A Modest Proposal...

It would behoove activists who like following GOP candidates around to: carry signs that say 'GOP: BOYF*CKERS'. Or: 'GOP: CHILD-MOLESTORS'. Just thought I'd mention it.

Friends of Humpty (Ode to a Church's Cannon, Down With the King!)

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall!

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall!

All the king's horses and all the king's men,

couldn't put Humpty together again!

OR, Ye Olde Othere Versione:

Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall;
Threescore men and threescore more
Cannot place Humpty-Dumpty as he was before. (An egg.)[redacted for your safety]

Origins:

http://www.indianchild.com/history_origins_nursery_ryhmes.htm

http://www.colchester.uk.com/

http://www.colchester.uk.com/colchester1601-1650.htm

Boyfuckers Inc: the Mark Foley Story (MOLESTATION NATION)

"The GOP really stands for Group Of Perverts. Investigate Hastert and Boehnner while you're at it. They knew for at least 10 months. And yes, the Christian Right has no problem with this kind of behavior. Groping children and exploiting them is right up their alley."
--An anonymous poster at www.rawstory.com

"A world of secret hungers
are hurting the men
who make your laws.
Every desire is hidden-away..."
--From 'Brown Shoes Don't Make-it' (1967), by
Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention

Washington D.C.--In case you think this post is insensitive, think again. It's from a victim of child molestation. This perp from Florida needs to be put under house-arrest for the rest of his life.

More galling the whole affair is the fact that the GOP's leadership KNEW FOR YEARS that this degenerate was guilty of this. This is a criminal act, or at least was before the year 2000. Apparently, it isn't any longer if you're a Republican, a Bishop, or priest, or just powerful and connected.

I've done social work with children who have had their parents put-out their cigarettes on their bodies, beaten them, everything you can imagine and worse. The problem of abuse is far more widespread than most Americans know (or do they know?) or would care to admit. It's a "conspiracy-of-silence," our dirty secret as a nation.

The e-mails/IMs released yesterday by ABC were transmitted by Foley in 2003. It is likely the teenager alerted the press to this, good show.

The Washington Post really hits the GOP hard with the facts in today's article, it's stunning, but it appears ABC tipped-the-balance by actually doing their job. Once again, like Bob Ney, this scum says he's "failed his family." Well, no shit.

House Majority Leader John Boehner has admitted knowing since this Spring about Foley's sexcapades, a criminal act of suppression for not reporting it immediately, and a felony. The House Speaker, Dennis Hastert, is playing cagey about whether he knew of it or not.

At the Capitol Hill signing ceremony for the commissions bill, a GOP campaign priority, reporters asked Hastert only about Foley. "He's done the right thing," Hastert replied. "I've asked John Shimkus [R-Ill.], who is head of the Page Board, to look into this issue regarding Congressman Foley. We want to make sure that all of our pages are safe and our page system is safe. None of us are happy about it [my emphasis]." (Washpo, 09/30/2006)

There's an obvious problem with the last sentence: for as long as ten-months, page boys were unprotected by this veil-of-secrecy, done for political gain. Of course they "aren't happy" about it, but they don't really care about the victim--or the ones we might not know about. Ironically, it was a journalist who told members of the congressional GOP about what was happening between Foley and staffers.

We are a sick culture. With this example of Foley, our own social statistics on sexual molestation (the ones we know of), Abu-Ghraib, the torture sessions in Afghanistan and the CIA's secret prisons dotting-the-globe, we come-off as one big child molestation machine.

This is because we are. Small-wonder that people in other nations hate and fear us. They should, we are a shameful people, we are moral-cowards. Foley should be put in general population of a State Prison, where inmates will pour their urine on him every time he walks the cell-block. If there is there is a line--even for murderers--it is this: you don't hurt a child, and they will kill this child molester. If he somehow miraculously survives his time in prison, he should be under house arrest for the rest of his life, with no legal rights or protection.

Now we know what the GOP is willing-to-do to win in November, besides rigging the polls. Foley was also the co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. He was also Tom Delay's right-hand (job) man. Apparently, the GOP has a sense-of-humor after-all, a sick one. He voted just like his other peers in the GOP: against working-class people, then felt he was above-the-law and molest our children too. The GOP is the part of child-abuse, the disease-made-flesh. The horror-of-it-all...

The email-exchange (molestation):
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/BrianRoss/story?id=2509586&page=1

Boyfucker-Central:
http://www.nrcc.org/

For Republicans, Conservative Democrats, Bishops & priests:
www.nambla.org

Tim Mahoney's Take on Marky:
http://www.timmahoneyforflorida.com/e3/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=46

The Military Commissions Act of 2006

'This bill gives an administration that lobbied for torture exactly what it wanted.' -Sen. John Kerry

WASHINGTON--Yes, they passed it, but it's far from over. Now, American troops are fair game. They are now more likely to be tortured when they are captured if they are spared by their captors at all. Superpatriots will argue that 'this is the cost we must pay' (for what?), while out of the other-side of their Janus-faces they'll exclaim 'support the troops!' Which is it going to be? Our reaction to 9/11 is embarrassing and absurd. When the IRA attacked the UK, they didn't do this, they used existing intelligence structures and the police. When the Basques have attacked within Spain, they used police. Only in America is this considered right. We have fucked ourselves, possibly permanently, and we are going to get what we deserve if we let this legislation stand. The Supreme Court can still challenge the law, and it is their responsibility to do so. Whether they will or not is unknown.

I don't think the majority of the American public wanted this bill. For those who do: they're coming for you first, you're cowards who will die a thousand deaths, and you deserve this. Let history record that this bill passed 65-34, with some Democrats voting for it. Never mind that it's common knowledge that torture doesn't consistently yield accurate information an interrogator wants, or that it's still illegal under Article 3 of the Geneva Convention--the GOP has stood up to President George W. Bush...and faltered.

Sen. John McCain posted this comment on his website on September 15th:

But the protection our personnel require is not limited to freedom from lawsuits and unjust criminal prosecutions. They also need – and deserve – the undiluted protections offered since 1949 by the Geneva Conventions. For this reason, I oppose unilaterally reinterpreting in law Geneva Common Article 3. Weakening the Geneva protections is not only unnecessary, but would set an example to other countries, with less respect for basic human rights, that they could issue their own legislative “reinterpretations.” This puts our military personnel and others directly at risk in this and future wars.

Senator McCain is not alone. Tomorrow, Sen. Jack Murtha will be honored at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The Governor of Pennsylvania, Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.), former Senators Bob Kerrey & Max Cleland (both Viet-vets), and General Hugh Shelton (Ret.), former Joint Chiefs of Staff. Expect a serious-response to all of this from these veterans. They are all highly decorated men who have served this nation, unlike the present administration.

If all of this was about trying to prove GOP-incumbents will oppose the President on anything, passing the Military Commissions Act of 2006 sank it. This is because you have two competing trends: Rove's campaign strategy of illustrating that the GOP is 'tough on terrorists, and strong on security', unlike the Democrats, and the fear that aligning themselves with an unpopular President will sink them in November. If you still believe the GOP has made us safer, you're highly delusional and need professional care. Especially after two major intelligence reports that make-it-plain that Iraq is now a recruiting and training-ground for terrorism. Are you that stupid, America? Do I have to ask? To the 12 Democratic Senators who voted-for this abomination: watch your back, we're coming-for-you. At least we're going down as the individuals who ruined American democracy, to your eternal disgrace. It would be better not to be remember at-all. This fight has just begun.

