The Populist Party of America:
http://www.populistamerica.com/
Sunday, December 17, 2006
ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA--Yes, they're still spying on us, and it's not making us any safer. The opposite is true. Imagine the unprecedented possibilities for insider-trading that there are for President Cheney, or how it's been used to surveil political opponents. Starting Jan. 4th, the fight will begin. We'll all see what a scumbag Arlen Specter really is, and how much he obstructed investigations into this illegal violation of our right-to-privacy (as writ in the 4th Amendment in the Bill of Rights). The Bush administration has openly-admitted to breaking the law, the 1978 FISA statute that was created in-the-aftermath of Watergate and numerous other revelations uncovered by the Left, anti-war movement, the Civil Rights movement, and the Church Commission. There was also an illegal break-in by an unknown activist-group in Media, Pennsylvania in 1971 that brought the release of hundreds of FBI-documents on illegal-ops. The Democrats have a lot to prove in January, like their commitment to democracy and the social contract.
It's pretty clear today that Sen. Church and the Congress of that time didn't do enough, and didn't go far enough in reigning-in the powers of the Executive. There's a reason for this: even the Democrats want to spy on you. Why? They and the wealthiest fear us. This is how criminals think. The key is to figure-out who they are in public-office, and to keep removing them again-and-again, sending many of them to prison. We can install our own genuine representatives to write laws with harsh-penalties and accountability for such violations. It's just a matter of will. If you don't care, you're probably just a pathetic, jaded creep. Fortunately, they'll come-for-you too if things don't change, nobody will be immune. In 2005, we had 40,000 drug-raids in this nation, a startling figure for any developed nation.
How many raids did the Gestapo do at their height? We don't know, many of the records haven't survived, but looking at concentration camp statistics, it was lower than contemporary statistics in America. Remember also, that Nazi repression relied upon informants in the general population. Sound familiar? We imprison a lot more of our citizenry than National Socialism ever did. Imagine how easily our prisons and military bases could be converted into death factories--we're practically there with the inhuman conditions of our penological system. It's a war alright. A war on people, not drugs. Why do I mention this? Because a portion of anti-terrorism funds going to Police departments are being used to spy on all of us for the War on Drugs. Cops have gotten pretty ballsy about surveillance in drug-interdiction too, thanks to the hysteria surrounding the aftermath of September 11th, 2001. Fear sells in our cowardly America, but will it continue-to as it has? This is an unknown.
For a time, the Bush administration and the GOP (with an unhealthy-dose of bipartisanship) in Congress tried to emphasize that 'some terrorist activities are funded by drug-smuggling', a ham-fisted attempt to fuse both efforts at population-control that has basically failed. Indeed, the illegal-war against the Sandinistas (Iran-Contra) appears to have been partly-funded by such smuggling by CIA-assets. The oligarchs (drug cartels of Northern Colombia) who we fund with drug-interdiction monies (billions) use it for counterinsurgency against the Marxist insurgent FARC. It is well-known that FARC controls a fraction of all the cocaine flowing from Colombia, the oligarchs controlling the lions-share. These kind of observations should raise some flags, and I believe the public is now emotionally-prepared to hear them. This has only ever been about controlling we, the people. It has bipartisan support, and will continue-to if we let it. All of this is the opposite-view of the Bush administration, especially Cheney. They must be imprisoned for their crimes for this society to be able to move-on as a democracy.
It's pretty clear today that Sen. Church and the Congress of that time didn't do enough, and didn't go far enough in reigning-in the powers of the Executive. There's a reason for this: even the Democrats want to spy on you. Why? They and the wealthiest fear us. This is how criminals think. The key is to figure-out who they are in public-office, and to keep removing them again-and-again, sending many of them to prison. We can install our own genuine representatives to write laws with harsh-penalties and accountability for such violations. It's just a matter of will. If you don't care, you're probably just a pathetic, jaded creep. Fortunately, they'll come-for-you too if things don't change, nobody will be immune. In 2005, we had 40,000 drug-raids in this nation, a startling figure for any developed nation.
How many raids did the Gestapo do at their height? We don't know, many of the records haven't survived, but looking at concentration camp statistics, it was lower than contemporary statistics in America. Remember also, that Nazi repression relied upon informants in the general population. Sound familiar? We imprison a lot more of our citizenry than National Socialism ever did. Imagine how easily our prisons and military bases could be converted into death factories--we're practically there with the inhuman conditions of our penological system. It's a war alright. A war on people, not drugs. Why do I mention this? Because a portion of anti-terrorism funds going to Police departments are being used to spy on all of us for the War on Drugs. Cops have gotten pretty ballsy about surveillance in drug-interdiction too, thanks to the hysteria surrounding the aftermath of September 11th, 2001. Fear sells in our cowardly America, but will it continue-to as it has? This is an unknown.
For a time, the Bush administration and the GOP (with an unhealthy-dose of bipartisanship) in Congress tried to emphasize that 'some terrorist activities are funded by drug-smuggling', a ham-fisted attempt to fuse both efforts at population-control that has basically failed. Indeed, the illegal-war against the Sandinistas (Iran-Contra) appears to have been partly-funded by such smuggling by CIA-assets. The oligarchs (drug cartels of Northern Colombia) who we fund with drug-interdiction monies (billions) use it for counterinsurgency against the Marxist insurgent FARC. It is well-known that FARC controls a fraction of all the cocaine flowing from Colombia, the oligarchs controlling the lions-share. These kind of observations should raise some flags, and I believe the public is now emotionally-prepared to hear them. This has only ever been about controlling we, the people. It has bipartisan support, and will continue-to if we let it. All of this is the opposite-view of the Bush administration, especially Cheney. They must be imprisoned for their crimes for this society to be able to move-on as a democracy.
My Mother's Father (1922-2003) Part I
My grandfather was such a good man, but he was troubled by the world that he lived through. He never found a good way to express this until the very end of his life, which I find sad. His was a life that is no more and an America that is long-gone.
In many respects, this is a good thing, but it's impossible to say that I don't miss him or the generation he was a part of, now receding into the twilight. I won't say that my grandfather's generation was the " greatest [American] generation"--it wasn't. Most of the racists who beat civil rights activists, and even murdered them, were of the WWII generation. They were as wrong as one can be, but they weren't the whole story.
There were and are many shades of racism, and it's a part of our basic anthropology, almost innate to us. This isn't to say that people cannot overcome it, but it's a tendency within all of us as human beings. I think of racism as the greatest tragedy of the human experience. Were it not for the fact that I was shunted into the worst classes with the Black kids, I might not understand this. I understand discrimination well, and Black Americans have my admiration and empathy for the crap they have to put-up-with. I hate most White Americans myself, they're generally pigs. That said, it doesn't excuse reverse-discrimination or a racist response.
My grandfather was bigoted to-a-point, and I lament this fact, but he still saw Black Americans (and other so-called minorities) as people. God, the times he would bait me with racial-comments--he was a teaser, he loved to pick. But he didn't hate Black people, and he was a friendly man for the most part. He worked with them at his factory job at a ball-bearing plant (Torrington) for decades and had a few Black acquaintances. For someone like Rollie, this was a very big step indeed.
His job was building the equipment and tools for the machinists, and he did it for about twenty years. Before that, he and my grandmother worked in other factories and munitions-plants like many in their generation. Interestingly, he was discriminated against at his job for a variety-of-reasons (some due to his personality!). South Bend is a town that is almost predominantly Polish and Hungarian, with the rest falling-off from there. However, with the influx of Hispanics, it's changing rapidly as it is in many places in the United States. Most of these ethnic groups had (and have) one thing in-common: Catholicism, and the cold, cruel, Old world exclusionary version of it. America is a very primitive and tribally oriented place. Tribalism is for the birds and needs to go the way of organized religion. It needs to die. If that's community, you can have it, and I'm glad that the modern world is crushing it.
Like in most American cities that have ethnic enclaves, each group really just takes care of its own. South Bend has been, and is, no different in this. Each group tended to discriminate, especially when one wasn't Catholic. In truth, my family has probably been discriminated-against on this basis more than we'll ever know. This is ironic, since I was baptised a Catholic! My grandparents weren't very active religiously, which I still admire. They taught me from an early-age, "Don't ever trust the preacherman, he doesn't know anymore than you do. He just wants your money." This is pure prairie Populism, a tradition I am more-than-proud-of. After being forced to attend congregationalist churches with my father, this belief was only reinforced, what hollow, meaningless-crap. If Jesus showed-up, they would turn him away because he would be in-rags, they wouldn't recognize him if he was glowing.
My grandparents didn't trust authority of any kind, a lesson for us all, because they saw authority abused during their lives. I believe that the time has come again for prairie Populism's resurrection, only this time it won't be agrarian, and just a simple expression of the will of the people in different times. What could be more beautiful and sacred than the unprompted assertion of humanity by ordinary people? My family comes from this tradition, and our familial culture extends-back to our Anabaptist ancestors in Germany and possibly Switzerland. Somehow, it survived organically within our family's culture.
The Anabaptists were the first religious group in Western Europe to call for a separation of Church and State. I suspect we've always been anti-clerical, and anti-war (excepting defensive wars of survival) in some ways, but WWII was necessary. Few would argue this, and fascism had to be stopped. It really was the good war to my mind. It was the aftermath that the politicians and big businessmen screwed-up, and keeping them in-check is the role of the people. The "world's greatest generation" tried to do this, but I believe the postwar economic-boom caused many of them to lapse into forgetfulness--they forgot who the enemy really was, namely concentrated wealth.
