Ney Bob! Ney Bob! Ney Bob! : Ney finally admits he's been lying for a living

O-HI-O--Bob Ney has plead-guilty to taking bribes from Jack Abramoff, because Federal prosecutors have the goods on him. On August 8th, Ney was asked/told by House Majority Leader John Boehner not to run for reelection.

This would mean that Boehner knew full-well of Ney's guilt during the investigations and didn't notify prosecutors. At least Ney did it all for his family, especially the free meals and the golf trip to Scotland. [Ed., 09.19.2008-But did someone have the common decency to get him laid?] Maybe Sitting Bull is getting his revenge after all.

The Democrats will probably win a majority thanks to all the convictions on the other side of the aisle. His hairpiece still looks worse than William Shatner's, which is saying a lot. Just wait, more are going to fall.

Frenzy (1972), an Example of What Hitchcock Showed, When He Could

"Lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely!"

Frenzy disproves the notion that director Alfred Hitchcock wanted to abstain from showing graphic-imagery, in-favor of cut-aways and the implied. This idea is not true. Frenzy is one of the master's most underrated-films, and his only "R-rated" motion-picture. But is it good? It is incredible. For those who would argue that "Hitchcock didn't show everything because he didn't want to" are proved-wrong by this film and by 'Psycho' (where in 1960, he pushed-the-envelope, changing movies forever). There is a simple reason for why Alfred Hitchcock didn't "show everything" in his earlier depictions of violence and murder: he wasn't allowed-to by standards-and-practices. The reality is, the master of the suspense-thriller had to use his own production-company to create Psycho at-all. By 1972, the changes wrought by Psycho and the imitators were being-felt (as well as major cultural-changes throughout the West), and he could get-away with showing some pretty graphic-violence. Does he? Oh yeah, you bet. There isn't much blood, but you see some pretty horrific-depictions of murder that the camera dwells-on for a long-long time. He showed as much as he could in all of his films, and said so for decades, and a film like Frenzy can be seen as his response to auteurs like Dario Argento. His usual sexual-subtext is out-in-the-open, and gloriously so, and so is the violence.

Ostensibly, this was to be Hitchcock's triumphant return to the UK, and it put him squarely back-at-the-top again. London in the early-1970s still looked Victorian, there were still scars from the Blitz, and it held an interesting-charm that this film captures so well. Frenzy is very-much like the film of a young man, and yet Hitch was in his 70s! The fact is, he was willing to take-chances and experimented with sound and image-techniques. He was often well-ahead of his time. There is a great cinematic moment in the story where "Babs" the barmaid is walking-out of a flat, when the entire soundtrack goes-silent--the necktie-murderer, Bob Rusk ("Bob's your uncle!"), suddenly appearing- from-behind her smirking. It is riveting and startling. Why? Because in classic Hitchcockian-fashion, he has already told us that Rusk is the serial-killer. Yes, this is possibly one of the very-first films to clearly illustrate this kind of killer, even before Uli Lommel's "Tenderness of Wolves" (1973). In 1972, the concept of the "serial-killer" was very new, and almost unknown. Fritz Lang's "M" (1931) has the distinction of being first.

The "wrong man" in this story was originally called "Blamey" (or, "blame ME'!), but Hitch wisely changed it, it would have been too-obvious. BUT, he does play the audience, sending mixed-messages about Mr. Blaney's possible guilt, until a key-scene that comes very-early in the film with Mr. Rusk. You won't miss-it, and it includes the most nudity in any Hitchcock film we will ever see (a first for Hitch). Hey, Hitchcock rarely did "mysteries", he did thrillers. In a suspense-thriller, you show-everything to the audience that you can. There are so many aspects of technique in this film that work, and the cinematography is really solid and eye-catching. Hitch had a great eye for composition too, and it often surprises viewers that he rarely ever looked-through the lens--ever.

Again, this is familiar-territory for Hitchcock-fans. The premise of the "wrongly-accused" protagonist is a running-theme in his films, and a very personal one. You see, Hitch disliked and feared the Police, and was fearful of their incompetence in apprehending the guilty. It is said that he avoided the presence of Policemen, and became extremely-nervous when they were around him in public. This is what makes a great suspense/thriller/horror director--a man with many-many fears and complexes! As-usual, we also get the patented gallows-humor, best-expressed by the poor Police Chief's meals at-the-hands of his wife! A real hoot. It's safe-to-say that Alfred Hitchcock invented the suspense-thriller, and innovated horror into the modern-age in movies.

There were others like George Romero with his "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968, and even the teleplays and screenplays of Richard Matheson (or the writings of Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch & H.P Lovecraft), but it was Hitchcock who made it all possible in mainstream-movies. We could use another director like him, but they only come-along so often. They have to be cultivated, and this isn't happening in this period of film history very often. With-luck, Hollywood will stop making films and simply distribute them again. If the career of Alfred Hitchcock illustrates anything, it is that you have to allow the artist to get on with what they do best. "Frenzy" was a hit, after-all, and literally suffered ONE cut, a close-up of a victim's tongue sticking out of her mouth! You couldn't make this film today, not with the topless strangling-scene.

Sean Penn States the Obvious in Toronto

Toronto--Monday, some wise-ass journalist asked Sean Penn a stupid question: "Is Bush a good politician?" In-between dousing photographers with his own urine from a squirt-gun, Penn answered that "One could make the argument that George Bush is a good politician...[but] I think the issue is how you define politician. Once upon a time, politics was the organization of things to benefit the people [I'm not-so-sure about that one]...so that's the level of politician I think he's good at. Out of context, he's Beelzebub -- and a dumb one."

But if you look at the scope of human-history, there is a general agreement on what makes a 'bad-king' or leader. Connected to this is the fact that leaders really do serve the whims of the people, even under a monarchy. They tolerate a leader insofar as they provide a minimum-of-stability and prosperity, as well as security. Even the Romans knew when an emperor was bad, like Caligula or Nero.
Usually, Senators or the Praetorian guard murdered them. During the Middle Ages, you had peasant-revolts, and kings were toppled. You can argue that hierarchy is inevitable, but so is the push against-it and its abuses. It appears there are stirrings of people pushing-back, but I'm not putting much stock in it.

