I lost an absurd amount of my life to the first Guild Wars and the fond memories persist years later - to the point where, thanks to their developer diaries (and this video), I'm going to pick it up again and finish off some quests so I can drop some more trophies in my Hall of Monuments.

Crap.

i have an top ten diary over at FDL on this.
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/64504/

thanks for the sticky, Jigga

>> ^marinara:

deficit commission is actually bipartisan.
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/62034
points 2-4 are actually democratic positions. Am I wrong?
if I am excuse the downvote


Yes, you're wrong. Dem's do NOT want to end Social Security, nor are they wanting to extend Bush's tax cut for top %1.

The deficit commission is "bipartisan", but it's a total joke. Obama put it together because of senate GOP fillibuster/stalemate, but GOP isn't doing shit even from within the "bipartisan" commission.


(ps: Linking to Jane Hamsher / Firedog is a bit, uggh. There's a reason they're called the "Firebaggers". They like Obama about as much as Michelle Bachmann's Teabagger party does.)

I'm not sure. From that article you linked to, it looks like it may be Kashkari's position more than the Dem's (he was originally appointed by the previous administration). Either way, don't mind the downvote - always important to 'keep it real' as they say. If the Dem's do work towards positions 2-4, I sincerely hope Americans ditch the 2-party system for good.>> ^marinara:

deficit commission is actually bipartisan.
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/62034
points 2-4 are actually democratic positions. Am I wrong?
if I am excuse the downvote

deficit commission is actually bipartisan.
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/62034

points 2-4 are actually democratic positions. Am I wrong?

if I am excuse the downvote

Once inside the building, they barricaded themselves in and set to work. Equipment used to make weapon components were trashed and computers, filing cabinets and office furnishings were thrown out of the windows. Once they were done they calmly waited for the police to arrest them. Two activists who supported them outside the factory gates were also on trial. All of the defendants have argued that what they did was not only morally necessary but crucially that it was legal. U.K law allows the commission of damage of property to prevent greater crimes.

Two of the accused, Simon Levin and Chris Osmond have extensive experience of working in Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement. Chris Osmond told the court that ’the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza at that time meant it was imperative to act’. He cited the words of Rachel Corrie, the U.S activist who was killed by an IDF bulldozer in Rafah, as an inspiration. The court heard a passage of Corrie’s diary ’I’m witnessing this chronic insidious genocide and I’m really scared, this has to stop, I think it is a good idea idea for all of us to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop’.

During the trial the court heard not only from the defendants themselves but from Sharyn Lock, who was an international human rights volunteer in Gaza during Cast Lead. She was inside Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City when it was attacked with white phosphorus. She concluded her evidence by saying that she had no doubt that those who armed the Israeli Air Force ’had the blood of children on their hands’. The jury saw footage of the air attacks on the UNWRA compounds where civilians were sheltering and have been given an edited version of the Goldstone report.

Recently elected member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas also gave evidence supporting the decommssioners, saying that the democratic process ’had been exhausted’ as far as the factory was concerned.

On January the 17th 2009 the bombs had already fallen relentlessly on Gaza for three weeks. Massive, passionate demonstrations and pickets had been held in many cities around the country and the world in protest against Israel’s war crimes, but to no avail. A growing sense of helplessness was grabbing hold of the movement as the Palestinian body count stood at over 1400 and counting. 300 of the dead were children. It was against this background that the “citizen’s decommissioning” of EDO MBM/ITT took place.

EDO/ITT is an arms manufacturer, based in Brighton since 1946. They were acquired along with the rest of EDO Corporation by the multinational arms conglomerate ITT in December 2007. Their primary business is the manufacture of weapons systems such as bomb release mechanisms and bomb racks. This includes crucially the manufacture of the VER-2 Zero Retention Force Arming Unit for the Israeli Air Force’s F16 war planes.

Over the years, EDO have consistently denied supplying Israel, and despite over fifty court cases campaigners were not able to properly expose the links between the factory and the IAF. However the serious nature of the charges against the seven (the factory sustained nearly £200,000 of damage and may not have recommenced production for weeks) means that for the first time courts took the argument that EDOs business is fundamentally illegal very seriously.