My grandfather was from Kansas, while my grandmother was from Arkansas. Her family were literally dirt-farmers, and she was a mountain-girl, and such a lovely and warm woman. She was a real-life Cinderella. When she died, I nearly went with her, the shock was so overwhelming. She was literally my second mother. My grandfather's family moved to Arkansas (Marshall, I believe) during the late-1920s, and this is how they met.
His father was insane--he was both a Freemason (Masonry teaches universal brotherhood!) and a member of the KKK during the 1920s (probably because of the movie "The Birth of a Nation"), and one of the earliest Jehovah's witnesses. He'd had a good-paying job with the railroad as an engineer, but he was basically an abusive asshole who felt he was always right. So, he quit his job, and moved his family to start a farm during worst period in American history to start one (except now), right before the Great Depression! I was told many stories about the dustbowl and the dust storms that blanketed parts of the South, Southwest, and plains states, as a child.
They were stories of an apocalypse, a wall of death that smothered everything. Entire families were found suffocated-to-death in their shacks and farm houses according to my grandparents and the historical record. The Bloughs nearly starved-to-death, and eventually the hothead had to get another job. He was also a physically-abusive man, and rarely spoke to his children.
Things got better for them, gradually, in Arkansas. My grandfather was one of the only young men in his town with a car (a 1929 model A Ford with a rumble seat--I've ridden in a rumble seat! Fun!). My grandparents met at a dance that could have been out of a John Steinbeck novel, and they knew the life he wrote about intimately. They were poor, but luckier than many. They had food. My grandparents met at a public dance in Arkansas in the late-1930s.
There wasn't much work to be had, so my grandfather joined the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps, public works jobs provided by the New Deal). He always talked fondly about his experiences with the CCC and said that we should do it again as a nation. This was no Leftist firebrand, no radical, but a unionized worker who slaved his entire life. He was no fool, which is what America has been overpopulated with for some time.
I heartily agree with his sentiments about public service, and I think that it should be compulsory in our society, and mandatory for all economic strata. This goes for war. The draft should be reinstated as a first-step towards ending our love affair with overseas meddling, and our bloated military budgets must be slashed for all time. The time for beating our swords into plowshares has come. We should look to past wars as they're instructive of what not to do.
The invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 dragged the world into a global conflict. The world was aflame. This takes us to 1940 in the lives of my grandparents...
Revised 10.13.2008
Saturday, December 16, 2006
NEWT GINGRICH ON RUSSERT'S MEET THE PRESS TOMORROW
Be sure not to watch, he and Tim have absolutely nothing relevant to say! Is Meet the Press the most irrelevant news program on television? No, CBS News with Katie Couric (still number 3!) and Fox News are. Honestly: who gives-a-shit what Gingrich has to say? Are you that fuckin' stupid? He started the whole-mess that became the Bush administration and the 109th Congress, get real. They're just so cuddly, these commissars, but are they more-popular than Elmo? Stop watching television news. Stop watching television programming, it's rubbish. Lay-off the crack and cheap beer. Later historians will note that Americans were the most-propagandized culture in human history, equatable with an enclosed lab-experiment. Scary, no? Soon, they won't have to do the Nielsen ratings, what with everyone under constant-surveillance! The United States Police Force--like an army--will always have cable for-free! What a relief it is to know this.
NORTH AMERICAN GUYS (NOT DOLLS)
In case you haven't noticed, my philosophy is fundamentally misanthropic. I don't like most-people, and while I'm not rich-enough to have travelled across-the-globe, it seems certain to me that assholes are everywhere in the world. I've met people from virtually every country on this rock, and I can tell you they were no-different at-base than the assholes I call 'my fellow Americans.' Yes, I dump-on women a lot here, but they don't hold-a-candle to males--'men' being much too-fair to describe most of the eternal-children known as 'guys'. Animalistic would also be too-fair. When Valerie Solanas said men would 'wade, nostril-deep through a river of snot, if there was a cunt on the other side', she was correct. Guys suck. They suck worse than women, it's true. Women don't even come close to how lowly males are. All the 'myths' are true, and there are real-life versions that are worse.
They are lying, cheating, thieving, reactionary, racist, sexist, homophobic, rapist-children. That 'hot-guy' you think would be great-in-bed--get-real, he doesn't give-a-shit about your pleasure, just his. He sucks in-bed. He also tends to vote Republican because he's that kind of selfish, stupid-asshole, and he's got nothing. Nothing. He doesn't really even fit-in within the modern, genteel world. He's an animal in a cage that's too-good for him, which is why he yearns for prison. Yes, the 'ultra-male' really wants anal-penetration, that's why he's so violent in his attitudes and actions towards homosexuals. He fears the 'enemy-within'...himself. He also fears the Black male, because he knows being-penetrated by him is in his future. Black homophobia is another issue related to the history of slavery and its aftermath, but most of the same piggish-behaviors are exhibited by Black males too. It's never acceptable, even when one is poor, and most models of manhood are obsolete. It's possible most males will extinguish-themselves, leaving mostly women and children behind. Only a few men will endure, and the statistics show this is where it is all heading.
While he's not fearing his inevitable-fate, the male runs-around 'proving his manhood' by tagging as many females as he can, this is how wretched he is. He suspects this quality within-himself, and like most manipulators, projects it onto others. When his victims won't comply to his demands for his version of reality, or sex, money or food cooked the way he wants, he beats them. Frequently, he puts these poor, lost-souls into the Emergency Rooms and halfway houses that pepper America like polka-dots. When he isn't ripping-off investors at a corporation, he's selling-methamphetamine to other rednecks from his corporate suite. Frequently, he joins the military so he can take-out his sexual and class-frustrations on helpless Iraqis, and other people of color. He molests his own children, devouring-them like the God Saturn. He makes them into monsters resembling himself in behavior. He makes life a painting by Goya or Bosch. He is ultra nationalist, and loves seeing good people lose. To say he worships power would be redundant. He hates any display of weakness or vulnerability, because he fears it in himself, knowing he's weaker than all those around him. He is despair-itself, the source. He is lack.
Or, sometimes, he's out gay-bashing, embezzling from public-funds, abusing his political office, exploiting his workers, attacking and harassing immigrants and refugees, raping women and murdering some of them, robbing a bank or convenience store, often killing-someone to prove that he's a 'man', when it's obvious he never will be. Sometimes, just sometimes, he's a serial-killer. He runs-out on the mother of his children to be with his girlfriend, smoking-crack, or just drinking until he passes-out in his trailer with a lien on it. He never pays his child-support with a court order behind it. He is the source of all 'psycho-bitches', yet tends to be the one who uses the term the most. The statistics (American) paint an even worse picture. Endless iniquity, the badasses the (dysfunctional) ladies love. The Buddhists are correct about this life. Anything to get-laid, anything. Any price women can pay is OK with him. Are all males like this? Nope, just most. If these clowns weren't so funny, providing all of us with the basis for drama and comedy, we'd be forced to jail them all. In America, we're doing our best, we're no quitters. That'll learn ya'. This reads a lot like radical feminism, doesn't it? That's because not all radical feminism is radical, just outraged. The outrage is appropriate.
They are lying, cheating, thieving, reactionary, racist, sexist, homophobic, rapist-children. That 'hot-guy' you think would be great-in-bed--get-real, he doesn't give-a-shit about your pleasure, just his. He sucks in-bed. He also tends to vote Republican because he's that kind of selfish, stupid-asshole, and he's got nothing. Nothing. He doesn't really even fit-in within the modern, genteel world. He's an animal in a cage that's too-good for him, which is why he yearns for prison. Yes, the 'ultra-male' really wants anal-penetration, that's why he's so violent in his attitudes and actions towards homosexuals. He fears the 'enemy-within'...himself. He also fears the Black male, because he knows being-penetrated by him is in his future. Black homophobia is another issue related to the history of slavery and its aftermath, but most of the same piggish-behaviors are exhibited by Black males too. It's never acceptable, even when one is poor, and most models of manhood are obsolete. It's possible most males will extinguish-themselves, leaving mostly women and children behind. Only a few men will endure, and the statistics show this is where it is all heading.
While he's not fearing his inevitable-fate, the male runs-around 'proving his manhood' by tagging as many females as he can, this is how wretched he is. He suspects this quality within-himself, and like most manipulators, projects it onto others. When his victims won't comply to his demands for his version of reality, or sex, money or food cooked the way he wants, he beats them. Frequently, he puts these poor, lost-souls into the Emergency Rooms and halfway houses that pepper America like polka-dots. When he isn't ripping-off investors at a corporation, he's selling-methamphetamine to other rednecks from his corporate suite. Frequently, he joins the military so he can take-out his sexual and class-frustrations on helpless Iraqis, and other people of color. He molests his own children, devouring-them like the God Saturn. He makes them into monsters resembling himself in behavior. He makes life a painting by Goya or Bosch. He is ultra nationalist, and loves seeing good people lose. To say he worships power would be redundant. He hates any display of weakness or vulnerability, because he fears it in himself, knowing he's weaker than all those around him. He is despair-itself, the source. He is lack.
Or, sometimes, he's out gay-bashing, embezzling from public-funds, abusing his political office, exploiting his workers, attacking and harassing immigrants and refugees, raping women and murdering some of them, robbing a bank or convenience store, often killing-someone to prove that he's a 'man', when it's obvious he never will be. Sometimes, just sometimes, he's a serial-killer. He runs-out on the mother of his children to be with his girlfriend, smoking-crack, or just drinking until he passes-out in his trailer with a lien on it. He never pays his child-support with a court order behind it. He is the source of all 'psycho-bitches', yet tends to be the one who uses the term the most. The statistics (American) paint an even worse picture. Endless iniquity, the badasses the (dysfunctional) ladies love. The Buddhists are correct about this life. Anything to get-laid, anything. Any price women can pay is OK with him. Are all males like this? Nope, just most. If these clowns weren't so funny, providing all of us with the basis for drama and comedy, we'd be forced to jail them all. In America, we're doing our best, we're no quitters. That'll learn ya'. This reads a lot like radical feminism, doesn't it? That's because not all radical feminism is radical, just outraged. The outrage is appropriate.