Americans will cop-out if you throw money and comfort at them, but it appears there are no plans of that. All three-branches of government think that if they keep-passing more legislation that restricts our rights, that they'll ensure control of the present monied-establishment. But, the world economic-picture for American corporations isn't exactly pretty, and has certainly been compromised by Bush foreign-policy. Traditional allies have been alienated, and normal-routes of diplomacy have been severely-damaged. As America declines as a global power, you will see more Police State policies being advocated, which is what happens when it dawns on elites that the game is ending.

Of course, many of them thought they could trust Bush, and many of them have profited from his agenda. But then there are the Enrons and Abramoff, and it appears not everybody got to feed at the public-trough. Worse, the Bush administration just isn't good at hiding their corruption. Their only hope has been collusion with the GOP-majority in Congress, who have shielded-them from prosecution. As I write this, the GOP-Congress is still protecting the President from prosecution, and have made it clear they will never-do-so while they are in-office. As a leader, George W. Bush has failed on all-fronts, but as a politician, he's miraculously survived all of this. But has it really been miraculous?

When you show ruthlessness and a willingness to break-the-law constantly, and when nobody shows a viable-opposition to you, where is the luck in that? Beelzebub is right, and a dumb one at-that, considering how lowly the Bush administration's aims have been: to subvert American security and prosperity in-the-service of the Petroleum & defense-contracting industries. He wasn't alone, as nearly all the Democrats who voted for the war shared the same aims of expanding American-influence into Central Asia as a general-goal. But Bush has proven incompetent, and with narrower-aims. They were duped all right, just not the way they say they were. So, outside of all these factors, Sean Penn is a really talented actor, no-doubt, but aren't we all putting a little too-much faith in the comments of celebrities? He's right about politicians in-that they don't serve the general population, but when have politicians ever done what was right without being pushed into-it? That is what has changed, Mr. Penn, so why not suggest people start pushing-back? Because you're less-eloquent than I am, which isn't saying-much.

If he affects someone to go and register-to-vote, help people in New Orleans, protest the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, work at a homeless shelter--that's a great outcome. But he's as helpless as we are, and responsibility for this mess begins with ourselves. Fast Times at Ridgemont High, indeed. He's still a better-man than I, he at least felt he had to go down to the big NO and help. Next-time, he needs to buy a better boat, and not from some Cajun-swindler. What a stupid fucking question, this all makes my head hurt. Why not ask about the weather? Man, are we in-trouble as a nation.

PS 09-14-2006: The moron smoked at the Toronto film festival press-conference, and now their Health Minister is considering charges against Penn. It has become against-the-law to smoke in-public in Canada this-year. Surely someone told him...

9/11: We Were Never Safe Under the Bush administration

Today, nearly 3,000* people died because your President George W. Bush failed to respond swiftly to prevent the 9/11-attacks. Stephen Harper, take-note, Canadians aren't as stupid as Americans. Yes, that isn't saying much, point-taken. We have been under a corporatist-regime since the 2000-elections, with much of our country's direction being guided by unelected-appointees. Dick Cheney is our first CEO-in-Chief, and this should have never been tolerated for even one day by any self-respecting nation. Point-taken. What is corporatism? Imagine non-governmental councils and committees (corporations) legislating things for the rest of us. You don't have to after living-through the last six-years. The roots of this began after corporations were granted the rights of individuals, but corporatism became very real during WWI. The Wilson administration created "interlocking-networks" between government and industry, even predating Mussolini's and Hitler's national socialist structures. Government and business often became 'one'.

This fusion of the state and the business-sector got-worse during WWII and the Cold War, and it is still with us. But there were countervailing forces at the time, and organized-labor cushioned society from the militarization-threat. Today, labor is far-diminished from what it was, even from the early-1970s. One of labor's many mistakes was not fighting interventionist-policies by our government, and not allying-itself with international labor. 9/11 would never have been possible were it not for the State Department's foreign-policies of of the post-war era, but it is virtually assured they will never be what they were before Vietnam, a hopeful development.

The Executive got us into all of this mess long-ago, but there is no 'imperial Presidency' without Congressional-aid. We never saw any major domestic-attacks from foreign-elements until after we built permanent military-bases in Saudi Arabia, this is a fact. Now, we are building no-less than 14 of them in Iraq, but you always need enemies to keep a war-industry oiled. With those bases in-place, we'll attract all the enemies Halliburton and all the other defense contractors will ever need. Every single person that died during 9/11 has turned-a-buck for the people Cheney and Bush serve: the major-shareholders, our faceless-dictatorship.

For most Americans, revelations of Executive abuse-of-power during the last six-years have been a shock. How can we be torturing people? Why is the President doing roving-wiretaps? How pervasive is lobbying in Washington? Why won't Congress rein-them-in? Some stories will never be known, and are lost to history. We can be assured that the paper-shredders are working around-the-clock in Washington today, but you can't hide everything. There will be many more revelations about the Bush administration from the Libby trial, and upcoming lobbying-scandals that continue to unfold.

And so, as with so many of us, five-years-ago, my phone rang one morning. It was my best-friend, and he told me to turn-on my TV, and I did. It still hasn't registered for myself, and many others, what happened that day. Even when my friend told me his sister watched people falling to their deaths screaming across Hudson Bay, it didn't register. One of my High School class-members died in the WTC on 9/11. But not for one-moment did I ever believe the Bush administration had any right to use this event for political-gain. But they have, and it is running-out. When I watched the second plane crash into the second tower, my heart sank, because I knew they were going to rollback our rights. They sure have, and we have a major-fight on our hands. We'll have to fight the Democratic-leadership over retaking-them, too. Russ Feingold was the only senator to vote-against the Patriot Act! For that reason, he might be the only person to vote-for in 2008.


