A Lost Cause

So here are 21 more fascist members of Congress who would have corporations break the law with impunity. Welcome, everyone, to the so-called "blue dog" Democratic Congressmen in the House of Representatives. They are:

Leonard L. Boswell (IA), Marion Berry (AR), Mike Ross (AR), Earl Pomeroy (ND), Robert E. Bud" Cramer (AL), Melissa Bean (IL), Heath Shuler (NC), John Barrow (GA), Allen Boyd (FL), Joe Baca (CA), Dan Boren (OK), John Tanner (TN), Jim Cooper (TN), Lincoln Davis (TN), Jim Matheson (UT), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Charlie Melancon (LA), Dennis Moore (KS), Christopher Carney (PA), Tim Holden (PA) and Zack Space (OH)

Let's see: 3 from Tennessee, 2 from Arkansas, 2 from Pennsylvania, and one each from Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, North Dakota, Utah and California. In other words: red states, with 2 douchebags "representing" California's miserable and decrepit inland empire and the nortoriously wealthy, greedy, elitist northwest suburbs of Chicago. Good going, fascist assholes. You 21 traitors and ALL 198 members of Congress calling themselves "Republicans" make up a majority of the House. Every single one of you would and probably will sell the country out to a bunch of fascist thugs who care NOT A CENT about anything concerning the security of America -- only the security of the unchecked power of this fuckwad in the White House and his corporate cronies.

You will all be targeted, all 39 of you "Democrats," you 18 in the Senate and you 21 in the House. You who will have fucked us come this weekend, for delivering to this fraudulent president to sign into a law what is basically the stuff of Soviet Russia and Stasi East Germany.

We're basically already at Stasi East Germany. Next stop for the U.S.: Stalinist Russia. Then maybe we can move on to Mussolini Italy and, finally, graduate to Nazi Germany. Yaaaaaay!

Police in America - Yet Another Fascist Institution

So I've been following the primary returns on my favorite blogs and other websites, and I've come across just one too many videos, YouTube and otherwise, of police brutality in all its naked ugliness.

People need to wake up to the fact that the police are NOT on our side, that the "serve and protect" motto is a complete and utter lie. Time and time again we see them abusing women, minorities, juveniles and others who are vulnerable but who make good arrest quotas that so often is the goal of sheriffs and chiefs who run the departments. Fuck them. NO ONE is safe any more. Police are only around to harass you, NOT to protect you. Anything else you may have been told is a lie. I see this every day on the streets of New York City. A city, by the way, notorious for its brutality and murder of racial minorities by the police. Police who, by the way, DO NOT come from the city but come from Long Island and points north, who think they own the city and everyone who actually live here. 

This, of course, is nothing new in our history. Many have written about the violent and sociopathic tendencies of many a cop. But now that I see raw footage of it on YouTube I get the feeling that this is NOT just some '60s tired old rant. The purpose of the police is ultimately to protect the powerful, if for no other reason than to protect the powerful. I've seen enough. And yes, there are a few exceptions, be them VERY rare and VERY precious few. Any time I see a cop I cringe, even if it's just a traffic cop or a meter cop. I am always hesitant to "call the cops" now when I sense danger, because I know that in too many cases, the victim is blamed, and this happens all too many times in rape cases. How dare they question a woman who has been raped, and ask if she "may have provoked it?" Yet all politicians of every party invariably stand with police as evidence of their being "tough on crime." More like tough on people who the police brand as criminals who "were asking for it." This is sexism/racism 101. Furthermore, one is more likely to be beaten by a white male cop in a city than to be mugged by mysterious and nefarious "brown" people. Fuck these racist fascist bastards.

For more intelligent discussion on the atrocities committed by the typical cop consult the work of Derrick Jensen. He has plenty of specific cases where minorities have been brutalized/killed JUST for being black. And I hear this all the time from African Americans I have worked with. I am sickened that they get pulled over just for being black. I am sickened by these videos. I am sickened that I have to show the contents of my backpack to some schmuck who wouldn't know a bomb from a banana. These assholes are in charge, though. They are specifically chosen for their sociopathic and sadistic tendencies. ALWAYS they have a grudge toward some specific person or type. ALWAYS they will treat you as if you are guilty, and never let you tell your side of the story. ALWAYS they will target minorities, and be typically white and typically male. This is the case in EVERY town and city in America. And almost ALWAYS they get away with a slap on the wrist for violating your civil rights. God-damn them.

Never trust a cop. Never.

Obama For President - Duh!

We need to vigorously support this man and travel to swing states to get him elected if need be. Right now you can donate money to his campaign - here is the link. I am taking election day and the day after off from work. I plan on traveling to Ohio to canvass neighborhoods wherever MoveOn wants me to go. I hope to bring friends. I want to get this out there now, so that we can get it through our heads, and early, that this election day is the final stand we make to keep this country free of fascism and state terror. I am a gay man fearing for the well-being of my boyfriend and myself if McCain gets elected/installed as President of the United States a year from now. I fear for my family, every one a Democrat; for my fabulous gay and lesbian friends; for the LGBT community in general. This is not something I can stay on the sidelines for, so I am asking everyone reading this to take action.

Really, it's serious this time.

[Update]: And please, Barack, stop calling John McCain a 'hero' in the present tense. He is a hero to nobody. He is a political coward, and he will do and say anything to appeal to the right-wing (who are anything BUT conservative, by the way) of his miserable, pathetic American Fascist Party. The world has seen too many fascists come to power, only to destroy everyone and everything standing in their way. No more.