SENATOR JOHNSON RECOVERING, MAINSTREAM MEDIA AND GOP STILL SEXUALLY AROUSED BY POSSIBILITIES
WARSHINTUHN--Yes, he's still-alive, much-to-the-chagrin of the the GOP and the media lapdogs (a degree in journalism now being worthless-paper). They're still banging the misinformation-drum: A Republican appointee would create a 50-50 tie and effectively allow the GOP to retain Senate control because of Vice President tie-breaking vote. Yet, this would really--at-most--give them a power-sharing role, period. No irony here. None whatsoever. Still trust the AP and Reuters? I don't.
Friday, December 15, 2006
WHAT'S ON THE OLD CD-PLAYER NOWADAYS...
Something eclectic? My week beats your year:
1. Can--Tago Mago (1972. Krautrock, nuff'-said.)
2. Killing Joke--what's THIS for...! (1981. Some of the best post punk here)
3. Erik Satie--3 Gymnopedies & Other Piano works (1890s-1900s. SUPERB, Satie was an interesting fellow...Gymnopedie No. 2 is better than the famous No.1)
4. Raymond Scott--Manhattan Research (1950s-60s. He's the jazz-guy whose music is quoted all-the-time by Carl Stalling in the Looney Tunes cartoons. He was a genius of electronic-music, too. Many of these recordings are music for ads, but they're cool. The most cutting-edge electronic-music as we know it began as advertising-music, not simply with the avant-garde.)
5. Brian Eno--Here Come the Warm Jets (1973. Yes, the title is about being pissed-on. Classic LP, the songs are just so rockin' in that glam-sense. Lots of lyrics about gay-cruising--not my yen--so it's just some great campy rock. Lots of influence of the V.U. here. Legendary.)
6. Silver Apples--Silver Apples/Contact (1968-69. The beginning of funky-techno! These guys were very visionary, using funk-beats with their oscillators and tone-generators. Amazing, very-cool. Chemical Bros. sampled them once, but I won't hold that against the Silver Apples.)
7. Hanayo & Panacea--Hanayo in Panacea (1999. Japanese performance and visual-artist Hanayo doing excellent little-girl and banshee vocals over Kraut Panacea's hard drum-n'-bass. Pretty decadent, and very experimental. I've corresponded with Hanayo, she's an incredibly-talented woman, magical! Good shit.)
8. Gas--Zauberberg (1999. From the now-defunct Mille Plateaux records of Frankfurt. Incredible techno that can be called the real trance music. Imagine Wagner being looped-endlessly into ambient-waves of chordal-washes. Impressive.)
9. The Mothers of Invention--Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970. Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention during their best-period of 67'-69'. It doesn't get much better than this for 1960s rock. Check Sugarcane Harris's violin-solo! Legendary.)
10. Hank Williams III--Straight to Hell (2006. Possibly the best album of the year! He's made the country 'Ummagumma' here, doing one disc as the songs, and the other as a huge sound-collage that is very psychedelic. This is what real country is, and it's pretty-cool. He looks so hauntingly like his grandfather, and his singing isn't far-off, either.)
11. Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Gatz--2 Hype 2 Wype (2001. The Butthole Surfers--80s' era--doing gangsta rap. This is 2-hilarious 2 B signed 2 the major-labels, it would make mainstream rap out for the gaggle of clowns it surely is. Hilarious chipmunk MC-ing. Classic. It kills.)
12. ESG--A South Bronx Story (Late-1970s, early-1980s: No, not the dumb rapper, but the girl-funk, minimalist outfit of Black ladies who would later be ripped-off by Luscious Jackson. ESG was much better, and not as annoying. Sampled more-times than one could imagine. Joy Division's producer, Martin Hannett, produced some of their best tracks. 1981's 'Moody' is considered the beginnings of House music." Yep, it's all been done before, and done better. They even influenced hip-hop and--ugh--punk and post punk.)
13. Noel Coward--The Songs of Noel Coward (1920s-40s: He was hilarious, and this is some funny camp here. How many of these recordings survived is miraculous, because the 1920s ones were generally heard on the English stage. Gay men are pretty observant about women, and have a funny-way of expressing it! He was a good actor. The best-sides are when Coward sings his own songs, it's funnier.)
14. John Carpenter--Assault on Precinct 13 Soundtrack (1976: I've always loved his scoring for his own movies, they're just so cool. The DVD has an isolated-score function, and I listen to it occasionally. It still sounds really cutting-edge alongside all the dross of today. Afrika Bambataa sampled the theme, and so have many-many hip-hop DJs. Classic.)
1. Can--Tago Mago (1972. Krautrock, nuff'-said.)
2. Killing Joke--what's THIS for...! (1981. Some of the best post punk here)
3. Erik Satie--3 Gymnopedies & Other Piano works (1890s-1900s. SUPERB, Satie was an interesting fellow...Gymnopedie No. 2 is better than the famous No.1)
4. Raymond Scott--Manhattan Research (1950s-60s. He's the jazz-guy whose music is quoted all-the-time by Carl Stalling in the Looney Tunes cartoons. He was a genius of electronic-music, too. Many of these recordings are music for ads, but they're cool. The most cutting-edge electronic-music as we know it began as advertising-music, not simply with the avant-garde.)
5. Brian Eno--Here Come the Warm Jets (1973. Yes, the title is about being pissed-on. Classic LP, the songs are just so rockin' in that glam-sense. Lots of lyrics about gay-cruising--not my yen--so it's just some great campy rock. Lots of influence of the V.U. here. Legendary.)
6. Silver Apples--Silver Apples/Contact (1968-69. The beginning of funky-techno! These guys were very visionary, using funk-beats with their oscillators and tone-generators. Amazing, very-cool. Chemical Bros. sampled them once, but I won't hold that against the Silver Apples.)
7. Hanayo & Panacea--Hanayo in Panacea (1999. Japanese performance and visual-artist Hanayo doing excellent little-girl and banshee vocals over Kraut Panacea's hard drum-n'-bass. Pretty decadent, and very experimental. I've corresponded with Hanayo, she's an incredibly-talented woman, magical! Good shit.)
8. Gas--Zauberberg (1999. From the now-defunct Mille Plateaux records of Frankfurt. Incredible techno that can be called the real trance music. Imagine Wagner being looped-endlessly into ambient-waves of chordal-washes. Impressive.)
9. The Mothers of Invention--Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970. Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention during their best-period of 67'-69'. It doesn't get much better than this for 1960s rock. Check Sugarcane Harris's violin-solo! Legendary.)
10. Hank Williams III--Straight to Hell (2006. Possibly the best album of the year! He's made the country 'Ummagumma' here, doing one disc as the songs, and the other as a huge sound-collage that is very psychedelic. This is what real country is, and it's pretty-cool. He looks so hauntingly like his grandfather, and his singing isn't far-off, either.)
11. Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Gatz--2 Hype 2 Wype (2001. The Butthole Surfers--80s' era--doing gangsta rap. This is 2-hilarious 2 B signed 2 the major-labels, it would make mainstream rap out for the gaggle of clowns it surely is. Hilarious chipmunk MC-ing. Classic. It kills.)
12. ESG--A South Bronx Story (Late-1970s, early-1980s: No, not the dumb rapper, but the girl-funk, minimalist outfit of Black ladies who would later be ripped-off by Luscious Jackson. ESG was much better, and not as annoying. Sampled more-times than one could imagine. Joy Division's producer, Martin Hannett, produced some of their best tracks. 1981's 'Moody' is considered the beginnings of House music." Yep, it's all been done before, and done better. They even influenced hip-hop and--ugh--punk and post punk.)
13. Noel Coward--The Songs of Noel Coward (1920s-40s: He was hilarious, and this is some funny camp here. How many of these recordings survived is miraculous, because the 1920s ones were generally heard on the English stage. Gay men are pretty observant about women, and have a funny-way of expressing it! He was a good actor. The best-sides are when Coward sings his own songs, it's funnier.)
14. John Carpenter--Assault on Precinct 13 Soundtrack (1976: I've always loved his scoring for his own movies, they're just so cool. The DVD has an isolated-score function, and I listen to it occasionally. It still sounds really cutting-edge alongside all the dross of today. Afrika Bambataa sampled the theme, and so have many-many hip-hop DJs. Classic.)
MORE ON THE 'MARGINAL-MAJORITY' IN THE SENATE
'All power to the people.'
--Thomas Paine
Here's a link to a very cognizant take on the whole issue surrounding Sen. Tim Johnson. While it appears he's going to be in the Senate no-matter-what now, things can change. Nonetheless, even if he were to leave the Senate, it would NOT give the GOP a majority. So why has the media picked-up this tack? Probably because they're predominantly owned by the right, or simply due to a concentration of ownership (first enabled by Reagan deregulation, & continued by the Democrats under Clinton of the FCC--take-that, kooky libertarians) that no sane nation would tolerate. Take this quote from the TownHall.com piece by Rich Galen, titled 'That Pesky Constitution' :
"Ah HAH," I can hear you saying. "What if Vice President Cheney, as President of the Senate, strolls in a vote for Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Doesn't that create a 50-50 tie?"
Yes. It would. Except he is Constitutionally forbidden to do that. According to Article I Section 3: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. Thus, a Vice President can only vote to break a tie. He cannot vote to create one [a tie-vote--my emphasis].
