Great flash animation about the election fraud. Excellent use of the Sex Pistols' song "Liar"...

Apropo of nothing, this is just totally hilarious. The Infinite Cat Project.

A year ago yesterday I escaped from Portland for 4 months, I suceeded in my plan to exempt myself from the worst time to be there. Of course I have to state once again, I love Portland for so many reasons but I just can't stand the climate. I remember the day before I left it snowed, like it was Portland's weather god getting one last parting shot at me. It basically NEVER snows in November here. Maybe sometimes in January but never November.

I'm sad because this year I'm stuck here, at least for a month or two, and winter has descended. A plan is forming to permanently escape, but it will be awhile before I can make that happen, because of finances (if you'd like to make a donation to the Steev Escape From Portland Fund, click here. hah.) . So I'm stuck, and it's REALLY COLD here.

I know, it's tough all over. I know, it's cold where you are too, that's what happens in winter. Yeah but did you ever think about how you COULD live somewhere ELSE? Why do you stay? I just don't get why so many people put up with shitty winters. Please add your comments and tell me why you do, if you do.

Also about a year ago, or 13 months ago, Elliott Smith stabbed himself in the heart and died. I remember the extreme sadness people felt around here. He's from Portland. Now his new album is out and I'm downloading the mp3s from Gnutella. I felt a reflexive twinge of guilt and then I thought, no, wait, he's dead, there's no way my $15 would do him a godamn bit of good. I bought 4 of his records when he was alive and I sure hope some of that cash went to him, but now I feel no obligation to help out his record label and other beneficiaries of his celebrity.

As I explained in my last report, The International Caravan for Justice in Juarez and Chihuahua City reached Juarez on October 31, 2004. This group of activists, teachers, students, researchers, and journalists from around the U.S. and Mexico had finally reached its destination, and we now had 5 days of activities and meetings to attend. As I mentioned before, on Saturday, the 31st, after our border crossing march and rally and the press conference at the cotton field where 11 murdered women had been found, we went to our ironically named lodging, the Hotel Colonial. After settling in at this very un-mexican, Holiday Inn-like establishment, we had a short orientation conducted by staff of the Mexico Solidarity Network. The purpose of this was to brief us on the situation in Juarez, for those who were not already familiar with it, and to make sure that everyone was aware of the reasons we were there and how we should deal with the Mexican press and officials. The basic rule or idea was that we were there as observers, to put quiet but noticeable pressure on the authorities, but we were not in charge of the campaign for justice in Juarez and Chihuahua - the family groups and other Mexican organizations were in charge; they know what they want, they are organized, and it's not up to us gringos to come down and lead the charge or show anyone what to do. We were there simply to be present, to learn, and stand in solidarity and witness the events and meetings with the Mexican officials, and then go back to our own communities and organize further solidarity efforts there. This, in my opinion, is a very enlightened attitude, and is the only way to conduct an international solidarity campaign. Read more>>>

For the last few days thousands of activists have been protesting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Santiago, Chile. There is lots of good reporting on CMI-Santiago's site.

This should be featured on the global indymedia site, for sure. There's been molotovs thrown, rocks hurled at police by hundreds of protestors, with police using tear gas and water cannons. This is big news, especially for Chile - when I was there I got the impression that open protest was still quite self-repressed (and of course repressed by the police as well), apparently in the wake, culturally, of the Pinochet years. This is pretty radical stuff!

Well, just like magic I flew from Tucson yesterday and now am back here to chilly and moist Cascadia, dealing with catching up on things and "normal" life again. My laptop broke down on my trip so i'm dealing with having no computer, and i need some work and my camcorder needs to be cleaned or repaired or something, etc etc blah blah.

I'm also catching up on email and other blogs and stuff and i have finally gotten up to date on my brother's blog, which is really quite entertaining. I also still need to finish my last Juarez story, which is very close to being done.

Yesterday I caught a ride down to Tucson from Tempe with Jessica of Arizona Indymedia. She happened to be driving from Flagstaff back to Tucson so just swung by and picked me up on the way. I was very grateful for that because the Greyhound, for some bizarre reason, takes 7 hours to travel what is a 2-hour drive.

I just passed through Tucson during the Caravan about 2 weeks ago, and now I'm back and I still think it's a pretty cool city. MUCH better than Phoenix, for sure. Today I rode Jessica's bike around, mostly in the University area. There's a few blocks of hipness on 4th Street, and a cool bike collective called Bicas which I went to but they are closed on Mondays (I'll return tomorrow).

The city is subject to constant overflights of military jets, because of the nearby airforce base. I've seen F-15s, A-10s, and some big cargo planes. Ah there goes some now. it's been pretty constant, at least a pair of them every half hour or so. It kind of made me try to imagine what it would be like in Fallujah, what it would be like to multiply those numbers by what, 100? And then add the fact that some of the planes would be dropping bombs nearby and the bombs would kill people I might know or destroy stores or restaurants or homes that i had been to.