The Infamous Eighteen

We already know about the American Fascist Party (aka "Republicans") and how much they want to shred the Constitution. We also have eighteen members of the U.S. Senate who call themselves Democrats but in reality are unworthy of the name. They are the traitors who sold us out today, with their nay votes on the anti-telecom amnesty amendment. They are the following:

Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Jim Webb (D-VA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

They are utter cowards. They are thugs. They are fascists. And they need to be drubbed out of office with every ounce of sweat we can muster. God-damn them all.

GOP: The New American Fascist Party (AFP)

I will hereby be calling all Republicans in our federal government Fascists. Fascists with a capital F, that is. They no longer get to call themselves 'Republicans' because they no longer represent anything close to a republican form of government. So, for instance, when I refer to our President (Prez, POTUS, fuckwad, if you will), "George W. Bush," I shall forever attach the word 'fascist' to it, whether it precedes it or follows it. And no longer will I refer to the "Republican" party as such. It is now the "fascist party," the "American Fascist Party" or simply "AFP." No, there is no longer room at the table for these neo-Nazi bastards.

The time for niceties and politesse is over. This is nothing short of a tipping point. If this is not an argument for the complete and permanent marginalization -- nay, destruction -- of the thing we still call, after these seven long, miserable years, the "Republican Party," or "GOP," then I do not know what is. Let John "McCoot" McCain's nay votes stand in clear contrast to the yea votes of the true small-d-democrat Democrat left in this race, Barack Obama. Let no one doubt that Obama is the single best thing we have right now that we would call the 'opposition.' Hillary Clinton sold our her party, sold out her Senate career, sold out her candidacy and sold out her country by her feeble 'absent' vote on every single improvement to the abysmal FISA bill, the only Democratic senator to do so. She had no reason not to be there, as she was campaigning in the D.C. area. All bets are off after today. If she succeeds in getting the Democratic nomination for the candidacy of President of the United States of America, she will stand as feeble opposition to Mr. "Thousand-Year-War" McCoot.

The actions the Senate took today stand as an absolute failure of one branch of government to hold another accountable, what our civics and history books call "checks and balances." It stands as a testament to how much control corporations have over our government that they can literally dictate what laws get enacted. It stands as a testament to the utter failure of Bill Clinton's presidency for having had, without our realizing, a Deputy Attorney General, Jamie Gorelick, who today would be one of the corporate telecom lobbyists doing Bush's bidding. This is disgusting. This is the stuff that ruins opposition political parties. This is the stuff that ushers in mysterious knocks on doors late at night. This is the stuff of fascism.

U.S. SENATE TAKES A BIG CRAP ON AMERICA

So yay! We're one step closer to becoming a fascist country! Thanks a lot, Democratic senators for betraying us! Yay! That includes you, Diane Feinstein, you motherfucking asshole!

I am so disgusted right now I can't think. I can't work. I can't eat. EVERY FUCKING ONE OF THE GOOD FISA BILL AMENDMENTS HAVE JUST GONE DOWN IN FLAMES! FUCK YOU, HARRY REID AND JAY ROCKEFELLER!

Please just read this and this. You'll get the lowdown and a lot more information. From me, just invective right now. Fuck you, too, Hillary Clinton, for voting 'absent' on the crucial amendment to strip immunity for telecom companies that have broken the law. Yeah, thanks a lot. You have just given your consent to spying on Americans here in America, with absolutely no accountability for the government ordering this or the telcos that willingly go along.

SOMEONE, ANYONE -- TELL ME WE ARE NOT SLIPPING INTO FASCISM! I DARE YOU!

We Are About to Officially Become A Fascist Nation

I want to link a post on dailykos.com by mcjoan here, because I think she does an excellent job in laying out the stakes we face as the Senate now debates the amendments to the FISA bill. These five Democratic senators, and there may be more, depending on who fails to vote for what key amendments, should under no circumstances be supported in their re-election bids if they are running this November, no matter what:

Jay Rockefeller (WV)
Tim Johnson (SD)
Blanche Lincoln (AR)
Evan Bayh (IN)
Mary Landrieu (LA)

They are traitors to the Democratic Party, but more importantly traitors to their country. They have sold out American citizens so that the Bush thugs can spy on us with no accountability, and for that there is no forgiveness. They are the reason our Senate and Congress as a whole get such bad ratings -- it's because they do NOTHING to stop Bush's spying, fascist agenda from rolling forward and ruining our democracy. Mary Landrieu and Jay Rockefeller in particular will be the chief Democrats who will allow telecommunications companies to receive retroactive immunity for the laws they have broken in aiding Bush and his jack-booted thugs to spy on us with no impunity. How shameful. Good riddance to you five, you god-damned motherfucking traitors. You nasty-ass motherfuckers are no better than your fascist Republican counterparts. I expect to see one of the Senators Nelson, and maybe a Senator Salazar in the coming days who will also aid in this despicable FISA bill becoming law, stripping it of the crucial amendments that the good senators Feingold and Dodd and Whitehouse have added that would keep Americans safe from government spying and corporate law-breaking. You, senators, will have proven no better than the above five, and shall deserve the same rejection. Make no mistake: the Verizons and the AT&T's of this world are NOT patriotic companies in the least. They are aiders and abettors of the crimes of Bush and his regime.

This is despicable. Good luck to all of us when this bill becomes law.