*Nobody seems to agree on the exact-number of fatalities. President George W. Bush keeps stating '3,000', while the AP reports '2,749'. Huffingtonpost headlines with 'Memorials for 2,973'. What's it going to be then?


Breaking-news: Journalist Greg Palast is being charged by the Office of Homeland Security for filming a "critical national security structure" without prior-authorization. The location is an Exxon refinery, next-to a Homeland Security/FEMA-camp where 1,600 displaced victims of Katrina and the Army Corps of Engineers are being held against-their-wills. This happened in 1927, also. It's easy to assume that most of the people at the camp are Black, along-with poor whites. Maybe those militia folks were right about FEMA after-all. Scary, isn't it?

09-14-06: Exxon, I mean the government, I mean Exxon has dropped the charges.

www.gregpalast.com

Have a Coke and Some Torture!

It had to happen, but everytime we invade another country illegally, we set-up Coca-Cola and/or Pepsi bottling-plants. But this time, it's different. The plant is the investment of a Dubai-based clan/company, yet-again. You think El Prez has some deep-ties with Dubai? You think? I dunno. George W. Bush could tell his average-supporter all of this, then a 'liberal' could say the same-thing, and they would say it was a lie. We've lost it as a culture, but maybe we never had it. Before any infrastructure is repaired--or built where it never was--we get a Coke-plant, how ripe is that? Now, it appears that the US military also provides business-security for nations that fund terrorism, not just for lawless oil-companies. I was watching the Vietnam-era documentary, 'Hearts and Minds' recently, and you can see the same cronyism. If you wanted to find one-word that will sum-up the Bush administration in 20-years, it is that word. Welcome to the 21st Century (becoming more like the 19th), we'll be lucky to make it out alive as a species. Thanks for tolerating-it, thanks a lot.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060910/wl_asia_afp/afghanistaneconomycocacola_060910135637

Bush Vows New-Push for Social Security Reforms After November Elections (Yeah, You Do That)

"There are no second acts in American lives."
--F. Scott Fitzgerald

Your President George W. Bush has announced he will commence his work on "reforming" (privatizing-it, so others can invest-it) Social Security after the elections. Why not try now, it's not going to happen then either. Even if the GOP won every incumbent's seat in both houses, it won't happen. Why? Because of Iraq. It won't be over after the elections, and neither will the high-price of gasoline. They'll be back-in-spades at that time. But, I don't think the GOP is going to hold all of those incumbent-seats, not at all. And the irony is, I think many will these seats will be empty even if they win the elections, because more convictions are coming from Jack Abramoff. The scandals surrounding Jack Abramoff have to be seen as one overarching scandal, with tentacles reaching-out to dozens of representatives.

Goddamn the Turtleneck

What is it with the turtleneck? Why does it immediately cast a person as an Satanist or a warlock, or worse, an intellectual? Let's face facts here: the turtleneck makes a person look sexier. It worked for Jim Jones, Eldridge Cleaver, Carl Sagan, Boyd Rice, Dario Argento, Harvey Keitel, Martin Scorsese, Jimmy Carter, Anton Lavey, Kenneth Anger, Mr. Rogers, Harry Shearer, Henry Kissinger, Lenny Bruce, LBJ, Paul Lynde, nearly everyone. I'm not sure why, either, the name just sounds like a dorky aesthetic you would relate to Dungeons & Dragons and joss-sticks. Or who hasn't had the image of people in berets and turtlenecks drinking wine? OK, maybe not everyone! You got me on Beatnik-like chicks, they're hot, but they'd look good in a flour bag.

When Adam & Eve were forced out of the Garden of Eden...they were wearing turtlenecks. Hitler: turtleneck wearer. I start thinking about 'Howl' and Allen Ginsberg, but then I remember that not only did he wear turtlenecks, he was also a pedophile. Our President Dick Cheney wears turtlenecks. I dunno, turtlenecks are driving me crazy. They just keep reminding me of Paul Lynde and his creepy-laugh...and why is the turtleneck just implicitly gay, or perhaps homorerotic? Yes, even women look gay and outright campy when they wear them, even lesbians. It's a conspiracy I know it, and it's coming to destroy Main Street USA, yesterday. Soon, men will sip tea with their pinkies extended, and all the women will have crewcuts. Oh yeah, it's coming, our Beatnikopolis, it's coming to get you. These children that come at you with turtlenecks--they're YOU'RE children! WOOP-WOOP-WOOP!

Pinochet Loses Legal Immunity

In a Friday decision from Chile's Supreme Court, the CIA's man in Santiago, Augusto Pinochet, has finally lost "immunity from prosecution," reports the AP. The man is 90! He has used every possible stalling-tactic invented, as well as being protected by British and American authorities for decades. This took too-long, this idiot took-orders from Richard Nixon.

Someone really should have done this 20-years-ago, but at least it's finally happened. The former dictator has been faking dementia and other symptoms to keep out of prison, but at least he's been hounded for a decade now.

Pinochet's troops used the National stadium and the Villa Grimaldi to torture and execute their Leftist-opposition. Grimaldi sounds an awful lot like Salo. DeSade was more a chronicler, than a writer of fiction, and wrote the simple truth about the gentry. '120 Days of Sodom' is happening every day. If you bust Pinochet, you ruin the fun for everyone else who plays the same terrorist game.

It has been 33-years since the coup in Chile--an entire generation! These are the prospects of justice when one is protected by the super-rich, but Augusto Pinochet has had to use a lot his life and energy evading this moment in history. It's a shame that so many helped him, and history will not look-kindly upon the American State Dept. or the Foreign Office in the UK. It is to the credit of Chileans that they didn't grab this moron Mossad-style like Eichmann, and try-him earlier. They were patient, and they decided to follow the rule-of-law. Americans should take-note.

Killer Kondom (1996) review

Now here's some REAL German crap! But, at least it's original and entertaining. You've heard it, and probably said it: "Germans aren't funny, they have no sense of humor," but it's untrue.