The Bill, now law:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:2:./temp/~c109Qa8q4f

The 9/15/2006 McCain-statement:
http://mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=NewsCenter.ViewPressRelease&Content_id=2284

The Geneva Convention Articles Relevant to the Bill:
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm

Sen. Allen: I Have Never Used the Word 'Wigger'

OLD VIRGINNY--It seems the entire "I never used the word 'nigger'" controversy over Sen. George Allen (VIRG) has ended. The original question was misheard, and originated with an unknown-journalist who had asked if the Senator had ever used the term 'wigger'. "No, however, I have use the words: nigger, porch-monkey, jigaboo, jig, nig, spear-chucker, jungle-bunny, and ape. I ever tell ya' that story about the Deer's head?" answered Allen, cheerfully. Oh, ok.

REACTIONARIES: You're Buying CITGO Every Day

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA--In an under-reported aspect of last evening's Reuters article, 7-Eleven is urging Americans not to boycott Venezuelan oil:

But 7-Eleven warned against a boycott, noting that Citgo supplies 14,000 retailers with gasoline and employs 4,000 people in the United States. "Americans with no substantive connection to Venezuela would be economically harmed by boycotts," 7-Eleven said. Oil analyst Tim Evas at Citigroup said it was unlikely political disagreements with Venezuela, which is the world's fifth-leading oil exporter, would cause Citgo to lose U.S. customers.

Yes, America would be hurt if there was a successful-boycott of Venezuelan oil, but there would be even more dire results. Gasoline would skyrocket, affecting many more than 4,000 jobs. Our economy would take a bigger hit than it has in the last six-years. Imagine gas at $6-7 dollars-per-gallon, and imagine the effect that would have on the price of essentials.

Fatheads like AFA don't really care about that, they're getting their faith-based support from the Bush administration in the form of money. They were against CITGO's heating oil programs, so it's obvious they don't care about average Americans. To the ultra-nationalist (with an overdeveloped will-to-power), the idea of boycott makes-sense--until reality sinks in. I think it already has. The boycotts are over before they started, and working-class people will buy CITGO because it's competitive and ubiquitous.'CITGO sells fuels to branded wholesale distributors, not directly to retailers,' states their site. In other words, you're pretty stupid to boycott a retailer who sells CITGO gasoline if you want to have any effect. In short, boycotts cannot accomplish anything against a commodity, especially from the fifth largest-exporter on the globe (soon, several-times-more than the Saudis). Americans need to reassess their loyalties and their concept of patriotism, it's in order.

http://www.citgo.com/BusinessOpportunities/GasolineDiesel.jsp

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&refer=latin_america&sid=a3i7Jw3mxo8c

http://www.adn.com/front/story/8214582p-8111809c.html

BUY CITGO

"I will not take the position of opposing this program, because I don’t… Actually I am pleased with this gesture… What would be an adverse impact would be if people who are uncomfortable with Venezuelan politics simply say that this is a bad thing…"

--Sen. Richard Lugar (R- IN)
“Senador Republicano Insta a EE.UU Mejorar Relaciones con Venezuela”, El Universal, Dec 7, 2005


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA--The Dallas-based, 7-11 convenience store chain is dropping CITGO from over 2,100 of their 5,900 stores after this-week. Articles about this go back as far as June, so why the big-push on this in the media now?
Surprise-surprise: Chevron will be picking-up-the-slack, Condi Rice's old-employer. Buy CITGO if you don't want your money to continue going to Middle Eastern terrorists and their backers. So far, CITGO's site isn't commenting on any of this, which is appropriate. But we all know full-well that 17 of the 9/11 hijackers were Venezuelan, and NOT Saudi. Sorry, I was using logic and objectivity there. Things are definitely heating-up here, since another country's leader called the President 'the devil'. It was euphemistic--Chavez called him an 'asshole' before, too (also euphemistic).

But according to reactionaries, no-no, buying CITGO supports terrorism--even while not one act of terrorism in the United States (or anywhere) has been ascribed to Chavez's five-terms as President of Venezuela. I should note here that their elections are considered more-secure than ours. Most of this so-called 'boycott' began on January 31st, when the ultra right-wing AFA (American Family Association) announced a boycott, and it floundered. Nevermind that Chavez ordered CITGO to provide cheap heating-oil for poor-families in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, the AFA is about families and Chavez is a terrorist. Sure. Name ONE corporation that is cutting heating-fuel-costs to help the poor in America, there are none. Luckily, I know of three other CITGO stations that are free-standing nearby my home, and will now buy nothing-but CITGO gasoline. Expect a price-war from the Venezuelan-owned oil company soon, everyone will be wanting their gas. You think the GOP and Texas-businessmen exerted-pressure on 7-11? Nawwww...

What the Heating-oil Recipients & Politicians Have to Say About the Heating-oil Program:
http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com/downloads/citgoquotes.htm

A Right-wing View:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48580

My Gas-supplier:
www.citgo.com

Masters of Horror: Dance of the Dead (2005) review

While 'Dance of the Dead' isn't my favorite Masters of Horror episode, it's still a pretty good entry. If you're expecting conventional-horror, look-elsewhere, this is about a horror that is internal. Peggy (played wonderfully by Jessica Lowndes) is a young-girl living in the contaminated-ruins of the United States, in Michigan. She and her mother run a diner in what is left of their community, while the streets are populated with the sick, dying, and gangs of youths willing to do anything to survive. Utilities still exist, and there is food, but the social environment is every-man-for-himself, a situation very close to complete anarchy. You know, not much different than today.

Everyone in the film is dying-slowly from a terrorist-attack of a chemical weapon known as 'blitz', especially those who have been exposed-directly. In Richard Matheson's original-story, 'blitz' is exploded in the stratosphere, creating a huge corona-cloud that rains a skin-eating snow on its victims. Most of the victims have the look of lepers. One day, a gang of young 'blood-runners' comes into the diner led by a guy named Jak, and Peggy goes with them to the shunned city of 'Muskeet', where the dance of the dead is the main-event for nihilist-survivors and criminals. According to the MC of the club (Robert Englund, in a show-stealing performance), the military found that certain chemical-warfare agents would reanimate dead-troops to keep them fighting. One of the main-ingredients for this process is blood. Peggy's mother has warned her about the town ('It should be burned to-the-ground.'), with an odd-turn. She's hiding-something, like the fate of her other-daughter who...you'll have to watch the episode.

In this bleak-future that could happen tomorrow, Tobe Hooper shows us where America is psychologically, and where it could end-up. I've actually talked to people in their twenties about this entry, and none of them could tell me why they didn't like it. I can tell you why--it paints-a-picture of youth that isn't flattering, and it makes a few comments on the counterculture (as a dead-end expression) that aren't either. We aren't really very far as a culture from the 'dance of the dead' strip-shows, not-at-all. America has become-addicted to a form of sexualized-violence in our culture, and it's a violence that is senseless and without any motivation behind-it, or meaning. Some would call this conditioning.

