"Most nations are three-meals away from revolution."
--A wise old radical saying.
BAGHDAD--Welcome to Vietnam. I hope it was worth it to all you dumb assholes who voted for Bush and the GOP--you wrecked America, and that takes effort. With gasoline reaching $3.99 in Florida, Mr. President isn't going to matter much longer. Welcome to the end of the American Dream, more like a nightmare for most. It's going to be impossible to control the public once they lose the consumer model here. I will enjoy watching the violent-declassing of you nouveau-riche, the remaining petite-bourgeois, and the bourgeois ruling-class that is about to crash.
The best will be seeing all the smarmy conservative assholes ("You're just jealous."--not really!) losing everything and blaming themselves, that's going to be good for a laugh. Luckily, I have enough land to grow my own food, and there are farms all around our home. We have our own well, too (and guns). We're already seeing a decline in traffic on the highway in-front of our house, and there's more-to-come. Yeah, I'll miss all those morons who smash-into our mailboxes because they have to get somewhere ASAP.
You can literally feel that we're on the edge of the cliff now, and it gives me an odd hope that this could hold our redemption once we've all been pulled-down and grounded as human-beings. Welcome to 1929, it's coming, and so is 1933--but will it be like Germany's or America's 1933? We narrowly avoided a coup here in 1934, but a Marine corps general named Smedley Butler notified Congress. Naturally, he was belittled by our press at that time, but it ended the conspiracy.
Bush's grandfather was one of the senators on the committee that held the closed-door sessions where Butler gave his testimony--the records of the hearings are still sealed. A kiss-ass American history professor at Ball State University told me in 1995 that the conspiracy "was no big-deal, they failed." Right, that makes it insignificant that they tried. I should comment that both his step-children hated him, his wife hated him (probably divorced now), his colleagues in his department hated him, all of his students hated him, and if he had a dog--it hated him too. He was always unhappy and angry when I encountered him at his lectures, and he had a Grateful Dead poster in his office--sign of the phony-hippie asshole.
Nobody knows where all of this is heading, it's unprecedented. Now I understand the intense nihilism in Europe before the Great War (WWI), but at least a new America will rise out of the ashes of this crappy one. Waiter, bring me another country, this one sucks. The war is lost, get-over it. We didn't belong there, the invasion was unnecessary and illegal. The Mexicans and I are going to have a good laugh over all of this, wearing our bandoleers while we till the earth together.
AP Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070428/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
"Chicken Little Meets the Ostrich," by Jason Godesky: http://anthropik.com/2006/04/chicken-little-meets-the-ostrich/
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Grindhouse: Double Feature (2007) review
This was far better than I expected, and is probably the best deal for your money in 2007. I don't think I've seen a double-feature in over thirty years, so this was a real treat. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino have made classics here with "Planet Terror" or "Death Proof," making some great additions to the b-movie universe.
As everyone knows by now, there are also trailers for fake-movies, and so, this review will cover each one of them as well. Remember: people used to make out and/or have-sex in the theaters while the originals were playing. They didn't usually bother to watch them--hence the term "grindhouse." I know this because I witnessed couples "doing it" in theaters back then.
"Machete trailer" (director: Robert Rodriguez): This was an obvious homage to all the revenge pictures, and some of the "Death Wish" rip-offs. It's about a Latino hired-assassin (the great Danny Trejo, who's been in almost every Rodriguez movie) a man betrayed by his latest scumbag employer (played by Jeff Fahey). Naturally, they almost kill him in a set-up, but he survives and gains a sidekick in a Catholic Priest (Cheech Marin!!). Hilarity ensues, and the voice-over is as bad and funny as all those real grindhouse trailers. Keeping-with the aesthetic of "Planet Terror," it has the scratchy-print look, frame-jumps, and crackly-sound. I loved it. Rumor has it that this is being lensed now for a direct-to-DVD release when Grindhouse is released to the format."Planet Terror" (director: Robert Rodriguez): Many reviewers have said this is the best-part of the double-feature, and I'd have to agree. That doesn't mean Tarantino's "Death Proof" isn't great, however. Most horror fans will find this satisfying: a biowarfare chemical ("DC-2") has been released and is creating a contagion of infected zombies who are...wow, pretty-disgusting. They're basically becoming swollen pus-bags that are mutating and decaying all at once.
Then, there's the military convoy that ices some Indian scientist who has something they want. He collects the balls of other men, and carries a bag of them around! Most of this is an homage to George Romero and John Carpenter, and there was even a scene where James Brolin's psychotic doctor character gets slimed that has a musical cue from Escape From New York.
In addition to being an homage to Romero's and Carpenter's films, this is a tribute to all the Italian knock-offs, like "Escape From the Bronx," and Sergio Martino's "2019: After the Fall of New York" (1983). Tarantino's cameo also has a reference to Lucio Fulci's "ZOMBI" (1979). You'll know it when you see it. Then you have the chicks: Rose MacGowan's go-go dancer character is pretty bizarre (and hilarious), while Bruce Willis's part is small, but crucial. It's a bigger part than most reviewers have reported, and he shines.
Jeff Fahey is excellent as the Texas BBQ chef, the brother to Michael Biehn's (Terminator) "Sheriff Hague." Overall, the characters are well-drawn, and we see just about every cliche of this kind of movie in Planet Terror. Best of all: we get the misogyny of the b-film with the addition of a feminist response. The women are the heroes here! This theme continues into "Death Proof" with its ending that this writer believes is the death of the "frail woman" in the movies.
I was impressed! The final scene with Bruce Willis even has a little offhanded political-statement to it about the war on terror. I won't spoil it for anyone. Pure horror bliss, and possibly a classic in its own right. Great for the intentional plot-holes, dopey dialog, and a woman with an assault rifle for a leg. Hilarious and satisfying! What could be more terrifying than the two Hispanic babysitters? Be honest.
"Werewolf Women of the SS trailer" (director: Rob Zombie): This was just kickass! Udo Kier (Blood for Dracula), Bill Mosley (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Rob Zombie's Halloween, etc.), Tom Towles (Fortress, House of 1000 Corpses, Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer), Sherry Moon, and Nicholas Cage in his best performance since "Red Rock West" (1993)--this little faux-trailer almost beats the features! This is an obvious homage to the "Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS" movies from the 1970s, a guilty-pleasure! Visually, this is probably the best there is in Grindhouse, which is saying a lot, and it must have cost a fortune. Classic.
"Don't" trailer (director: Edgar Wright): This was funny, and looked like an homage to "Hell House" (1973) and "The Haunting" (1963), but really is just a great example of how wrong-headed marketing was in the glory days of the grindhouse. Alternate-titles were often picked by the distributors, rather than the filmmakers, and so you got movies with names like this! I'm guessing this is an indirect-reference to Mario Bava's "The Whip and the Body" (1963), which had the unfortunate American title, "What?". Yep. Pretty funny.
"Thanksgiving" (director: Eli Roth): I think every horror-fan knows who Mr. Roth is by now, the director of "Cabin Fever" and "Hostel." I love this guy, and his movies are respectable additions to the horror and thriller genres. He really has the same love for b-movies as Tarantino and Rodriguez, and he belongs here just as Rob Zombie does. This was pretty offensive! Of course, that's why it's good, and you're going to have to see this with your own virgin eyes. Word has it that it was this trailer that almost scotched an R-rating from the MPAA. Excellent, and an homage to "Black Christmas" (1974) and many others. Did I say it was offensive? Classic.
"Death Proof" (director: Quentin Tarantino): The reviews of this are unfair. Most of them have said that the movie here is too dialog-heavy, which isn't completely true. Besides, isn't that like saying Fellini's films are "too carnivalesque"? Imagery aside, dialog is why Tarantino is liked so much--dialog! The characters here are just so well-drawn, which is crucial. You have to know these characters first for their impending-deaths to mean anything, and you have to like them at least a little so that you fear for their lives. Yes, Tarantino is commenting on other hot rod action movies, but we're still watching this for characters and for story.
We're introduced to a stable of girlfriends who are extremely mouthy--this is inaccurate?! I've overheard young women talking like this ferchrissakes! So did Tarantino, apparently, and he reproduces the speech of these kind of chicks accurately.
He's done his homework: the dog sure didn't eat it. What most viewers forget is that many of the b-movies were like this: you had to wait for the last-third of the film for the payoff. You necked during the first 2/3rd's. And are the chase scenes great? They might just be the best ones lensed since Sam Peckinpah's "The Getaway" (1972), or even "Bullitt" (1968), or even the excellent "Cannonball" (1976). It's also true that Kurt Russell isn't technically the "star" of Death Proof--the ladies are, and the serial killer known as "Stuntman Mike" has likely overstepped himself targeting a group of stuntwomen.
Russell's barroom scenes are superb, and you can tell that Quentin Tarantino has waited his entire life to write dialog for Kurt. Nobody, and I mean nobody, delivers lines like Kurt Russell. And what a treat this segment is for lovers of muscle cars!! If it's not a classic, it sures comes close. Quentin's next movie will be a remake of Enzo G. Castellari's "Inglorious Bastards" (1977), one of the best b-movie takes on WWII ever (outside of Sam Fuller), and the best rip-off of "The Dirty Dozen" (1967).
Strangely, Tarantino's Death Proof doesn't utilize that many of the scratches, frame-jumps, and the audio-dropouts that Rodriguez's does. It does have the "missing reel" aspect, however and it's pretty grainy in parts like. Not bad. Not bad at all. I cannot wait for the DVD, and expect multiple-editions. In some countries, each film is getting released separately in longer cuts.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
THE PENTAGON PUSHES-BACK: PENTAGON'S INTELLIGENCE UNDERSEC WANTS TO END ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE DATABASES FOR MONITORING ANTIWAR ACTIVISTS
Washington D.C.--TALON (Threat and Local Observation Notice) was created by the Air Force in the immediate aftermath of the events of September 11th, 2001, probably in early-2002. This program of illegal surveillance is nothing new at the Defense Department. From the misuse of the Secret Service during the American Civil War (1861-65), to the misuse of military intelligence units and agencies like the Pinkerton's in the 19th and 20th century labor-struggles, unconstitutional spying-on Americans is not new.