How do I know this? The existence of this film, silly. The Germans like dry humor, and black humor. "Killer Kondom" is a strange creature that stands outside normal social conventions, never mind movie ones. That's it's a gay comedy is only partly-true, as its criticisms of American and Western sexual proprieties comes from a place that can only be called "pansexual." To call it "seedy" is a high compliment!

Most North American men will feel uneasy watching a film that revels in gay subcultures, but it's also just a great social satire that any open-minded adult will enjoy. We should wish to be scandalized in order to grow, and Killer Kondom delivers the unusual in a film noir and horror vein that explodes into the surreal at almost every turn. Virtually every sexual taboo is explored here, so Killer Kondom isn't exactly a date film, heh-heh-heh, but it's a real hoot.

But, if you want to remove uptight, unwanted company, you could do worse than to pop this into the video-player. You have to admire something this funny, yet so equally annoying. Maybe the funniest thing is that the film takes place in New York City, with an all-German cast speaking their native-language. This alone is going to be pretty funny to North Americans and everyone outside of Germany, but that's before you even get to what can only be described as one of the most absurd plot-lines in movie history!

The story itself is pretty simple: male clients of prostitutes are being castrated by penis-eating creatures in a seedy New York Hotel (amazingly, not the Chelsea!). The protagonist--an openly-gay cop who makes Rainer Fassbinder look handsome--has to discover what the attacks are, who originated them, and why. It's quite a trip to the ending, and often hair-raising, especially if you're male. The depiction of American Midwesterners (anthropologically accurate, yet done in German) is hilarious in the prologue with the hayseed father, and a rare treat that's spot-on in its observations!

Like a lot of European cinema, Killer Kondom isn't always easy to follow, but it doesn't matter, you um...just let it flow. As you might expect, it has a standard noirish voiceover narration that I like for its cynicism, and therefore, it has a familiar existentialist quality to it. Inevitably, the story revolves around its camp/noir/horror/comedy structure, involving a very ugly gay Sicilian cop, lots of subplots of his past-relationships (more Fassbinder here!), and lots of baiting-and-chasing of the mutant condoms.

You could say this film sends up several genres simultaneously, sometimes all in one scene! From the hardboiled, gumshoe Hollywood detective film, to John Waters grossout insanity, to some truly bizarre scenarios nobody ever imagined until the creation of Killer Kondom, this film has it all for those who love trash cinema.

A number of the scenes and makeup were designs by Swiss surrealist, H. R. Giger, although several concepts never made it to the final release print. I've seen his sketches, and they were downright Medieval. Too bad, as his concepts were what made this film worth a look. It could have been better, but one assumes there was no money to realize several of his designs, they were very elaborate.

Troma's DVD is just passable, with lousy audio and picture, but it's cheap and fun, just like a one-night-stand. Killer Kondom is a cult classic with a "Get-the-f%*#-outta-here!!!" ending.

Uwe Boll Wins Boxing-Match Against First Critic, Movies Still Suck

House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, and Bloodrayne are not movies that top the all-time lists of most film critics--unless it's for the worst movies ever made. Uwe Boll won his match against his first critic today, making the same mistake in logic that he applies to his movies: Uwe, they simply suck because they suck, and winning a boxing-match to prove-otherwise just confirms an idiot directed them. It also shows that his fanbase is primarily the idiot-manchild.
Boll looks like a Wermacht drill-instructor, less like a director. So-called directors like Boll are why great films are rare. Movie-backers want someone who takes-orders, and who service their properties in the direction they want, damn the audiences. So Boll boxed at one time, big-deal.

Honestly, even after Brown Bunny and his fight with cancer, I'd put money-down on Roger Ebert. He would have pointed-out all the problems with Boll's movies during the match, which would have been a good distraction. Then, he could've sucker-punched the Kraut in the adam's-apple. Would Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, Erich von Stroheim or Ernst Lubitsch have done this? Remember that their films were pop-culture when they were released. Yup, Uwe's not even good at commerical-fleah, he's just another asshole-producer who thinks he's a real director. Even kids think his movies are stupid, ferchrissakes.

No, their movies didn't suck, so he wouldn't have to do something desperate and juvenile like challenging his biggest critics to a boxing-match. Frankly, I would kick his Kraut-ass, what a cinematic-lightweight. Three-rounds, what a poof. Boll's Bloodrayne mercifully flopped, so with some luck, he won't be inflicting his crap on us anymore. It will be interesting to see if one of his handful-of-challengers whips his ass. Ticket and DVD-buyers and renters need to shut him down forever. Check Boll's listing on www.imdb.com, it's hilarious and entertaining, the only time the director ever is. Movie lovers should note that Boll has a Doctorate in Literature, which is almost hard-to-believe. Why can't he tell a story? Because he began as a producer, the real issue at-hand. We're in an era where producers think they can direct a film, and no matter how much money they have on-hand, it don't make-it-so. Boll is this problem made-flesh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uwe_Boll

http://www.boll-kg.de/

George W. Bush Becomes First President to Assassinate-Self

WASHINGTON--While Gerald Ford can be credited with attempting to assassinate-himself over-and-over again (pardoning Nixon, & we all know those falls were on-purpose, duh), Ronald Reagan needed a boost in his sagging-polls ("Hey George, use that crazy Hinkley-kid as a patsy...you know his dad. Use MKULTRA."), George W. Bush has finally accomplished it--he has assassinated-himself. This is difficult, because a real coward like Tex has no-balls to stick a gun in his mouth and pull-the-trigger. He is no R. Bud Dwyer. No, it took a long-time, but by stealing two-elections, illegally invading Iraq by lying to Congress and the American public, disbanding the Iraqi-military, the cronyism, the gay-hustlers, the embezzelment, the drinking, Katrina, yadda-yadda...has anyone begun to realize they wanted to overwhelm us with all of these "revelations" so we-the-public would become demoralized? That's psychological-warfare for yah'. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. As above, so below.

