this is what...

$130 worth of groceries looks like on an xtracycle......

this is what it looks like on the ground.....
not REALLY my bad, when i lifted the bags out of the right freeloader, the kickstand sunk straight into ground.

do yourself a favor and read the next post

http://twincities.indymedia.org

Where there's smoke....
Anarchism after the RNC

I.
We've got the numbers, they've got the guns..
Our chants reverberated under the St. Paul skyway. The 2008 RNC protests were underway, the culmination of two years of anarchist/anti-authoritarian organizing materializing before our eyes. For once, we were many, and they were few... or maybe not. With 3500 cops and an uncounted number of National Guardsmen and Secret Service agents on the streets, this time they had both the guns and the numbers.

Overwhelming force was only one element of the state's repression strategy. The main hub of direct action coordination– the RNC Welcoming Committee– had been infiltrated by at least one undercover cop and two paid informants almost a year prior. On Friday night, the hammer came down with a raid on the St. Paul Convergence Center. Cops busted in the doors with guns drawn, forcing about 100 people to the ground, zip-tying them, and then photographing everyone and taking IDs. What a start to the weekend...

The next morning, I got a call from a friend alerting me that the cops were raiding anarchist houses across south Minneapolis. Eventually, four houses had been raided, and eight members of the Welcoming Committee jailed.

Over the next week, over 800 people would be arrested in conjunction with the protests. Many would be injured by rubber bullets, concussion grenades, tear gas, pepper spray, and other weaponry. The state imposed a high cost on expressing dissent....

rest HERE....

The People's Bailout: A May Day Speech*

By Paul Street

I'd like to thank Wild Rose Rebellion and others who participated in planing this May Day event for inviting me to speak on this day that so few Americans have been allowed to know as the original labor day, born right here in the United States in connection with the struggle for the Eight Hour Day - for a human work day.

TIME, DEMOCRACY, AND CAPITALISM

You know, if you go back and look at the original arguments that working people and their organizations - unions - made for shorter hours, you find something very interesting. They didn't just talk about the physical and psychological and family problems that came with constant overwork under the control of their bosses. They didn't just talk about the fact that the bosses cheated them out of extra hours and minutes every day. They didn't just talk about how shorter hours would mean spreading out the work which would mean more jobs and thus less unemployment and poverty for working people.

They talked about all of that but that also said two others things that are worth remember and reflecting upon today. First, they argued that you can't have a democracy if people don't have the time to participate in it. They said that the democratic promises of the American Revolution didn't mean anything for people who are denied the free time and the energy to study and discuss and organize and form associations about the great issues of the day.

Second, the Haymarket Martyrs and other Eight Hour leaders said that when you have and use the time to study history and current events and the society in which you live you often come to see that democracy can't really be reconciled with the capitalist profits system. You find, they said, that the glorious democratic ideal of popular self-rule doesn't mix very well with the class system of bosses and workers of rich and poor, and of order givers and order-takers. It doesn't blend with an economic system that concentrates ever more wealth and power in the hands of the privileged and corporate Few.
..... {rest HERE}

Why Ride?

This is why....

the 'check on her first off-road excursion
@ Battle Creek


'roller on the bridge at sunset
minneapplenuts in the background


Rachel's spoke card


days like those more than make up for the shitty stuff....
bikes are freedom, get some ;)

z whore

i know, i know, "get another news source already", but i'm a creature of habit.

JUST READ IT ;)

-c

"...It is the elite that have caused the crisis..."

The Global Economic Crisis and the Fourth World War

April 16, 2009

By Shawn Hattingh

Shawn Hattingh's ZSpace Page
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For the last three decades a vicious war, the Fourth World War, has been waged on the people of the world by the global political and corporate elite[i]. They have unleashed a whole array of economic weapons, from trade liberalisation to privatisation to financial liberalisation, to enrich themselves at the expense of the vast majority of people. As part of this onslaught, welfare systems have been attacked, workers rights have been undermined, and environmental legislation has been savaged. The aim of all of these measures was to spread capitalism into every aspect of people's lives. Everything, including culture, social relations, the environment, water and even air were turned into commodities to be bought and sold. While the richest 400 people on Earth used this system to amass vast amounts of money (more money than the poorest 3 billion people combined), over 18 million people died every year for the last 20 years because of poverty[ii]. When people protested that all of this inequality and deprivation were unfair - and demanded that people should be provided with quality education, quality healthcare, food, and clean water; they were told by the elite not to be ridiculous. In fact, people were simply told that no-one had the money to provide such ‘luxuries' as food, quality healthcare and quality education. Yet, when some of the largest companies got into trouble in the last 20 years, states have rushed to bail them out. For instance, when the savings & loan debacle erupted during the Bush Snr years, the US government spent at least $ 200 billion in public money bailing out some of the corporations involved[iii]. At very the same time, Bush Snr and then Clinton were working hard to attack the poor through cutting welfare. Such is the world we have come to live in. It is a world where profits have been privatised for the rich, while losses and misery have been socialized for the poor - a world of the Fourth World War.

Rest HERE.

Nationalization

"The second type of nationalization is what the establishment equates with Armageddon: the state seizing control over key institutions and running them to the benefit of the majority of the population. Of course, such a nationalization would likely never occur under the kind of state structure that is currently in place. It could only happen as the result of a mass movement demanding its implementation.

Such an action would be the first step towards laying the foundation for a real and lasting social change. Society cannot produce for human needs if financial institutions and industry are owned by tiny groups only interested in accumulating wealth and chasing profit, which is exactly what precipitated the current devastating economic crisis. - Shamus Cooke "

the rest here

ZNet

photo dump

A few photos have been snapped lately with the intention of creating individual posts....but I never got around to it. so here's everything..... ;)

first off, Steph's new bike.....

(and she actually enjoys riding this one!)



another craigslist score. I swapped out the seat and pedals with those on her other bike, wrapped the bars in new tape, put on some fenders, new tubes, a set of used, but quite nice, Continental touring tires I got (along w/ the rest of the gear) from the fine people at Express Bike for $12, a new headlight and u-lock to boot. it came with the rack and "brifters"


next up is a quick lesson I learned today about cantilever brake adjustment.... here is how the F/R brakes on the cross check were setup from the shop....(this doesnt work that well) but according to a few peeps i've asked at various establishments, this is correct (note the ~90 degree bend angle of the cross-wire), and i'm told thats about all the braking performance you can expect from canti's. i thought that was a load of B/S.


I thought that the pull from the yoke should be more perpendicular in relation to wheel sidewall (braking surface) so i lowered the yoke, and shortend the link-wire. Also added Salsa's 50mm wide hanger. this setup brings this rig to a halt in short order.



next up is Jared's new Traveler's Check frameset, just outta the box from CRC w/ Chris King headset courtesy Hurldago.....


J, posing next to the xtra bringin' his baby home


My man Justin was in town saving the day again at the twinkies opener....


and semi-lastly, i'm all for more people commuting to work and all by bicycle, but when its not even april, and only 20 degrees outside, this is the last thing I expect to see. I might propose that those who commute via two-wheels year round get their own personal rack outside ;) (did i mention that this was at 7:20am to boot?)


wanted to make it climbing today, but didn't. last night went too late.

ALSO.... a word up for my man Ant. phucker kept the rubber side down despite some fascist-redneck-POS-pickup driving-ass hat clipped him w/ the sideview.

if you ever see a motorist do this to another human being, hold them in one spot till the cyclist catches up so she/he can promptly knock their fucking teeth out with their u-lock.

have a wonderful week.