The 1960s-70s drew-away the veil behind most of this with the 1971 break-in of an FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania, as well as numerous other "leaks" that uncovered a network of surveillance that had grown in-the-midst of an unprecedented social revolution. Watergate didn't hurt either. What is new is today's statement by Pentagon Intelligence Undersecretary James R. Clapper Jr.'s call to end these programs, and to dismantle the databases that store all the surveillance files on countless Americans. J. Edgar Hoover and Harry J. Anslinger (daddy to the Drug War and pothibition) he is not.
The Pentagon's new intelligence undersecretary is recommending the Defense Department shut down a controversial classified database that has been criticized for improperly collecting information on anti-war groups and citizens. James R. Clapper Jr., who stepped into the job two weeks ago, "does not believe they merit continuing the program as currently constituted, particularly in light of its image in the Congress and the media," said Pentagon spokesman Maj. Patrick Ryder. Clapper forwarded his recommendation to Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week, but no final decision has been made. Gates has been traveling in the Middle East and eastern Europe for most of the last two weeks. (AP, 04.26.2007)
The usual behavior of this type of bureaucratic animal is to grab more power and to thwart oversight, but after only two-weeks on-the-job, Clapper is recommending that the program be ended. What's also strange is just how public this is being made--a radical-break from the past. We know that the Army has done this kind of surveillance in a systematic respect since WWI, but many of these activities were taken-up by the FBI by the mid-1930s. It's always at-the-behest of the Executive branch.
For example, the Army spied-on the Bonus Expedition Marchers when they came to Washington D.C. in some of the worst-years of the Great Depression. They wanted their military bonuses early, there were no jobs anywhere, and the vets of WWI (and their families) were starving. The reaction was to infiltrate and surveil them, culminating in the beating and tear-gassing of the encamped marchers on Capitol Hill by Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower, the officers in-charge of the dirty work.
But is this the Bush administration doing this, or is it Clapper acting alone on his own initiative? Is it Cheney/Bush/Rove throwing Congress a bone? Somehow, this writer doubts this highly. It's not in-character for them to do anything remotely like this, and Clapper has forwarded his suggestions to newly-minted Defense Sec. Robert Gates. It's unlikely that Gates will approve this, and that Congress will have to end the programs through legislation (heaping-on one more thing they have to undo by the White House).
The public became aware of TALON in mid-December of 2005, and the former-GOP majority shelved any oversight for almost a year, until they were voted-out. Former-Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld refused to even discuss it when MSNBC questioned him on a 400-page document regarding the program that was leaked to them. A pesky 1982 law limits the ability of the Pentagon to spy-on American citizens, but that's never stopped the Bush administration. Who helped-directly in the creation of TALON? One Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense at that time. Thanks again, but we on the Left guessed history was going to repeat itself:
The military’s penchant for collecting domestic intelligence is disturbing — but familiar — to Christopher Pyle, a former Army intelligence officer. “Some people never learn,” he says. During the Vietnam War, Pyle blew the whistle on the Defense Department for monitoring and infiltrating anti-war and civil rights protests when he published an article in the Washington Monthly in January 1970. The public was outraged and a lengthy congressional investigation followed that revealed that the military had conducted investigations on at least 100,000 American citizens. Pyle got more than 100 military agents to testify that they had been ordered to spy on U.S. citizens — many of them anti-war protestors and civil rights advocates. In the wake of the investigations, Pyle helped Congress write a law placing new limits on military spying inside the U.S. (MSNBC, 12.14.2005)
No, some people don't learn, but that's because they were on a drinking-binge in college, avoiding the draft. It's a little hard to learn when you avoid all responsibility or any direct-experience with normal people and civil society in-general. That might be why, just a guess.
There is another dimension to all of this--the public's knowledge of such programs can be useful as part of overarching "psyops" programs (psychological operations) to scare anyone from even considering protesting or questioning the White House's agenda in Afghanistan and Iraq. It can be seen as an attempt at creating a "chilling-effect." Sorry, it didn't work on this writer, I was protesting in-the-aftermath of the program's cover being blown. Fear is for fair-weather patriots, after all. I'm not scared so-easily. This is the era of the real whistle-blowers, the government-employee who sees illegal-acts and reports them to the public. The wheel has turned.
AP Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070426/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pentagon_terror_database
MSNBC 12.14.2005: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316
The 1960s-70s drew-away the veil behind most of this with the 1971 break-in of an FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania, as well as numerous other "leaks" that uncovered a network of surveillance that had grown in-the-midst of an unprecedented social revolution. Watergate didn't hurt either. What is new is today's statement by Pentagon Intelligence Undersecretary James R. Clapper Jr.'s call to end these programs, and to dismantle the databases that store all the surveillance files on countless Americans. J. Edgar Hoover and Harry J. Anslinger (daddy to the Drug War and pothibition) he is not.
The Pentagon's new intelligence undersecretary is recommending the Defense Department shut down a controversial classified database that has been criticized for improperly collecting information on anti-war groups and citizens. James R. Clapper Jr., who stepped into the job two weeks ago, "does not believe they merit continuing the program as currently constituted, particularly in light of its image in the Congress and the media," said Pentagon spokesman Maj. Patrick Ryder. Clapper forwarded his recommendation to Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week, but no final decision has been made. Gates has been traveling in the Middle East and eastern Europe for most of the last two weeks. (AP, 04.26.2007)
The usual behavior of this type of bureaucratic animal is to grab more power and to thwart oversight, but after only two-weeks on-the-job, Clapper is recommending that the program be ended. What's also strange is just how public this is being made--a radical-break from the past. We know that the Army has done this kind of surveillance in a systematic respect since WWI, but many of these activities were taken-up by the FBI by the mid-1930s. It's always at-the-behest of the Executive branch.
For example, the Army spied-on the Bonus Expedition Marchers when they came to Washington D.C. in some of the worst-years of the Great Depression. They wanted their military bonuses early, there were no jobs anywhere, and the vets of WWI (and their families) were starving. The reaction was to infiltrate and surveil them, culminating in the beating and tear-gassing of the encamped marchers on Capitol Hill by Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower, the officers in-charge of the dirty work.
But is this the Bush administration doing this, or is it Clapper acting alone on his own initiative? Is it Cheney/Bush/Rove throwing Congress a bone? Somehow, this writer doubts this highly. It's not in-character for them to do anything remotely like this, and Clapper has forwarded his suggestions to newly-minted Defense Sec. Robert Gates. It's unlikely that Gates will approve this, and that Congress will have to end the programs through legislation (heaping-on one more thing they have to undo by the White House).
The public became aware of TALON in mid-December of 2005, and the former-GOP majority shelved any oversight for almost a year, until they were voted-out. Former-Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld refused to even discuss it when MSNBC questioned him on a 400-page document regarding the program that was leaked to them. A pesky 1982 law limits the ability of the Pentagon to spy-on American citizens, but that's never stopped the Bush administration. Who helped-directly in the creation of TALON? One Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense at that time. Thanks again, but we on the Left guessed history was going to repeat itself:
The military’s penchant for collecting domestic intelligence is disturbing — but familiar — to Christopher Pyle, a former Army intelligence officer. “Some people never learn,” he says. During the Vietnam War, Pyle blew the whistle on the Defense Department for monitoring and infiltrating anti-war and civil rights protests when he published an article in the Washington Monthly in January 1970. The public was outraged and a lengthy congressional investigation followed that revealed that the military had conducted investigations on at least 100,000 American citizens. Pyle got more than 100 military agents to testify that they had been ordered to spy on U.S. citizens — many of them anti-war protestors and civil rights advocates. In the wake of the investigations, Pyle helped Congress write a law placing new limits on military spying inside the U.S. (MSNBC, 12.14.2005)
No, some people don't learn, but that's because they were on a drinking-binge in college, avoiding the draft. It's a little hard to learn when you avoid all responsibility or any direct-experience with normal people and civil society in-general. That might be why, just a guess.
There is another dimension to all of this--the public's knowledge of such programs can be useful as part of overarching "psyops" programs (psychological operations) to scare anyone from even considering protesting or questioning the White House's agenda in Afghanistan and Iraq. It can be seen as an attempt at creating a "chilling-effect." Sorry, it didn't work on this writer, I was protesting in-the-aftermath of the program's cover being blown. Fear is for fair-weather patriots, after all. I'm not scared so-easily. This is the era of the real whistle-blowers, the government-employee who sees illegal-acts and reports them to the public. The wheel has turned.
AP Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070426/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pentagon_terror_database
MSNBC 12.14.2005: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) still-unreleased: Please sign the petition (once)
Warner Brothers are still dragging their feet on releasing this film to DVD. Here's a link to a petition (now at 462 as of this writing). It's like suppressing Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, because The Devils is an important-part of Western cinema, and probably one of the most-important political films ever made. BFI has listed it as one of the most-important British films ever made.
Why isn't it available? I would wager it's the institutional-memory at Warners. They're mad that Russell got-away with making it, and other movies, that irritate authoritarian-types. There are a couple renegade-versions of this film available on the internet--searches will take you to them without much effort. You've never seen anything like it. Maybe they can release it when Blu-Ray is obsolete (it'll be a hologram, but it won't matter by then).
Petition to Barner Wrothers to re-release Ken Russell's The Devils Uncut: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?Grandier
Why isn't it available? I would wager it's the institutional-memory at Warners. They're mad that Russell got-away with making it, and other movies, that irritate authoritarian-types. There are a couple renegade-versions of this film available on the internet--searches will take you to them without much effort. You've never seen anything like it. Maybe they can release it when Blu-Ray is obsolete (it'll be a hologram, but it won't matter by then).
Petition to Barner Wrothers to re-release Ken Russell's The Devils Uncut: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?Grandier
STANDOFF AT GERALD FORD'S GRAVE: STILL DEAD
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN--It appears that decapitating the corpse, and the placement of garlic-garlands in the grave have worked. He's not getting-up. President Cheney recently visited the grave site to absorb more evil from the husk. This is convenient, I don't have to drive very far for a place to piss.