In a makeshift press-conference today, the President admitted he is in-fact an necro-alchemist, a bisexual, and that he ate goose-liver in Chicago last-week at an ultra-secret fundraiser hosted by the Comte Saint Germaine, and the newly-resurrected alchemists, Robert Fludd and Paracelsus. And a wandering-Jew. Also on-hand were the apparitions of Simon Magus, Aristotle and Dr. John Dee, who offered their condolences for Tony Blair. Kenneth Anger stopped-by, and showed some of his films after selected-readings from Hollywood Babylon I & II. Incantations and ritual sex magick were performed in the Oval Office, and spread to the West Wing of the White House in a wave of resonant-energy that left many unconscious. An unspeakable, unutterable pall fell upon the White House, while Secret Service agents scrambled to destroy a reanimated Aaron Burr. Numerous paranormal phenomena were observed, though none in the Lincoln room.

The visage of Richard M. Nixon began appearing on the walls in several-places, all dripping a blackish-ectoplasm. A humunculus was spotted in the basement. Several homeless people were sacrificed, and the apparition of Asmodeus appeared with a blazing-visage...in occult-lore, it's said that if you put bad magic out there, it comes-back three-times-stronger. The creature has returned to haunt its master, and hell will have its way. Or maybe, he'll just have to resign with his fingers crossed behind-his-back...

Bush Admits CIA Prisons Exist, Farts, Then Kills Journalist with Dirtbike

Our CIA prisons: It's true, they exist, but only when the mainstream media reports George W. Bush saying it. Never mind that the blogs and the rest of the internet were reporting this story for months, and forget about the fact that the "host" countries were discovering and reporting them, there are no CIA prisons unless we tell you.

The whole affair is a violation of several treaties signed by the United States, including the UN Charter on Human Rights, but will anyone be prosecuted? We'll see, we're still waiting for some action on the roving wiretaps at the NSA. Since Arlen Specter promised hearings and an investigation in February, we should see a serious investigation on the scale of the Warren Commission in 2025. As we know, it could only have been Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, who shot President Kennedy from the School Book Depository. [Ed., 09.21.2008--Something authors Dan Moldea and Bill Keisling believe, amazing.]

Pay no attention to the Grassy Knoll. I guess the wheels of government turn-slowly, especially when one's own party is losing-power and influence because the major-players are too incompetent to take a bribe discretely (like Spiro Agnew). When-in-doubt, it's best to classify everything!

It appears that today, action is coming for the wiretaps: GOP-drafted pap that basically accomplishes roughly the same terms as FISA! Fearing they won't be re-elected, a few members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are breaking-ranks with other Republicans. They want to tighten controls and increase oversight on the NSA program. This is going even further than Arlen Specter wanted, and we can assume, much to his chagrin. There are at least four competing intelligence oversight bills now! This is funny:

In July, Specter announced what he called "a major breakthrough" when he presented legislation backed by the White House that would allow the administration to submit the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program to a secret intelligence court for review of its legality. Under the bill, the secret court that now administers surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would be permitted to review the legality of the program as a whole and not individual wiretaps, which could continue without warrants. (Washington Post, 9/06/06)http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/05/AR2006090501136.html

The ACLU and even high-level Democrats say this is rewarding the President for violating FISA. Well duh. Meanwhile...meanwhile, nothing. The American anti-war movement seems content at little-or-no-movement. Maybe a bowel-movement, but nobody's getting very creative of doing things that are effective and actionable.

Come on, the Quakers can't save the world alone, Jesus. Where are the arrests? Where is the civil disobedience? Apparently, things are so tight economically, that those risks are scarier. Will we do something once we've lost everything? I doubt it, but surely there is a point where people are going to truly get it, and begin disobeying.

We should have rampant general strikes over the revelations of Bush administration criminality--as it would have happened under Nixon--but nada, feh. Bleah. It seems that Dick Cheney's head would have to split-open with hundreds of demons streaming-out for people to understand he's an evil president. Speaking of that, I've heard Bush is a breath-away from the Presidency.

To be fair, there have been massive demonstrations against the war, and the media has done her usual job of purposefully under-counting it, flat-out lying about the numbers, enacting selective-coverage, and many times, no coverage at all. Cindy Sheehan and the Gold Star mothers have been doing some real actions, and I applaud them. I always appreciate people honking in-approval when our group is out with our signs, but why not pull-over and join-up?

It has happened, but it should happen more. But the rest of you: WTF? Are you cowards? Are you lazy? Stupid? What's the problem? Get off your asses like you all should have done in 2000, and take your country back. Show people what Americans are really made-of, besides talk.

Philip K. Dick Simulacrum Still Missing (with a head full of speed)

The story of the missing Philip K. Dick simulacrum is a bizarre tale that began February, then had an end of June update again this year (still missing). As though taken from one of Dick's stories, the android was displayed prominently at a Chicago sci-fi convention (they did a Q&A), and Comic Con in San Diego.
But, after leaving with the body and head for Texas, main designer David Hanson forgot to retrieve it from the overhead carry-on compartment. Allegedly, the airline located it again, and sent it back to Hanson, but it has yet to arrive.

Yeah right, some baggage handler is using it for a Halloween decoration this year!

Imagine if they got it to talk: you would have a new PKD novel unfolding into our reality. What if a janitor from Puerto Rico found him? It would be hilarious if the person who found it learned from the simulacrum, and returned the head out of guilt!

I'd like to think the simulacrum awoke, and realized he really was Philip K. Dick, and decided to live a normal life somewhere. He would have his coffee in the morning, smoke, and have his beer in the evenings. He could do speed. Maybe he could find a cheap-apartment outside of Berkeley--the real Philip K. Dick wouldn't even recognize the town anymore.

He could go to Disneyland, becoming more-and-more like the original man. Who knows, maybe he could write like Dick eventually. But somehow, I think the android would become sad at how much the world had changed since Phil's death in 1982, but also how little it has changed. It's a bittersweet dream that might convince me there is some divine architecture to the universe, but as in Dick's novels, truth and proof of the divine will always be something elusive to humanity.

The irony of all this is that the CPU of the android has around 10,000 pages that have remained mostly unpublished from Dick's private writings. They could even be from his legendary "Exegesis", which is still basically unpublished in its 2 million word form. So, I would imagine the children of Philip K. Dick are a little worried about the whereabouts of the head. This is a strange thing when a lot of other databases have gone-missing, all in the same period...