Read the article, it's very enlightening, a voice of reason in the abyss of the internet. For those who would claim the piece is 'partisan'--forget it, Galen was a press secretary for Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. Save it. I suspected the math was being fudged in the wire articles, and this is exactly why this is the fact. While the news media lies and obfuscates about this for their right-wing masters, observers like Galen speak the plain-truth. A simple glance at most of the articles and blurbs reveal an almost sexually-charged hope that Johnson would die, while many had a tone that he was virtually dead.
This should raise some flags. Ever wonder why the newspapers and the media in-general aren't trusted? I don't, just read the blogs--hah, you are! Authoritarian-led media outlets eventually become useless to their owners when this trend occurs. You and I can now scour the internet for foreign news, blogs, and numerous other sources to compare against the 'conventional wisdom'. Everyone in the Soviet Union knew Pravda was lying, and the American public are experiencing a similar-awakening. It was easier in the Soviet Union, everyone knew it was a tyranny from-inception, but progressives have the myth of democracy to counter here. We can once again thank the Bush administration for throwing this myth into-confusion, dropping the scales from the eyes of millions.
Galen's article amounts to a bridge-building action that I applaud, and there are certainly rational conservatives out there. Amazing, I know, but they are out there. We have an historical opportunity here that would be absurd to botch--but the Left-in-general is adept at this. It would behoove the Left to ally-themselves with these rational conservatives in a Populist coalition. It's time for a real Third Party movement, with the realization that we still have to pressure the existing political-context to do what we want and need them to do for the common good. This is picking-up where things collapsed for Populism during the 1920s-30s, but rest-assured there would have been a marginal 'New Deal' without their ideals and agitating.
Splitting-hairs ( identity politics, primarily) won't accomplish anything, we have to discover what we all agree-on. Getting candidates into Congress should be the main-agenda, not stupid, symbolic Presidential candidacies. Power flows from Washington, so get over it. Power isn't a dirty-word, it's something we all need to grab back, and for those who don't understand power-politics: step-aside. We're not in Kansas anymore, and there is no Wizard. There is only we, the people. We are the only solution to the mess we're in as a nation. The GOP has a funny way with math, they don't have the number-zero in their system, it seems. More of that football-is-life ideology. Lack.
Mr. Galen's Article:
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/RichGalen/2006/12/15/that_pesky_constitution
12.18.2006: There's a reason I never give to NPR. They suck.
--Thomas Paine
Here's a link to a very cognizant take on the whole issue surrounding Sen. Tim Johnson. While it appears he's going to be in the Senate no-matter-what now, things can change. Nonetheless, even if he were to leave the Senate, it would NOT give the GOP a majority. So why has the media picked-up this tack? Probably because they're predominantly owned by the right, or simply due to a concentration of ownership (first enabled by Reagan deregulation, & continued by the Democrats under Clinton of the FCC--take-that, kooky libertarians) that no sane nation would tolerate. Take this quote from the TownHall.com piece by Rich Galen, titled 'That Pesky Constitution' :
"Ah HAH," I can hear you saying. "What if Vice President Cheney, as President of the Senate, strolls in a vote for Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Doesn't that create a 50-50 tie?"
Yes. It would. Except he is Constitutionally forbidden to do that. According to Article I Section 3: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. Thus, a Vice President can only vote to break a tie. He cannot vote to create one [a tie-vote--my emphasis].
Read the article, it's very enlightening, a voice of reason in the abyss of the internet. For those who would claim the piece is 'partisan'--forget it, Galen was a press secretary for Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. Save it. I suspected the math was being fudged in the wire articles, and this is exactly why this is the fact. While the news media lies and obfuscates about this for their right-wing masters, observers like Galen speak the plain-truth. A simple glance at most of the articles and blurbs reveal an almost sexually-charged hope that Johnson would die, while many had a tone that he was virtually dead.
This should raise some flags. Ever wonder why the newspapers and the media in-general aren't trusted? I don't, just read the blogs--hah, you are! Authoritarian-led media outlets eventually become useless to their owners when this trend occurs. You and I can now scour the internet for foreign news, blogs, and numerous other sources to compare against the 'conventional wisdom'. Everyone in the Soviet Union knew Pravda was lying, and the American public are experiencing a similar-awakening. It was easier in the Soviet Union, everyone knew it was a tyranny from-inception, but progressives have the myth of democracy to counter here. We can once again thank the Bush administration for throwing this myth into-confusion, dropping the scales from the eyes of millions.
Galen's article amounts to a bridge-building action that I applaud, and there are certainly rational conservatives out there. Amazing, I know, but they are out there. We have an historical opportunity here that would be absurd to botch--but the Left-in-general is adept at this. It would behoove the Left to ally-themselves with these rational conservatives in a Populist coalition. It's time for a real Third Party movement, with the realization that we still have to pressure the existing political-context to do what we want and need them to do for the common good. This is picking-up where things collapsed for Populism during the 1920s-30s, but rest-assured there would have been a marginal 'New Deal' without their ideals and agitating.
Splitting-hairs ( identity politics, primarily) won't accomplish anything, we have to discover what we all agree-on. Getting candidates into Congress should be the main-agenda, not stupid, symbolic Presidential candidacies. Power flows from Washington, so get over it. Power isn't a dirty-word, it's something we all need to grab back, and for those who don't understand power-politics: step-aside. We're not in Kansas anymore, and there is no Wizard. There is only we, the people. We are the only solution to the mess we're in as a nation. The GOP has a funny way with math, they don't have the number-zero in their system, it seems. More of that football-is-life ideology. Lack.
Mr. Galen's Article:
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/RichGalen/2006/12/15/that_pesky_constitution
12.18.2006: There's a reason I never give to NPR. They suck.
SHADES OF 1938 'WAR OF THE WORLDS' BROADCAST IN BELGIUM
BRUSSELS--It appears that the Belgians have been hoodwinked by a broadcast that reported in a fictional-context that the Flemish-provinces of the nation had seceded. This was actually done on state television (RTBF), and a 'this-is-fiction' warning only came about 30-minutes into-the-program. This is a touchy-issue in Belgium, as the Flemish-part (Flanders) of the country holds the better-territory, while the French-speaking sections (Wallonia) languish. Both language-groups essentially hate one-another intensely, so the broadcast is a pretty touchy-issue. But both-regions are condemning the broadcast as hyperbole--it depicted the Flemish-speakers as the seceding-region. Keep-in-mind, also, that NATO and the EU are headquartered in Belgium. The proverbial flooding of the phone-lines occurred. Orson Welles would be amused, while European leaders are not.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/12/15/belgium_splits_up_tv_hoax_is_decried/
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/12/15/299925/State_TV_airs_hoax_on_Belgium_break_up.htm
http://www.einnews.com/belgium/newsfeed-guy-verhofstadt
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061215/belgium_revolution_061215/20061215?hub=World
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/12/15/belgium_splits_up_tv_hoax_is_decried/
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/12/15/299925/State_TV_airs_hoax_on_Belgium_break_up.htm
http://www.einnews.com/belgium/newsfeed-guy-verhofstadt
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061215/belgium_revolution_061215/20061215?hub=World
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Bush as Anti-Social Personality Type
Huffington Post--I gotta hand it to some of the regulars at Huffpo, they are a bright bunch (excluding the trolls). "Snowball" just made this observation on Bush, and it does seem to fit:
List of Antisocial Personality Disorder Traits: Sense of entitlement; Unremorseful; Apathetic to others; Unconscionable behavior; Blameful of others; Manipulative and conning; Affectively cold; Disparate understanding; Socially irresponsible; Disregardful of obligations; Nonconforming to norms; Irresponsible.
[W]hereas the DSM-IV "clinical" features of Antisocial Personality Disorder (with a person having at least three of these characteristics) are:
Clinical Symptoms for an Antisocial Personality Disorder Diagnosis[:]I would say that George W. Bush is a border-line of this type, while someone like Stalin or Hitler would be on the highest-end of the scale. But, this could describe most statesmen. It's a chilling-reality, but these traits are both why they are able to reach such heights in our political system, while conversely wrecking it.
1. Failure to conform to social norms [.]
2. Deceitfulness, manipulativeness [.]
3. Impulsivity, failure to plan ahead [.]
4. Irritability, aggressiveness.
5. Reckless disregard for the safety of self or others.
6. Consistent irresponsibility.
7. Lack of remorse after having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another person.
That about sums up the Chimperor.
By: Snowball on December 14, 2006 at 03:23pm
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR TIM JOHNSON AND THE REALITY OF THE 'SLIM-MARGIN'
WARSHINTUHN--It appears the vultures (GOP) are circling on this one. Where's Dr. Frist with his video-diagnosis? Creepin'-Christ. So, it's obvious the GOP wishes the Senator death, it's their modus operandi. You know, death, murder, molestation, pillaging, and the necessary cover-ups. It's what a band of brigands does. Since his removal would save a few of them from prison, it's safe-to-say all the platitudes are flibber-flabber. They're forgetting two-people again: Joe Lieberman, and Bernie Sanders, they've decided to caucus with the Democrats. Sanders could very-well be the more important wedge, since as a Socialist, he'll be all-for constructive social-spending, investigations--you-name-it.
But he's going to want something-in-return, and so will Lieberman. A lot of confusion is being sowed here by the media, so expect plenty more. Were Johnson to die or be unable to return, the GOP Governor of South Dakota has some serious thinking to do. We might be surprised at the outcome, considering how-badly the GOP needs a credibility-boost. Choosing a GOP-appointee wouldn't do this, the opposite would occur, but if you're desperate...anything's possible. Even GOP-defections, which would be a good-idea when your party is taking-on-water.
