The Stomach-Turner Diaries
Kris Kuksi, a sculptor and painter I knew in college, is making a movie debut of sorts. A sculpture he made is being used in the movie adaptation of Cassandra Clare's novel City of Bones. I guess it's a teen urban fantasy novel. I would normally never read that kind of novel or pay money to see its movie adaptation, but I might do both, in appreciation of Kuksi's contribution to the franchise.
Kuksi was one of the more successful artists within the small milieu at the university I attended. Since then, his success has expanded well beyond that sphere. His art has been exhibited all around the nation, and I believe overseas as well.
In news of the stomach-turning variety, Jan Brewer is threatening to seek a third term. I guess she's still not satisfied with the amount of ruination and embarrasment she's brought to this state.
I've heard from plenty of friends their annoyance at Obama for taking Napolitano out of the governor's office and making her Secretary of Homeland Security. He cursed us with one of the worst governors in this state's history.
I also think he made a terrible choice for Secretary of Homeland Security when he picked Napolitano. Last week I finished reading a book by former Homeland Security analyst Daryl Johnson, Right-Wing Resurgence: How a Domestic Terrorist Threat is Being Ignored. It doesn't paint a great picture of Napolitano. In 2009 Johnson prepared a report on right-wing extremism that was leaked to the right-wing media. In the hands of the right's hack journalists, it was grossly distorted and held up as an example of how the Department of Homeland Security was flagrantly disregarding their civil liberties, painting all of them who were anti-tax, anti-abortion, and critical of the Obama administration as dangerous extremists--and suspects. (They obviously didn't have the same concern about infringements on the civil liberties of Muslims, Arab-Americans, and other racially profiled citizens and legal residents, who, to put it mildly, have a much stronger case.)
The hacks succeeded in silencing Napolitano on the issue and getting her to evade the issue of right-wing extremism in the U.S. She refused to acknowledge it in public, refused to talk about it, refused to do much of anything about it. This is in spite of the fact that extremist activity rose in response to a slowing economy and the election of a black president. This is in spite of the fact that just one of those extremist groups, the Hutaree militia, according to Johnson, has "an arsenal of weapons larger than all of the combined Muslim plotters charged in the United States since the 9/11 attacks."
But DHS can't be accused of complete inaction. They did take some action. A couple of times, they helped right-wing extremists:It is also worrying that DHS media spokespersons and unnamed DHS officials persist in misleading the American public into thinking the department is being vigilant toward non-Islamic terrorist threats in the homeland. If this were the case, then I would think that DHS would be shocked to know that domestic non-Islamic extremists have received DHS funding for equipment and DHS training for their paramilitary training activities. Surprisingly, DHS had inadvertently given $5,000 in federal grant funding to a militia group in Oregon to purchase radio equipment. In November 2010, an unsuspecting local law enforcement officer gave an official DHS training class on "radicalization" to approximately thirty members of a militia group in Zanesville, Ohio. Despite notification of DHS officials, it doesn't appear that the Department of Homeland Security is too concerned with the threat of right-wing extremism despite a period of heightened violent activity.
Napolitano was definitely one of Obama's worst appointments, both for the void it created in Arizona (and who filled that void), and the joke of a job Napolitano is doing now. Of course, I don't think I'd be a fan of DHS under anyone's leadership, since we already had such a bloated military-police-prison-security-industrial complex even before DHS.
Kuksi was one of the more successful artists within the small milieu at the university I attended. Since then, his success has expanded well beyond that sphere. His art has been exhibited all around the nation, and I believe overseas as well.
In news of the stomach-turning variety, Jan Brewer is threatening to seek a third term. I guess she's still not satisfied with the amount of ruination and embarrasment she's brought to this state.
I've heard from plenty of friends their annoyance at Obama for taking Napolitano out of the governor's office and making her Secretary of Homeland Security. He cursed us with one of the worst governors in this state's history.
I also think he made a terrible choice for Secretary of Homeland Security when he picked Napolitano. Last week I finished reading a book by former Homeland Security analyst Daryl Johnson, Right-Wing Resurgence: How a Domestic Terrorist Threat is Being Ignored. It doesn't paint a great picture of Napolitano. In 2009 Johnson prepared a report on right-wing extremism that was leaked to the right-wing media. In the hands of the right's hack journalists, it was grossly distorted and held up as an example of how the Department of Homeland Security was flagrantly disregarding their civil liberties, painting all of them who were anti-tax, anti-abortion, and critical of the Obama administration as dangerous extremists--and suspects. (They obviously didn't have the same concern about infringements on the civil liberties of Muslims, Arab-Americans, and other racially profiled citizens and legal residents, who, to put it mildly, have a much stronger case.)
The hacks succeeded in silencing Napolitano on the issue and getting her to evade the issue of right-wing extremism in the U.S. She refused to acknowledge it in public, refused to talk about it, refused to do much of anything about it. This is in spite of the fact that extremist activity rose in response to a slowing economy and the election of a black president. This is in spite of the fact that just one of those extremist groups, the Hutaree militia, according to Johnson, has "an arsenal of weapons larger than all of the combined Muslim plotters charged in the United States since the 9/11 attacks."
But DHS can't be accused of complete inaction. They did take some action. A couple of times, they helped right-wing extremists:It is also worrying that DHS media spokespersons and unnamed DHS officials persist in misleading the American public into thinking the department is being vigilant toward non-Islamic terrorist threats in the homeland. If this were the case, then I would think that DHS would be shocked to know that domestic non-Islamic extremists have received DHS funding for equipment and DHS training for their paramilitary training activities. Surprisingly, DHS had inadvertently given $5,000 in federal grant funding to a militia group in Oregon to purchase radio equipment. In November 2010, an unsuspecting local law enforcement officer gave an official DHS training class on "radicalization" to approximately thirty members of a militia group in Zanesville, Ohio. Despite notification of DHS officials, it doesn't appear that the Department of Homeland Security is too concerned with the threat of right-wing extremism despite a period of heightened violent activity.
Napolitano was definitely one of Obama's worst appointments, both for the void it created in Arizona (and who filled that void), and the joke of a job Napolitano is doing now. Of course, I don't think I'd be a fan of DHS under anyone's leadership, since we already had such a bloated military-police-prison-security-industrial complex even before DHS.