Election 2008: Is It Really About Candidates & Issues?

Reflecting on the U.S. presidential race thus far, and looking ahead to the remainder of it, I'm struck by how little it has to do with real substance -- issues, character -- than it does with the self-importance of various interested players.

The debates have had less to do than with actually hashing out the important issues of the day than with advertising various media outlets and showing us the so-called journalists who want to be seen as "important." Yeah, that's you, Tim Russert. Yeah, that's you, Chris Matthews. Yeah, that's you, too, Wolf Blitzer. Ooh, look at CNN -- they're so hip and relevant because they're co-sponsoring debates with Facebook and YouTube! Look at me, America! I'm Iowa and I'm first, dammit, so notice me! Oh, yeah, Iowa? Well we're the first primary, so our election matters more cuz more people can actually vote, and we're first, dammit! Damn all you other Americans, you're not important, you don't really know who's best-qualified to be president like we do! Hey, look at us! We're the Democratic Party and so you better fall in line and "unite" behind a candidate before...before we melt and America falls apart. No, Democrats, we're the REAL Americans, us GOP, us Republicans, and so what we say "matters" more than anyone. And look, there's John McCain, he must be really serious cuz' he's so old and he's white and always so serious when he speaks. We don't really care what he actually says!

Then there's the posturing over that all-important veep slot. Cuz who's running for president doesn't matter! John McCain may a crazy old coot, running his mouth off about bombing Iran and staying in Iraq for a thousand years, but if he picks Bambi as his running mate -- aww, wouldn't that be a sweet ticket! I've totally changed my mind about him now! My, my, how we're so fooled. DICK Cheney (prounounced shuh-NAY) was supposed to lend "gravitas" to George W. Bush, and we all know what "gravitas" really means now in Republican circles -- more wars and more brown people getting bombed. After eight years of this douchebag running the country, maybe we should rethink how vp's used to be picked during the U.S.'s first 100 years: 2nd place finish for president. Hmm, that would mean a McCoot vice presidency. Stay strong and healthy, Hillary and Barack. All kidding aside, so what? Half the country would be satisfied and have a voice, no matter who wins. No, we say, we resign ourselves to remain a winner-take-all body politic where loud-mouthed minorities of people get to make up the rules, so oh well!

It all adds up to a bunch of noise, these CNN's, these Chris Matthewses, these Iowas and Nevadas and Facebooks and would-be vice presidents of the world who end up making their mark on the whole process (Finally I can be on Facebook and connect with everyone! Thanks, '08 election for making this possible! Iraq? Health Care? Vote? Whaaaa?) but ultimately leave us empty of knowledge. At least in the Ukraine people vote in droves and wear orange and it means something. In France they attach clothespins to their noses on their way to the polls while turning out right-wing nutjob Le Pen and that means something. In Spain they elect Zapatero president, a socialist (oh. NO! scary!), and within five months all their troops are out of Iraq, and if that doesn't mean something and tell us that maybe we should just stop playing these games and treat our democracy with a little more heft and a little more respect, I don't know what will mean anything.

Ann Coulter Will Endorse: Hillary Clinton!

I don't know if this is really what she thinks (as much as Ann Coulter can think) but here it is on Fox News. Assuming John McCain is the de facto Repug nominee come Feb. 5th, what with winner-take-all primaries in most states and the momentum that goes with a formidable lead in delegates, and it's a fairly safe assumption at this point, America's hate-iest hater, Ann Coulter, will campaign for Hillary Clinton. Or so she says.

This is either the most stunning news in modern political history or it's a complete fake-out on the part of the Fox News Channel. I suspect it's the latter, because they are afraid that Obama might win tomorrow (God I hope he does!), and so by pulling this obvious stunt they get more people to vote for Hillary because, and this is where it gets tricky -- they think that we will see this "endorsement" of Hillary by Ann Coulter as an obvious stunt, an attack on Hillary, and it will rally people behind her out of hatred for Ann Coulter. And presto -- Hillary gets more votes Feb. 5th, making her the de facto nominee against McCain, which is exactly what they want.

Only, I don't think this will work, or at least not have any affect whatsoever. NO ONE WATCHES THE FAUX NEWS CHANNEL ANY MORE! No one cares what the fuck they think because people know it to be the fraudulent propaganda machine for the Republican Party that it is, NOT a credible outlet for news.

Nice try, assholes!

John Edwards: You Should Be Proud

A big round of applause goes to John Edwards for showing the way progressive politics needs to be played. He has steered the "debates" toward a more substance-based, issue-oriented dialogue that really have spotlighted where everyone stands. He has moved Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama toward the progressive side, confronting them to be more forceful in committing to pull out of Iraq, getting universal health care and getting tough with corporations who would steal, murder and plunder us. Kudos to John for his grace and fighting style, for inspiring us to believe that yes, politicians sometimes do get what's important. The race would not have been what it is without him.