The GOP might keep their Senatorial majority, but this doesn't mean they can break every tie, either. It also doesn't change the situation in Iraq, or that the public also voted-against very open GOP-corruption over the last few-years. It's a strange psychology to think that if you just keep lying to the public, that the political-reality (context) will suddenly be changed. It won't, and there will be investigations no-matter what happens to Sen. Johnson. Were Sen. Johnson to die, disaster for the GOP would still be inevitable, and by their own hands. They have already illustrated this time-and-again in recent-months. If they've proved anything, it's that they can stall legitimate-oversight, but this fact can never be maintained for very long. No, even were they to somehow control both Houses again (not possible in the House), all they would do is to continue undoing-themselves, only it would have an outcome that would be truly devastating for themselves and their party. They aren't capable of governance alone, and they have proved this amply. They require oversight.
Of course, this is all contingent on if they get their wish, and Johnson either dies or is permanently-incapacitated. Aren't they a warm, friendly party? The AP has some funny-math, or I'm missing something here: 'A Republican appointee would create a 50-50 tie, and allow the GOP to retain Senate control.' The problem is, there are 100 members of the Senate, with two independents--Bernie Sanders, a self-described Social Democrat (like in the EU) who isn't a Democrat, but it seems he's being counted as DNC. The other is Joe Lieberman. The AP forgot to mention the fact that they're going to caucus with the DNC! They must be understaffed, I know the feeling. It could all rest on Lieberman and Sanders if Johnson is incapacitated. The stakes are high: prison for many in the GOP, and the 86-ing of Dr. Strange (Bush) and the Red Skull (Cheney, aka Professor Moriarty). Strange, that AP. Notice how they wilfully-ignore the elephant (really, donkeys) in the room? A strange-bias, a curious-bias. Dracula rises again? At least the Washington Post wrote a better-piece on this, and God works in mysterious-ways (or not).
The Original Cagey Blurb:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061214/ap_on_go_co/johnson
'I have isolated the specimen!' :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121400379.html
But he's going to want something-in-return, and so will Lieberman. A lot of confusion is being sowed here by the media, so expect plenty more. Were Johnson to die or be unable to return, the GOP Governor of South Dakota has some serious thinking to do. We might be surprised at the outcome, considering how-badly the GOP needs a credibility-boost. Choosing a GOP-appointee wouldn't do this, the opposite would occur, but if you're desperate...anything's possible. Even GOP-defections, which would be a good-idea when your party is taking-on-water.
The GOP might keep their Senatorial majority, but this doesn't mean they can break every tie, either. It also doesn't change the situation in Iraq, or that the public also voted-against very open GOP-corruption over the last few-years. It's a strange psychology to think that if you just keep lying to the public, that the political-reality (context) will suddenly be changed. It won't, and there will be investigations no-matter what happens to Sen. Johnson. Were Sen. Johnson to die, disaster for the GOP would still be inevitable, and by their own hands. They have already illustrated this time-and-again in recent-months. If they've proved anything, it's that they can stall legitimate-oversight, but this fact can never be maintained for very long. No, even were they to somehow control both Houses again (not possible in the House), all they would do is to continue undoing-themselves, only it would have an outcome that would be truly devastating for themselves and their party. They aren't capable of governance alone, and they have proved this amply. They require oversight.
Of course, this is all contingent on if they get their wish, and Johnson either dies or is permanently-incapacitated. Aren't they a warm, friendly party? The AP has some funny-math, or I'm missing something here: 'A Republican appointee would create a 50-50 tie, and allow the GOP to retain Senate control.' The problem is, there are 100 members of the Senate, with two independents--Bernie Sanders, a self-described Social Democrat (like in the EU) who isn't a Democrat, but it seems he's being counted as DNC. The other is Joe Lieberman. The AP forgot to mention the fact that they're going to caucus with the DNC! They must be understaffed, I know the feeling. It could all rest on Lieberman and Sanders if Johnson is incapacitated. The stakes are high: prison for many in the GOP, and the 86-ing of Dr. Strange (Bush) and the Red Skull (Cheney, aka Professor Moriarty). Strange, that AP. Notice how they wilfully-ignore the elephant (really, donkeys) in the room? A strange-bias, a curious-bias. Dracula rises again? At least the Washington Post wrote a better-piece on this, and God works in mysterious-ways (or not).
The Original Cagey Blurb:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061214/ap_on_go_co/johnson
'I have isolated the specimen!' :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121400379.html
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
INCOMING SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEAD LEAHY VOWS INVESTIGATIONS AND ROLLBACK OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION SURVEILLANCE
The Senator from Arizona is recognized for 2 minutes.
AMENDMENT NO. 3801
Mr. KYL. Mr. President [Ed.-of the Senate], we are going to be asking unanimous consent to withdraw amendment No. 3801, which is an amendment Senator Chambliss and I offered to deal with the problem of overlapping and redundant civil rights and privacy investigations, entities, or individuals that would be added to those that already exist to protect civil rights and privacy in the national intelligence director office and other offices of the intelligence community.
--the beginning-of-the-end of the Patriot Acts, Oct. 6th, 2004
WASHINGTON--Reuters has reported that Sen. Patrick Leahy will be fighting Bush administration infringements of civil liberties that have occurred without oversight during the last six-years. Leahy is one of a handful of Senators (along with Russ Feingold) who opposed key-provisions of the Patriot acts that have allowed for extra constitutional surveillance of American citizens. It will be an uphill battle for allies of these unconstitutional provisions in both parties to make a good case against sunsetting the legal-aspects. If illegalities are uncovered, their chances of prevailing are virtually-nil. Civil libertarians will be a little more relieved by his comments today at Georgetown University for the Constitution Project:
We have a duty to repair real damage done to our system of government over the last few years...Americans' privacy is a price the Bush administration is willing to pay for the cavalier way it is spawning new databanks. But privacy rights belong to the people, not to the government," Leahy said.
The newspapers have already reported a few crimes (the President has openly-admitted to warrantless-wiretaps and surveillance, which is illegal under the 1978 FISA law), so some of this will be a mere formality. It appears the sunlight is beginning to come out again in America, which is heartening. It's the best disinfectant. If you don't know what your government is up-to, you've already lost a lot of your freedom, and it's time to take-it-back. Leahy has said this is the primary-agenda for his panel. He should be given complete-support from the public and his peers in the Senate, but we know he won't. There will be a fight over this, rest-assured. Note the players who argue-against sunsetting these provisions, because they're unworthy as guardians of democracy and our liberties. Only the public can do that. Because of the way they are, they'll have to be removed through the electoral-process again.
Leahy's fellow Senator from Vermont--Bernie Sanders--will definitely have his back, as will Senators Robert Byrd, Dennis Kucinich, Daniel Akaka, Jim Jeffords, Tom Harkin, Ron Wyden, Jeff Bingaman, Carl Levin, and Patty Murray. Where's John Kerry or Hillary Clinton? Where's Barbara Boxer? Where is Diane Feinstein? If they don't change on this issue, they're going to pay a political-price. Ten Senators is a pretty hefty-bloc to counter, and they can use this as a wedge-issue. They can slow-things, or even kill bills (pun-intended) by letting them die in-committee (I watched my Schoolhouse Rock, pal). There are even a tiny-minority of GOP Senators who might join them to survive, politically.
This is real political power, forget Joe Lieberman, he's one guy. This is why he's being pumped-up by people like DCCC chairman, Rahm Emanuel, who is as questionable as Lieberman-himself. This is a smokescreen, Lieberman isn't as crucial as they're making-out. It's true, Bush could veto these measures, but it will be difficult with several ongoing-investigations against the political-backdrop. One also has to factor-in that Iraq is going to continue-to-disintegrate, which will render the Bush/Cheney/Rice axis virtually impotent and politically-toxic. You wouldn't want to be them, trust me. The irony of all this is: Joe Lieberman is going to join these Senators in the fight, you watch. He already has joined them in 2004 with the Collins-Lieberman Act, which was fought by the same forces who will fight many of the oversight-suggestions of Leahy in the near-future. Here's some excerpts from Leahy on October 6th, 2004 on the Collins-Lieberman bill:
The civil liberties board outlined in the Collins-Lieberman bill makes great strides toward meeting these goals [of adequate oversight]. It represents a true bipartisan effort from conception to introduction. I was pleased to work with these Senators along with Senator [Dick] Durbin to make this civil liberties board the kind of board that would honor the 9-11 Commission’s intent...Unfortunately, Senator Kyl’s Amendment 3801 [Ed.--it was withdrawn, but who put him up-to-it originally? It should be noted that Kyl worked on another bill with Sen. Charles Schumer. Was it him? Was it Tom Delay? The Bush administration?] attempts to gut the carefully crafted, bipartisan civil liberty and privacy provisions that are the hallmark of the Collins-Lieberman bill. It is inconsistent with the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission and would undermine the civil liberties that we cherish.
And we thought Joe Lieberman was a total rat. Boy, were we wrong! Look at his social-spending record, it's pretty liberal in a good-sense. But the central-question is: who backed Kyl (R-Arizona) on this amendment? I would wager it was the White House. Not even Mr. Macaca would back it. Are some doors too frightening to open? Democrats had better not have the same fears during the investigations, we've had too-close of a brush with a coup in the United States. Congressional Democrats had better be thorough with the upcoming-investigations, going wherever the trail leads--even if it's some of their own.
Most-importantly, there had better be firm and strictly-worded legislation with adequate enforcement provisions attached. Watch your elected-officials have to show their true-colors, grab the popcorn! We're probably going to be surprised who some of the worst-enemies of democracy really are...or maybe-not. We know that two of them are Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and that there are several-others in the House and Senate just like them. This is one reason for the dip in Kerry's popularity--his unresponsiveness to the public-will. Another one of them is Evan Bayh. They have to be dealt-with if they aren't willing to change-course of all-fronts. Vote with a vengeance.