BUSH AGAIN REITERATES HIS FULL CONFIDENCE IN OWN PERFORMANCE
wArSHINtUhn--How nice that must be. Gimme some of what he's having...
Ken Russell's Whore (1991, Unrated version) review
The comments over the years on this film are both amusing and frustrating, and I just hope Mr. Russell has read a few of them, as it would probably tickle him to-no-end. Come on, people: this is the real deal here, and these are most of the realities of prostitution. It isn't pretty or glamorous, is it? How much value is attached to the life of a prostitute?
Ask the King County sheriff's Department and the Seattle Police Department--they allowed the Green River killer to run riot for 20+ years thanks to their own rampant hatred and bigotry towards prostitutes. That hatred also exists throughout our culture and in the minds and attitudes of many Americans.
This is a pure film for Ken Russell, and a compassionate statement for the victims of prostitution, namely, the whores. Legalization is (wisely) advocated, and we even treated to a few of the arguments for it (from a pimp-character himself) and what some of the drawbacks would be: no bribes for the dirty cops and politicians, no control by pimps and politicians (the same thing) of these women over their own bodies, proper regulation of sexually-transmitted diseases, and-so-on. In other words, there are numerous elements of our society who benefit from the status quo of prostitution. But what other reasons for keeping prostitution illegal are there? The emancipation of the victims. This doesn't support the current social order, therefore...
It would also mean the prostitutes would get the biggest-cut, which is anathema to these bastards. If prostitutes controlled the business as many of them did before the early-20th century, they would be very powerful women indeed, and a social force to be reckoned with. They would be revolutionaries. Sex is a nexus of control as well as a doorway to liberation. At one time, so-called "madams" were some of the greatest benefactors to charities and progressive social movements. Legalization of prostitution is a key towards emancipation of its victims, offering needed regulation of STDs, as well as a previously untapped flow of tax-revenues that would be dramatic.
Currently, several developed nations are going in this direction, but the USA prefers sticking with policies that the Saudi Royal Family would approve of. Leave the whores alone, just ensure that they have health care, are taxed like everyone else, and aren't vulnerable to murder anymore. It seems that that's asking too much, so demands are going to have to be made eventually. There are other reasons why prostitution is illegal...
One should remember that it was rich women in America who got the profession criminalized--partly to stop their rich husbands from frequenting them. Not that it ever worked--they're still doing it anyway, even as I write this. Prostitution is illegal for means of social control, period. Ever notice how the rich and powerful are obsessed by what the "other-half" does in the bedroom? Puritans are the most sexually-obsessed people there are. Watch this film, and you will understand that Mr. Russell is a genuine Christian with a heart. After all, Jesus consorted with such people, didn't he? They need our help and our compassion, which is the main theme of this film.
Ken Russell appears to enjoy the inherent bawdiness of the material-at-hand, or he wouldn't be Ken Russell, would he? The dialog itself is a dream, and David Mamet's plays/screenplays would be a good analogy, very hardcore and street level. This is because the dialog came from real prostitutes and their stories, almost making this a social document of when it was made, and it will surely still be relevant so long as it's a crime in this nation or any nation. As a matter of fact, the original play it was based on was written by a former lady of the night.
While some have commented on the low-budget look of the film, I don't think that this is accurate. It compositions look slick and well-conceived for maximum impact, and cinematography-wise it's simply gorgeous. Many of the scenes are shot in a color-coded style for various characters and scenarios, and it works well as it did in Russell's "Crimes of Passion" (1984). The reasons for these opinions come from the fact that no new format versions have been produced, and so we're left with shoddy-transfers from VHS and Laserdisc copies from the early-1990s.
All that aside, Theresa Russell (no relation to the writer/director) is astonishing in her portrayal of a woman trapped in "the life," she wants out desperately, and it's more than she ever bargained for. This is anthropologically correct. Like Kathleen Turner, Russell is easily one of the greatest actresses of her generation, and she proves it in this role as Turner did in "Crimes." She shows us the sorrow of prostitution, while simultaneously projecting her sexuality as an actor, which is a real trick.
If you enjoyed Crimes of Passion nearly as much as I did (I consider it a masterpiece), this will be a wonderful companion-film for you, dear viewers. You either love or hate Ken Russell, and he has always been my favorite form of a high-stress personality endurance test. Most tend to fail this test, but it takes all kinds, doesn't it? Russell's genius in this film is using the iconography of our sexualized culture (including crass imagery from advertising), and throws it in our face showing the ugliness and emptiness behind the commodification of sex and our bodies.
This is a real accomplishment considering how great the film looks and its stress on stylization and an interesting aestheticizing of sexual imagery pack a potent punch. Nonetheless, Russell succeeds here, and the ultimate lessons on prostitution are significantly different from the hollow Hollywood portrayal of the trade in "Pretty Woman" (1990). In fact, it's the obverse. "Whore's" grim portrayal brings us the core-truths of prostitution through style and composition on a classically-structured silver platter.
We are confronted with many of the reasons why women become prostitutes (from their perspective), why many can never escape it, and how many of them--because of their vocation--can never enjoy sex ever again. Once it hits DVD (sometime around the Apocalypse), it will finally be able to be reassessed properly, as some of Russell's canon has recently.
That it shines so brightly on my unrated VHS copy is a testament to its inherent brilliance, and to the genius of director Ken Russell. "Whore" contains a message to be heeded regarding the "world's oldest profession," and that's that sex has little to do with the motivations behind it.
Puritans, take heed: it shouldn't be a problem to say it. Give this man money to make another feature film! Ken recently discussed the making of Whore on the UK's version of Celebrity Big Brother, and he was a hit!
Revised 08.31.2008
WAS ROSIE O'DONNELL FIRED FROM "THE VIEW"?
tv-I hate television programming, and avoid it at-all-costs. It's just vile and empty, moronic and vulgar. If you want to destroy your potential for creativity and imagination, just watch lots of television. Also, if you want your memory to atrophy--watch television. It's an insult to the intelligence of slugs everywhere. My mother watches this show occasionally, and it's definitely boring and superficial. Strangely, Rosie O' Donnell, is one of the most-liberal voices on the show. Right message, wrong messenger. There's something about her that just rankles me--I remember first seeing her hosting VH-1's improv show in the early-1990s, which she was good at. That's where it should have ended, frankly, because she's really got a big fuckin' mouth. Not only is she fat, she's stupid, and the kind of stupid-asshole who likes parading it around. Sure, Rush Limbaugh is also a fat gay-woman, but that's another story. She adds little substance to the public dialog, and neither does Ms. Limbaugh.
No, I don't care if she's gay. I don't really care if she's fat (my ex-wife probably is, but that's another story...). It's because she's a mediocre talent who aspires to being some weird form of superstar. Fame is stupid and annoying, but at least it provides the media with an easier-route towards misinforming us with their news white-outs. Should we care that she's "having a feud with Donald Trump"? Of course not, both of them are shibboleths fobbed on us for the purposes of distraction.
The pathetic thing is this: it works. Quit-watching these idiots who could fuck-up an orgasm, seriously. Get your entertainment from music and movies, go to a goddamned gallery or a museum. Read a book. Write music. Take a dump. Eat an apple. Start a blog. Do a drawing of someone. Pick your nose. Do a drawing of something that never existed before your drew it. Snore. Start a band. Go get-laid. Do all of them at-once--I dare you. At least something constructive will come out those things.
Oh yeah, Rosie: did ABC fire her? Who cares?! She isn't Noam Chomsky. She isn't Molly Ivins (that's for sure). She isn't Madame Curie. She isn't even stupid Gloria Steinem, or Ann C (tranny). She isn't Sappho. She isn't Helen of Troy. She isn't Cleopatra. She isn't Florence Nightingale. She isn't Joan of Arc (not even Joan of Arc was Joan of Arc). She isn't Helen Keller. She isn't Mother Jones. She isn't an Emma Goldman. She isn't Harriet Tubman. She's not Queen Elizabeth I. She's not Mary Magdalene.
She's not Nefertiti. She's not Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She isn't a Lucy Parsons or Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (some of the first woman unionists who were heroes of the IWW). She's someone who wants to be a star. Protect the First amendment, fine, but is that even why she's leaving? We don't know, but some of us on the Left are reaching-conclusions that probably have no-merit. We don't know why Rosie O' Donnell's leaving the View, and it probably doesn't matter why. There's little that's substantially progressive about her. Who cares? Cover the war in Iraq, forget Rosie. Cover the disintegration of the Bush administration. Forget Rosie.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH CALLS CHENEY'S BLUFF: HOLDING PRESS CONFERENCE ON SUBMISSION OF IMPEACHMENT BILL TODAY
Washington D.C.--This will be the real test of the sincerity of the new Democratic majority's leadership to democracy and our system of checks and balances. He's doing it today, it was just-announced on CNN, and appears that it will be held at the Capitol building. What a day: Patrick Tillman's brother Kevin slamming the High Command (and by-virtue of this, the president), the news of nine 82nd Airborne casualties, and Jennifer Lynch (remember her? she was taken-prisoner in the first-days of the war in Iraq) exploded years of White House misinformation in just one afternoon.
You know, something the media could have done early-on, but we know where they stand. If you punish Dennis Kucinich for doing what is appropriate and legal, Madame Speaker, Senate Majority Leader Reid, Rep. Emanuel, and Sen. Schumer, you will be making a serious mistake. We all know there is a lot of fiddling-with the polls lately, but the majority of the American public have spoken, and want the rule of law upheld. By November of 2006, we had all had enough of the criminality of the Bush administration, and dragging-your-feet isn't going to cut it.
Consider you political futures, and your future ability to govern. The White House has to be cleared-out, and the president removed from office along with his entire administration. Radical reforms are needed in-the-aftermath of this. The public wants it. Rep. Kucinich knows he's not going to be president by doing this, that's not his intention of running. It's to get the important issues into the public debate, something many of his so-called peers in Congress fear. Most of them are wolves who have attempted to gut any public services for the American tax-payer. It's time to run the money-changers from the temple. Cheney wasn't sick, it was just another stalling-tactic, and Kucinich has called him on it today.