Hanson has vowed that if the head isn't found, he'll build another one. That would be great, and I'd pay a lot of money just to sit and talk to a piece of Philip K. Dick--the only one we have left now. The creation of this android is exciting, and it also evokes the sadness embodied by Philip K. Dick and his canon. It is so miraculously infused with the spirit of the man, and it offers some hope.

I could see androids saving humanity from-itself, and wouldn't it be beautiful if Dick was partly-responsible for it? The loss to science-fiction was enormous when he died, though hardly anyone knew it at the time.

PS: Next models by Hanson Robotics Inc. wish-list: Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Orson Welles, Josef Goebbels, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, William Blake, Winston Churchill, Ted Bundy, Aleister Crowley, V.I. Lenin, Josef Stalin, St. Francis, Che Guevara, Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, John Dillinger, Al Capone, Graham Parsons, John Wilkes Booth, Nat Turner, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Augustus Caesar, Bugs Malone, Jimi Hendrix, Moctezuma II, Napoleon, Pablo Picasso, Yukio Mishima, Thomas Edison, Jim Morrison, Woody Guthrie, Lenny Bruce, John Brown, Pontius Pilate, Hernan Cortez, Grigori Rasputin, Sitting Bull, John Lennon, Leonardo DaVinci, Mary Shelley, John Ford, Christopher Columbus, Aldous Huxley, Heraclitus, Ted Bundy, Siddartha, Sid Vicious, St. Paul, Malcolm X, Thomas Paine, Carlo Gesualdo, H.H. Holmes, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Simon Magus, Sir Isaac Newton, Calamity Jane, Friedrich Nietzsche, Zoroaster, Pancho Villa, Ambrose Bierce, Edward R. Murrow, George Orwell, Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Comte St. Germaine, Adam Weishaupt, Joan of Arc, Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler, Emma Goldman...

Perhaps the simulacrum became paranoid (head full of speed), and decided it was time for a trip to the New Synanon under the pseudonym Horselover Fat. But what did it mean, and why had his car broken-down?

http://www.hansonrobotics.com/

Lord of Illusions (1995) review

Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman - a rope over an abyss... What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under... I say unto you: one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I say unto you: you still have chaos in yourselves. Alas, the time is coming when man will no longer give birth to a star. Alas, the time of the most despicable man is coming, he that is no longer able to despise himself. Behold, I show you the last man.

--Friedrich Nietzsche, "Also Sprach Zarathustra"


5 Jesus said, "Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. And there is nothing buried that will not be raised."

29 Jesus said, "If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty."

--From the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas


"Flesh is a trap...and death is an illusion."
--from Lord of Illusions


You know when you're watching a film by Clive Barker, that you're in good-hands. I saw this in 1995, and was floored by an oddly-believable tale of magic, both ancient and modern. It's interesting to note that Mr. Barker is well-versed in occult-lore, and that when you view his films he's trying to mess with your head on several-levels at-once. Magic is real, we do it every day, but it's seldom-acknowledged. When we think-of-something--an action, or a wish--and we externalize-it into-reality, we have done something that is magical. Animals are also capable of this, but none-so-well as human-beings. Technology is also an externalization of the human-mind (and body), and stems from a scientific-tradition that began with alchemy. In the mystery-traditions, an initiate would be immersed in a symbolic-environment, just as advertising does today for darker-aims! We live illusion every-single-day. If-only illusion wasn't dead in pustulent-Hollywood.

The battle-between the flesh and this world is eternal, and Clive Barker throws us into the midst of this battle. The film begins in-flashback to a cult-compound that looks a disturbingly-similar mix between the Branch Davidian one in Waco, and Spahn Ranch in Death Valley (once-populated by the Manson Family). This is the story of the birth of a religion, and where-else do they usually begin? The desert, of-course. But Barker takes-it-further, and we get what could be taken as an inversion of the Christian-myth of Jesus. Nix is the messianic-figure, who tells his disciples, "Fire spoke to me and said--NIX, you are the chosen-one, the Puritan." Unlike Christ's meeting with Satan in the desert, Nix succumbs-to-temptation, and his hatred for the material-world. Has he met-with darkness, or is it fire-itself, an elemental-force? Barker let's US decide throughout what we are seeing-and-hearing--yes, he's playing-with us. Maybe this ISN'T an inversion of Christianity, after-all...

But, Nix is betrayed in the opening-prologue by his chosen-one, Swann. 13-years pass, and Swann is an incredibly-successful stage-magician, using the skills taught him by Nix. He has a consort in Dorothea, and in a direct-reference to Gnosticism, a wizard's assistant in Valentin. Being our cinematic eyes-and-ears, we are introduced to the Detective Harry D'Amour, a gumshoe with a penchant for the unknown in the occult-underworld. We get-treated to some great film-noir moments thanks to Barker's genius-take on the PI character, and it blends with horror effectively. A lot of credit has to go to Scott Bakula for his performance as D'Amour, it's a tightrope-role that requires a subtle-approach, with a little humor and cynicism. He's our surrogate, and his disbelief is crucial to our accepting the realities of this story, a tall-order! I believe Barker and his collaborators succeeded in-spades.

Interestingly, Clive makes a wonderful-homage to Orson Welles (himself an illusionist of high-caliber) in the early murder-scene of the fortune-teller. It's shot in the very-same Venice locations as Welles' "Touch of Evil" (1958), a noir-classic. In some-respects, this film also resembles Welles' "Mr. Arkadian", with a detective searching a man's past as the central-narrative--this was also copied by Alan Parker and his writers on "Angel Heart" (1986), another classic of horror. Barker also references Mario Bava's "Black Sunday" (1960) with the tale of a resurrected-witch/wizard, and the mask that punctures Nix's face into a ghastly-visage.

