Poor Mojo's News Show Podcast No. 56 (64 kbps .mp3 10:42 5.0 Mb)
A daily roundup of things that seemed important.
Awaiting the coming of the Deep Ones.
IT’S POOR MOJO’S NEWS SHOW! FOR THURSDAY, FEBRUARY TWENTY-SECOND, TWO THOUSAND AND SEVEN
A DAILY ROUNDUP OF THINGS THAT SEEMED IMPORTANT .
WHO ARE THE HOMELESS? PEOPLE WHO STOPPED GETTING THAT ONE PAYCHECK BETWEEN THEM AND THE STREET. PEOPLE ABUSING SUBSTANCES WHO HAVE NO ACCESS TO TREATMENT. PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS WITH NO ACCESS TO TREATMENT. PEOPLE WHO WOULD RATHER SLEEP ROUGH, FOR WHATEVER REASON. SINCE 1980, YOU SEE A LOT MORE HOMELESS PEOPLE. WHY IS THAT? I BLAME RONALD REaGAN, WHO DEFUNDED MENTAL HOSPITALS NATIONWIDE, STARVED STATE GOVERNMENTS FOR FUNDS WHICH SHRANK ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS, and DEREGULATED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OUT OF WORK. KIDS, YOU CRANK UP THAT NEWFANGLED WIKIPEDIA WHATSIS AND DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH ON MR. REAGAN AND THE IDEOLOGY OF CONSERVATIVISM. THAT SAID, IF YOU HAVE LEADERSHIP THAT SPENDS A GENERATION APPROVING OF DEHUMANIZING THE POOR AND SICK, WHAT DO YOU END UP WITH? CHILDREN WHO ACCEPT DEHUMANIZATION, OF THEMSELVES AND OTHERS, AS BEING A PART OF LIFE. WHO DON'T SEE THE HOMELESS AS PEOPLE. AND THEN YOU GET STORIES LIKE THESE.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/19/homeless.attacks/index.html?eref=rss_latest
FROM CNN:
"It all started off as a game," NATHAN Moore said.
The 15-year-old and his friends were taunting the homeless man -- throwing sticks and leaves -- after having a couple of beers with him.
No big deal, Moore says, but he's sorry for what came next.
It was a mistake, he said, a sudden primal surge that made him and his friends Luis Oyola, 16, and 17-year-old Andrew Ihrcke begin punching and kicking Rex Baum.
"Luis says 'I'm gonna go hit him,' We're all laughing, thought he was joking around,'" but he wasn't, Moore concedes. "We just all started hitting him."
They hurled anything they could find -- rocks, bricks, even Baum's barbecue grill -- and pounded the 49-year-old with a pipe and with the baseball bat he kept at his campsite for protection.
Ihrcke smeared his own feces on Baum's face before cutting him with a knife "to see if he was alive," Moore said.
After destroying Baum's camp, the boys left the homeless man -- head wedged in his own grill -- under a piece of plastic where they hoped the "animals would eat" him.
Then, Moore says, they took off to grab a bite at McDonald's.
POOR MOJO'S NEWSWIRE EDITOR MOJO COMMENTS: CNN paints this as a "disturbing trend" but doesn;t really discuss what to do to combat the trend. Here are some ideas: teach kids compassion; treat homeless people like they are fucking human beings; offer free health care and free mental health care to help the homeless get back into society.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/02/21#1172088960
LATER IN THIS CNN ARTICLE, Ihrcke told police that killing "the bum" reminded him of playing a violent video game, a police report shows. THIS ENRAGES PENNY ARCADE'S GABE, AND PROPERLY SO. LONG STAUNCH PROMOTERS AND DEFENDERS OF GAMING, THE PENNY ARCADE BOYS DECIRED THIS LATEST BIT OF NONSENSE, THE KID'S ASSERTION THAT PIXELS ON A SCREEN MAKE HIM A KILLER -- WHICH HAS AND WILL BE GRABBED ONTO BY THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA LIKE A DOG GRABS A RAG AND SHAKES IT. BUT THANKS TO THE AMAZING INTERNETS, GABE'S CRY OF INDIGNATION WAS ANSWERED BY ONE OF THE KILLER KIDS' STEP-PARENTS. TURNS OUT THE KID COULD HAVE USED SOME FREE MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT, HIMSELF, BUT COUNSELOR AFTER COUNSELOR AND LAW ENFORCEMENT JUST BLAMED THE PARENTS AND DUMPED THE KID BACK IN THEIR LAPS. AFTER ALL, IN REAGAN'S UNIVERSE, THERE IS NO SOCIETY, THERE IS NO SHARED RESPONSIBLITY, THERE IS NO COMMON INTEREST IN TREATING A SICK YOUNG MAN LIKE THIS BEFORE HE KILLS. FROM THE STEP-MOM'S LETTER:
The boy’s father and I have been together for almost seven years, and I had what I guess could be called a “stepmother” relationship with the kid. To say that living with this kid was hell would be a complete understatement.
I don’t think I have ever actively hated anyone in my entire life, but this kid just makes my blood boil.
As I write this, my teeth are clenched, my hands are shaking, and my whole body is seething with the hatred I feel for this kid and what he has done. Seeing the article brings back all the horrible memories from when he lived with us.