You know, something the media could have done early-on, but we know where they stand. If you punish Dennis Kucinich for doing what is appropriate and legal, Madame Speaker, Senate Majority Leader Reid, Rep. Emanuel, and Sen. Schumer, you will be making a serious mistake. We all know there is a lot of fiddling-with the polls lately, but the majority of the American public have spoken, and want the rule of law upheld. By November of 2006, we had all had enough of the criminality of the Bush administration, and dragging-your-feet isn't going to cut it.
Consider you political futures, and your future ability to govern. The White House has to be cleared-out, and the president removed from office along with his entire administration. Radical reforms are needed in-the-aftermath of this. The public wants it. Rep. Kucinich knows he's not going to be president by doing this, that's not his intention of running. It's to get the important issues into the public debate, something many of his so-called peers in Congress fear. Most of them are wolves who have attempted to gut any public services for the American tax-payer. It's time to run the money-changers from the temple. Cheney wasn't sick, it was just another stalling-tactic, and Kucinich has called him on it today.
CONGRESSMAN DENNIS KUCINICH PUTTING ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT CHENEY ON THE TABLE
CLEVELAND, OHIO--This is probably the only way to sink the Bush administration, since Vice President Cheney is doing the real running of the Oval Office. Most Americans have known this since before the Bush campaign and the GOP stole the 2000 elections. A rundown of Cheney's actions would fill several-blogs, but he's surely the overall architect of the last six years of Bush administration policy, with George W. Bush doing the signing-off.
Perhaps they think the U.S. Attorney scandal, and all the other scandals will provide proceedings into criminal prosecutions. Not even an average poker-player tips their hand, so asking Pelosi, Schumer, Reid, Emanuel, and all the other senior Democrats is going to be pointless. Readers also should remember that once impeachment has been secured, the Constitution blocks further criminal-charges and proceedings.
Cheney is the right-choice: he was clearly behind the cooking of intelligence during the run-up to the war in Iraq, as well as direct-involvement in the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA-operative. He has also been the main-proponent in the Bush administration of the use of torture in the war on terror, and certainly can be viewed as the force behind all the illegal no-bid contracts in Iraq, as well as the illegal warrantless surveillance programs. Anything you hate Bush for, really originates from Dick Cheney. The Nation's John Nichols summarized things neatly yesterday:
Cheney has for decades argued for an expansion of presidential powers that far exceeds anything intended by the founders of the Republic, and with his calculated moves to disempower Congress, to keep official meetings and documents secret, and to get the president to operate by executive orders and signing statements, he has dramatically and intentionally undermined the rule of law and the Constitution. The list goes on, but the point is clear: Never in the history of the Republic has a member of the executive branch been so ripe for removal from office as Richard B. Cheney. And Congress will soon have an opportunity to begin the process of holding the most powerful -- and the most powerfully abusive -- vice president in American history to account. (The Nation, 04.23.2007)
OK, many political-analysts have gotten it wrong is some sense (except Noam Chomsky and Frontline)--Cheney is like a combination of Richard M. Nixon (president), and Spiro T. Agnew (vice president). He constitutes a rogue element within the system, an advocate of the "unitary-executive" theory for decades, and is really a "co-president." This makes him extraordinarily dangerous to our system of checks and balances, as well as to all of our core liberties under what's left of American democracy after America's panic-attack following the events of September 11th, 2001.
It's going to be a tough-fight, because there are several-members of Congress who agree with him on the powers of the presidency. Not only do they want to preserve most of these questionable powers, they also want to expand them, just as he does. Felling Dick Cheney (and George W. Bush) doesn't fit into their assertions of what the presidency is and should be. It would cause the imposition of inevitable--and necessary--limits to the office of president. The Nation piece also makes another fine-point: both President Bush and Vice President Cheney can be impeached at one time--it's written clearly in the Constitution. CQ had some interesting insights into why it's Kucinich submitting the articles of impeachment:
Ohio Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich undoubtedly would like to be one of the front-runners in the 2008 Democratic presidential nominating campaign, but being a distinct longshot does give him the luxury of saying whatever is on his mind. That is something the vociferous critic of the Bush administration and the Iraq war apparently will prove again on Tuesday, when he is expected to announce plans to offer articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. (CQ, 04.23.2007)
He doesn't really care about being elected, incidentally, it's a symbolic campaign to get the issues he's fighting for into the public dialog. Be wary of those who say this isn't so. You can impeach a standing president and vice president simultaneously. Individuals and institutions who say you cannot are either ignorant, or they're lying to the public to create a misperception of the options open to civil society in removing a criminal administration.
Nobody said it would be easy, but submitting these articles now is crucial. Will Kucinich have a co-sponsor? Perhaps not this time around, but its coming is inevitable. Nine-members of the 82nd Airborne were killed yesterday in a truck-bombing, while dozens-of-Iraqis are slaughtered daily. Situation: critical, and it's never going to improve with more troops or extensions.
But Kucinich is smart, and so is Richard Cheney. Reports came out today that Cheney was again being treated for a "blood-clot." One has to wonder if this is true. Are the vice president's medical records verifiable and public? It's worth investigation, and is a legitimate public concern for someone holding such a high office, as well as the obvious security concerns, if he's truly unable to hold-office due to his health. What's funny is, I'm seeing Vice President Cheney speaking to the press at the Capitol building slamming Senators Harry Reid, Leahy, and the drive to put a timetable on the president's war in Iraq. He looks brimming-with-vigor...
As you can discern from the links, the impending submission of the articles of impeachment were reported yesterday, and as early as the 16th of this April. But it was on March 15th that Kucinich first voiced how serious he was. The shootings at Virginia Tech prompted Rep. Kucinich to wait, and now we have Cheney's people conveniently claiming that the vice president might be ill. In a widely-published editorial, Dave Lindorff wrote:
So far impeachment is a verboten word among Democrats in Congress, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the party leadership have made it clear that anyone who steps out of line and submits a bill of impeachment will be punished. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the party leadership have made it clear that anyone who steps out of line and submits a bill of impeachment will be punished. The leadership has even gone so far as to attempt—with considerable success—to crush grassroots efforts to introduce impeachment resolutions in state legislatures (such pressure on key Democrats killed such a measure in New Mexico, and derailed another in the state of Washington, and is being used now to attempt to block a third effort in Vermont). (Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinel, 03.19.2007)
Why would the Democratic leadership try to protect the Bush White House? Again, to protect those powers of the Executive that they covet, but also because many of them also take marching-orders from America's elites. They still share many of the war's aims, geopolitically, with those of the GOP--just listen closely to their speeches and what they do and do not say.
Fine, it might be true--Cheney might be sick. But the timing is extremely propitious. It seems calculated. Kucinich has talked about the option of impeachment for months, but this writer believes targeting Cheney first is a new-development for the Democratic representative from Ohio. Hey, Rep. Kucinich: time to submit those articles TODAY, and hold a press conference immediately, he's well enough. But, Cheney's sick alright: he's criminally insane, an advocate of torture and so much more.
The Nation's Editorial Yesterday: http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070423/cm_thenation/1189256_1
AP Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070423/ap_on_el_pr/kucinich_cheney
CQ Yesterday: http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/04/kucinichs_pending_call_to_impe.html
Rep. Dennis Kucinich's statement today: http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=63379
His blog!: http://www.denniskucinich.us/
Dave Lindorff on impeachment: http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/031907Lindorff.shtml
Perhaps they think the U.S. Attorney scandal, and all the other scandals will provide proceedings into criminal prosecutions. Not even an average poker-player tips their hand, so asking Pelosi, Schumer, Reid, Emanuel, and all the other senior Democrats is going to be pointless. Readers also should remember that once impeachment has been secured, the Constitution blocks further criminal-charges and proceedings.
Cheney is the right-choice: he was clearly behind the cooking of intelligence during the run-up to the war in Iraq, as well as direct-involvement in the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA-operative. He has also been the main-proponent in the Bush administration of the use of torture in the war on terror, and certainly can be viewed as the force behind all the illegal no-bid contracts in Iraq, as well as the illegal warrantless surveillance programs. Anything you hate Bush for, really originates from Dick Cheney. The Nation's John Nichols summarized things neatly yesterday:
Cheney has for decades argued for an expansion of presidential powers that far exceeds anything intended by the founders of the Republic, and with his calculated moves to disempower Congress, to keep official meetings and documents secret, and to get the president to operate by executive orders and signing statements, he has dramatically and intentionally undermined the rule of law and the Constitution. The list goes on, but the point is clear: Never in the history of the Republic has a member of the executive branch been so ripe for removal from office as Richard B. Cheney. And Congress will soon have an opportunity to begin the process of holding the most powerful -- and the most powerfully abusive -- vice president in American history to account. (The Nation, 04.23.2007)
OK, many political-analysts have gotten it wrong is some sense (except Noam Chomsky and Frontline)--Cheney is like a combination of Richard M. Nixon (president), and Spiro T. Agnew (vice president). He constitutes a rogue element within the system, an advocate of the "unitary-executive" theory for decades, and is really a "co-president." This makes him extraordinarily dangerous to our system of checks and balances, as well as to all of our core liberties under what's left of American democracy after America's panic-attack following the events of September 11th, 2001.
It's going to be a tough-fight, because there are several-members of Congress who agree with him on the powers of the presidency. Not only do they want to preserve most of these questionable powers, they also want to expand them, just as he does. Felling Dick Cheney (and George W. Bush) doesn't fit into their assertions of what the presidency is and should be. It would cause the imposition of inevitable--and necessary--limits to the office of president. The Nation piece also makes another fine-point: both President Bush and Vice President Cheney can be impeached at one time--it's written clearly in the Constitution. CQ had some interesting insights into why it's Kucinich submitting the articles of impeachment:
Ohio Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich undoubtedly would like to be one of the front-runners in the 2008 Democratic presidential nominating campaign, but being a distinct longshot does give him the luxury of saying whatever is on his mind. That is something the vociferous critic of the Bush administration and the Iraq war apparently will prove again on Tuesday, when he is expected to announce plans to offer articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. (CQ, 04.23.2007)
He doesn't really care about being elected, incidentally, it's a symbolic campaign to get the issues he's fighting for into the public dialog. Be wary of those who say this isn't so. You can impeach a standing president and vice president simultaneously. Individuals and institutions who say you cannot are either ignorant, or they're lying to the public to create a misperception of the options open to civil society in removing a criminal administration.