37-years-ago, director Sam Peckinpah tried to change this with 'The Wild Bunch', by showing-us violence for what it really was and, for-a-time, it worked. With his machine-gun editing (taken-up by Hooper here, the hour-episode has1,100-cuts), and his graphic-depictions of people dying in slow-motion, Peckinpah tried to make people sick. By the 1980s, this style had been copied ad-infinitum without any depictions of the consequences of violence. Ironically, showing these consequences is more visually-graphic, and usually earn a 'hard-R', 'X', or an NC-17 rating for a movie. So, by the 1980s, Peckinpah had been trumped by Hollywood. Today, it's even-worse.

Hooper (and both Matheson-scribes) shoves this fact in our collective-face, and he does it with a barrage of imagery that is pretty-ugly. You could take-away the setting of a post-apocalypse America, and you could still tell this story in the present about an overprotected 16-year-old girl who loses her innocence. This overprotection is crucial, and Matheson setting the story in the American Midwest is strongly-symbolic. This is the real story of 'Dance of the Dead', and it rankles the wounded-idealist in all of us. But again, he's also telling us that we are jaded, bored and dehumanized, another reason some viewers were angered by the piece.

Sadly, most of the bad-reviews of this film only prove-its-point: we have become desenitized and dehumanized as a culture. Through the use of deep-colors, incredible-composition, and an editing-style that can only be called a barrage, Hooper has a great work here. Also, most of the gore here is pretty grim, and I expect a certain level of it in most horror-films. It's my own humble-opinion that the worst horror-fans are gorehounds, but even-worse is the film-buff who expects Orson Welles to do Citizen Kane over-and-over again (you could argue he did). This is a great addition to Tobe Hooper's canon, even an exceptional one. I think the main-problem people had with this film was the editing--it never lets you rest, and that's good. What a heavy metal Weimar Republic-nightmare he has crafted, it's stunning and real. We're all denizens of the Doom Room, but gorehounds really do resemble the characters of this film.

SHAMELESS PLUG

Here's a link to a little music-project, SMOLENSK by someone I know. One-track, but more-to-come. Enjoy, or not. The link MIGHT work. ;0)

http://www.requiemdg.com/dwnlds.html

Dr. Phil, Medicine Woman

OPRAHLAND--It appears Dr. Phil cares more about money, than actual-results in his weight-loss program, according-to a settlement that was reached today with three-complaintants in an LA court. The product was pulled in 2004. Beginning in 2003, Dr. Phil endorsed a line of weight-loss pills that cost a whopping $120-a-month, which was produced by CSA Nutraceuticals (an odd word) in Irving, Texas. McGraw has a primary-residence in Irving. I honestly don't see any-difference between the homespun-witticisms of Phil McGraw and your--gag--President. He's just another arch-conservative creep who espouses 'tough-love' for everyone but himself, but what he really represents is part of our specific zeitgeist. He espouses responsibility, but refuses any for himself, which is our current American malady. You could say it isn't anything new, since it's classic-patriarchy to deny responsibility for what happens to your victims. But, besides this lawsuit, a Texas Aviation firm (Syndicated Air, now-defunct) has alleged in a complaint that Dr. Phil owes them $135,962 for luxury-flights he has not paid-for. Repeated google-searches by this blog haven't yielded a conclusion.
(http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/drphil1.html)

Dr. Phil, is our latter-day snake-oil salesman, admonishing us to accept and internalize the aims and values of the establishment. He's a smiling-liar, like our President. Yes, some of his advice is practical, but if you're a reasonable person, his conclusions are already-familiar. Old news. His guests are, perennially, lower-class people with acute-problems that are more-or-less like those of guests on Jerry Springer. Many of Dr. Phil's guests have acute-problems that simply obvious. Physician, heal thyself. Then there's the incident involving Laurie "Bambi" Bembenek [see Fox link]. At least Jerry doesn't pretend it's anything but entertainment.

Today, the 'Shape Up!' suit reached a settlement. The amount is for a little over $10-million, and Dr. Phil isn't paying-it, his insurance is. That's not very responsible based on his own standards. The suit alleges false-advertising, and that the product doesn't deliver what it claims it can: change the behavior of those using it, thus resulting in weight-loss. The suit arose based-on the claims in the packaging and promotional-statements made by McGraw (some on the Katir Couric show). How the $10.5 million will be distributed is unclear. Dr. Phil's family has a history of obesity. He still looks fat. Funny, I thought he had a doctorate in Psychology, not medicine and nutritional science.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060926/ap_en_tv/people_dr__phil_diet

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA416165.html?display=Programming

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102969,00.html

Laura Bush, the GOP's Secret Weapon (Chocola Still a Coward)

According to a new poll Laura Bush's popularity rating is 80% while President Bush's rating is down to 47%. When she heard this Laura said[,] 'Hey, it's just like our grades in college.'
--Jay Leno

Thank you for your concern about our country. Thank you for supporting Chris [Chocola]. May God bless you, and may God bless America.
--Pres. george W. Bush, Oct. 31st (when the sun won't burn him), 2002

Do one thing every day that scares you.
--Eleanor Roosevelt

SOUTH BEND, CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE--First Lady Laura Bush is being sent to show-support for GOP Rep. Chris Chocola at a fundraiser in early-October, since her ratings are detectable to humans. Since as far back as May, the mainstream-media has been testing the waters for Karl Rove's new strategy of using the librarian-shibboleth at GOP fundraisers. This has been in-the-works for at least a year, as part of the President's 'insurance-policy', once his own political-capital was expended (not that he really had any with the public, only Congress). A Washpo piece from September 20th notes that she 'convened an international conference on literacy.' The very-next-day, she was criticizing the UN into action on a 'humanitarian crisis in Burma'. Darfur was already taken that week by George Clooney and the President.

Laura Bush is no Eleanor Roosevelt. She has never had a 'sustained role' in public-policy, instead being a docile First Lady, often referred-to as a 'traditional role'. Most feminists will know this code. She is an insult to intelligent people everywhere, if we are to believe she has had any other significant role than to raise-money for GOP-candidates ike Chocola. Last-week, the President, had a Gallup approval-rating of 39%, while his wife's was at 82%. This is why she has been making the rounds at the fundraisers more than her husband--it's called a leadership-vacuum.

It's tough when you're the very-first President to admit-publicly you have violated the law several-hundred times. But, it's even-worse when you have a failing-war in Iraq, scandals exploding everywhere, and political-associates being downed by these scandals. More GOP-congressmen will fall, regardless of the outcome of the November congressional-elections, this is a given. Also, in January, expect shocking-revelations from the Libby trial, where many of VP Dick Cheney's internal-records will become public. It isn't going to be pretty to the naive. So, what they have is nothing...or do they? Certainly, they can harp on programs that were already-in-place before they forced their way into the Oval office:

"Mrs. Bush has a platform ... to highlight things that are working," McBride said.
This is "her pulpit, if you will," she said. "We're going to keep doing everything that we have been doing. ... We're very conscious of the time that's left." (Silva, Chicago Tribune, 09/15/06)

What have they really done for the American people? Nothing good, they have only taken. There is no leadership in Washington nowadays, no adversarial-relationship with Big business, and it is badly-needed. So what do you say when you're this kind-of-creature? You trot-out empty nationaist rhetoric and publicity-stunts that are hollow. No more of Laura's recipes for chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies: the First Lady cares about literacy in the Third World. She probably does care, but the overarching-goals aren't hers, and they only serve the political-aims of her husband and his associates. She should be condemned for this, and mocked. Comedienne Sandra Bernhard said on the View that the First Lady seemed 'overmedicated', but you would too if your life was a lie, and your husband was a liar. Here's to the GOP going the way of the Whig Party.