By the end of the film, it's clear that Nix has come to destroy the world (like Jesus), and we are shown realities we'd rather forget. In-a-sense, there are many criticisms of ALL world religions here, even esoteric-ones. Barker condemns the notion that it is the world that corrupts, and that material-reality is the only source-of-evil and destruction. Mankind can be that essential-ingredient ("Fire spoke to me and said...") of chaos and destruction--we hold our fates in our own-hands, we are that hand-of-fate in occultism. We stare into-the-abyss, like Nix and Swann, and realize there is nothing, only ourselves. WE are the meaning in the universe, because we create that meaning. Nix, his followers, and Swann succumb to this, and decide non-existence is better. Harry D'Amour, and his allies in the story, do not. The battle, then, is between creation and destruction, not good-versus-evil. D'Amour and Dorothea are an erotic and productive-dyad, whereas Swann and Nix are not. The Apocalypse is always in human-hands when individuals succumb to the forces of the universe that are destructive. They have given-up.

"Cognitive-Dissonance", Rage-on.

Feeling "morally confused"? So am I, and thanks Sec. Rumsfeld, we would never have known the error of our ways without your guidance. Our misreadings of WWII were "wrong", and we apologize for being so dumb--nobody-much, just 60% of the American-population. When someone like Rumsfeld starts projecting what they are onto others ("Islamofascist", half-right), and accuses the public of having problems he clearly exhibits, you know that man is torn.

Donald Rumsfeld is a man who has basically admitted how wretched and divided he is as a man, and projected that onto-us. People say weird shit when they're under intense-pressure from irrational demands. We know better than he does, but orders are orders (from Dick Cheney), even though illegal-ones were ruled indefensible at Nuremburg in 1946. But, we only follow American-laws, right? Nope, not even those. Knowing the bosses are full-of-shit is crucial to owning one's mind, so maybe there's a fragment of who he once was making him miserable. I would say he is typical of the authoritarian-type, and most of us have had the misfortune to encounter jackapes like this in our work-lives.

But his bosses are worse, far-worse. George W. Bush is the aloof, irresponsible ownership (though barely that), while Cheney is the muscle and real power behind the throne. Cheney-in-particular has placed the irrational demands upon Rumsfeld with his overarching PNAC-framework, and the demands have been unprecedented. The best way to imagine it is bullies bullying bullies to do-their-bidding, a perverse hierarchy. It seeps-into our lives at every level, too, it's a dynamic of primate politics. The best-cure is to refuse obedience, and not-doing-so has its prices--evident in the wreck that is Donald Rumsfeld, but also in the rage of Bush-supporters these-days.

How do I know this? I protest every-week, sometimes twice and three-times in our downtown area. Our group hits the main-highway that passes in-front of the Federal Court building. Hundreds of cars pass during the time we're out, and the response is overwhelmingly-positive towards ending the war and impeaching the Bush administration. On-occasion, we'll get someone who drives-by and yells, "Get a job!" and "Go Bush!" or "Fuck you!" The anger is really palpable with these chowderheads, and I find it funny and entertaining watching them make-fools of themselves. But why the anger? It's just like Rummy: cognitive-dissonance. It applies to all these GOP-congresspeople who have supported the Bush administration. The shills know they're a mark, and that the Bush administration is going to use all of them as shield of scapegoats. Expect strange-comments and behavior from these cads...oops, too-late.

They know that they're wrong, unintelligent, and compromised as people. They know they're chumps and fools, because if they didn't, they wouldn't bother being-angry. They also know that they're intellectually-lazy to be credible as citizens, so they take the anti-social, conformist-route like they did during the Cold War and Gulf War. It doesn't wash anymore, and they know it, because all the polls clearly-illustrate that the majority doesn't want the war in Iraq. This frustrates the conformist-urge, reminding them what chumps and fools they are, so they explode when they see us and our signs. We remind them that they are a joke. I enjoy reminding them, you should too! It's fun, and free and more fun than TV! Try it today, in your hometown. If so-called conservatives and super-patriots think they are so right (pun-intended), why do they get so angry? Because they feel like the sucker-assholes that they are.

Steve Irwin

What a sad Labor Day. Conservationist Steve Irwin has been stung-to-death by a stingray off the coast of Australia. What a guy, I always found him hilarious, informative, and entertaining. But what made Steve so great was that he was an advocate of conservationism, and that he was someone who got to do what they love. People are going to harp about all the risks he took, but that was part of his daily-job. Rest in Peace, Steve, you died a happy man. We should all be so lucky, and we should remember that nature must be protected. You were a wonderful goofball who enjoyed sticking his head in the maws of crocs, what a hoot. What a card. What a guy.

Karl Rove is Losing Power.

This I couldn't believe. Him too! Karl Rove's power went-out, can you believe that?! Every time we get a gust outside of our country home--poof!! Out goes the electricity. Damn-you, Ronald Reagan, with your strange-fixation to deregulate. My Grandfather said the power NEVER went-out in 40-years...until they privatized our public utilities. I never wondered why he referred to Reagan as "the dummy" (or George W. Bush either). Imagine that, we get crappy-service now. At least the Libertarians still have their guns, and nobody can get a human-being on the other-end. It drives me crazy, and I consider myself a modern person who would loathe life in the 19th Century, but somehow we're back to that degree-of-corruption again. When do we see people literally selling snake-oil again? Publicly? Man, I love the gizmos and the air-conditioning, as well as running-water, plumbing and refrigeration. Well, judging from Karl's fat-face, he does too. But, what's not to like about comfort? So, don't believe all these stories about Karl Rove losing-power, it was just that one time during a thunder-storm. People might start thinking he's jinxed, that Giant Baby Head Man, and he could be dangerous when he's pissed-off. They say it storms in Virgina, and you gotta know it's true.

Because I Say-So (Civil War)

Taking-a-page from Nazi-propaganda from the Stalingrad-debacle, President George W. Bush has today stated "there is no Civil War in Iraq." Well, he's the decider, but just because you say it over-and-over again, and your pundits in the media you control say it--don't make-it-so. If I were an insurgent on the ground fighting-against Muslims of another-sect, I'd make Bush suffer for his words with another attack. You can bet someone on the ground there will in the intervening-days. Most Germans knew that Stalingrad was a losing-battle. How? Returning-troops told them. More-and-more troops are doing the same now, and we can expect more genuine horror-stories, and soon. Thanks to George W. Bush and his administration, we're not-only less safe, we have new-enemies we never imagined were possible. "Because I say-so," is a comment from a bully who wants us to take-him-down, and we should oblige this asshole.