Nobody said it would be easy, but submitting these articles now is crucial. Will Kucinich have a co-sponsor? Perhaps not this time around, but its coming is inevitable. Nine-members of the 82nd Airborne were killed yesterday in a truck-bombing, while dozens-of-Iraqis are slaughtered daily. Situation: critical, and it's never going to improve with more troops or extensions.
But Kucinich is smart, and so is Richard Cheney. Reports came out today that Cheney was again being treated for a "blood-clot." One has to wonder if this is true. Are the vice president's medical records verifiable and public? It's worth investigation, and is a legitimate public concern for someone holding such a high office, as well as the obvious security concerns, if he's truly unable to hold-office due to his health. What's funny is, I'm seeing Vice President Cheney speaking to the press at the Capitol building slamming Senators Harry Reid, Leahy, and the drive to put a timetable on the president's war in Iraq. He looks brimming-with-vigor...
As you can discern from the links, the impending submission of the articles of impeachment were reported yesterday, and as early as the 16th of this April. But it was on March 15th that Kucinich first voiced how serious he was. The shootings at Virginia Tech prompted Rep. Kucinich to wait, and now we have Cheney's people conveniently claiming that the vice president might be ill. In a widely-published editorial, Dave Lindorff wrote:
So far impeachment is a verboten word among Democrats in Congress, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the party leadership have made it clear that anyone who steps out of line and submits a bill of impeachment will be punished. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the party leadership have made it clear that anyone who steps out of line and submits a bill of impeachment will be punished. The leadership has even gone so far as to attempt—with considerable success—to crush grassroots efforts to introduce impeachment resolutions in state legislatures (such pressure on key Democrats killed such a measure in New Mexico, and derailed another in the state of Washington, and is being used now to attempt to block a third effort in Vermont). (Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinel, 03.19.2007)
Why would the Democratic leadership try to protect the Bush White House? Again, to protect those powers of the Executive that they covet, but also because many of them also take marching-orders from America's elites. They still share many of the war's aims, geopolitically, with those of the GOP--just listen closely to their speeches and what they do and do not say.
Fine, it might be true--Cheney might be sick. But the timing is extremely propitious. It seems calculated. Kucinich has talked about the option of impeachment for months, but this writer believes targeting Cheney first is a new-development for the Democratic representative from Ohio. Hey, Rep. Kucinich: time to submit those articles TODAY, and hold a press conference immediately, he's well enough. But, Cheney's sick alright: he's criminally insane, an advocate of torture and so much more.
The Nation's Editorial Yesterday: http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070423/cm_thenation/1189256_1
AP Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070423/ap_on_el_pr/kucinich_cheney
CQ Yesterday: http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/04/kucinichs_pending_call_to_impe.html
Rep. Dennis Kucinich's statement today: http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=63379
His blog!: http://www.denniskucinich.us/
Dave Lindorff on impeachment: http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/031907Lindorff.shtml
PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCES HE STILL HAS FULL CONFIDENCE IN HIS OWN LEADERSHIP
wArSHINtuHN--Barney also feels the same. One is the loneliest number.
Monday, April 23, 2007
THE WORLD BANK VISITS J-7
J-7--Take a looky at the today's counter. They didn't stay, they're probably using web-bots looking-for certain keywords. You know, like "swingin'-dick."
BORIS YELTSIN, DEAD AT 76
MOSCOW--Yeah? So what. He was a pathetic-drunk and corrupt politician. It's better this way. Thank you God, human-beings need mortality. Would you want a Bush to live forever? I think not, but they'd force our hand eventually if they could. SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS! Good-riddance to the man who sold-off Russia's natural resources to a bunch of his crooked buddies (and the West).
Sunday, April 22, 2007
WHEN THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING-DOWN: TONY BLAIR TO STEP DOWN AS PM ON MAY 9TH
LONDON--This is excellent news. One more Bush ally has been sunk, and again, by themselves and their own corruption and complicity. Blair is stepping-down from 10 Downing Street on May 9th, just a week after my birthday! What a great gift, and a wonderfully ominous foreboding for the Bush administration. First, it was Berlusconi, who's also under-investigation for corruption in Italy, now it's Tony Blair. None of this should be unsurprising to even the most casual observer.
The obstructions are ending, and the forces of law-and-order are prevailing. Humanity has tired of the games, the lies, the corruption, the deceit, and the obvious criminality. It's likely that other elites in the UK and America have pulled-the-plug, seeing the actions of these regimes as a threat to the long-term prospects for their power. It simply went too-far, and now they're ending it. But it could also be a confluence-of-events where this couldn't be hidden any longer. We may never know. New Labour must be extinguished forever, but it's a wait-and-see with Blair's likely successor, Chancellor Gordon Brown of (don't laugh) New Labour.
The other thing that's great about all for the working-classes of is that Labour has finally rid-itself of their Bill Clinton and a symbol of Anglo-American "neoliberalism." Most of South America is also rejecting Clinton's and the DNC's policies in this economic sphere, with infighting and corruption charges against Paul Wolfowitz dividing and hamstringing the World Bank. For those who support Empire, it's a bad-day, which is a good one for humanity. The Sunday Mail reported:
Tony Blair's decade at 10 Downing Street marks him out as one of those rare politicians who put their stamp on an era.But no sooner has that milestone been passed than the Blair era will come to an end, with the Prime Minister's resignation expected within weeks, or even days. There is almost universal agreement that Mr Blair's successor will be Chancellor Gordon Brown. ...Will Mr Brown embark on a purge of Mr Blair's ministers and policies? And, perhaps most importantly, how long will the Brown era last? Conservatives have been busy over the last few years predicting that Brown. (24dash.com, 04.22.2007)
Nobody knows what all this means yet, and it's unclear whether Blair will face any prosecution for what might be his involvement in a corruption scandal within the government, involving bribery. He's been questioned by Police twice now. Charges are coming-soon for some of Blair's aides--Lord Michael Levy, and Ruth Turner--and can bee seen as what's behind this capitulation of power and office. He cannot run or obstruct any more, and Iraq continues to be an Achilles heel for the Prime Minister who has held-office for 10-years.
Again, Blair is to the UK as Clinton was to America: a phony pseudo-liberal Trojan horse who essentially expedited radical conservative agendas, gutting ministries that served the common good, and an over-favoring of the wants of the business community over the basic-needs of the electorate. This is the reality of "New Labour," which is not really Labour-oriented at all, but a hijacking of the party by a small group of class-traitors like Blair who got a good buggering in the Public School system (private boarding schools for future UK-elites and their functionary leadership--America has similar institutions).
This is why one shouldn't expect any radical break with Brown, who has called himself a "progenitor" of Blair's, or a spiritual step-child. Here's a rundown on some of the perps:
Detectives in past months broadened their inquiry to probe whether members of Blair's inner circle sought to conceal evidence from police. Two close Blair aides are among three people who remain on police bail and both are under suspicion of taking part in a cover-up. All those questioned in the probe deny any wrongdoing. Lord Michael Levy, Blair's chief fundraiser and Middle East envoy, has been arrested twice [Ed.-my emphasis.], the second time in January on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Levy's spokesman said he had no comment. In March, Levy branded as inaccurate media reports that he had asked a second Blair aide, Ruth Turner, to "shape" her evidence. Turner, Blair's director of government relations and referred to as his "gatekeeper", was also arrested in January on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. Wealthy Labour Party backer Christopher Evans, a biotechnology tycoon, also remains on bail. (Reuters, 04.20.2007)
What a week it has been for the Bush administration, hasn't it? Two GOP-congressmen down, and more-to-come. Gonzales being grilled for five-hours by the Senate Judiciary Committee--and the most-vocal critics were Republicans. Then, there's the emergency supplemental bill that isn't going to get-passed anytime soon. This is the chickens coming-home to roost. They convinced themselves that they were smarter than everyone else, and that their ongoing-corruption could never be checked by civil society. They were wrong.
Today, their supporters are in-denial, while others will be smarting with the reality that they backed a bunch of criminals. Others will slink into-the-shadows, knowing their psychology is the same as Blair's, George W. Bush's, Silvio Berlusconi's, and-so-on. Lord Levy (Jews can be English Lords?) had personal reasons in joining-forces with Tony Blair and New Labour: his taxes.
Although a multi-millionaire, he only paid £5,000 in tax in 1998-9 and less than £10,000 in 1997-8 as he said he wasn't working. He runs a private company called Wireart, an investment company which was based in an oversea tax haven until 1997. Wireart paid him £160,000 (plus £50,000 expenses) for work as a management consultant in 1998-9 at the time he wasn't working. Since 1992 he has been Chairman of Jewish Care, one of the UK's biggest charities (he was asked to join by the Tory minister Lord Young), raising as much as £60 million. (red-star-research.org)
Save the charges of anti-Semitism for the unintelligent and naive, he's simply corrupt. You think hell have an espresso machine by his holding-cell? The time of these scoundrels is ending, and now we have to work as responsible citizens in limiting these behaviors by our elected officials. It appears that the criminal justice systems in the United States and the UK are still somewhat-intact, and that the ilk of Blair and Bush haven't destroyed all of civil society...yet.
That Lord Levy schmuck: http://www.red-star-research.org.uk/subframe1.html
24dash.com Today: http://www.24dash.com/centralgovernment/19644.htm
Reuters, 04.20.2007: http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldnews&storyID=2007-04-20T212514Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-294996-2.xml
The obstructions are ending, and the forces of law-and-order are prevailing. Humanity has tired of the games, the lies, the corruption, the deceit, and the obvious criminality. It's likely that other elites in the UK and America have pulled-the-plug, seeing the actions of these regimes as a threat to the long-term prospects for their power. It simply went too-far, and now they're ending it. But it could also be a confluence-of-events where this couldn't be hidden any longer. We may never know. New Labour must be extinguished forever, but it's a wait-and-see with Blair's likely successor, Chancellor Gordon Brown of (don't laugh) New Labour.
