who undermines Bank of America and Wall Street executives and telecoms and government and the like (such as WikiLeaks and supporters), and will be further exploited to advance the interests of those entities, but will never be used to constrain what they do.  These firms vying for Bank of America’s anti-WikiLeaks business know all of this full well, which is why they concluded that proposing such pernicious and possibly illegal attacks would be deemed not just acceptable but commendable.

Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Muse in the Morning by Robyn
• Six In The Morning by mishima

Featured Essays for February 9, 2011-

• How to drop the unemployment rate to zero by gjohnsit
• Reporting the Revolution: Day 17 Up Date 2030hrs EST by TheMomCat
• The snowman: Obama to cut home-heating assistance to the poor. by Compound F
• UN: Sources – Mubarak Could Step Down Tonight by Edger
• Mubarak To World: I Fart In Your General Direction by davidseth

DocuDharma

I should mention tonight’s episode of The Ace of Cakes is the last ever.  It never quite grabbed me though I liked some of the characters (especially the wacky secretary who reminds me of Janine Melnitz) because I’m just not that into cakes.  Probably explains why I’m not a big fan of Food Network Challenge.

Pretty much all premiers.  I didn’t realize there was a new version of La Femme Nikita.

You have this belief that you are better than us. You have this belief that this country is so very good, and we are so very bad.

• ABC Family– Matilda
• AMC– Rocky IV x 2
• Animal Planet– Planet Earth marathon
• Comedy– Half a Futurama night
• Disney– Starstruck
• Discovery– Man v. Wild, Sr. v. Jr. (Season Finale repeat)
• ESPN– College Hoopies, Connecticut @ St. John’s, Illinois @ Minnesota
• ESPN2– College Hoopies, Florida State @ Georgia Tech, Alabama @ Vanderbilt
• Food– Ace of Cakes (Series Finale)
• FX– Archer x 2 (with premier)
• Lifetime– Disappearing Acts
• Sci Fi– Dragon Wars, Eragon
• TBS– Mean Girls
• Turner Classic– Annie Get Your Gun, An American in Paris
• TNT– Hoopies, Lakers @ Celtics, Mavs @ Nuggets
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon (thank goodness)
• USA– Royal Pains x 2, Fairly Legal x 2 (premiers + Instapeats)
• VH1– SNL marathon

I am Lrrr! Ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8! May I crash on your couch?

Later-

(E)nough about me leg. Let me tell you about the rest of me. “Up North in the Never-Never, where the land is harsh and bare, lives a mighty hunter named Mick Dundee who can dance like Fred Astaire.”

• AMC– Crocodile Dundee
• ESPN2– College Hoopies, Gonzaga @ Loyola Marymount
• FX– 54
• Sci Fi– Fire & Ice
• Turner Classic– Too Young to Kiss
• Toon– Eagleheart (premier)
• USA– White Collar (this week’s)

Dave hosts Bryan Ferry.  Jon and Stephen in repeats from 2/1. Conan hosts Seth MacFarlane, Brooklyn Decker, and Dana Gould.

Well, you see, Aborigines don’t own the land.They belong to it. It’s like their mother. See those rocks? Been standing there for 600 million years. Still be there when you and I are gone. So arguing over who owns them is like two fleas arguing over who owns the dog they live on.

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