Nativo López on the politicians’ immigration proposals

LA immigrant march sends a message

I've been forgetting to list articles I write and photo series I post on other sites. I coauthored the above article and Socialist Worker used my photo on the back cover of that issue. April 7 was much bigger than anyone anticipated, which may be a positive sign for what May Day will look like.

The current issue of Socialist Worker has some excellent articles in preparation for May Day.

Error Message (-50) Syncing iPod 5G with iPhoto Solution

I was having this problem and searched on Apple's discussion boards, finding I wasn't alone. The following solved the problem, and is reproduced here since Apple's discussion boards require a login.

The problem was due to escaped unicode characters within the AlbumData.xml file. I first suspected it was the tilde-n combination within many of my photo comments. When using BBEdit to grep them out, I noticed an escape sequence for a unicode character in the search string. Unfortunately, replacing them in the AlbumData.xml file didn't work. On relaunch iPhoto would put the characters back, which meant manually removing a comment sequence from a series of about 120 photos. Finding a script on Apple's site called 'Speak Comments.scpt' and commenting out the lines for speaking the comment (lines 15-18) and adding the following line before them:

set the comment of this_photo to ""

allowed me to remove the problematic comments from just the set of offending photos without having to do them by hand. Upon completion, iTunes recognized iPhoto's libraries and synced them to the 5G iPod without a hitch. Script available from: http://images.apple.com/applescript/iphoto/archive.sit

How Imus' Media Collaborators Almost Rescued Their Chief

Ishmael Reed's piece is the most in-depth exposé of the Imus aftermath.

Bush's Handiwork

Chris Floyd's galleries show the graphic horrors of Bush's crimes committed for his masters, the Bourgeoisie. Iraq, and Abu Ghraib part II.

Iran 'eight years' from operational nuke

Fixing MacPorts Lynx Version 2.8.6rel.4 colors

MacPorts (formerly Darwin Ports) provides management for open source projects under OS X. Back in the day we had to download, patch, configure, etc. ourselves. MacPorts handles all this. This is a disadvantage if the patching or configuring isn't to our liking. The recent version of Lynx is such a case. The current release displays garish colors on a black background. I wanted the default colors of previous versions. After playing with configuration files in various MacPorts build stages, I found something that works. It might take fewer steps than outlined here, but I don't want to spend anymore time on this project.

Notes: File modifications require root or su. I have MacPorts installed under a custom prefix. Where I have /Users/Shared a standard MacPorts installation would use /opt/local

Before preceding modify the Portfile for Lynx:
/Users/Shared/var/db/dports/sources/\
rsync.rsync.darwinports.org_dpupdate_dports/\
www/lynx/Portfile

Here is the diff from the modification and default file:

31c31,33
< --with-ssl=${prefix}
---
> --with-ssl=${prefix} \
> --enable-default-colors \
> --disable-color-style

Run MacPorts patch stage for Lynx. This will fetch, extract, and patch the source.
port -d patch lynx

Locate the Lynx.cfg file within the staged work directory.
/Users/Shared/var/db/dports/build/\
_Users_Shared_var_db_dports_sources_rsync.rsync.darwinports.\
org_dpupdate_dports_www_lynx/work/lynx2-8-6/lynx.cfg

Here is the diff from the modification and default file:

2938c2938
< #COLOR:0:black:white
---
> COLOR:0:black:white
2945c2945
< COLOR:6:brightred:black
---
> #COLOR:6:brightred:black

Install Lynx. The screen should be the familiar white (or light grey) background with black text.
port -d install lynx

Hoops, Not Ho's!

Playing incredible defense to reach the NCAA national championship, Rutgers' Scarlet Knights women's basketball team fell to a formidable Tennessee team headed by all All-American Candace Parker and the all time winningest NCAA Basketball coach Pat Summit.

You would think being the second best team in all the land would bring the Rutgers team the accolades they so deserve. Instead the student-athletes have spent the past weeks dealing with the deplorable racist and sexist remarks of radio personality Don Imus.

"That's some nappy-headed hos there" went an Imus' response to a just as disgusting remark by his executive producer. Imus further went on to say "[a]nd the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know..." Later in misogynistic banter between Imus and his cohorts, the Scarlet Knights were described as looking like an all male NBA team.

Don Imus' despicable comments were immediately called out by civil rights leaders and organizations. The NAACP and others demanded his show be dropped by broadcasters. Such pressure resulted in a feeble apology from the radio personality and a belated two week suspension of Imus' simulcast by CBS and NBC.

Not called out is how the comments about Tennessee's Lady Volunteers were just as offensive. Rather than praising their academic success or athletic prowess, Imus is concerned with them "look[ing] cute." Fitting Imus' and his white male associates' narrow notions of beauty allowed Tennessee's players to escape the racist comments reserved for the Rutgers Team, but still suffer under the oppression of sexism.

It is precisely the double oppression of racism and sexism that women of color suffer every day under capitalism. "This has scarred me for life," said Rutgers' guard Matee Ajavon. "I've dealt with racism before. For it to be in the public eye like this, it will be something I will tell my granddaughter."

This controversy occurs in an atmosphere in which Title IX, which provides for advancement of academic, athletic, and other opportunities for collegiate women, has been under attack by the Bush administration since 2003.

The whole incident is summed up by Rutgers' star center Kia Vaughn: "I'm not a ho, I'm a woman. I'm someone's child. It hurts a lot."

We need to continue fighting for a society where women of color and women as a whole never have to experience racism or sexism of any kind.

PS: a friend sent the following to me on April 13, 2007. Dave is a great guy, and a huge inspiration to me since many leftists eschew sports.
Don Imus and the State of Women's Sports
Memo to Imus: You're Fired

Terrorist on the loose

Texas courts have granted bail to self-admitted terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. The U.S. must comply with Venezuela's request for extradition, or admit what the world has known all along about the 'war on terror' -- it's a farce.

On a positive note is a recent speech given by Bernardo Alvarez addresses this with customary Venezuelan class.

white supremecy on the airwaves

300 vs. Iran (and Herodotus)

Police Harrassment on Skid Row

An end in sight for DRM?

EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire
Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store

Industry executives, the RIAA, European politicians, EU representatives, Redmond, end users, and all those who called Steve Jobs disingenuous in his call for eliminating DRM--what do you say now? Indeed as soon as EMI made the offer, Jobs did exactly what he said he would. Maybe, just maybe, this will begin a trend towards eliminating DRM and other heavy handed schemes for good.