I am now throwing my full support behind Barack Obama because I think he is the one who has most listened to Edwards' message. Obama has also given me confidence that he will stick up for gays, and has learned from his past mistake of appearing with an anti-gay gospel singer. The enthusiasm surrounding Barack is very palpable, and I cannot pretend that doesn't affect me. I remember Bill Clinton doing the same to me in 1992 - I only wish he could see what is going on right now and just chill the fuck out. I'm afraid he'll mostly be remembered for his self-absorption and for Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell, not the incredibly important budget battle he won in 1993, which wound up getting us out of deficits; or creating 20,000,000 new jobs, with economic growth that made the record books. Sadly none of that matters any more to our amnesiac and childish corporate media, who now refer to the presidential race as the "ballot bowl" and keeps repeating the lie that "the surge is working." Thanks a lot, CNN, for getting more soldiers killed in Iraq while you pretend you "like" Barack Obama. We all know what's coming, and it ain't challenging John "100-more-years-in-Iraq" McCain to point-by-point explain his war-mongering statements. You LOVE John McCain and would LOVE for him to start EVEN MORE wars! Prove me wrong you stinking bunch of douchebags!

Well, it's off to Super (-"douche-per") Tuesday and hoping Obama can pull it off. So far it's looking good.

Bill Clinton Slams Corporate Media: What Could Be Wrong With That?

The more I listen to Bill Clinton's "testy" exchanges with reporters who are overwhelmingly, by the way, corporate media reporters -- the more I realize how right on he is to take them on. Witness the latest exchange with a CNN reporter where Bill is asked about "tactics used in the campaign" being reminiscent of Lee Atwater. Whaaaa? As if this is the pre-eminent question to be asked of a former president after he spoke to people in South Carolina engaged as citizens in the politics of a presidential race, listening to issues and asking questions concering their futures. This hack of a reporter indeed represents the wolf pack mob that unfortunately gets first access to the candidates, asking horse-race questions always, never caring about substantive issues that affect actual people. I think when you watch this clip you will see why he has been the way he has with our masturbatory media. That Bill is only now calling them out on their shit is a little bit late to the game, of course. Still, I am happy to see him doing it.

What the fuck do we expect him to do, when faced with herd-like packs of high school newspaper-grade journalists asking questions no one else cares about but that only the D.C. press corps think of during their many cocktail-induced circle-jerks?

Who the fuck do these people think they are?

Where the fuck do they get off being allowed to ask these questions?

Please watch this clip, as I think regardless of who you are supporting in the primaries Feb. 5th this speaks to the larger issue of willful journalistic incompetence.

Monkey McChimpy: One Year Left

As I write this, it is now 365 days, 1 hour and 35 minutes until the day that the most gigantic lying and murdering asshole in U.S. history will no longer be President of the United States. This beast we have occupying the White House has shed any traces of humanity long, long ago. The people of the U.S.; the legislative branch, the House and Senate that supposedly act as a "check" on the crimes committed by the executive branch; the Supreme Court in enabling this criminal administration in their war crimes and crimes against our rights to privacy, speech and assembly; the go-along-to-get-along corporate media acting as this administration's stenographers -- all these have done essentially nothing to overthrow this stinking pile of shit we call George W. Bush. No impeachment. No investigations of those at the top. Nothing. And so, in this season of presidential primaries, campaigns, and faux debates, all arbitrated meaninglessly by corporate media masturbation, what is there to be hopeful for? The entire Republican Party and a critical mass of the Democratic Party does not want to end the American Empire Project known as the Iraq Occupation, nor even discuss it rationally. Climate change as an issue has merited, in these so-called debates, only about five questions out of thousands put to the Democratic candidates -- NOT the Republican candidates -- for discussion. Not one single Republican was asked anything meaningful about the most critical issue in history facing us. Not a one. This set of events brings a few critical choices. The Republican Party MUST be broken or we will slowly but surely become a police state and a country perpetually at war. Every single time they are allowed to have majority status since 1995, whether it be in the executive branch (100% majority rule), legislative branch or in the courts they have proven themselves to be bullies. They block, threaten to filibuster, drown out with majority rule and otherwise strong-arm the opposition so that they can get what they want, no questions asked, no meaningful debate held. There are no intellectual arguments left for them to exist. They have proven themselves unfit to govern. Corruption and incompetence are the rule with them, and they do not give a flying fuck.

We are one year away from something. Whether that will be any meaningful change depends on on a lot of things. Certainly whoever the Republican nominee is, and let's face it, it is going to be John McCain, will want to stay in Iraq indefinitely, which means that a Republican in the White House will, to the degree that he has an environmentally friendly agenda, only undermine it: resources and money will instead go to the military, defense spending, the Iraq Occupation and perhaps a war with Iran. McCain -- and we have to assume the worst on this -- wants to do some things to end abortions, which means his party will force him to sputter more pablum about the rights of the unborn and the "sanctity of life." Possibly he will succeed in overturning Roe vs. Wade by nominating and confirming a Supreme Court justice that will want to do that. Well, encouraging us to have more babies and then not caring for the ones that aren't wanted is a sure way to increase crime, and not very conducive to conserving what resources we have left to live on a healthy planet. You see, then, how all of these issues would - would, if people just, for once, think about who they push that lever for! - conspire to undermine an ostensibly "moderate" but in reality politically expedient and cowardly President McCain.