The other thing that's great about all for the working-classes of is that Labour has finally rid-itself of their Bill Clinton and a symbol of Anglo-American "neoliberalism." Most of South America is also rejecting Clinton's and the DNC's policies in this economic sphere, with infighting and corruption charges against Paul Wolfowitz dividing and hamstringing the World Bank. For those who support Empire, it's a bad-day, which is a good one for humanity. The Sunday Mail reported:
Tony Blair's decade at 10 Downing Street marks him out as one of those rare politicians who put their stamp on an era.But no sooner has that milestone been passed than the Blair era will come to an end, with the Prime Minister's resignation expected within weeks, or even days. There is almost universal agreement that Mr Blair's successor will be Chancellor Gordon Brown. ...Will Mr Brown embark on a purge of Mr Blair's ministers and policies? And, perhaps most importantly, how long will the Brown era last? Conservatives have been busy over the last few years predicting that Brown. (24dash.com, 04.22.2007)
Nobody knows what all this means yet, and it's unclear whether Blair will face any prosecution for what might be his involvement in a corruption scandal within the government, involving bribery. He's been questioned by Police twice now. Charges are coming-soon for some of Blair's aides--Lord Michael Levy, and Ruth Turner--and can bee seen as what's behind this capitulation of power and office. He cannot run or obstruct any more, and Iraq continues to be an Achilles heel for the Prime Minister who has held-office for 10-years.
Again, Blair is to the UK as Clinton was to America: a phony pseudo-liberal Trojan horse who essentially expedited radical conservative agendas, gutting ministries that served the common good, and an over-favoring of the wants of the business community over the basic-needs of the electorate. This is the reality of "New Labour," which is not really Labour-oriented at all, but a hijacking of the party by a small group of class-traitors like Blair who got a good buggering in the Public School system (private boarding schools for future UK-elites and their functionary leadership--America has similar institutions).
This is why one shouldn't expect any radical break with Brown, who has called himself a "progenitor" of Blair's, or a spiritual step-child. Here's a rundown on some of the perps:
Detectives in past months broadened their inquiry to probe whether members of Blair's inner circle sought to conceal evidence from police. Two close Blair aides are among three people who remain on police bail and both are under suspicion of taking part in a cover-up. All those questioned in the probe deny any wrongdoing. Lord Michael Levy, Blair's chief fundraiser and Middle East envoy, has been arrested twice [Ed.-my emphasis.], the second time in January on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Levy's spokesman said he had no comment. In March, Levy branded as inaccurate media reports that he had asked a second Blair aide, Ruth Turner, to "shape" her evidence. Turner, Blair's director of government relations and referred to as his "gatekeeper", was also arrested in January on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. Wealthy Labour Party backer Christopher Evans, a biotechnology tycoon, also remains on bail. (Reuters, 04.20.2007)
What a week it has been for the Bush administration, hasn't it? Two GOP-congressmen down, and more-to-come. Gonzales being grilled for five-hours by the Senate Judiciary Committee--and the most-vocal critics were Republicans. Then, there's the emergency supplemental bill that isn't going to get-passed anytime soon. This is the chickens coming-home to roost. They convinced themselves that they were smarter than everyone else, and that their ongoing-corruption could never be checked by civil society. They were wrong.
Today, their supporters are in-denial, while others will be smarting with the reality that they backed a bunch of criminals. Others will slink into-the-shadows, knowing their psychology is the same as Blair's, George W. Bush's, Silvio Berlusconi's, and-so-on. Lord Levy (Jews can be English Lords?) had personal reasons in joining-forces with Tony Blair and New Labour: his taxes.
Although a multi-millionaire, he only paid £5,000 in tax in 1998-9 and less than £10,000 in 1997-8 as he said he wasn't working. He runs a private company called Wireart, an investment company which was based in an oversea tax haven until 1997. Wireart paid him £160,000 (plus £50,000 expenses) for work as a management consultant in 1998-9 at the time he wasn't working. Since 1992 he has been Chairman of Jewish Care, one of the UK's biggest charities (he was asked to join by the Tory minister Lord Young), raising as much as £60 million. (red-star-research.org)
Save the charges of anti-Semitism for the unintelligent and naive, he's simply corrupt. You think hell have an espresso machine by his holding-cell? The time of these scoundrels is ending, and now we have to work as responsible citizens in limiting these behaviors by our elected officials. It appears that the criminal justice systems in the United States and the UK are still somewhat-intact, and that the ilk of Blair and Bush haven't destroyed all of civil society...yet.
That Lord Levy schmuck: http://www.red-star-research.org.uk/subframe1.html
24dash.com Today: http://www.24dash.com/centralgovernment/19644.htm
Reuters, 04.20.2007: http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldnews&storyID=2007-04-20T212514Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-294996-2.xml
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMIE OSTERBERG!: IGGY POP'S--GULP--60
ROCK--Since 2003, the Stooges have been getting-their-due, and boy is it heartening. It's overdue, but at least it's happening! I've been listening to the Stooges three-albums since 1986, as well as already hearing Iggy's sometimes patchy solo-career (1982's "Villagers" is probably my favorite solo song). Last-night, the Stooges did a show in San Francisco and Iggy did the stage-dive. He invented "crowd-surfing" at a 1970 Cincinnati show with the Stooges, but he's calmed-down since those days.
That's why he's still alive! I wrote Iggy in 1993 complaining about the Midwest and how much he meant--and still means--to outsiders in this part of the USA. He was cool: "Matt, Ultimately, the Midwest is not completely useless. ...There are people with some real heart there..." So true. Happy-birthday, Iggy, and shout-outs to the Asheton brothers, those crazy fuckers. I gotta get the new album, it's called "The Weirdness." It's their first full-length LP with the original Asheton-lineup since 1970, God bless em.' Now Ron and Scott can move out of their mom's basement...
That's why he's still alive! I wrote Iggy in 1993 complaining about the Midwest and how much he meant--and still means--to outsiders in this part of the USA. He was cool: "Matt, Ultimately, the Midwest is not completely useless. ...There are people with some real heart there..." So true. Happy-birthday, Iggy, and shout-outs to the Asheton brothers, those crazy fuckers. I gotta get the new album, it's called "The Weirdness." It's their first full-length LP with the original Asheton-lineup since 1970, God bless em.' Now Ron and Scott can move out of their mom's basement...
Saturday, April 21, 2007
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE 30% WHO STILL SUPPORT GEORGE BUSH AND THE GOP
I know that no appeal to reason, traditional conservatism, temperance, or the common good is going to make any of you change, but mark this: we're coming to shut all of you down, we the majority. If any of you have violated the law in your support of this criminal administration and political party, we're going to push to have you investigated. If there's any evidence of wrong-doing, you're going on-trial. If you're found-guilty, you're going to prison. Also, we're also going to raise the taxes of all of you who make more-than $100,000-a-year. We don't care if you like it, but that's what's going to happen. Another thing will be clamping-down on the defense industry, and limiting their undue influence, as well as the influence of Big business.
But what's more, we really hope you react to all of the coming reforms extra-legally and/or violently. That gives us the right within the legal traditions of this system to jail you, and we will if we have to. You have supported the subversion of American democracy, and the rule of law in a civil society. If you continue on this route, we're going to stop you. We're already prosecuting and jailing your representatives in Congress, and we're coming for any of you who think that what occurred under the administration of George W. Bush is going to happen again.
The basis of all of this is that if any of you ever attempt any of this again, we're going to destroy you with our legal system, as well as with the internet. We will tar-and-feather you, something Americans haven't done to scoundrels like you for far-too-long. You have poisoned the dialog between the average American with your vile consumerism, your cancerous acquisitiveness, and the contamination of others with your inhuman greed.
You really all are a bunch of dirty scumbags with the diseased minds of criminals. You're anti-democratic Philistines, and we're going to take your criminally-acquired wealth away from you. Another thing we're going to do is limit your abilities at influencing the political process through PACs and lobbying. There are several reforms that will be coming--already authored--that are going to slam this door shut for decades. Not only will you not be winning any seats in the 2008 elections in Congress, you're not going to be in the White House for a very-long time.
We're going to be watching polling-places to see if you're stupid enough to try stealing any more elections too. You really are a bunch of self-destructive and fatalistic death lovers who have engineered their own destruction. All of this was made-possible by you, the 30% who are either insane, emotionally-retarded, or simply criminally-minded. It doesn't matter, because we're coming for all of you, and we're going to neutralize your ability to hurt our society any longer. The beauty of it all is--you really did it to yourselves...and us.
But what's more, we really hope you react to all of the coming reforms extra-legally and/or violently. That gives us the right within the legal traditions of this system to jail you, and we will if we have to. You have supported the subversion of American democracy, and the rule of law in a civil society. If you continue on this route, we're going to stop you. We're already prosecuting and jailing your representatives in Congress, and we're coming for any of you who think that what occurred under the administration of George W. Bush is going to happen again.
The basis of all of this is that if any of you ever attempt any of this again, we're going to destroy you with our legal system, as well as with the internet. We will tar-and-feather you, something Americans haven't done to scoundrels like you for far-too-long. You have poisoned the dialog between the average American with your vile consumerism, your cancerous acquisitiveness, and the contamination of others with your inhuman greed.
You really all are a bunch of dirty scumbags with the diseased minds of criminals. You're anti-democratic Philistines, and we're going to take your criminally-acquired wealth away from you. Another thing we're going to do is limit your abilities at influencing the political process through PACs and lobbying. There are several reforms that will be coming--already authored--that are going to slam this door shut for decades. Not only will you not be winning any seats in the 2008 elections in Congress, you're not going to be in the White House for a very-long time.
We're going to be watching polling-places to see if you're stupid enough to try stealing any more elections too. You really are a bunch of self-destructive and fatalistic death lovers who have engineered their own destruction. All of this was made-possible by you, the 30% who are either insane, emotionally-retarded, or simply criminally-minded. It doesn't matter, because we're coming for all of you, and we're going to neutralize your ability to hurt our society any longer. The beauty of it all is--you really did it to yourselves...and us.
