- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Everyone’s favorite overview of
social dissidence ‘round the globe is back and today, touching down in southeastern Bangladesh. And what better
place to return than in the midst of massive clashes in which more than 100
people including many police were injured in clashes between opposition
activists and security officials? According to national media, the clash
occurred when police protest-blocked an attempted march in Chittagong by
Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic party. Not surprisingly, it
didn’t take long for batons to be swung and tear gas to be dispersed against
protestors who were doing nothing more than lobbing a few rocks in the
direction of the police. Witnesses estimated the number of protestors injured
at 100 and reports from the scene had the protestors smashing at least 50
vehicles and setting fire to at least three others in Chittagong, Bangladesh's
second-largest city. All in all, it was an impressive display of dissidence
that was part of a larger revolt across Bangladesh in which the main opposition
Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its 17 allies including Jamaat-e-Islami held
rallies to protest the disappearance of one of its leaders. No one has seen or
heard from Elias Ali since April 17 and for some odd reason, the opposition
blames the government and security agencies for the disappearance. Frustrated
at a lack of government action, the opposition alliance first held nationwide
general strikes for five days last month. Sunday’s riots also served the dual
purpose of demanding that the regime of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina restore a
system of caretaker governments to oversee general elections, which are next
due in 2014. With human rights groups around the world having expressed concern
over the disappearance of Ali and other opposition members, Bangladesh has
suddenly become a much more interesting place………..
- Watching the reactions of current and former NFL players
to the wake of hall of famer Junior
Seau's apparent suicide has been extremely interesting. Some like, Bengals
offensive lineman Jacob Bell, have decided that the game is not something they
want to be a part of. Others have rallied behind the sport they love. However,
no reaction has been quite as unexpected as that of New England Patriots
wideout Chad Ochocinco. The shamelessly self-promoting Ochocinco, whose
declining production made him an afterthought in the Patriots’ run to the Super
Bowl, has been a frequent recipient of fines from the league over the years for
on-field knuckleheaded-ness. He has exactly been BFF’s with commissioner Roger
Goodell, but those times may be a-changin’ after the publication of an open
letter posted on his website expressing his support to Goodell. Ochocinco did
caution that "mounting evidence being revealed publicly" could soon
show its true face, but said he has the commissioner’s back, even if it was
expressed clumsily. g "I know it has been a rough week, so I wanted to
reach out. Players dying, players suing and on top of that my peers are just
going off on you in the media," Ochocinco wrote to Goodell. "It does
not help that ESPN has all of a sudden become Medical TV with damn near every
brain expert on the planet. This has got to be the worst week ever. Since no
one is showing any support, I figured I would be the first." Goodell and
the league are staring down multiple lawsuits from former player over head
injuries suffered during their careers and the debate reached a crescendo after
Seau shot himself in the chest May 2 at his home in Oceanside, Calif. Ochocinco
weighed in with a letter in which he uses the salutation "Dad" to
begin the note and goes on to explain that he believes the league's own public
relations arm is hurting the NFL's efforts. "Y'all do a darn near perfect
job at portraying this game as one played by heroes," Ochocinco wrote.
"But let's be real dad. This is a nasty, dirty and violent game with
consequences. Sign up or go get a regular job. Watch it or turn off the TV and
go fishing with your kids. It is really that simple.” Cynics might argue that
he’s actually mocking Goodell in the process, while optimists might argue that
the Ochocinco-centered receiver is merely looking to boost his own profile
while maybe showing a small amount of support for the commissioner………
- Stop b*tching, NBC Broadcasting Chairman Ted Harbert. Technology
marches on and at its best, it gives the people what they want. In this case,
what the people want is to watch TV without so many damn commercials. Dish
Network is looking to make that dream a reality with its new
commercial-skipping device, the Auto Hop, which automatically deletes
commercials from recorded prime-time programming from the four big broadcast
networks. Harbert, knowing his operation is predicated upon making a crapload
of money from commercials, hates the new device. "I think this is an
attack on our eco-system," Harbert said. "I'm not for it."