Dead & Buried (1981, SPOILERS) review

"Welcome to Potter's Bluff, a New Way of Life"

This is one of those horror films that defies categorization, it is just that good (and enigmatic, it keeps its secrets). Not really written by Dan O'Bannon and Ron Shusett, the story was created by Jeff Millar and Alex Stern. O'Bannon and Shusett did a minor rewrite of the screenplay, with backer interference that added a few more scenes of gore. Yes, in the golden age of slashers (1978-81), films like The Fog and Dead & Buried had gore added for commercial-reasons only. Gary Sherman's original cut was supposed to be more comedic, a black comedy about American small towns. Still, I think the film overcomes this interference overall, though it gets pretty serious as it progresses. Reagan referred to America as "the city on the hill", a place with a special mission, where traditions never die.

Potter's Bluff was Gary Sherman's parody of Reagan America, and it still resonates with the mindless insanity of today. It should, he began a lot of the mess we're in. The Gipper always looked half-dead anyway, like all those Soviet Commisars, a relic of a dead era.I cannot honestly think of many horror films that are this grim, this hopeless, and there you have some of the social commentary about dead-end life in Main Street America. In the early 1980s, those of us who were paying attention  really thought the world was going to end, and soon. We were off by two decades, apparently. Contrary to what you've been told, Reagan didn't get elected by a landslide and the divisions between Americans from the 1960s simply went underground. Dead & Buried reflects this undercurrent of rage, the death impulse underneath the everyday, the reality bursting-forth, a force resisting change. It's a desire for cultural-limbo, which is cultural death. When things don't change, literal death is certain.

You really have to look for this subtext now, but Sherman's skill allowed it to survive the cuts and additions by PSO International, the corporation that bought the other two backers. Out went the satire, in went some shoddy gore. It was 1981.But, it's still an incredible story, and there's some great horror here. Sure, it owes some debt to George Romero (especially in its original form), but it takes us places we really wished we were never taken to and shown. It seems that every time a stranger comes to Potter's Bluff they're brutally murdered only to mysteriously reappear as a resident of the coastal town. No, this isn't a surrealist film, and these oddities accumulate and become very unsettling as the film progresses. Events that defy explanation escalate, as Sheriff Dan Gillis (played by James Farentino) investigates the murders, and the reappearance of the strangers. His humorous-foil is the local coroner, William G. Dobbs (Jack Albert in his final movie role, best known as the lovable grandpa in 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), who seems only mildly concerned about the murders. As the story progresses, Dobbs becomes the center of what and why strange things are happening in Potter's Bluff. Yes, even the name of the town is a dead giveaway, pun intended.

This is probably Stan Winston's best work, insofar as gore is concerned. One murder victim's face is totally reconstructed by the Dobbs character (really Winston's hands, fast-cut) in what is almost a one-take scene! It looks completely real, and if you love gore, this is YOUR film. People die in some of the most disgusting, and heartless methods in Dead & Buried. The money shot is the scene in which a victim is stabbed in the eye with a hypodermic needle, and it goes DEEP. You can have gallons of blood, but THIS is really effective! Robert Englund also has a small part, and the cast is pretty good overall. The film also has a great cinematography, and Sherman is no slouch as a horror director--he really should be doing a Masters of Horror Episode, since he is one. Dead & Buried is a film heavy with atmosphere, and dread, and is a must-see for true fans of horror. It even has a touch of Lovecraft, and the setting is supposed to be New England (probably O'Bannon's addition). The fact that the movie doesn't entirely explain everything is why it's so weird and unsettling, not just because of the gore.

SPOILER: As the film reaches its end, it becomes clear that the Coroner Dobbs has been practicing some form of necromancy, and derives a power from resurrecting the dead. Sheriff Gillis, unbeknownst to himself, was murdered earlier by his undead wife (this is revealed in Super- 8mm footage shown by Dobbs, the wife stabs Gillis in the back, nice). Dobbs controls all the dead in Potter's Bluff, and has chosen Gillis as the instrument of his own demise--so he can "live" eternally with his zombies. This, then, is a story of a lust for power! When I first saw this film in 1982 on HBO, it completely freaked me out, so I had to inflict it on my brother and some friends. It's so creepy and freaky, they were angry with me for months...

PS: The Blue Underground 2-DVD set is the best! I got it as a promo when it hit and it is incredible. As usual, their transfer is excellent, widescreen, and has three commentaries. The second disc has some great interviews with Stan Winston and Dan O'Bannon that have to be seen. You must own this film, if only to anger your family! A really great horror film leaves one feeling violated.

The Google-factor

GOOGLESPACE--A pal who I protest with every week told me that when you do a word-search for 'failure' on google, that the first-entry is 'George W. Bush', the White House's site is the URL. So it is. Thanks Google, for not letting the Feds search my searches! It's making you richer! Now, give it to progressive-candidates and causes--shoot, even the DNC.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=failure&btnG=Google+Search

The Devil Went Down to JFK: The W Strikes Back

WASHINGTON DC--It appears George W. Bush got-even yesterday for Hugo Chavez's remarks at the UN. Or not. In recent-months, the State Department has been harrassing Venezuelan-diplomats, including the impounding of a 'diplomatic cargo' (nothing illicit was found). This is a violation of diplomatic immunity for representatives of governments, anywhere in the world. You cannot detain a diplomat. But he was no ordinary representative--he's Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Nicolas Maduro. Imagine what would happen if Condaleeza Rice was detained in this manner in Russia, or Egypt. Perhaps Chavez is correct in his assertion that there is a run-up to war by the Bush administration. Why?

Such an incident involving an American government minister would become an extraordinary international-event, with calls for an immediate-retaliation and sanctions of the nation-in-question. It would not surprise this writer if the Bush administration is goading Chavez into cutting oil-exportation to North America. It would have the effect of driving-up the price of a barrel of oil significantly on the world-market. It's done wonders for multinational oil-conglomerates with Iraq producing less than it did under Saddam Hussein. Maybe someday we'll get the energy-policy minutes from 2001 declassified someday.

The fact that Maduro was ordered to do a strip-search is embarrassing for America. With the revelations of Abu-Ghraib, torture in Afghani-prisons, and the gamut of violations of the Geneva conventions, America looks like the postwar bully it has been all-along. The AP-article notes a fine-point of the incident: '[Maduro] told reporters the situation only worsened when he explained he was the Venezuelan foreign minister and showed his diplomatic passport.'

Maduro has called his 90-detention a 'provocation', and he's right. The GOP wants a fight of some-kind with the Chavez government, but what form will it take in the future? Nobody knows, but it is certain to include counterintelligence and counterinsurgency activities from Columbia. America has given the Columbian government (the Cali cartel) billions in 'drug-interdiction' aid--funny that most of it is comprised of military-equipment and weaponry. Meanwhile, Chavez has been arming and assisting FARC against the oligarchs in a proxy-war (albeit a quiet one at this time).