Anyway, other than that I like Tucson, so far. It's a warm mostly sunny day, probably about 70, though there was some very light rain for 2 15 minute periods early today. I think people here loved it. It rains so little that they smiled as they walked through the light mist. Tonite is my screening here, the last one of my tour, and then on Wednesday I fly back home to Portland.

In the waning hours of this afternoon I am working on my last report about Juarez. So I'll hopefully be posting that in a little while yet today.

Oh, and also I just found out about this book that sounds really interesting called Confessions of An Economic Hitman, by this guy who used to work for a financial consulting company, and he would fly around the world doing the World Bank's dirty work. Now he's sort of a New Age shaman wannabe, it seems. Wow.

I arrived in Phoenix very very early this morning to do another video screening this afternoon. Actually, I'm in Tempe, the college town on the east side of Phoenix. I woke at 3 am this morning in order to get a ride from Flagstaff to here, since Carly, my host in Flagstaff, was heading to Phoenix airport to get a plane to L.A. It's a beautiful day now that the sun is up and I am killing time, wandering around Tempe till the show, which is at Gentle Strength Coop at 3pm. All the people here in town who set up the show for me are not available.

Last night's screening in Flagstaff was really great, at least compared to the last 2 shows, and it raised as much cash as did the one in San Francisco. I'm really impressed with the strength of the activist community in Flagstaff, which is a pretty small town. I guess there are a lot of progressive students, and a lot of issues people are passionate about there: water issues, native american issues, the public land fee demo thing, which is or was also a big deal in the Northwest, nuclear stuff, and more.

I guess maybe the timing is right, too. It's been over a week since the election and people are perhaps starting to snap out of their shocked depression and starting to get active again, starting to stir out of the disillusioned lethargy which perhaps was the cause for low turnout at my shows in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Some people in Flagstaff seemed excited, looking forward to people radicalizing even more in the wake of this latest fraud-ridden election fiasco. Learning about the resistance to opressions in Bolivia and elsewhere fits right into this mood, as people start to really consider that more drastic measures than get-out-the-vote campaigns are needed to save our country.

Many of the Flagstaff folks are in the grip of a horrible local situation that I think I should mention here. When Kerry came to Flagstaff in August, several of them showed up in wacky costumes, chanting and singing, to excercise their free speech rights and remind people that Kerry wasn't neccesarily the wonderous answer to all our problems that the DNC would have us believe. They ended up getting attacked by local police and 3 of them were actually arrested and charged with various ridiculous felonies like assaulting a police officer. One of them is still in jail because bail was set at $15,000 that he didn't have. This kind of repression at Kerry campaign events is not a surprise, and we saw similar things in Portland, but not, I think, to this degree. Rudy, one of the people who arranged for my screening in Flagstaff, was one of the others charged, and he has had to change his whole life in order to deal with his legal defense. He's gone from a very simple lifestyle, basically supporting himself through dumpster-diving, to doing 12-hour shifts waiting tables in order to pay for his lawyers, extra rent (his housemate is the guy still in jail), and other expenses incurred as fallout from the arrests. This kind of thing is just infuriating. I'm sure that eventually they will prevail, because the police don't have a leg to stand on, but it just sucks to have to deal with this kind of totally undeserved bullshit. I guess Flagstaff cops are as bad as Portland's.

Anyway, it's really exciting and great to be meeting all these great activists in the Southwest and learn what struggles they are involved in, and share with them what's happening where I live and what the common concerns are. I feel once again that I'm an agent of network-strengthing again, like I was in South America, a contributor to the complexity and emergent behavior of the global progressive movement.

Greetings from Flagstaff, Arizona. Tonight is the third show in my rather relaxed 5-city Southwest Tour of my "Bolivia In Crisis" videos. The shows in Albuquerque and Santa Fe were good - the turnout could have been better, but the people who were there were great and there were great discussions. Plus, even if I'm not making tons of money for the Computers for Bolivia Project this trip has been really a great success just for all the cool people that I've met.

Another thing I'm really happy about is that on tuesday I had enough downtime staying with a friend in Chimayo (out in the country near Santa Fe) to produce a short summary video about the Juarez Caravan for Indymedia Newsreal. I was lucky that my friend there had a Mac with Final Cut on it, and though it was an ancient version of Final Cut that I'm not used to using, i still managed to bang out a pretty decent little piece, though not as polished as it would be if i had more time. I just sent it off in the mail this morning to the Newsreal folks in Boulder. I love that I'm travelling but I can still get a piece of videojournalism done less than a week after the delegation in Juarez ended!

Speaking of Juarez, I still have a lot to write about it, but I just do not have time yet. I need to go get some Flagstaff-style Food not Bombs lunch, and then get ready for the show tonite. Chao, from the office of my very helpful and gracious hosts, Flagstaff Activist Network.

Here and now I'm going to continue to catch up on describing events during my time in Juarez and Chihuahua. But first, I need to mention a little bit about where I am right now.

I just arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico and I'm sitting at a beautiful little caf Read more>>>