There is the distinct possibility of a Clinton Democratic candidacy going up against McCain in November. I still hold out for Edwards, but at this point it is worth discussing possible scenarios given our fucked-up electoral system and how stacked it is against those who would be good, sensible candidates wishing for honest, intelligent, rational discourse by Our Dear Corporate Media on What Really Matters. My second choice, I should state clearly, is Barack Obama, a man who, like Edwards, would be a transformational candidate and likely president, willing to tackle issues of race, civil rights and climate change in an honest, intelligent, straightforward manner (let's face it, civil rights is indeed an issue once again). And, I think he would beat the pants off McCain. All that said, we still need to consider Clinton as the nominee this fall. I would support her one hundred percent, but I have many doubts and fears about her viability against a McCain. Her record in the Senate on Iraq was uninspiring at best, pro-Bush at worst and always calculating for a run for president. She's smart as cookies and sharp as a whip, even more so than Bill I think, but she leaves me fearing that she will not differ from a John Kerry in style and forcibleness. She has to come out fighting and not stop until all the polls have closed on November 4th. She must go on the offensive like Kerry never could, and be willing to respond immediately and with full force to Swift-Boat-like attacks that are sure to come her way like a flood, not only from McCain's campaign but from outside 527 groups. She will need to attack McCain on his record, his lies about being a straight-talker, and on his voting in the Senate time and again for whatever Bush wanted, and for not fighting for the things he disagreed with Bush on, namely torture. McCain allowed a bill to be passed in the Senate and signed by Bush that allows torture, and Clinton needs to remind people of that, over and over and over again. She needs to stress her youth over his old age, her sensibleness over his macho and warmongering posturing. She has to stress the sense of history in her becoming the first female president, all the while making herself look fresh while making him look like an old, pasty white guy. Her husband did a marvelous job campaigning in 1992, was able to respond right away to GHW Bush's slurs and attacks, and was able to, as they say, capture people's imaginations like no other candidate since JFK. Obama has those same qualities -- I see it in front of my eyes. I don't know if Clinton does, and her negative ratings scare me. I don't want to see another Kerry meltdown. I'm in no mood to start thinking about having to move to Canada, which might become a reality given Republican meanness towards gays and the very real possibility of a police state that results from endless war. I hate all of these possibilities, yet what would Hillary Clinton have to fear, like John Kerry, if she lost? A cushy mansion in Westchester, a respectable career in the U.S. Senate, secret service protection for life...these things do not seem to me to be the best motivators not to lose. How do I know from having watched her how Hillary will govern, given her mixed record in the Senate? How tentative will she be on ending our disastrous occupation in Iraq? Words are nice, Hillary, but we need to see more fight in you.

Let's hope it is still a contest come March. I think Hillary Clinton needs to be challenged at least through April, like her husband was in 1992 and which made him a stronger candidate against a seemingly popular incumbent president. Unlike Bill Clinton in 1992, Hillary Clinton in 2008 has D.C. baggage that she needs to reconcile. The sooner, the better.

The Strange Irony of Mike Huckabee

So Mike Huckabee is the "likeable" sort of candidate, an honest and decent man fighting the big bullies of the Republican machine. Really? As Jack Nicholson in The Shining sneeringly says to Shelly Duvall while locked in the food locker, "Wendy? Wendy? You got a big surprise comin' to you. You're not goin' anywhere. Go check out the Sno-Cat and the radio and you'll see what I mean. Go check it out. Go check it out! Go check it out."

Mike Huckabee's certainly got a big surprise for us. Go check out his remarks conflating homosexuality and bestiality and you'll see what he means. He apparently wants to change the Constitution to conform to God's standards. OK, Mike, whatever you say. Had to go there, didn't you? You sort of had me for a while thinking you were at least decent. Now you're just a bat-shit crazy, hateful motherfucker. And in a more insidious and less smarmy way than George W. Bush could ever be. And that's what makes your candidacy all the more deadly.

You will notice that the Republican Establishment will not be condemning him for these blatantly bigoted remarks. No, what they hate is his populist and quasi-eco-friendly message. How dare he talk about reforming health care! How dare he talk about being good to the earth! He's not a true Republican...like Ronald Reagan! He's not a true conservative! As if the the right wing blowhards ever had the slightest idea of what the word 'conservative' means. Christ these people are freaks. And they just can't get over their obsession with Mr. Senile-While-In-Office, Mr. Welfare-Queen-Driving-Cadillacs, Mr. Deny-AIDS-Is-An-Epidemic-While-Thousands-Suffer-And-Die-In-New-York-And-San-Francisco Ronald freakin' Reagan. Go ahead, have him, Republicans. He's in every fucking one of your freak candidates for president, only you're too blind, confused and otherwise fucked up in the head to see it. And yes, he's in John torture-boy McCain, too.

Republicans(TM). Hating On America For Thirty Years (And Getting Away With It)!

And Now, Corporate Media Douchebag #3: Tim Russert

Way to go, Timmah, asking those important questions about climate change and Iraq -- oh right, you were too busy concerning yourself with ridiculous "pledges" candidates should make, or asking insipid questions about "strengths and weaknesses" that any moron asks college interns at job interviews. You fucking washed-up corporate douchebag. Oh, and then there's that pretty-boy frat punk Brian Williams joking about shooting craps and sounding "serious" about yellow lights and red lights and being seven feet away from the candidates.