Readers should remember that the DOS is under the authority of the Executive, and that the State Department had an interesting-role in the Maduro-incident. Maduro has stated that one-hour, and twenty-minutes into his ordeal, something strange occured:

...he received a call from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, who apologized and said State Department officials were on their way to resolve the matter.
Five minutes later, State Department officials arrived and ordered Maduro and the others to spread their arms and legs to be frisked by police, he said.
(AP, 09/24/06)

That's classic good-cop, bad-cop there. It has all the earmarks of being premeditated, doesn't it? One has to wonder what the exact chain-of-command was here, but I would wager it reaches Rove or Cheney. But it's possible the President barked it at an aide in-anger, then forgetting-it in classic Nixonian-style. Astonishing is the only-word for the temporary-detention, and it is a clear act of provocation. Was LBJ ever this embarrassing? That'll learn ya'! Canada, anyone?

The Stranger (1946) review

'That scrapbook of expressionism.'
--Fritz Lang on Citizen Kane

It's still hard for us to comprehend the chaos and disillusion immediately following WWII. Any number of illusions about Western civilization were shattered, and the world as they say, has never been the same since. Our present-day cynicism was unthinkable to most Americans prior to the Second World War, and something like the Holocaust was impossible to even imagine. 'The Stranger' enters-into that twilight-moment between the realizations and the resulting-cynicism of a new-age, and has an unintended-link to Welles's theme of "lost-edens", and of lost-innocence. Lost innocence is the main-theme of The Stranger, and Orson Welles does it in a larger-than-life style that marks all great cinema. There are a number of compostions that are simply expressionist: Edward G. Robinson with a web-like shadow cast on him as he draws his own prey into his own web is as powerful as some of the best German Expressionism. Welles was so good at this, he intimidated Fritz Lang, who cold-shouldered the young-director during his time in Hollywood. It's also likely that Lang was worried Welles would usurp his own anti-fascist credentials as a filmmaker. The post-war era was one of uncertainty, which always makes for good drama!

Those wonderful low-shots from 'Citizen Kane' are there, and much-much more! Welles's use of wide-angle shots comes into its own here, though it is nearly invisible as technique. The film was popular in its day, and it kept Welles in the Hollywood game a little-longer (as it was designed-to), but not at RKO. This would be his final film for the studio. It's funny that people underrate this film, and I ascribe this to baggage--and how could anyone dare say Welles's acting is 'wooden'?! He is unconvincing if you don't know the historical-background of the era. The Stranger is a very 'Langian' film in the Welles-canon, and it makes us feel complicit with a Nazi-character. For 1946, this is an impressive lesson-learned by Welles and co-writer John Huston on the subject of collective-guilt. The bulk of the screenplay was executed by Anthony Veiller, from a story by Victor Trivas, but rest-assured the anti-fascist message is all Huston and Welles. It should be noted that The Stranger is possibly the very-first commerical motion-picture to show the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe. Many Americans got their first-glimpse in this film, since the military was forbidding the dissemination of footage at this time. Perhaps this was Welles's other sin--the first being Kane-- against the establishment of 1946?

Many Americans had fought-against Nazi Germany (and industrial-employers in the labor-struggle, since many unionists equated Big Business with Fascism, and National Socialism was supported by certain industrialists like Henry Ford) to end European-fascism. There was an idea of a 'United Front' against fascism within the Old Left that had carried-over from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Edward G. Robinson's Nazi-hunting character (possibly the first in an American film) represents a continuation of this Old Left trend that arose during the Great Depression. Surprisingly, it even survived the war. But this inertia would be squashed by the anti-Communist backlash, and the creation of the Cold War witchhunts by people like Richard Nixon, Thomas Dies and many others in Congress and the State Department/Executive Branch. In 1946, Germany was central to EVERYTHING, and The Stranger represents a specific-moment in our culture--an incredibly-important one. Sometimes, a movie is smarter than the audience (and more mature), and yet can still be entertaining.

The exchange-between the Robinson-character and the Welles-character (Franz Kindler) on whether Karl Marx could be German because he was a Jew was echoed in most anti-Communist literature of the era. It was not simply Nazis who believed this, but radical anti-Communists like Gerald L.K. Smith and his ilk in the American Bund. It also existed in the halls of Congress in 1946. And while this film is certainly to be viewed as a stab at European and American fascism, it is really a great thriller, too. There are so many shots in this film whose composition can only be called dead-on; it is a riveting crime-drama that equals Hitchcock's work in the same period, sometimes outdoing-it. An on-the-run Nazi was VERY exciting in 1946, and for many, it wasn't so difficult to imagine. A number of reviewers have noted that Welles's dialect is 'too-good', but one should remember that there were German-Americans who returned to Germany to join National Socialism's ranks. Many of these individuals had been born in the United States, and so, a prominent-Nazi speaking perfect-English is not really far-fetched.

A 20-minute South American prologue of Kindler on-the-run was cut (and lost?) by RKO-executives, possibly due to political-pressure from the State Department, who were busy hiding 'useful' Nazis ('Good Germans') in 'Operation-Paperclip'. Welles and Huston (like Chaplin) can be seen as a members of the 'Old Left', which is a fine-distinction over being a Nazi/anti-Communist (and I hate Communists, too!). This film has everything you want from Orson Welles, from the small-town checkers games at the Pharmacy shot in intense close-ups, to the incredible clocktower finale, it's simply time for a reassessment of such a great film noir! Buy the Roan group DVD, it's got an additional 10-minutes over the standard 85-minute cut, and the quality is excellent. How often does a thriller REALLY put you so close to the killer? Underrated, a gross-sin.

Why Boycotting CITGO Won't Work

'MERICA--Because we on the Left are already buying all of our gas there. 7-11s generally carry CITGO, and their stations are everywhere where I live. I literally buy all of my gasoline at CITGO, and have for a year. But, I used to buy it there a lot, because it's prices are competitive. Buy CITGO (I'm not even being paid for this).

Senator George Allen of Virginia: 'I AM NOT A WEREWOLF'

WASHINGTON--Yesterday, Sen. George Allen (Virg.) told an astonished pressroom he was not in-fact a werewolf. While he acknowledged his mother was 'born a werewolf', he said that he never recalled being repelled by wolfsbane or silver-bullets. Allen remarked, "I guess I have more in-common with that 'Macaca' than I thought, haw-haw!" At the summation of his comments, he offered to be shot by any member of the press-contingent with a silver-bullet: "I promise, it won't kill me! Besides, I'M insured! Grrrr-Grrrrrrrrrr! I'm sarruh."

Every member of the press produced their firearms, and fired-away (haw-haw). Allen's body jerked violently with every shot, but no-dice. This rube had a flak-vest on, made from a new-polymer. But the true genius of it all was that he was a vampire. To-be-sure, it didn't make him any different from other politicians, but he was especially-strange. "Next-time, we bring the crosses and garlic, Morty! Meshuggenah!" said Dr. Van Helsing. The specter of Rod Serling was noted in the parking-lot.

Afterwards, an anonymous NASA scientist released an analysis of Allen from a videotape of the conference, and noted that the Senator looked hairier after just 5-minutes into his comments. A black-halo appeared in every-photograph of him, but not on digital-video. Foam was also noted in the corners of his mouth. The witch's teat was also noted in another shot, where the senator exposed his belly LBJ-style. But it was an unrelated-photograph that revealed a vast web-of-ectoplasm suspended over the Washington-skies from a shot that displayed a window-view of the Capitol building. A swirling-vortex eating all sparks of the divine within living-organisms was seen hoving above the center of the Pentagon. All must bow before the Flying Spaghetti Monster! All to avoid saying he was Jewish...