That’s awesome, Ted, because everyone else doesn’t give a sh*t and they like
the concept. Harbert was evasive when asked if NBC or its parent Comcast Corp.
was preparing any sort of legal response to Dish Network Corp.'s new technology
but suggested the company’s legal department would discuss the issue and
present a response to Dish on Monday at Radio City Music Hall when the network
presents its fall schedule to advertisers. For those not on NBC’s payroll, the
introduction of Dish's Auto Hop as a component of Dish's PrimeTime Anytime
feature on its digital video recorder service, which is called the Hopper, is a
big leap forward. Its Anytime feature automatically records the prime-time
programming of CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox and stores the content on a rolling basis
for eight days. Customers can use the Auto Hop to literally black out commercials
as long as they watch a show the day after its original airing. The process
works with a push of a button, after which the screen goes black for a few seconds
and roars back to life with the show’s return. It doesn’t work with live
programming, like a sporting event that has been recorded. With more than 14
million subscribers, Dish has plenty of targets for its growing promotional
efforts for the Auto Hop. In truth, the feature is not that much of a leap
forward from digital recorders, which allow viewers to fast-forward through
commercials while the images still flash on screen. When asked why the Auto Hop
is limited to broadcast shows, a Dish spokesman said it’s because those are the
shows most frequently recorded by consumers. For once, maybe the people are
getting what they want………
- This should be good. The self-aggrandizing, legacy
gravy-training circus sideshow that is Courtney Love can no longer leech off
the legacy of her late husband Kurt Cobain the way she once did (for legal
reasons), so she needs to find someone else’s star to latch on to. Love has
apparently targeted trouble skank-tress Lindsay Lohan with an act of supposed altruism.
Love announced over the weekend that she has invited Lohan to join her
spiritual chanting group. Fresh off relinquishing
control of Cobain's image and apologizing to her teenage daughter,
Frances Bean Cobain, for claiming Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl tried to seduce her,
Love explained that chanting was like a "religion" to her and helped
keep her out of trouble. She went so far as to claim that Lohan would be
attending her next meeting. “I chant. You can tell when I'm not doing it, I get
in trouble and then [when] I am doing it, I don't get in trouble. It's really,
really good for me. So, that's my religion,” Love said. "She's coming to
my house to chant. But I don't speak to her very much. We have a mutual
friend." The offer could merely be a thinly veiled attempt to make a
contact in the acting world, as Love also said that she was eager to make a
return to acting. She has appeared in several films, including 1996's “The
People vs. Larry Flynt” and 1999's “Man On The Moon,” but her acting skills are suspect at best. "I
really want to [act again]," she said. "I got sent three screenplays
that are green lit. I have a lot great support."
With a signed deal to
write her own memoir also in hand, it appears Love will have plenty to keep her
busy/self-promote in the months ahead………….
- Bigger, tougher fences. That’s where it’s at, America. If
you doubt that fact, just have a chat with the Department of Homeland
Security about the multi-million dollar tax-payer funded upgrade slated for the
controversial fence along the Texas-Mexico border. Either the DHS didn’t
solicit opinions from residents along the wall in the affected area or the
department doesn’t give a damn because Brownsville, Tex. residents have
suggested that the project is not an upgrade but rather a waste of money. What
is the upgrade? By the end of the year, the DHS will spend more than $10
million to install electric gates in 44 of the gaps in the fence in the Rio
Grande Valley. Originally, the government left gaps in the fence to allow
American citizens to access their property that was actually on the Mexico side
of the fence. Landowners like Elosia Tamez found that more than half of their
property was technically in Mexico. "I'm blocked," she said, looking
through the fence. “I feel trapped, entrapped and incarcerated in my own
land." That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but Tamez does have a
point. The gaps predictably were used by border crashers sneaking into the
country illegally and to close those literal loopholes, the government will
install electric gates in many of the gaps. Property owners will be given pass
codes so they can open the gates and still access their land as
needed – or become richer when would-be illegals and human traffickers bribe
them for the codes. “It's going to slow them (illegal immigrants) down,”
said Border Patrol agent Rosey Huey. “It's going to give us a tactical
advantage to apprehend undocumented immigrants trying to cross." Five of
the 44 gates have already been installed, but locals are doubtful of how
effective they will be. Some gaps will not receive gates because major roadways
pass through them. Other Brownsville residents have suggested that they have
seen more illegal immigrants crossing their property since the gates were
installed, not fewer. Maybe it’s time to plant rows of C4 along the
border, detonate them and create a nice, wide moat between the U.S. and Mexico
to solve the problem once and for all………..
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