Paul Hills, the Managing Director of EDO MBM, spent his five days on the witness stand last week being confronted with all the evidence gathered by campaigners over the years –evidence which exposes a complex network of collaboration between British, American and Israeli arms companies and the way in which their deals are clouded in secrecy. The Decommissioners were able to present Mr Hills, for the first time, with a dossier of evidence showing how EDO MBM use a front company in the U.S.A to indirectly supply components for the F 16 to Israel. Under U.K law the supply of weapons components that might be used in the Occupied Territories is actually a crime.

After hearing Hills’ explanations of his company’s business practices, Judge George Bathurst-Norman said that, despite Hill’s denials of dealing with Israel, it was clear that their was enough evidence to justify a genuinely held belief they did. He also offered the opinion that End User Certificates required for arms export licences were “ not worth the paper they are written on” as they can be easily manipulated.

There is a history of juries in British courts finding anti-war activists not guilty when they attack machinery used in war crimes. In 1996 four women from Trident Ploughshares decommissioned a Hawk jet that was about to be shipped to Indonesia – they were found not guilty. In 2008 the Raytheon 9, who damaged a factory in Derry supplying weapons to Israel during the 2006 Lebanon war, were acquitted by a jury and only two weeks ago a group of nine women carrying out a similar action at Raytheon during the Gaza attacks were also found not guilty by an unanimous jury.

On Friday, the jury found Simon Levin, Tom Woodhead, Ornella Saibene, Bob Nicholls, Harvey Tadman, Elijah Smith and Chris Osmond not guilty of “Conspiracy to Cause Criminal damage” by unanimous verdict in Hove Crown Court.

Chris Osmond said “This action was taken because of EDO MBMs illegal supply of weapons to the Israeli military. We brought the suffering of ordinary Palestinians into a British courtroom and confronted with the evidence they took the brave decision to find that our actions were justified.”

The decommissioners’ stance made it clear to companies like EDO that they can no longer count on not being held to account for their actions. There are now a growing number of people in the international community who are willing to risk their own liberty to stand up for the people of Gaza and to challenge Israel’s war crimes through whatever means possible.

"Only You" and "Page in Your Diary" are my faves.

Thanks!

In reply to this comment by marinara:
*promote
btw this bill passed the commitee, will be voted on by senate next
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/56061 is a blog i did on this

*promote
btw this bill passed the commitee, will be voted on by senate next
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/56061 is a blog i did on this

hey dude, i know you like controversy, I can't remember if you are in the USA or no, but you should join me at firedoglake.com Its a progressive site but libertarians are more than welcome


for instance I can make bitchy comments like this:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/53635#comment-204845

and get thoughtful answers.

look at my shit over there->
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/author/marinara

>> ^TheFreak:

So, I'm trying to get the video to play...no luck, go to the dedicated page, still nothing, try refreshing, no go, click around on where the video should be, doesn't help...then it occurrs to me, just how much effort I'm putting into trying to see a video where a girl asks for a finger in her butt. Shame overtakes me as certain realizations set in, that I won't admit to here, and I slink off without watching the video. Well not before pausing to relay my diary entry on this matter to anonymous people on the internet.


If it's that important to you, just look it up in Google Translator?

Or try different browsers (firefox, chrome, IE).

So, I'm trying to get the video to play...no luck, go to the dedicated page, still nothing, try refreshing, no go, click around on where the video should be, doesn't help...then it occurrs to me, just how much effort I'm putting into trying to see a video where a girl asks for a finger in her butt. Shame overtakes me as certain realizations set in, that I won't admit to here, and I slink off without watching the video. Well not before pausing to relay my diary entry on this matter to anonymous people on the internet.

>> ^BoneyD:

A lot of chick flicks would fail the Bechdel Test as well, btw...
This video goes towards confirming what I've felt in my gut about films for a few years now. More specifically, the lack of female role models in them. For example, try to think of the last kids film that had a female as the protagonist. The last I can think of is Labyrinth (though I'll concede there's probably also been a few since then).
Take this list of kids films for instance and try to count 'em out:
http://www.criticker.com/?fl&view=all&filter=gy10zp5x4x3x2zod



Alice in wonderland, Princess and the frog, Little Mermaid, Coraline, Hanna Montanna the movie, Bratz the movie, The Golden Compass, Nim's island, Nancy Drew, Mulan, Flicka, The Princess Diaries, then any disney movie princess sequel ect... Just to name a few.

He didn't mention the "visual diary vote-based popularity determination system".

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/45537
pass it on