Boy, Are They Asking-For-It (Chocola again)

SOUTH BEND, CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE--WNDU and Rep. Chris Chocola have put up a page where you can leave him questions. No-guarantees. No-disclaimers. No. Small-wonder Michael Alig (Party Monster) was created here. His mother lives in my zip-code, ewwwwwww!

Fire-away: http://www.wndu.com/news/askchrischocola/

The Chavez Speech (Bravo)

NEW YORK CITY--Most of the world has now heard-of, or read-about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's speech that railed-against American Empire, and President George W. Bush's foreign-policies. I noticed something strange while watching the clips on CNN--Chavez was carrying a book with an English-title. Today, we find-out that it was a book by someone noteworthy, and it wasn't Bob Woodward or Ann Coulter.

Mainstream commentators (particularly television, though NPR cancelled an interview with Chomsky several years-ago) have been very careful not to mention the name of the man Chavez lauded at the beginning of his speech: Dr. Noam Chomsky, the most-quoted intellectual in the West, and the finest-critic of American foreign-policy. The San Francisco Gate is reporting that Chavez was recommending Chomsky's 'Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance', an astute foreign-policy analysis from 2003, and that its sales are spiking at Amazon.com's and Barnes & Noble's online-sites. This is all pleasing to me, because in late-1994, I had a brief-correspondence with Dr. Chomsky. It culminated in an interview that I published in my little 'zine, my last year of college. Watch this space for the interview.

Read the transcript, it's an eye-opener. President Chavez goes to great-lengths in explaining that his problems are with the State Department/US government and multinationals, not the American people. I believe him. How many violent-deaths is George W. Bush responsible-for, and how many for Chavez? George W. Bush is the Devil--our devil. We need to send him straight-to-hell where he came-from. The transcript can be found at: http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/news/patriotnews/stories/un_chavez_0920.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/21/entertainment/e103042D97.DTL

Coming-soon: Buckaroo Banzai VS. The Dick Cheney World Crime League

Indiana Now Officially 'Center of the Universe', Chocola Still a Coward

SOUTH BEND--As I sit writing this, I can hear the sound of full-automatics firing at the local FOP-range. The bursts are long, and loud. You wouldn't know there was an uprising here for the noise, and neither would Chris Chocola. The London Times article is now available online, and it paints a very unsettling-picture for Republicans nationwide. If you cannot win as a GOP-candidate in backwater-Indiana, you can forget the rest of the union. Hoosiers (originally a derogatory-term that meant 'unskilled-laborer') are ignorant, and it's an ignorance that is deep-seated.

In-general, Hoosiers are a greedy, lazy, anti-intellectual population. You come here if you cannot make it somewhere-else in America. It's easier here, because most things are cheaper, but Indiana is also a hard-luck state where many people are simply on-their-own (the real-meaning of an 'ownership society'). The last public-lynching occurred in Marion, Indiana in the 1930s, a far-cry from Eugene Debs or Booth Tarkington. It isn't hard to be exceptional in this state. At one-time, Indiana was considered a pretty literate and well-educated state where many of the nation's best-teachers were created. No more.

However, the article focuses-on the 2nd congressional district, where I live. The focus gets even more-specific--the southern-part of the 2nd district, where all the farmers and meth-addicts live. Rednecks. What I found most-galling in the article is that there is only one-reason these traditional GOP-voters are tired-of Chocola: Iraq. That's fine, but what-about domestic-surveillance? What about the economy (it's terrible here)? Plamegate? The fact that 9/11 happened on his watch? The fact that he allowed Osama Bin Laden to escape from Tora Bora? The dozens of reveleations that the Bush administration is corrupt and has broken-the-law?

The list is endless, and not even Nixon would have dared this gauntlet of corruption. Still, I'll take Iraq if it removes the GOP from-power for another 50-years. This shouldn't be hard, since it appears the US will be there for years-more, making it the gift (from themselves) that keeps-on-giving for the GOP. So far, they're following my script, and I'm just sitting-back. Chocola fears a backlash because he's in-bed with George W. Bush. Kick em' when they're down. America is long-overdue for a massive tarrin'-n'-featherin'.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/global/

Unit 731 Nurse Breaks Her Silence: Mass Grave Beneath Tokyo Neighborhood

Tokyo--The Toyama No. 5 apartment block may have been built on a mass-grave used to hide the remains of one-hundred Asian-victims of medical-experimentation, says an 84-year-old Japanese woman.

Her name is Toyo Ishii, a former military nurse with Unit 731, a biowarfare-unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese war that bled-into WWII.

Most of the experiments occurred in Manchuria, so I was perplexed by this AP story. Certainly, Chinese nationals were taken as slave labor to the Japanese mainland, but it's surprising that experiments were conducted in Tokyo as well. 1989 excavations nearby attest that they did. Why? Look at the neighborhoods they were in: slums, therefore it was easier to control what the middle-class of Japan at that time knew about it. Who would care what a slum-dweller thought? This is why serial killers murder the indigent and prostitutes.

American and Soviet POWs were also exposed to the experimentation, but it was the Chinese who received the brunt of the project. The Chinese suffered under innumerable atrocities under the withering-attacks of the Japanese Imperial Army.

Also interesting, is the fact that Ishii says she wasn't in the section of the unit that did vivisections or injected Asians with virulent-diseases for research purposes. Granted, it was a sprawling-compound...in Manchuria, but would it have been within Tokyo? Would the Japanese military really want the public to see what was going-on in the Tokyo facility? Even under a military-dictatorship, it could be problematic. Surely, the facility was a very small one. One has to wonder if director Kei Fujiwara's film "Organ" was inspired from this tale...

Nurse Ishii claims she was employed in 'oral-surgery' during her time with Unit 731. Another interesting-fact: she has the same last-name as the administrator of the project, Dr. Chujo Shiro Ishii. Are they related? 'Ishii' means, 'rock well'. It gets even more interesting. Dr. Ishii was given legal-immunity after the war:

Although Unit 731, and its satellite laboratories were destroyed at the end of WWII, with the full co-operation of General Douglas MacArthur, Dr Shiro Ishii was given immunity from prosecution. The US authorities considered Ishii's research programme to be too valuable to be revealed in public. It is on record, as the author notes, that Ishii lectured in the United States after the war, and that he and other Unit 731 researchers went to South Korea in 1951 to advise the US military on biological warfare. Immunity from prosecution for war crimes was given to dozens of Unit 731 employees by the US government. (Brown, Sept. 2004)

Could the nurse be one of the individuals who was granted amnesty? We're not told. Are the sundry facts of Unit 731 still being kept secret because of Japanese-American relations? We're not told. Were they part of security and economic treaties? We're not told. These are valid questions that aren't present in the articles on nurse Ishii.

The Japanese government still officially refuses to acknowledge that the atrocities committed by this unit ever happened. Government ministers have played-down the possibility for any exhumations, even for regarding the Shinto-observance of honoring one's ancestors. Besides, they might be saying, they're Chinese and Korean dead, not Japanese. I don't think most Japanese citizens want to know what really happened at Unit 731 facilities.

This is troubling, but not atypical, in my humble opinion. Whatever the truth is, it appears the Japanese government doesn't want to know it--or for it to be known. And you thought the Japanese were quaint. You were wrong. While President George W. Bush makes his case for a stand against Iran, as well as the genocide in Darfur, stories like this tend to get lost because of their inconvenience and dissonance with the "accepted narrative." We should remember how these events became possible by knowing more about them and how they came-into-being.