Friday, April 20, 2007
YET ANOTHER GOP SHOE FALLS: ABRAMOFF-LINKED CALIFORNIA REP. JOHN DOOLITTLE
Oakton, Virginia--This must be a bad day to be a Republican, but what day isn't being one of the cursed? Today, it was John Doolittle's house being raided by the FBI, so it appears that the Bush administration didn't fire everyone they needed to, and that Jack Abramoff is still talking to federal investigators. You've got to love these prosecutors--they've been the firewall protecting our liberties against the GOP and this administration for some time, and especially after 9/11. No, they're not perfect, but many of them have been exemplary.
Today, in Oakton:
The search on the Doolittles’ home came the same day that Kevin Ring, a former Doolittle aide who went on to work for Abramoff, abruptly resigned his law firm job without explanation. Doolittle’s ties to Abramoff have been under investigation in the ongoing probe that already sent one former Republican congressman, Bob Ney of Ohio, to jail on a guilty plea to charges of conspiracy and making false statements. Doolittle is a Northern California conservative and ally of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. (AP, 04.20.2007)Or maybe it was Doolittle's former aide, Kevin Ring who squealed? Both? Mugsy don't like it. Expect many-many more of these stories. The GOP seems intent on assuring a Democratic majority in the House for the next-twenty years, or why would they hamstring themselves so badly? Even Spiro T. Agnew was smarter than this, but they thought their majority would last long enough that they could escape investigation. A landslide occurred in our midterms, and they couldn't steal another election, it's that simple. People were watching the polls closer in 2006 as well. The public had had enough.
What we will learn once all of this has ended--in ten years--is that this really was a widespread criminal conspiracy throughout the body of the GOP. This is the third time in 35 years that they've attempted to subvert the Constitution they are all sworn to uphold. This period goes way-beyond that, and into the realms of gutter criminality.
Rep. John Doolittle, in measured but defiant terms, said Friday that he won't resign his House of Representatives seat and will battle the federal government if it brings charges of political corruption in connection with his and his wife's relationship with convicted super lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "If there is anything we should have learned from the Duke (University) lacrosse case, it is that the destruction of the reputations of innocent people can occur when the government, the press and the public jump to unfounded conclusions," Doolittle, R-Calif., said in prepared remarks opening a telephone news conference. (McClatchy Newspapers, 04.20.2007)Except who said the Duke players are innocent (of holding a woman against-her-will in a bathroom, making her think she would be murdered...) except them, their lawyers, and their wealthy parents? That story isn't over yet because you and them say so.This should all be handled by our criminal justice system, one that has proven itself to be more loyal to the common good than most elected officials currently occupying the White House and Capitol Hill.
I'm actually proud of many of them, and would like to take this moment and saying thank-you to all these professionals who have refused to allow the investigative process to be criminally-tainted! Yes, it's people within the bureaucracy who have been trying to stop the Bush administration and their criminal fellow travelers in Congress. What will we find in the Supreme Court?
Future generations are going to be shocked at the period we're living in, and we should give them the appropriate follow-up: several decades of radical reforms that rollback the influence of Big business and finance.
AP Today: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18202794
McClatchy Newspapers Today: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/17110700.htm
McClatchy Newspapers Today: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/17110700.htm
SERGIO LEONE'S "DUCK, YOU SUCKER!" (AKA "FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE") FINALLY BEING RELEASED RESTORED BY MGM
HOLLYWOOD--I'm unsure whether there will be a screening of the restored director's cut, but it appears to be at a running-time of 157-8 minutes. This would make it as close to Sergio Leone's original-cut from 1972 as we're ever going to see. I'm wondering if the rape scene with Rod Steiger is intact? Reviews of the Italian restoration report it looks beautiful with all the colors corrected, very solid. This was the last Western Leone would ever direct, though it's rumored he directed a few scenes in "My Name is Nobody"(1974), then the rest was pre-production for "Once Upon a Time in America," his final masterpiece.
Duck, You Sucker (Leone's title) is no-less a masterpiece of cinema, an extraordinary fictionalization within the Mexican Revolution. MGM Home video is releasing it as a 2-DVD set towards the end of June, widescreen, which is the same treatment they gave to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Fistful of Dollars, and For a Few Dollars More restorations are already available on DVD in the EU, so we can expect those being the same quality. Leone's first film, "The Colossus of Rhodes" (1961), depicting the legendary wonder of the world as a political prison, is also due out this year. Every film directed by Sergio Leone rank among the greatest movies ever made.
PS: He was a Socialist, as most great filmmakers are.
Duck, You Sucker (Leone's title) is no-less a masterpiece of cinema, an extraordinary fictionalization within the Mexican Revolution. MGM Home video is releasing it as a 2-DVD set towards the end of June, widescreen, which is the same treatment they gave to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Fistful of Dollars, and For a Few Dollars More restorations are already available on DVD in the EU, so we can expect those being the same quality. Leone's first film, "The Colossus of Rhodes" (1961), depicting the legendary wonder of the world as a political prison, is also due out this year. Every film directed by Sergio Leone rank among the greatest movies ever made.
PS: He was a Socialist, as most great filmmakers are.
HOW MANY TIMES DID ALBERTO GONZALES CLAIM "I CAN'T REMEMBER"?
" As of now, I'm in charge here."
--Secretary of State Alexander Haig, 1981, at the War Room press conference
after the botched assassination attempt on then-President, Ronald Reagan.
Hint: he wasn't next-in-line.
74-times at yesterday's hearings, all related to conversations about the U.S. Attorney firings. He also forgot to bring home ice cream on those occasions, but he had other things on his mind. Hey, he's no Ronald Reagan, but who is? At least the Gipper had the senility defense, he was dodderingly-old at that point during the Iran-Contra hearings (1986-87). Someone--John Hinckley Jr.--whose parents and brother were friends with George H.W. Bush and his family (especially Neil) had shot him in his first term. You've got to admit it: them-thar' Demopublicans are wily...coyote. Yes, it will be the ACME of the GOP's genuine accomplishments. Those GOP politicos and cronies sure have poor-memories. I guess that alone disqualifies them from holding public office.
Reagan smiled a lot, and said things you would expect from the senile in these United States. The mentally-lazy in our great nation usually resort to phony patriotism, a sports-fixation, and beer. So anyway, stupid greedy people with no imagination or intellect felt sorry for him, and found him unthreatening. Isn't America uniquely stupid? Yes, we're an exceptional (failed) nation all right. Maybe that's why I never hoist-the-flag on our pole--we're wondering where our America went. Think like a dumbass (John Byrnes), suffer like a dumbass (John Byrnes). It's Nixon time, drop the naivete. America, what a mining-town! Alberto Gonzales: still a poor-excuse for a Mexican, or an American.
Neil Bush and John Hinckley's connection (AP, 03.31.1981): http://www.hereinreality.com/hinckley.html
--Secretary of State Alexander Haig, 1981, at the War Room press conference
after the botched assassination attempt on then-President, Ronald Reagan.
Hint: he wasn't next-in-line.
74-times at yesterday's hearings, all related to conversations about the U.S. Attorney firings. He also forgot to bring home ice cream on those occasions, but he had other things on his mind. Hey, he's no Ronald Reagan, but who is? At least the Gipper had the senility defense, he was dodderingly-old at that point during the Iran-Contra hearings (1986-87). Someone--John Hinckley Jr.--whose parents and brother were friends with George H.W. Bush and his family (especially Neil) had shot him in his first term. You've got to admit it: them-thar' Demopublicans are wily...coyote. Yes, it will be the ACME of the GOP's genuine accomplishments. Those GOP politicos and cronies sure have poor-memories. I guess that alone disqualifies them from holding public office.
Reagan smiled a lot, and said things you would expect from the senile in these United States. The mentally-lazy in our great nation usually resort to phony patriotism, a sports-fixation, and beer. So anyway, stupid greedy people with no imagination or intellect felt sorry for him, and found him unthreatening. Isn't America uniquely stupid? Yes, we're an exceptional (failed) nation all right. Maybe that's why I never hoist-the-flag on our pole--we're wondering where our America went. Think like a dumbass (John Byrnes), suffer like a dumbass (John Byrnes). It's Nixon time, drop the naivete. America, what a mining-town! Alberto Gonzales: still a poor-excuse for a Mexican, or an American.
Neil Bush and John Hinckley's connection (AP, 03.31.1981): http://www.hereinreality.com/hinckley.html
ANOTHER SHOE FALLS: ARIZONA GOP REP. RICK RENZI
TUCSON, ARIZONA--As the Bush cronies lose their protection, the shoes begin falling again. In-fairness, the wires had this yesterday, but it appears that CNN and all the other outlets on tv are fixated on the Cho-rampage at Virginia Tech (thanks to lax gun-control laws), and Alec Baldwin's angry message to his spoiled-daughter and his insane (and stupid) ex-wife Kim Basinger. It doesn't change anything doing these news white-outs. It's about just buying a little time for the president and the GOP for the disintegration of security in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well downplaying the Gonzales hearings yesterday.This was the other bad-news for the White House and GOP Thursday: Rep. Rick Renzi's "Patriot Insurance Agency" outside of Tucson was raided by the FBI in a corruption scandal over what could be a dirty land deal. Was this the reason for Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson's calls, and the firing of Paul K. Charlton as head of federal investigations for all of Arizona? The timing fits snugly.
In October, Justice Department officials confirmed that Renzi was the subject of an inquiry into a 2005 land swap that would benefit a business associate, according to The Associated Press.But Democrats raised new questions about whether the potential investigator was purged by the Bush administration after Paul K. Charlton, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, was fired.Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Thursday that Charlton was fired for "poor judgment," according to the AP. (Arizona Daily Star, 04.20.2007)
This would be bad for anybody, and Renzi has excused himself from his post on the House Intelligence Committee. With the potential of Washington D.C. having two-representatives in Congress soon, and the strong-possibility that Renzi is going to meet the fate of former-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a GOP majority in Congress appears to be unlikely for at least a decade. Further revelations of the Bush administration's criminality, the collapse of Iraq and Afghanistan and the inevitable fallout will likely cement this.