Please do not be fooled by these shows of "civility" and "respect," for these inhuman corporate-bots moderating these "debates" (one cannot speak of our network corporate media these days without using quotes ad infinitum, and frankly I'm sick of it but this is what has to happen when you have a culture that values what these morons say over other more independent and intellectually competent voices such as those of Truthout, The Nation, MotherJones,...oh let's face it, the left is just smarter, more innovative, creative, interesting, moral and all around better!) will only turn on the Democratic nominee come summertime, and anoint John McCain as the "serious" candidate for these "serious" times. Expect the Rethuglicans to swift-boat whoever is the presumptive nominee, assuming we have one by May or later; and watch with horror as the All-Knowing Media that is ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX/CNN just repeat the allegations as if it were news, like the fucking stenographers they are. Think it won't happen? Just look at what happened to John Kerry in '04, and he was a true war hero. The corporate media just do not like Democrats, this is fact and has been since the 2000 election cycle. These primaries and debates are just a ruse to butter the Democratic candidates up and set them up for a sucker punch. And whoever is our nominee had god-damned better be prepared to call these bastards out on all their shit. And she/he had better go after McCain/Romney/Ghoul-iani/Fuckabee hard and not give up. No trips to Sun Valley, ID for a ski vacation, no wind-surfing in Nantucket Sound, no assuming that your reputation is unimpeachable and not worthy of responding to attacks like Kerry did in '04. Because, Dem nominee, if you do this then You. Will. Lose.

McCain-Bush!

George W. Bush's Best Buddy: John McCain!

John McCain's Best Buddy: George W. Bush!

Brenda Dickson Like You've Never Seen Her!

So some gal named Deven Green has become famous for her voice-over of Brenda Dickson (aka Jill Foster Abbot from Y&R, 1973-80, 1983-87). This has got to be among the funniest things I've ever seen. Take a looksey. Oh, and then there's this, this and this. And, finally, watch this.

Enjoy!

World's Second Biggest Douchebag: Lou Dobbs

...Because he is such a xenophic, racist and, of course, elitist asshole. Number 3: Bill "Roll 'em" Bennett, also of CNN, declaring how nice Iowa was because people weren't shooting other people like in Iraq, a war WE started and a mess WE created. Fuckwad!

On another note, about that Obama "big win" in NH. Oops. I guess it's good that it's now a real race. Whatever. We should have one national primary, or at least a series of regional primaries, and they should start no earlier than March. Why states get all selfish about being "first" when it comes to picking a president for the WHOLE FRIGGIN' COUNTRY I can't really fathom. Really. So two small, largely white states making up maybe 2% of the population get to choose which 3 or 4 candidates are "viable" for the rest of us? Really.

So, to recap. Matthews, Dobbs, Bennett: Douchebags! John King, Howard Fineman, Andrea Mitchell, and oh yeah that really old looking pasty guy that stands in a corner with Soledad O'Brien yapping away about what voters are thinking in the deepest recesses of their cerebral cortices -- wankers, all of them. Obama: hope. Clinton: getting better when actually faced with the possiblity of losing the nomination. Edwards: a fighter I'm still going to vote for. Kucinich: a dream candidate I would love to support but can't afford to. BOLLOCKS!

My Prediction for NH '08 Primary: Chris Matthews Will Become World's Biggest Douchebag

Chris Matthews, a.k.a. Tweety. Expect him to fawn over McCain's come-from-behind victory, milking that story over Obama's likely big win and over the likely scenario that Obama takes more independents than McCain. Just as he condescendingly described the youth vote going to Obama in droves in Iowa as being desperate, watch him tonight as he tries to crown McCain the Repub (more like Rethug) nominee, going against an inexperienced Obama. Maybe he'll say there's still hope for Clinton -- after all, even though Edwards finished second in Iowa, she was the story about being the viable one. Stupid fucking arrogant, entitled, elite asshole. Keith Olbermann should have Matthews' seat, hands down. Ever notice the puzzled Jim-from-The-Office-like look on Olbermann's face looking into the cameras after having to endure Matthews' completely insane and baseless commentary? I love that he doesn't engage in the madness but rather moves on to the straight story. You'll see it again, tonight. And Matthews looks tired, pasty and old, and he is completely insane. He only knows what he hears at DC cocktail parties, he's washed up.

And then there's this. Chris Matthews is a disgusting, sexist pig.

Olbermann for top political MSNBC desk anchor!

Immigration Is a Fake Issue Drummed Up by Republicans & Mimicked by the Corporate Media

First, last night's caucuses. A hearty congratulations goes to Obama for an incredible turnout and getting new voters and independents to support him. And what an awesome speech he gave -- Jeff and I were in tears. That said, I am still supporting Edwards because I like his anti-corporate message better and because I think he is hitting all the right notes regarding the awesome destructive power corporations have wielded in this country and in Iraq, and the influence they have had in making us a fearful and consumptive and anti-intellectual society. That said, I think Obama could be an absolutely amazing, energizing candidate, the force for change we desperately need. And he could easily get elected President. I admit, emotions play a factor with me when I think about Mr. O, but I am confident he, like Edwards, is on the progressive side of the Democratic Party, the side needed so badly right now.

So, on to my subject for this post - immigration. The reason I made the title so long is because I want to drive home the point that immigration as an issue in this presidential race is one wholly fabricated by the right-wing machine, and now, as is usually the case in these dumbed-down times, it is being faithfully echoed by the corporate political press as a major issue. It is not, and has not been, a major issue for a majority of Americans. It is entirely a Republican issue and one that those who identify as Republicans make an issue because those who identify as Republicans act like sheep and do what the right-wing media and political (i.e. Republican) machine tell them to do, and believe what the right-wing media and political (i.e. Republican) machine tell them to believe. No, most people know that immigration is what made us who we are, that we have in place now rational immigration policies that have worked well for over a century, that need only minor tinkering so as to let more good people who are not citizens to become citizens. Of course, the Republicans would never end our corporate "free" trade that enslaves and disenfranchises millions of non-Americans, that enriches the pockets of American CEOs, that allows us to and begs us to mindlessly consume more and more stuff we do not need. No, no, no. The answer, these Republican terrorists tell us, is to deport these undesirable brown people and have more Americans report them to "authorities" so that they can deport even more undesirable brown people.