There are many in the political classes of the developed-world who don't want this. The story of Unit 731 is emblematic of this. Apologies to China aren't going to be enough, there has to be a full-accounting. There have been American survivors who have come forward, only to be ignored by the American Congress in the late-1980s.

It's true that a few members of Unit 731 were hanged, but not the ringleaders. Japan has never fully-admitted or apologized for such atrocities in China, which should make them suspect as a nation wanting a seat on the UN's security council.

When they admit that they also exterminated American and British POWs, and when their ministries do what Germany did, then maybe. I'm sure there are Soviet POWs in there somewhere as well, and it's likely that they will get the usual brush-off without any living advocates.

Revised 09.07.2008

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2242/is_1664_285/ai_n6272944

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?fid=10&yr=0&ln=Ishii

http://www.ww2pacific.com/unit731.html

http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/germwar/731rev.htm

http://www.skycitygallery.com/japan/japan.html#opium

Thank you, Keith Olberman

GOOGLEBLOGSPACE--Indeed. He said everything that I have felt about the Bush administration since the aftermath of 9/11. Why? Because it was true what he said, all of it. If you cannot see this truth, you might want to consult a psychaitrist. Check this great blog, it has links to Olberman and MSNBC. Let them know what you think about Keith's statements at ground zero on the fifth-anniversary. I was pleased, it was overdue.
http://thank-you-keith-olbermann.blogspot.com/

My Confidential Private-Security Source in Iraq

THE MIDDLE EAST--It was ten-years-ago that I worked with my source, it was in a non-profit organization that helped troubled-kids. He was pretty obsessed with the militia-movment at that time, and tended towards the Libertarian--but he was and is a reasonable guy. For a time, he was also an MP in the military, so his crossover into private-security wasn't difficult or atypical. Many of the people in these firms are ex-military, it's common. It's crazy, but true: two-years-ago, he told me something I will never forget. We were running 'covert-ops inside Iran' to 'destroy parts of their infrastructure.'

Iran wasn't even a big-deal at that time, so it didn't really faze me, but now there are stories that we are doing these missions in the media again. Well, we are doing these missions, and they are ongoing. The denials are false, and my source's story supports the contention that we are. President Nixon denied we were doing the same-thing in Cambodia, and it was a lie. We were in Cambodia, and illegally. It's bad-enough that we are illegally-occupying Iraq, but this is poking the hornet's nest, it truly is. Bush wants his war with Iran, he might just get-his-wish. The problems will begin piling-up for his administration after that, if it is imaginable compared to the present.

World Still Hates Bush, Supporters Still Insane

EARTH--That's how it goes...

SHIT! Someone Pulls the Alarm at the International Space Station

GEOSYNCHRONOUS-ORBIT--It appears somebody also forgot-to-flush, damned Ruskis. Americans are used-to having paper to wipe, and a bidet won't work in zero-g, but now we have some funky-smells in the big metal-tube orbiting the Earth. "Who farted?!" yelled the Turk, but there were no-takers. Rumors have it that the Uzbek astronaut spilled his Hookah, but I think it's the Dane's bong that got tipped. The Canadian apologized for everyone, while the Iranian threatened to open the hatch to air things out. A reality-show is inevitable now. The human-family is a happy one.

The Birth of Pop: Ken Russell's "Lisztomania" (1975) review

To many, this film is the stunning proof that director Ken Russell never had it and that idiocy and egotism were mistaken for genius. You could say mistaking idiocy and egotism for genius has been the appeal of rock music all along!

Others might say that Russell is simply childish or immature, and that his films are the "masturbatory fantasies" of an overgrown-adolescent. This belief is unfounded. Consider this film part-autobiography and the problems faced by most artists who have to battle for control over the direction of their work with their backers, their "patrons." Before there was even a notion of "capitalism," artists have had to fight to protect their visions from the very people they're dependent on to realize those dreams.

Is this film over-indulgent? Yes it is, dear readers, very-much-so, because it is art and not entertainment. That said, if you chuck any expectations, this is also a funny film and allegory about the rise of pop culture in the 19th Century.

Russell's Lisztomania ( phrase coined while the composer was at the height of his powers) draws parallels between Liszt's fame and that other generally hollow spectacle known as "rock." That's not to say Russell dislikes Liszt's music or that he views it as meaningless--the contrary is true. What Russell hates is the empty spectacle. But this is great filmmaking, and it should be noted that it has similarities between itself and another film of the same year, "Rocky Horror," and even "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," as they examine and explore the relationships between sexuality and pop culture. It really is true that women threw their underwear at Franz Liszt during his performances and that he had many-many lovers, 19 th century "proto-groupies."

Lisztomania is also that very odd bridge between "classic" arena rock and the emergent punk movement of the time. The film can be seen as a statement that "rock" is not really subversive or rebellious at all, but ultimately arch-conservative and repressive. Amen. It's just a hilarious, wild romp that will make your guests extremely nervous, which films all great films should do. Movies should challenge people to think and reflect, at least occasionally.

Ironically (or perhaps not-at-all), Mr. Russell had previously contracted Malcolm MacLaren and Vivienne Westwood to design the S&M costumes for his film, "Mahler." It should also be noted that "Liszt-O-Mania" was released exactly the same year that MacLaren's shop "SEX" shop opened on King's Row; the rest is, as they say, history. It couldn't be more camp considering it has Little Nell in it, but it would be without her.

Basically put, this is about the the ins-and-outs of "why" we want and need pop culture and WHAT we generally want from our "pop idols" (sex and some form of wish-fulfillment, naturally). One could say this film criticizes the absurd spectacle that rock had become by 1975, and this theme pops-up often throughout the film, but Russell was never a fan. No, this psychological comic book portrait goes much deeper into the relationship between artist and patron. Nowadays, the patrons are the mass audience, something that was just emerging from the industrial and commercial age. Once, it was just the aristocracy, now the mob has been added.

Sexuality is about mass psychology, so Wilhelm Reich gets-his-due here in some areas, and there is a plethora of Freudian imagery, which is something you expect from Russell. Lisztomania is certainly a very personal film for the director and probably amuses him as much as it does myself that it enrages so many critics (definitely a "get-screwed" message to all of them), but it should be noted that some of the absurdity and excess came from the producer of the film, not Mr. Russell. The enfant terrible director has complained about the opening country song in his autobiography "Altered States," and that there were other aspects of the production he didn't want in the film. Perhaps. Yet Russell tends to enrage all the right people, and that's what at least some film-making should be.

God love this lapsed Catholic, and God love his ways. Lisztomania is a flawed part of his canon, but a very watchable and educational one. As Russell began his career doing documentaries and impressionistic films on composers for the BBC, it makes a kind of sense that this is considered one of his most heretical works since it goes well beyond his work for television in the 1960s...until one becomes aware of his banned "Dance of the Seven Veils" about Richard Strauss.

Critics of the film tend to trot out the BBC documentaries as a yardstick, yet this isn't so far removed from "Dance of the Seven Veils," a film that also utilized the same psychosexual comic book approach of Strauss's and Hitler's fateful relationship. Liszt and Wagner's fateful relationship is portrayed in similar terms and imagery, namely that of National Socialism. Dance of the SevenVeils got him booted from the BBC for nearly twenty years. It's hard to generalize about Russell's career, except perhaps on a thematic level, but he's always willing to rile.