Leahy-Leahy-Leahy (get you adverbs here):
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200410/100604D.html
http://www.constitutionproject.org/article.cfm?messageID=268
https://www.law.georgetown.edu/news/releases/December.6.2006.html
Leahy on Scalito:
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200601/011906.html
The ACLU on Patriot Act II and the failed Kyle Amendment (read, or perish):
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/17203leg20030214.html
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/18582leg20041004.html
More on the failed S.3801 (PDF):
http://jameslandrith.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=438
The Death of S.3801 Using the 'Riddim Method':
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r108:FLD001:S60477
The Populist Party of America on Liberty:
http://www.populistamerica.com/
AMENDMENT NO. 3801
Mr. KYL. Mr. President [Ed.-of the Senate], we are going to be asking unanimous consent to withdraw amendment No. 3801, which is an amendment Senator Chambliss and I offered to deal with the problem of overlapping and redundant civil rights and privacy investigations, entities, or individuals that would be added to those that already exist to protect civil rights and privacy in the national intelligence director office and other offices of the intelligence community.
--the beginning-of-the-end of the Patriot Acts, Oct. 6th, 2004
WASHINGTON--Reuters has reported that Sen. Patrick Leahy will be fighting Bush administration infringements of civil liberties that have occurred without oversight during the last six-years. Leahy is one of a handful of Senators (along with Russ Feingold) who opposed key-provisions of the Patriot acts that have allowed for extra constitutional surveillance of American citizens. It will be an uphill battle for allies of these unconstitutional provisions in both parties to make a good case against sunsetting the legal-aspects. If illegalities are uncovered, their chances of prevailing are virtually-nil. Civil libertarians will be a little more relieved by his comments today at Georgetown University for the Constitution Project:
We have a duty to repair real damage done to our system of government over the last few years...Americans' privacy is a price the Bush administration is willing to pay for the cavalier way it is spawning new databanks. But privacy rights belong to the people, not to the government," Leahy said.
The newspapers have already reported a few crimes (the President has openly-admitted to warrantless-wiretaps and surveillance, which is illegal under the 1978 FISA law), so some of this will be a mere formality. It appears the sunlight is beginning to come out again in America, which is heartening. It's the best disinfectant. If you don't know what your government is up-to, you've already lost a lot of your freedom, and it's time to take-it-back. Leahy has said this is the primary-agenda for his panel. He should be given complete-support from the public and his peers in the Senate, but we know he won't. There will be a fight over this, rest-assured. Note the players who argue-against sunsetting these provisions, because they're unworthy as guardians of democracy and our liberties. Only the public can do that. Because of the way they are, they'll have to be removed through the electoral-process again.
Leahy's fellow Senator from Vermont--Bernie Sanders--will definitely have his back, as will Senators Robert Byrd, Dennis Kucinich, Daniel Akaka, Jim Jeffords, Tom Harkin, Ron Wyden, Jeff Bingaman, Carl Levin, and Patty Murray. Where's John Kerry or Hillary Clinton? Where's Barbara Boxer? Where is Diane Feinstein? If they don't change on this issue, they're going to pay a political-price. Ten Senators is a pretty hefty-bloc to counter, and they can use this as a wedge-issue. They can slow-things, or even kill bills (pun-intended) by letting them die in-committee (I watched my Schoolhouse Rock, pal). There are even a tiny-minority of GOP Senators who might join them to survive, politically.
This is real political power, forget Joe Lieberman, he's one guy. This is why he's being pumped-up by people like DCCC chairman, Rahm Emanuel, who is as questionable as Lieberman-himself. This is a smokescreen, Lieberman isn't as crucial as they're making-out. It's true, Bush could veto these measures, but it will be difficult with several ongoing-investigations against the political-backdrop. One also has to factor-in that Iraq is going to continue-to-disintegrate, which will render the Bush/Cheney/Rice axis virtually impotent and politically-toxic. You wouldn't want to be them, trust me. The irony of all this is: Joe Lieberman is going to join these Senators in the fight, you watch. He already has joined them in 2004 with the Collins-Lieberman Act, which was fought by the same forces who will fight many of the oversight-suggestions of Leahy in the near-future. Here's some excerpts from Leahy on October 6th, 2004 on the Collins-Lieberman bill:
The civil liberties board outlined in the Collins-Lieberman bill makes great strides toward meeting these goals [of adequate oversight]. It represents a true bipartisan effort from conception to introduction. I was pleased to work with these Senators along with Senator [Dick] Durbin to make this civil liberties board the kind of board that would honor the 9-11 Commission’s intent...Unfortunately, Senator Kyl’s Amendment 3801 [Ed.--it was withdrawn, but who put him up-to-it originally? It should be noted that Kyl worked on another bill with Sen. Charles Schumer. Was it him? Was it Tom Delay? The Bush administration?] attempts to gut the carefully crafted, bipartisan civil liberty and privacy provisions that are the hallmark of the Collins-Lieberman bill. It is inconsistent with the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission and would undermine the civil liberties that we cherish.
And we thought Joe Lieberman was a total rat. Boy, were we wrong! Look at his social-spending record, it's pretty liberal in a good-sense. But the central-question is: who backed Kyl (R-Arizona) on this amendment? I would wager it was the White House. Not even Mr. Macaca would back it. Are some doors too frightening to open? Democrats had better not have the same fears during the investigations, we've had too-close of a brush with a coup in the United States. Congressional Democrats had better be thorough with the upcoming-investigations, going wherever the trail leads--even if it's some of their own.
Most-importantly, there had better be firm and strictly-worded legislation with adequate enforcement provisions attached. Watch your elected-officials have to show their true-colors, grab the popcorn! We're probably going to be surprised who some of the worst-enemies of democracy really are...or maybe-not. We know that two of them are Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and that there are several-others in the House and Senate just like them. This is one reason for the dip in Kerry's popularity--his unresponsiveness to the public-will. Another one of them is Evan Bayh. They have to be dealt-with if they aren't willing to change-course of all-fronts. Vote with a vengeance.
Leahy-Leahy-Leahy (get you adverbs here):
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200410/100604D.html
http://www.constitutionproject.org/article.cfm?messageID=268
https://www.law.georgetown.edu/news/releases/December.6.2006.html
Leahy on Scalito:
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200601/011906.html
The ACLU on Patriot Act II and the failed Kyle Amendment (read, or perish):
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/17203leg20030214.html
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/18582leg20041004.html
More on the failed S.3801 (PDF):
http://jameslandrith.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=438
The Death of S.3801 Using the 'Riddim Method':
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r108:FLD001:S60477
The Populist Party of America on Liberty:
http://www.populistamerica.com/
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
The (Still) Unanswered Question: 'How did the Troops Vote?'
Caesar: "Et tu, Brute?"
THE UNITED STATES AGAIN--Hmmmmm? Nowhere on the media's radar. It seems that the fact must be embarrassing. Also embarrassing are all the irregularities that are still cropping-up from the November 7th midterm-elections. It seems that irregularities were more widespread in Ohio than 2004, and this is just one story. If anyone knows the vote-tally for who our troops voted-for, I'd sure love a link to it, it's elusive. We should all be proud that they had to try to rig the elections--this-time, it was an obvious landslide against the GOP. The spell only works if there is a close-margin, based on voter-discontent and concomitant apathy. Voter-apathy is the only chance the GOP has ever had to win anything beyond their minority-status. They have nothing to offer, just complaints about how awful it is they can't spend trillions on worthless weapons-systems, instead of feeding-the-poor. Did those weapons save anyone at the WTC? Nope.
Make no mistake: the American people don't like or trust either the GOP or the DNC, this is clear. The elections were an unofficial plebiscite on the war in Iraq (and, oh yeah, Afghanistan). We voted 'nay', Bob (Woodward). Pun-intended. To the two-party system: watch your backs, we don't have them unless you give us what we need as a country. We want the war over NOW. Not tomorrow, but NOW. This is why many people hate John Kerry in America, he just won't respond to our will. That's why he's going to continue to decline as a politician. His own sister turned-away Cindy Sheehan at the UN, and was involved in her arrest. What filth. No White House, nada. Zip. Zilch. Null. Lack. Over. He's like one of the Roman Senators who never lifted-a-finger to stop Caesar. He looks like the Patrician asshole that he really embodies. Retire. That goes for Hillary, and Schumer, and all of their ilk in politics. Get out of our country, you true-anarchists (right-wing), we don't want you here.
THE UNITED STATES AGAIN--Hmmmmm? Nowhere on the media's radar. It seems that the fact must be embarrassing. Also embarrassing are all the irregularities that are still cropping-up from the November 7th midterm-elections. It seems that irregularities were more widespread in Ohio than 2004, and this is just one story. If anyone knows the vote-tally for who our troops voted-for, I'd sure love a link to it, it's elusive. We should all be proud that they had to try to rig the elections--this-time, it was an obvious landslide against the GOP. The spell only works if there is a close-margin, based on voter-discontent and concomitant apathy. Voter-apathy is the only chance the GOP has ever had to win anything beyond their minority-status. They have nothing to offer, just complaints about how awful it is they can't spend trillions on worthless weapons-systems, instead of feeding-the-poor. Did those weapons save anyone at the WTC? Nope.