An economic-downturn could also take this even further, and fits the historical-cycle of the GOP going-back to the 1920s-30s, and even earlier. A downturn appears inevitable with the continued dependence of America on foreign oil, a collapsed housing market, corporate scandals, and a decreased presence in American power globally as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Add to this the issues of Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition, the use of torture by American intelligence, military, and private contractors, secret CIA prisons, and numerous other violations of international law by the White House.
Renzi looks like the same kind of dumb jock as Cunningham (or Warren G. Harding--thanks ladies, maybe you shouldn't vote after all...), so I guess we know why he got caught. He's not very bright, which puts him in good-company with the president, another dumb beef-headed jocko. Perhaps he won't sink, but considering his father is a retired Major General, the whole "family business" has the appearance of cronyism and the pork-barrel. You can sure see the smoke. Considering his father was his single-largest contributor to his campaign in 2002, you could say he has no-qualms about acting unethically. From October, 26th, 2006, just three-weeks shy of the U.S. Attorney firings:
Latest accusations
Of course, it doesn't take a psychic to predict that a congressional campaign will heat up during the final weeks before a Nov. 7 general election. But the heat in Renzi's kitchen noticeably increased late Tuesday when after anonymous accusations in an Democratic blog the Associated Press wrote a story saying the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona is investigating an unspecified Renzi land deal. The story quoted an anonymous law enforcement official in Washington. (Prescott Daily Courier, 10.26.2006)
The New York Times and the Washington Post also did stories on the investigations, and then...silence on the investigations, until yesterday. Surely, the inquiry was interrupted by the firing of U.S. Attorney Paul K. Charlton, as he headed the investigations for the entire state of Arizona. What appears is a pattern of meddling into federal inquiries by state-GOP incumbents and the White House. It's likely that this has a national dimension to it, expressed in the U.S. Attorney scandal itself, and was repeated in some of the other firings.
Renzi is just a part of the puzzle, and one that this writer predicts will be leaving the halls of Congress shortly. In the 2006 elections, he said it was "gloves-off when you attack my father." This isn't merely about blood being thicker than water--it's about the possibility of a family-run criminal conspiracy regarding kickbacks, bribes, and more. Funny how the wires haven't picked-up on a lot of what the Arizona press has. All they had to do was a web search, just as this writer did. It only took minutes to uncover these stories. In the immortal words of Herman J. Manciewicz (co-writer of Citizen Kane): "An editor should have a pimp for a brother, so he'd have someone to look up to." It's still true. Their mortgages are more important than your freedom, or law-and-order.
Rick Renzi (say it like Scooby-Doo, baby, it turns-me-on):
http://www.house.gov/renzi/
http://www.rickrenzi.com/
http://www.house.gov/renzi/
http://www.rickrenzi.com/
The Prescott Daily Courier, 10.26.2006: http://prescottdailycourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=41635&TM=26137.34
Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Ghatz--Wake Up and Smell the Piss (2003) review
"Uh, hey Russell--what you wanna do tonight?" "You wanna beat-the-shit out of me?" "Nahhhhhh, I got a better idea. Hey-hey--let's go get killed!"
I first heard of these nuts through their 2001 Wordsound release "2 Hype 2 Wype," 19-tracks of lo-fi, dadaist rap insanity. It's impossible to find any fan sites for these guys--this isn't that hard to believe, since these guys are to hip-hop what the Butthole Surfers were to rock in the 1980s (an antidote to overhyped garbage). I'd wager some of these guys are connected to Sage Francis in Rhode Island, as well as some of the NYC "Jew-rap" scene that features such underground luminaries like Paul Barman and even Princess Superstar.
The irony is, while this group is a send up of gangsta rap (badly needed), they do hip-hop infinitely better than such real life rappers as Master P, Kurupt, Rakim, Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Ja Rule, Eminem, Yukmouth, and all the other garbage.
This isn't hard. It takes a smidgen more of intelligence and creativity, but the dumbo model of rap is (don't laugh) less threatening. I've played these guys for b-boys and a bunch of Black people, and they were scared shitless of this material. You gotta love that. The Butthole Surfers analogy is apt, since the Hawd Gankstuhs also use vocals that are pitched-shifted octaves lower than normal, with lyrics that defy all logic. What's so hilarious is that they take many of the cliches of rap/hip-hop and filter them through the nervous systems of three crazy white boys from the East Coast. Flybot van Damme, Duke Crapmore, and Guy Albino are some damaged motherfuckers, sounding more like PCP babies and asylum inmates than rappers. It's incredibly juvenile, scatological, and irrational--exactly what makes me laugh.
As nuts as they sound, they're more hip-hop than contemporary outfits. The early days of rap were about making music that annoyed bourgeois whites and bigots. I miss those days when rap still had shock value in our culture, and when it had a sense of humor about itself. This is really comedy music that lampoons how incredibly stupid rap is today. Nothing has changed since the release of this album in 2003. Perhaps the funniest track on here is "The Bong (Get In The)," a slam on Cypress Hill where almost every line ends in "bong":
Guess what I have in my BONG? It's another BONG, and inside that bong is a baby-bong, and inside that bong is a BONG. Hey MOM, let me borrow some cash, because someone threw my stash in the trash. Hey mom, I think it was dad--he won't in-hale. I hurt so bad, think I stepped-on a snail...
The whole thing is delivered almost exactly like B-Real's nasal style, and reminded me why Cypress Hill was good for one album. Not that one-joke/themed discographies bothers any mainstream rap fans, they seem to enjoy listening to the same albums over and over. Freudians would say this obession with repetition is an unconscious desire for death, which isn't hard to imagine listening to most gangster rap lyrics. Maybe that's why Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Ghatz begin this album with a cut called "Let's Go Get Killed."
If you listen to the overall message in gangster rap, that's basically the message. These guys are just reflecting the culture back at itself, so are they juvenile and immature? Who cares? It's funny to those with a little sophistication and a sense of humor. It's impossible to tell if these guys are still together--if they ever were--but I sure hope they do another album, I could use more of these laughs and old school beats (and lo-fi production)!! Good shit. If you love Kool Keith, Digital Underground, KRS-One, Jungle Brothers, Sensational, or even De La Soul, this is for you.
Axe Load records about the boyz: http://www.loadrecords.com/
NOT ALL AMERICANS ARE STUPID: VERMONT'S SENATE VOTES IN-FAVOR OF A BUSH-CHENEY IMPEACHMENT
MONTPELIER,VERMONT--This is also very-big news. Other states are following-suit on this symbolic drive for the unseating of the Bush administration in toto. It's not about achieving it now, but about accelerating the process of investigations and oversight, as well as adding to the embattling of a rogue administration. This is about checks-and-balances that were established and upheld until the 2000 elections were stolen. Leave it the public to have the genuine commitment to democracy (with a "little-d"), not the politicians. This underscores the issues of class-loyalty.The non-binding resolution was approved 16-9 without debate — all six Republicans in the chamber at the time and three Democrats voted against it. The resolution says Bush and Cheney's actions in the U.S. and abroad, including in Iraq, "raise serious questions of constitutionality, statutory legality, and abuse of the public trust." (AP, 04.20.2007)
It's meant as more of a political-statement, which is appropriate in the current constitutional crisis that is currently unresolved. We all know that hundreds-of-laws have been violated by the Bush administration--the president has admitted this on several-occasions. What we also know is that Vice President Cheney acts as a co-president, a fact which has no precedent. Groucho Marx, top that. The Reuters piece has a different take, and is more informative. It contends that the bill also prods Vermont's representatives in Congress to introduce measures for impeachment into the agenda of the House Judiciary Committee. Reuters:
The resolution, passed by a 16 to 9 vote, urges Vermont's representatives in Washington to introduce a resolution in Congress requiring the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to start impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney. Vermont's congressional delegation has shown no serious interest in the idea, and the new Democratic-controlled Congress has also steered clear of the subject. (Reuters, 04.20.2007)
Bernie Sanders (an independent Socialist in the Senate) has already made some gestures in-this-regard, but nothing solid yet. Democrats are waiting for when the Bush administration is at their most vulnerable, but there are several others within their ranks who simply want to preserve the power of the Executive to keep getting-away with what we've seen during the last six years. They want to preserve the power of the presidency as a legal neutral zone where law-and-order scarcely exist. This is to expedite the demands of power in what elites consider a timely-manner, with little of the meddling from the public, and virtually no accountability. Follow the money.
What's missing from all of this coverage is the perspective of the average voter in Vermont--you know, the people who wanted this done. Regardless of the population of Vermont (only over 600,000), an American state government has voted for impeachment. If you want to find things out, you go to the source:
More than 125 Vermonters from 56 communities congregated at the Statehouse Tuesday and sought to pressure legislators from both chambers and of all political persuasions to act on a resolution calling for President Bush's impeachment this session.The demonstration culminated with a testy and antagonistic 30-minute exchange with the state's top two Democrats whom impeachment supporters say are blocking the resolution from moving forward."You are breaking down a cornerstone of democracy," said one woman to Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, and House Speaker Gaye Symington, D-Jericho."If the Democratic Party won't listen to us, maybe we should just leave the party," yelled one man during the meeting. (Times Argus, 04.18.2007)
Indeed--do what we want, or we're going to vote you out. Say what you want about New England, but they know their democratic traditions better than the majority of Americans. Over 40 American city councils have also done so, and it's only going to continue growing as the occupation of Iraq crumbles from attrition and no majority-support here at home. Further revelations of corruption and cronyism will also aid in the ending of what has been six years of profound criminality in Washington. An inevitable-collapse of the Bush administration is looming large, and it appears to be coming well-before they exit the White House in January of 2009. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Mainstream Democrats like Hillary Clinton would never back this, and never will (unless they have no choice), for the aforementioned reasons. One expects the Republicans to do this since they're the obvious-target, but the Democrats aren't. Or are they? This calls their commitment to democratic principles into-question, but should be unsurprising to even the most casual observer.
Vermont's Times Argus, 04.18.2007: http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070418/NEWS01/704180359/1002/NEWS01
AP Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070420/ap_on_re_us/presidential_impeachment
Reuters Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070420/pl_nm/bush_vermont_impeach_dc_1;_ylt=ApcDD2nVFqzGogUW.qmICfNH2ocA
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