He was constantly in trouble in school, with the cops, with us, with his mother, and with anyone else who was an authority figure. Not a week went by that the school or the cops wouldn’t call us for something. His attitude was basically “fuck you, I don’t have to listen to you” said with a shrug.
we’re not talking the usual teenager stuff, like coming home late, or refusing to do the dishes. We’re talking stealing cars, setting fires, drinking, getting picked up for drugs, beating up handicapped kids at school (yes, really) stealing things out of our house… all with this “I’ll do whatever the fuck I want” attitude.
We had absolutely no idea what else we could do. We already had him in counseling, and we did everything the counselors suggested.
Then, things took an even worse turn when he decided that whenever he didn’t get his way, or we did something he didn’t like, he told his counselors and teachers that we were abusing him. (Never happened.) And for some inexplicable reason, everybody believed him.
I completely agree with your statement of “These kids were twelve kinds of nuts and that’s a fact.” But the reason I am writing this to you is that, after reading your news post yesterday, I felt that I needed to defend the boy’s parents. His mother and father and I did absolutely everything we could think of to try to keep this kid in line.
The thing that really gets me with this whole thing is that the kid knows full well that by equating what he’s done to a video game, that he will generate controversy and media coverage. It makes me sick that the media is jumping all over this, because that is exactly the result that he wants.
THIS IS POOR MOJO'S NEWS SHOW!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/what-would-you-do-if-bush_b_41674.html
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF GEORGE BUSH DECLARED MARTIAL LAW? THE QUESTION IS NOT A HYPOTHETICAL. THE ADMINISTRATION WHICH SUBVERTED THE WILL OF EVEN ITS OWN LAP-DOG REPUBLIAN-DOMINATED CONGRESS WITH SIGNING STATEMENTS AND PHONEIED-UP FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE BRIEFINGS...THE ADMINISTRATION WHICH HAS REPLACED U-S DISTRICT ATTORNEYS WITH ITS CRONIES TO QUASH INVESTIGATIONS OF ITS CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE AND CORRUPTION...GAVE ITSELF THE POWER TO EASILY AND QUICKLY DECLARE MARTIAL LAW LAST OCTOBER BY HIDING IT IN THE MILITARY'S BUDGET BILL. IN THE HUFFINGTON POST, JANE SMILEY CITES A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL THAT WARNED ABOUT THE SCARY NEW PRESIDENTIAL POWERS AND WRITES: Senators Leahy and Bond have introduced a bill to repeal these changes, and it is important that voters keep track of this bill and hold their Congresspeople to account on it. Along with several other measures the Bush adminstration has proposed, the introduction of these changes amounts, not to an attack on the Congress and the balance of power, but to a particular and concerted attack on the citizens of the nation. Bush is laying the legal groundwork to repeal even the appearance of democracy. Any senator who does not vote in favor of the Leahy/Bond repeal of these provisions should promptly be recalled by his or her constituents. IT'S EASY TO WARN YOUR SENATOR AT CONGRESS DOT O-R-G.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/20/uk.iraq.troops/index.html
THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ IS GOING SO WELL THAT PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR HAS DECIDED TO BRING HOME MORE THAN HALF OF THE UK'S 7,500 TROOPS. ACCORDING TO A B-B-C NEWS ITEM, Britain has a contingent of 7,000 in Iraq now, based mostly in the southern city of Basra. COULD THAT BE WHY THE PRESIDENT IS SO WORKED UP OVER HIS SO-CALLED SURGE? TO COVER FOR THE COALITION OF THE LEAVING?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070220/ap_on_go_su_co/detainees_lawsuits;_ylt=AqyKaDlABWHQ.8dNUGmme.is0NUE
A 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissesD hundreds of cases filed by foreign-born GUANTANAMO detainees in federal court ACCORDING TO A WIRE SERVICE REPORT. "The detainees held at Guantanamo Bay do not have an unfettered constitutional right," George H.W. Bush appointee Judge A. Raymond Randolph said. "In fact, the legal and humane actions of the U.S. government stand in stark contrast to our al-Qaeda enemies who behead those they capture."
It's a legal zen koan, OUR OWN MOJO POINTS OUT. The detainees have no rights, but america is better because we respect the rights of detainees.
THE DECISOIN also threatens to strip away court access to millions of lawful permanent residents currently in the United States." LIKE MY WIFE.
## C L O S E R ##
OTHER STORIES WE COVERED TODAY AT POOR MOJO'S NEWSWIRE:
The weirdest muppet show videos ever
Trailer: This American Life, the TV Show
Breakdancing in Walmart
Male prostitute sighted at National Press Club -- HI, JEFFY!
BROTHERS AND SISTERS, AND LOVERS - Inside "genetic sexual attraction"
Would you elect an atheist?
Shame on you -Everything was a lie--There is still a hole in the ground and in our souls.- The Last Angry Man Podcast
Mark Morford <3's>
Cholera outbreak in Ethiopia kills 680, infects tens of thousands more
Daylight Savings Time is coming early -- March 11, to be exact.
OUR THEME SONG IS AN UNTITLED PIECE FROM THE DISC "HIMNO NASIONAL" BY THE FIGURES, AVAILABLE AT FINGERPRINT DASH RECORDS DOT COM.
FIND US ONLINE AT P-O-O-R-M-O-J-O DOT O-R-G, AND FOLLOW THE LINK TO THE NEWSWIRE
THIS HAS BEEN POOR MOJO'S NEWS SHOW, I'M ALAN BENARD.
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