Make no mistake: the American people don't like or trust either the GOP or the DNC, this is clear. The elections were an unofficial plebiscite on the war in Iraq (and, oh yeah, Afghanistan). We voted 'nay', Bob (Woodward). Pun-intended. To the two-party system: watch your backs, we don't have them unless you give us what we need as a country. We want the war over NOW. Not tomorrow, but NOW. This is why many people hate John Kerry in America, he just won't respond to our will. That's why he's going to continue to decline as a politician. His own sister turned-away Cindy Sheehan at the UN, and was involved in her arrest. What filth. No White House, nada. Zip. Zilch. Null. Lack. Over. He's like one of the Roman Senators who never lifted-a-finger to stop Caesar. He looks like the Patrician asshole that he really embodies. Retire. That goes for Hillary, and Schumer, and all of their ilk in politics. Get out of our country, you true-anarchists (right-wing), we don't want you here.
Apocalypto (2006) review
There is only one word for Mel Gibson's Apocalypto: masterwork. We have the source of his meltdown--this film. To say that Apocalypto is a major achievement would be an understatement. It is more. Gibson has created a story about now and how civilizations fall.
Yes, there are numerous references to the war in Iraq--albeit indirect ones--but also about the fear-baiting "War on Terror." The panic surrounding 9/11 is touched-on: a scene of refugees escaping warfare very early in the film conveys the need for calm during a crisis, and not for people to fall-prey to their fears (the food of all tyrants and demagogues).
For those who want to shift the debate about this film, you should realize that it's an allegory, and it's meant to exist only in cinematic space and not as a representation of a linear-history. It's thrust is thematic. We should all know this by now regarding movies and how they portray human history. Interestingly, Gibson and his co-writer crib a scene from William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," and it fits. I also enjoyed his take on the shamanic experience and the power of human insight.
But many of the images in Apocalypto are happening in Iraq today, many-of-which are being committed by our troops in our name. The only difference here is the absence of automatic-weapons and other "high-technologies". While there isn't 100% accuracy in the depiction of the classical Mayan civilization, the bulk of their culture and practices (including the cyclical-droughts that precipitated a decline of the cities, enslavement, and an increase in human sacrifice) are present. There is a genuine love of the Maya expressed in the film, and they are a beautiful people with their aquiline-noses and their bronze-skin.
The Maya are a lovely people with a material culture and legacy that is both gorgeous and horrific, and they are a part of us all in Gibson's filmic universe. There are no Caucasian messiahs here (a truly racist conceit), as there have been in most films featuring indigenous peoples. Virtually every actor in the film is Mayan or at least Native American.
Some critics have said the tale seems more to concern the problems of the Aztecs, but consider that the rain god Kukulkan was a feathered-serpent, just as Quezalcoatl in Mesoamerican religion. Both gods received sacrifices of blood in ways that are so similar that there has to be some connection in the genesis of both civilizations, particularly in their militarized-theocratic structures. This connection may come from the Toltec and Olmec civilizations.
We can see a contemporary desire for this theocratic-context in the efforts of the Bush administration except that they sacrifice warriors to the god Mars. And so, we have one of the major themes in most of Gibson's oeuvre: the strong desire for human sacrifice and an unquenchable bloodthirstiness that is part of nearly every so-called "civilized" culture in human history. This is what makes it a story about the human-condition, and it's clear that Mel Gibson is horrified by the way that we treat each other. This raises some valid questions.
I put it to you: how-many people has he ever killed? Critics are suffering from misdirected-anger, while others are lying-racists themselves. Others are simply being reactionary and wrong-headed.
A noteworthy aspect of the film is the fact that this is the first motion picture with dialog spoken in the language of the Maya. Because most of the public don't understand that the Maya were and are a linguistic cultural group--not a single-unit as most indigenous groups are and were--it might be confusing to see Maya enslaving and sacrificing other Maya, but this is what occurred during their classical and post-classical eras.
Human sacrifice intensified when cycles of droughts, possibly due to an over-population in the cities. Due to internecine warfare, poor harvests, and general brutality through raiding and feuds, the cities began sinking. Gibson suggests that infighting as depicted in the film was the major-contributor, and Gibson appears to have done his homework on a subject that he so obviously adores. It's still a guess as to why they fell, which reveals the tale as allegory, not a simple history.
Even the philosopher Henri Rousseau with his "noble savages" might be impressed, but the co-writer/director/producer balances this all out with a display of what the Maya really did to one another as their civilization collapsed. Because of this, and the indirect references to our own time, the story has a message that isn't isolated to the fall of classical Mayan civilization, but a warning to us all that only a people can truly undo themselves.
This is a pretty radical message during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the divisiveness and chaos unleashed by the Bush administration upon the world. In past interviews, director Gibson has compared the human sacrifices in Apocalypto with Iraqis, Americans, and coalition forces being sacrificed to the war machine in the Middle East. This is a very fine-point that literally transcends the historical setting of the film and can be taken as part of its general-thrust: a civilization that wars with its neighbors and within itself cannot endure, a reminder from history. The majority of Mayan history was warfare against each other, it's just the unfortunate truth. Apocalypto is a warning to us all.
It is curious, then, that there are voices of the so-called "Left" who want to focus on the racial tirade of a man who was having a nervous-breakdown while intoxicated. It sends a very weird message indeed. The sheer brilliance of this film illuminates the incident more clearly by its technical achievements (digitally shooting, almost entirely within the jungles of the Yucatan). Ask Werner Herzog how easy this is.
This is not an apology for Gibson's comments, but we should ask ourselves how often these things happen to people who are not famous. If he wasn't Mel Gibson, we wouldn't even be talking about the tirade, we wouldn't care. It's all about having an agenda.
All attacks on him should be viewed with a reasonable degree of suspicion and level-headedness, because even a man who has done wrong can be used to commit further wrongs for individuals with an questionable agenda (like Ari Emanuel). Many of these people are supporters of the very imperialism that Gibson rails-against in this film.
There are a number of Hollywood insiders who have said point-blank that they will never even watch this film for consideration of an MPAA award. It all reminds me of the stupidity surrounding The Last Temptation of Christ (1989), an embarrassing episode for American culture. This is intellectual dishonesty at its worst, but most of these individuals are used to this state-of-being, as are many of the critics of the film--even one Ward Churchill, and he should know better.
In-character-as-usual, the Maya are mixed in their reactions to the film at this writing. They are not a monolithic people, but a culture of disjointed familial networks.
Yet, the Maya are survivors, 800,000-strong, which isn't shabby for an indigenous people in the Americas, and they even control parts of Chiapas, Belize and Guatemala. A people have a way of coming-around for their turn again, and it's possible that the Maya will have their own autonomous civilization someday. Here's to their continued resistance to colonialism. Today, the Maya often live as they always have in their small agricultural villages. Apocalypto is essential viewing with an ending that absolutely floored me. Its cinematic vistas are food for thought, regardless of who it came from.
Context-context-context:
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/meso_america/chichenitza.html
http://hatherleighpress.stores.yahoo.net/secretsofmaya.html
http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/Maya/Maya_Aztec_Main.html
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06309/735121-37.stm
http://www.indians.org/welker/maya.htm
http://www.smm.org/sln/ma/cenote.html
http://www.britannica.com/hispanic_heritage/article-9051572
http://www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/central_america_and_caribbean/la_ruta_maya/chichen_itza.php
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/extauazp.html
Revised 11.08.2008
http://hatherleighpress.stores.yahoo.net/secretsofmaya.html
http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/Maya/Maya_Aztec_Main.html
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06309/735121-37.stm
http://www.indians.org/welker/maya.htm
http://www.smm.org/sln/ma/cenote.html
http://www.britannica.com/hispanic_heritage/article-9051572
http://www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/central_america_and_caribbean/la_ruta_maya/chichen_itza.php
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/extauazp.html
Revised 11.08.2008
Monday, December 11, 2006
MEL GIBSON'S APOCALYPTO NUMBER ONE
Just thought I'd remind-you. I guess that 'boycott' didn't pan-out in Hollywood, oh well. Sigh. An amazing film, you must go see it immediately. Perhaps one of the best anti-imperialist statements in cinema in decades. In case you think the Maya didn't sacrifice human-beings during their decline, you're wrong-again, but you're probably used to this. Review coming tomorrow, brace-yourselves. It will be scathing, just not in the direction you'd expect...
Sunday, December 10, 2006
LOW-SCALE RIOTING IN CHILE'S CAPITOL OVER PINOCHET DEATH
SANTIAGO, CHILE--Hundreds of rioters, both for and against the legacy of deceased former dictator, Augusto Pinochet, have been fighting in the streets of the capitol for the last few-hours. Some Leftist protesters have created makeshift-barricades, and some fist-fights and rock-throwing have occurred. There have been no reports of serious-injuries yet. It's an expression of a rift that hasn't healed, but thousands are celebrating Pinochet's death, just as Spaniards did with the death of Franco. The celebrations will probably last for months, if Pinochet supporters don't act-out and violate the law (they're used to this).
No, there's no-looking-back for South America anymore. No more Monroe Doctrine, no more cheap bananas, oil and labor for Big Oil and American Fruit Company. No more, watch them fall--to their own people, a tragedy, I know. No more red-baiting, no more dominoes. The ruse is over with the Cold War gone, and democracy is winning in Latin America, much to the chagrin of the State Department and American elites. Makes you want to cry, doesn't it? Not really. It all began when they threw rocks at Nixon in Caracas during the Eisenhower years, the rocks hurled round-the-world. Thankfully, some of those rocks hit the SOB.
Center-Left politics continues to rule in Chile, as it has since 1990. There was no 'economic miracle', you see, Pinochet nearly wrecked Chile with his 'Chicago economics' deregulation. Sound familiar? A shame that red-baiting doesn't work anymore, but it's definitely Miller time in Santiago tonight. Young men will be looking for some leg, just as they did in Spain in 1975--and they'll get it. This is called being human, being spontaneous and comradely. Americans wouldn't know this sensation outside of a football game. We're not talking-about American women here, but real women. Real people. Americans aren't real, they hardly exist as individuals, just drones batted-around by the next commercial. The scared and the greedy.