It's interesting to note that the 1980s was the period of his purest work, due mainly to a three-picture deal with the now-defunct Vestron pictures. But the standard view of many of his sharpest critics is that it was a fallow decade. The opposite is true.

The 1970s were actually a very mixed-bag for Russell, as evinced by Lisztomania and Valentino, and he continued to struggle for artistic control over his films as the decade rolled-on. He isn't entirely pleased with Lisztomania, but Russell definitely had some fun with the material, and so, there it is. This is hardly one of his best films and surely not his worst. What it is is a real laugh riot. I think it's a hoot, which means it isn't on DVD.

George W. Bush: A 'Cronenbergesque' Prediction

CRAWFORD (where he usually is)--The Preznent's nervous-system will implode from atrophy (no use), and his head will expand to the size of a basketball. His face will look more lizard-like, and his tongue will become forked, making David Icke proud-of-himself. Unfortunately, El Prez's head will not explode like in the movie 'Scanners', disappointing 90% of humanity. Instead, as it becomes clear that he could be the first non-human President to go to prison, his behavior will become more-and-more bizarre. Seemingly impossible, I know, but it will. No baby will be safe during this period. Even Kenneth Anger and William F. Buckley will be creeped-out. Children will go-missing, showing-up on milk cartons--what? They do already? OK, there will be more. Bush will levitate, because it will be the last law he hasn't broken. When things get really bad, Cheney will provide him with an escape-pod to his home-planet. Their missions complete, the neocons will shed their human-forms exposing their Cthuloid-appearances and eat their supporters. Does America have WMDs? You-bet, bucky.

Chris Chocola is a Coward

South Bend, Indiana--International attention has focused on congressional-impersonator, Chris Chocola. Who is Chris Chocola? Even the London Times wants to know. Is he a good pillow-talker? Would he make a better used car salesman? Why does he have a look that says 'male street-hustler'? We would have to ask Big Oil and Walmart that. A regional businessman, he is a rich kid who bought his way into office. 

He possesses $500,000 in WalMart stock, a retailer who exports American-jobs, while illegally-employing unregistered aliens (aka 'illegal-aliens'). Also, he has no balls whatsoever when it comes to facing his critics.

Where does he stand? Anywhere the President tells him to--he's been promised a kingdom in Hell, or at least the 2nd district. In 2004, Chocola beat Donnelly 54%-45%, which is close. Will it be closer? Don't ask Chris Chocola. He won't answer questions directly, especially about his investment portfolio (but the Washington Post was interested and published it).

How do I know Chocola won't face his critics? By being a critic of him, of course. While even a casual observer would notice this in Michiana, I recommend a quick websearch search on how many public appearances and debates he has ever done. It won't amount to much, but ask yourself how many of them allowed the public to participate? No, we're not counting partisan events, sorry. Chris Chocola won't do open appearances, and he is very difficult when approached to do so. He will not even do debates on neutral ground, only his own turf with his own rules. 

If this sounds like a page from Karl Rove's playbook, you're right, it is. Bush has visited Michiana to support Chocola no less than five times, so it's no effort to associate him as a creature of the Bush administration, it is accurate. Recently, Chocola and Rep. Steven Buyer actually came out of hiding from their respective constituents, and spoke at a public-meeting on how immigrations affects social health care programs. The forum was actually created by Chocola. The incumbent is a pretty easy target, with all of his bumbling in a new paradigm--you would be hard-pressed to find a better target in a better context politically. It would behoove Joe Donnelly to confront Chocola on this, as well as to drag the war in Iraq out there, but he probably won't. Why this is so, is a mystery. Did I say Donnelly needs to bring up Iraq? If he loses, it will truly be his own fault. Back to the immigration/medical event: 'Open to the public' should have been the kept-out of descriptions of the August 23rd St. Joseph County City building event, because no comments from the community were allowed. It hadn't been spelled-out in the announcements that people couldn't question the reps and a local businessman.

It featured representatives from local hospitals, and public health organizations, including an emergency room director from Michigan City, Dr. Randy Thompson. Chocola trotted-out the 1920s specter of immigration, proposing the usual remedies of "tightening the borders", but Thompson said it would have little impact on problems faced by our emergency-room infrastructure, and that there are many other factors that affect our healthcare system. Thompson went further, according to the AP:

[Dr. Thompson] drew applause from some of the 70 audience members when he told the congressmen that he did not believe emergency rooms should screen patients to determine their legal status. "My job as a physician is that I'm here to take care of a patient," Thompson said. "I don't care what color they are, or if they're legal or illegal." (AP, 08.23.06)

It was like having a plumber judge a horse, and Chocola appeared out-of-his-depth. Besides being arrogant, this is his usual demeanor. Misjudging his constituency has been part of his approach to being a Representative, and it was clear from the meeting that he has no-clue about the concept of public-service and the common good. According to people I know who hwere therem it was like two worlds colliding, a bit like a Mexican standoff (pun intended). Worse for Chocola is that the idiot has taken it for granted that he was going to win, hands-down. But it appears it won't be so easy, and his opponent Joe Donnelly has some backing from the DCCC, a trial-lawyer's group, and Moveon.org. All three organizations have been running campaign-ads for the Democratic hopeful, while Chocola has had to pay for virtually of his.

Drop Chris Chocola an email, his machine will call your machine. That's it, though: www.chrischocola.com

Related-stories: http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060901/News01/60901024

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14480558/

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060908/News01/609080455/-1/NEWS01

How Chocola Votes on the issues: http://www.ontheissues.org/IN/Chris_Chocola.htm

Mutilated-Bodies in Iraq: A Prediction

It will be found that virtually all of these individuals were tortured by CIA-trained Iraqi security forces. Some of them will be found to have been tortured by American troops and the CIA, as well. Why did we bother to get-rid-of Saddam Hussein, when we are reinstituting his methods? It's true, he wasn't a dictator--he was a contract-employee of the USA, until he stopped following-orders.

Bush Administration Threatens Military Lawyers With Torture

BIZARROWORLD--Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a staunch- opponent of the Bush administration's definitions of torture and rendition, mentioned in an open-letter that JAGs (judge advocate generals) had been held in a meeting by the Bush administration for five-hours to force them into signing-off on some torturing. These shills weren't taking the bait. A previous July-revelation showed that JAGs had ruled-against 2003 standards for torture proposed by the Bush administration, so the boys had it coming from the decider. Aides to the President ordered the JAGs into a naked human-pyramid, while Van Halen's '5150' blared on a boombox in a corner of the conference room. Two of the lawyers began showing signs-of-stress after two-hours, while one opined that "this music sucks, and I'm not intimidated by this." In short-order, CIA-operatives took said-individual to an adjoining-cell and applied waterboarding-techniques that would have made Cotton Mather proud. Soon, an exorcist from the Vatican was summoned, and by hour four, it was obvious these marks weren't budging. "Give em' the third-degree," chortled the President, giddily, through a speaker-phone. But it was for-nought--these weren't cowards like most Americans, these were MEN. They ate red-meat and watched pornography, and watching a female-recruit in a bikini wasn't going to faze them...they'd seen-it-all, jim. Take-that, Buckaroos. Him destroy stupor-man...