Conrad Burns' Dentures Begin Speaking on their own

Maybe it began with Ulysses S. Grant (compounded by alcoholism), but I would even wager that old George Washington suffered from a bit of dementia. No, not the George the III-degree, where he literally had a bluish-urine, just a touch daft. But what if a President was already stupid--like Reagan--and simple before they started going soft? No, this isn't about George W. Bush. It's about Conrad Burns and his senile comments about terrorists driving taxis. WTF?!

I'm exasperated by the idiocy of this comment. The first few words he actually had me for a moment: ..."a faceless enemy, blah-blah-blah... ." He isn't the only dodderer, a few other GOP Senators who are vulnerable seem to be dropping racial slurs everywhere they go! Take George Allen's "maccaca" statement to a man at a politicial rally. It's weird, strange "nigger-baiting," but that seems to be all the Republican Party has left anymore. Racism and homophobia. Maybe it's all they ever had.

We do have a "faceless enemy" in America--CEOs, major shareholders, and concentrated wealth in general being unchecked. The first thing a Democrtic President had better do in their first 30 days is to repeal the Bush tax cuts, with major increases for anyone worth more than $2 million. Americans know that their faceless dictatorship is big business and finance, coupled with a criminal cronyism in Washington. But no, according to Conrad Burns, it's immigrant taxi drivers in our major cities, whatever. Would someone's handlers put this old nigger-baiter to bed? Nope, the "nice little Guatemalan man" comment wasn't enough, or telling Montana firefighters they were "doing a piss-poor job"fighting a major wildfire. He just seems obsolete, like a stand-in from an Arthur Miller play. "This once-great man, blah-blah-blah!" But now...now, he's just crapping himself in public-places. It's embarrassing, maybe we could get him some diapers? He's 71. The drool cup is calling out for Mr. Burns, after he is either convicted in a lobbying scandal, or he loses the election. Here's to hoping for both!

Burns just reminds me of George Wallace before he was shot, putting him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He was just a swaggering moron, and he wasn't even a racist with much conviction. Like I said, a baiter. Ooops! He spilled it, but now the comments are out there as "codewords" to all the closeted-racists. Nevermind Mel Gibson--if we applied the same standards to Burns as we did to you, we'd we tarrin'-n'-featherin' the bastard today.

That's an idea. Montanans: vote this embarrassment out, he's making you all look stupid and dowdy. I know you're better than him, so do the right thing when you vote. After the comments at the Laura Bush fundraiser, Burns's teeth left in a limo. Burns left later on, also in a limo. He had no comment, his false teeth made all the statements. The party of Lincoln my ass. With troglodytes like this in the Senate, we shouldn't wonder why we're in the mess we are in at all.

The Nomi Song (2004) review

As a preteen, I became aware of Klaus Nomi's (as well as Nina Hagen's) music through my Public Library. I'm pretty sure that Klaus was dead by the time I had discovered him, but his image has remained with me for over 20-years!! Like nearly everyone-else, I first heard his music through a copy of "Urgh!!: A Music War" (and the Bowie-appearance on SNL!!), and loved "Total Eclipse." What can you say about the late-seventies, early-eighties that hasn't been said before? It was a culturally-vibrant time when people still took SERIOUS artistic-chances. While I see a few rumblings with the kids these-days, most of it comes-off as "apeing," and is mostly-unoriginal. Kids, take some lessons from Klau Nomi, THIS is what is original. So original, it has yet to be surpassed.

I have to say that director Andrew Horn did an extraordinary job on this film in every-respect. My only complaint is: where are the interviews with Nomi's contemporaries, like Gary Numan, Nina Hagen (a glaring-omission), Lydia Lunch and others? Otherwise, this film is about as perfect as one could ever hope. For the uninitiated, and for the fans-alike, this film will be a revelation of unknown-scenes and players, and the loss-for-words power that was Klaus Nomi. It also underscores how underwhelming most culture and music have been since-then. Perhaps, we are close to a "new-change" in the counterculture, and a move-away from it being entirely "youth-oriented." Now, THAT would be revolutionary! While my favorites of this era have traditionally been the likes of Devo, PiL, the Ramones, the Talking Heads, Bebop Deluxe, Pere Ubu, Blondie, Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, Nina Hagen, Suicide, Killing Joke, Wire, Throbbing Gristle, etc., Nomi is utterly unique. And that is probably what is "typical" of that wonderful, cultural-era. Miss it? You-bet! Apparently Rush Limbaugh is a "fan" of Klaus Nomi's music, and encourages people to buy the albums through links at his site! NOW the Weimar-connection is becoming clear. With his recent-addiction to powerful-synthetic narcotics (oxycotin), he kinda reminds me of the closeted Herman Goering.

We can thank-the-Gods for the people who documented these groups, scenes, and beautiful people. Without them, documentaries like "The Nomi Song" would be almost impossible (as with the Velvet Underground-- shame on you Andy). The "New Wave" referred to what the American-branch of "punk" called-itself in its early-days, and it was pretty diverse. Unfortunately, things changed for-the-worse when punk-orthodoxy cemented things into the boring, three-chord pap we're stuck with nowadays. But this happens with all cultural-waves. They eventually become the problem after the initial-shock they provoke. Kinda like a joke that was funny...the first-time. Fine, be boring if you want, but there will always be people who like variety and something that challenges them. Watch this documentary (better-yet, buy it now). It will move you, unless you happen to be an emotionally-retarded homophobe. After that, go buy every Klaus Nomi CD in-print. Then, go make the world a little brighter. Create things that amaze you and your friends. Be magical. Life is short. The amazing, and short-life of Klaus Nomi proves this adage.