Revolutions can be sexy when the people there are grounded-in-reality. There was an awful lot-of-fucking behind the barricades during the Paris Spring of 1968, you betcha. Capitalism is dowdy and wasteful, but we all know this. Thankfully, its purest-forms are deteriorating around the world. George W. Bush might have been its last-hurrah. Soon, very-soon, average-Americans will be able to travel and trade with Cuba, too. This will be an honest step-forward for both nations (and time for some leg). I might never leave if I go, and it's going to be so exciting to see Socialism continue-to-grow until it finally, finally reaches the United States. We're off to a good-start: we have our first Socialist in the Senate, and even our first Muslim in Congress! Heady-times, brother, heady-times. Viva Chavez, Viva Morales! Viva Socialismo!
Viva Venezuela:
http://redpepper.blogs.com/venezuela/spanish/index.html
No, there's no-looking-back for South America anymore. No more Monroe Doctrine, no more cheap bananas, oil and labor for Big Oil and American Fruit Company. No more, watch them fall--to their own people, a tragedy, I know. No more red-baiting, no more dominoes. The ruse is over with the Cold War gone, and democracy is winning in Latin America, much to the chagrin of the State Department and American elites. Makes you want to cry, doesn't it? Not really. It all began when they threw rocks at Nixon in Caracas during the Eisenhower years, the rocks hurled round-the-world. Thankfully, some of those rocks hit the SOB.
Center-Left politics continues to rule in Chile, as it has since 1990. There was no 'economic miracle', you see, Pinochet nearly wrecked Chile with his 'Chicago economics' deregulation. Sound familiar? A shame that red-baiting doesn't work anymore, but it's definitely Miller time in Santiago tonight. Young men will be looking for some leg, just as they did in Spain in 1975--and they'll get it. This is called being human, being spontaneous and comradely. Americans wouldn't know this sensation outside of a football game. We're not talking-about American women here, but real women. Real people. Americans aren't real, they hardly exist as individuals, just drones batted-around by the next commercial. The scared and the greedy.
Revolutions can be sexy when the people there are grounded-in-reality. There was an awful lot-of-fucking behind the barricades during the Paris Spring of 1968, you betcha. Capitalism is dowdy and wasteful, but we all know this. Thankfully, its purest-forms are deteriorating around the world. George W. Bush might have been its last-hurrah. Soon, very-soon, average-Americans will be able to travel and trade with Cuba, too. This will be an honest step-forward for both nations (and time for some leg). I might never leave if I go, and it's going to be so exciting to see Socialism continue-to-grow until it finally, finally reaches the United States. We're off to a good-start: we have our first Socialist in the Senate, and even our first Muslim in Congress! Heady-times, brother, heady-times. Viva Chavez, Viva Morales! Viva Socialismo!
Viva Venezuela:
http://redpepper.blogs.com/venezuela/spanish/index.html
FORMER DICTATOR AUGUSTO PINOCHET, DEAD AT 91
"The Chilean case raises most of the issues connected with covert action as an instrument of American foreign policy. It consisted of long, frequently heavy involvement in Chilean politics: it involved the gamut of covert action methods, save only covert military operations; and it revealed a variety of different authorization procedures, with different implications for oversight and control."---from the 1975 Church Commission report on covert activities in Chile.
SANTIAGO--He's dead, the heart-attack sank him. It's a shame all of the thousands of victims he had murdered didn't get to live as-long as he did, but at least he was hounded and felt a siege-mentality in his final-years. Next-time, Mossad, or someone else should just grab his ilk and shoot them in-the-face. He was a tyrant and a murderer who thought he was Pericles--he wasn't, just another crook neo-Nazis everywhere could mourn. And were the executions and tortures 'for Chile', as he contended? Nope. But why did the political chaos in Chile happen? Socialist President-elect Salvador Allende had won the 1973 elections, and ITT was alarmed--violent-arrests and repression ensued.
ITT wanted cheap-copper from Chile for communications-cables (and a windfall-profit), so they tapped the Nixon administration to tap the CIA and Kissinger, and they hired Pinochet to form a coup against the newly-elected government. It should be said that CIA-activity was ongoing--it predated the Nixon administration--but reached its zenith under Nixon, as many other covert-ops did during that legendary period. Allende allegedly committed-suicide in the first hours of the coup, but this is still hotly-contested by the Left and the right in Chile today. Not every wound has been healed in the Andean nation.
Thousands were murdered by the military under Augusto Pinochet, who ascended as dictator until 1991 when his rule crumbled. Before Pinochet, Chile had known an unbroken-continuity of democracy from 1932. This was virtually unheard-of in the region in 1973. Since the end of his regime, he has been protected by the American State Department and the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Spain and Chile have valiantly attempted to extradite him for-years. In-light of all this, does Hugo Chavez sound paranoid, especially considering there was a coup-attempt in 2002 in Venezuela? If you think so, you're probably sympathetic with people like Pinochet and Klaus Barbie. Pinochet was little-more than a pimp and a murderer for American corporations, this is his legacy, there is nothing-else.
The Church Commission on the 1973 Coup:
Context-context-context:
VELVET UNDERGROUND ACETATE SELLS FOR $155,000 ON EBAY
NYC--This item has been up on ebay since late-November, and sold in the last two-days. What is it, and what was ebay's cut? It must be huge. The identity of the buyer is unknown, but wouldn't it be funny if it was Lou Reed? He has the dough. The original first-sessions for the first V.U. LP, from 1966. It's an astounding-find, because these are literally the very first studio-recordings, and were rejected by Columbia records at the time. MGM wasn't having it either, so new sessions were scheduled with producer Tom Wilson, who also recorded Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and the Mothers of Invention (Freak Out). There are some 1965 recordings available in the V.U. box-set that are rehearsal-tapes, saved by John Cale on reel-to-reel. This acetate is different, it's a studio-mixdown for the group to listen-to for reference. Most of the witnesses to the sessions have said the sound-quality was poor, if unremarkable, so most of the interest here will be in the historical-value.The Wilson recordings became the stereo and mono versions of the first LP (mono sounds best on the rockers), while the sessions on the acetate vanished. Stories have always been vague about their whereabouts, and one has to wonder if Lou bought them to keep them suppressed. It's unclear what his opinion of them might be, we'll have to have a listen, won't we? The acetate-record was bought in 2002 by a record-collector from Montreal in a 'Manhattan flea market' for 75 cents. Now, if someone can find sound-synched footage of them live from the same period, we'll all be happier! Shame-on-you, Andy, for not filming the Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows, a multi-media extravaganza that can only be remembered now. How someone had this 12" acetate in their possession is a total-mystery. It's possible they were someone close to Warhol's Factory entourage, and died before 2002, their belongings being sold and disseminated blindly. It's been 40 years, and mortality surely played-a-hand here.
We can expect this acetate to surface as a release, someone will make sure of this. By-all-accounts, the engineering on these sessions was poor, and acetates from this era aren't great for sound-quality. But, the acetate is close to the original-tapes (first-generation), so it could be salvageable. With advanced digital sound-restoration being so good these-days, a team of engineers could make it presentable. It's unclear whether the recordings are mono or stereo. Let the NEW bidding begin! There's another aspect to these historic-recordings: they were produced by Andy Warhol. All are different versions from the final LP. They coulda used the money 40-years-ago, and they probably won't be making much this-time, either. Guitarist Sterling Morrison died in 1995 0f cancer, but there might be a few royalties for the survivors. Easily as influential as the Beatles, it's official. Kraftwerk also shares this distinction. Kiss, however, does not. We can thank God for this.
The AP story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061210/ap_en_mu/vintage_velvet
Saturday, December 09, 2006
10,000 RAMONES BANDS RE-ENACT ENTIRE CULTURAL MOVEMENT POORLY, DWARF WOODSTOCK FOR SHITTY-SOUND
Punk still sucks and has no cultural-relevance anymore, especially emo--just thought I'd remind everyone. Think-up something original that requires a modicum-of-talent and creativity. That girlfriend who makes you listen to it, ditch her. She sucks in bed anyway, and she has no-taste in music. Get a real woman who loves funk, techno, smokes-cigarettes, and even listens to some industrial and postpunk (no Goth, that's over too, and it's goofy), something new and avant-garde. Something different.
Even pop is better than punk (or are they the same now?). Just tag someone with an open-mind, maybe a stripper. She'll fuck you in-half, I guar-an-tee it. I know these things. Just NEVER allow a woman to dictate your tastes, it's pathetic. Over-is-over, and your understanding of culture and how it works is funny. Punk is still-dead, I checked...no-pulse. You look silly, ya' got punk on your face, kid. You remind me of all the ass-rockers from the 80s who STILL dress like they did then, spandex-n'-all. They look pathetic. So do you, though some of the girls look cute punked-out. Kinda like dressing as a flapper (if it looks HOT, it's timeless, yes)...
Even pop is better than punk (or are they the same now?). Just tag someone with an open-mind, maybe a stripper. She'll fuck you in-half, I guar-an-tee it. I know these things. Just NEVER allow a woman to dictate your tastes, it's pathetic. Over-is-over, and your understanding of culture and how it works is funny. Punk is still-dead, I checked...no-pulse. You look silly, ya' got punk on your face, kid. You remind me of all the ass-rockers from the 80s who STILL dress like they did then, spandex-n'-all. They look pathetic. So do you, though some of the girls look cute punked-out. Kinda like dressing as a flapper (if it looks HOT, it's timeless, yes)...
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