This is just the latest Republican wedge issue du jour, desperately employed by desperate old white men desperate to hold on to power.

'In Rainbows' Disc 2 Kicks ASS!

I've been listening to the songs of disc 2 ("bonus CD" as they called it on their blog) of Radiohead's In Rainbows on YouTube. Oh. My. Fucking. God. It is absolutely among the best music ever recorded in history.

Timeline of American Fascism, 2001-2007

Holy fucking shit. The number of laws passed by Congress, signing statements by Bush-monkey defying Congress, and US Supreme Court decisions upholding what amounts to a police state these last seven years is quite staggering. Whoever becomes president next year (assuming monkey-boy doesn't declare martial law, halt the election and declare himself president for life) had better acknowledge these blatantly un-American, illegal, immoral and destructive acts, laws and decisions.

This little-noticed blurb regarding this act of terrorism by our Senate got my attention:

October 2006
• The U.S. Senate passes the John Warner Defense Authorization Act. The act allows a president to declare a public emergency and station US military troops anywhere in America as well as take control of state based national guard units without consent of the governor or other local authorities. The law authorizes presidential eployment of US troops to round-up and detain "potential terrorists", "illegal aliens" and disorderly" citizenry.

The Iowa Caucuses Are a Sham

Why do we keep doing this? The fact that so many people are shut out of this undemocratic procedure because they simply can't make it to the precinct location at 7pm on a weeknight, for up to 2 hours or more, because they have to work/take care of kids/etc. is simply wrong. It's elitist in all the wrong ways, it allows 20% of one small state's voting population, mostly white and mostly able-bodied -- and who are vastly made up of the political activists responsible for continuing this travesty of a sham of a joke of the democratic process, the ones least likely to actually need government assistance -- to be able, in large part, to decide which two or three candidates of each party (out of 8 to 10 candidates) are viable for the rest of the primary season. And the corporate media has decided, unthinkingly and unfailingly, to declare "winners" based on delegates each candidate supposedly "won" based on not how many show up to vote/caucus (maybe an undecided person will switch to Clinton in the second round of voting/caucusing because her supporters are giving out cake) but rather based on turnout in the precinct's previous two general elections. If this all sounds complicated and obfuscatory it's because it is. Oh, and then there's this rule for the Democratic caucuses that says a candidate is only viable to pick up any delegates in each precinct (there are 1,781 precincts in Iowa for Thursday's dog and pony show) if he or she receives 15% of that precinct's caucus-goers, with two rounds of voting to try and pry off supporters of one candidate to make another viable. So, ba-bye to Richardson, Dodd, Biden, Kucinich and Gravel right off the bat.

This isn't a game, and I hate it when I hear people in Iowa staying away because they just can't make it or are uninterested. Part of me wants to kick them. Take the night off, or just bring your kids to the precinct, figure it out. But then I think, no, actually some of these people actually could lose their job for deciding to help pick a president, or just can't drive themselves, or who are just too old to be out and about that late in the evening, when it's dark. And it's fucking early January in fucking Iowa.

This sucks. It is way too early to be deciding who will be the Democratic and Republican nominees for POTUS. At best we can hope for a virtual tie in the delegate count at the end of the night Thursday, just so it can be competitive through New Hampshire (there's another sham, albeit a more democratic sham -- and New Hampshire is even whiter than Iowa) and beyond. The sad thing is it might just practically be over and a nominee all but declared by our Dear Corporate Media by February 5th, when most of the country gets to actually vote on their choices. We should really have a national primary on one day, say in late May, when everyone votes at once and candidates are forced to campaign everywhere. But no, Iowa and New Hampshire are king, "momentum" is the game, and winners must be declared before virtually anyone actually votes. Total bullshit.

Why I'm Voting For Edwards

At the recent Democratic debates, regarding health care Edwards said:

"Some people argue that we're going to sit at a table with these people [insurance and drug companies] and they're going to voluntarily give their power away. I think it is a complete fantasy; it will never happen."

This in a nutshell sums up my whole political philosophy. History bears this out time after time after time.

Whaaaaah?

Speaking of Oprah's fans and how they relate to Obama's hoped-for supporters, Frank Rich in his latest column says (pull the string, folks),

This is hardly the chardonnay-sipping, NPR-addicted, bicoastal hipster crowd that many assume to be Mr. Obama’s largest white constituency.

Hipsters sipping chardonnay? (Shipsters hipping sardonnay? Sipsters shipping harddonay? Whaaaaaaaaaaa?)

I thought it was supposed to be lattes! Damn, that's sooo...original!

Douchebag!

Republicans: Destroying the Earth Since 1981

Yet another example of the stark differences between our two major parties: Senate Blocks Energy Bill. Republicans have shown themselves to be the unfeeling killers that they are: of common sense, of innovation, of solutions to problems i.e. climate change, of people (see Iraq War), of truth (also see Iraq War, and Iran's nuclear bomb nonexistence), of anything that is good. Are they really trying to lose big next year? I don't get it, but I hope so. The terrorist organization known as the Republican Party needs to be defeated, permanently.

Sixty Democratic senate seats next year. At least.

I'm tired of this.

Nasty-Ass Motherfuckers

Yesterday's revelation that U.S. intelligence knew in 2003 that Iran had no nuclear bomb program (see article in WaPo) just shows what cold-hearted killers we have in Bush, Cheney et. al. The fact that they would hide this until now, lying the whole time about Iran and threatening yet another illegal war, just for the sake of ego in the last miserable, pathetic year of this god-damned fascist administration, just reinforces the very real danger of having them around for another year. God-damn them. We must go back to the trials of Nuremberg for a comparison of the crimes these thugs have committed. And damn us for not getting these rats, these Goebbels's and Himmler's of this American regime, the justice they deserve. I used to just think that impeachment/removal from office was good enough punishment. Power is, after all, their thing -- THE thing, really, the only thing that matters to them. Take away that, and they're left squabbling like children. But no. People who kill this way, from comfortable chairs in comfortable offices with the mere stroke of a pen -- they do not, in any sense, deserve life. We witnessed the hanging of war criminals some 60 years ago, and though we cringe at the finality of death -- any death -- we still have a sense of peace that these killers, these nasty-ass motherfuckers who value production, abstraction, efficiency over the wonderful and awesome and enchanting thing that is life; who joyously participated in the misery and cruelty of other human beings -- got their ultimate due. They were hanged. Do we reflect back on their deaths with regret that we did this? Call me crazy, but I don't think so. Then what is it? I used to think, well, these were human beings, too, no need to go there, to go to that place which is rage, which "eats you up" inside, all the lies pacifists tell us that we then "become just like them." Bullshit. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit! I can hate just as humanely, just as humanly, as I can love. And of course my hate for George W. Bush in no way negates my love for my family and friends. And I do hate him, for what he has done to us psychically and physically, killing souls, hopes, soldiers in Iraq -- killing everything that is wonderful about being human. But these killers kill remotely without seeing the physical consequences on the ground, face-to-face, close up. They are not human beings in the true sense at all, but rather anthro-machines, lumps of biomass that shrugged off any sense of humanity long ago and traded it for profit, wealth, power, all amassed from the exploitation of others. So is, then, locking them up in prison for life the answer? Is not this a form of taking away their lives? Is this cruel, being that cruelty and inhumanity is the real culprit here? The idea of punishment itself, of justice, of behavior modification through incarceration, which is really just a form of slavery, which IS cruel. So many questions of what to do with these people which could be a model of how we carry out justice humanly and humanely, to human monsters that are neither human nor humane.

Addendum to Last Post

I suppose I have to give some credit to the NY Times and WaPo, for their editorial pages. We get a few crumbs of truth in the form of Paul Krugman, Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd, and a few columnists at WaPo I can't name right now. Fine. Thanks so much for that, for making us have to go to the back of the A section in order to get the real story. What is the reason for this disconnect? Why do I have to read in the Times editorial section of a loss for privacy rights? We pretend we live in a democracy where we all have a say, that it has always existed thus, that a free press is necessary for it, and on and on. The "press" protects the powerful, gives deference to them every time, is disdainful of us "masses" and pretends we give a shit about "soccer moms" and "spirited" debates about nothing, and other meaningless "issues" no one really cares about, using language only they understand but no sane person would use.

Our Corporate Media At Work

This snippet from WaPo's website reveals quite a lot:

Romney, Giuliani Clash On Immigration Issues
Republican presidential candidates engage in a free-for-all as they field video questions in the most spirited debate of the 2008 campaign
Michael D. Shear and Dan Balz
· Republicans Get Mixed Bag of Questions
· The Fix: A Battle in Fla. Live Q&A, NOW
· Media Notes Podcast Channel '08 VIDEO
· Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors

Yeah, I'm talking about that last part about Obama. Oh yes, and also, Republicans have a "spirited" debate because, of course, they are the true holders of "American values" and are true "Christians." Notice the bias here with the use of "spirited." There's plenty more of it regarding, Giuliani, Romney et. al. Why is it that all debates must be commented on as "spirited" for them to be acceptable? Always appealing to our "feelings," our wish for politicians to be "like us." Never actually focus on the issues at stake. No, debates have to be "spirited" and said spiritedness must be what we focus on. Fuck you, WaPo.

Most people who have been paying attention (who just plain pay attention) know that Obama's religious status has been quite the obsession for the right-wing nuts out there. The talking point here is the lie that Obama is Muslim. They refer to his childhood in Indonesia and that his stepfather and grandfather were Muslim. Of course we all know this is what's called Swift-Boating, that tactic of spreading lies among so many sources that eventually it sows doubt about someone. The really sickening thing here is that the Washington Post would publish this trash and sell it as "rumor." We all like to tell ourselves that papers like The New York Times and The Washington Post are intelligent, thoughtful, credible sources of information. The truth is that they are just like any other corporation trying to make a profit, and so they push stories like this off as "news" so that we can get some "perspective" on what "all sides" are saying. I could give a flying fuck what religion Obama calls his own, or where he chooses to "worship." It's sad, really, that he has to emphasize his "Christianity" so much. Hmm, does the phrase "convert or die" ring a bell to anyone who knows what so-called "Christians" did (and are still doing, but in more PR-friendly ways but still in ways that destroy minds) to people all over Asia who didn't acquiesce to their culture of abstraction that is religion?

We truly are a culture of competition, of abstraction, of exploiting others to amass wealth. We worship the god of production. The "God" of Christianity, of Islam, of Judaism -- is really just a ruse to get people to follow, to get people distracted enough to kill each other over who is the "one true God," to get the masses to not direct their ire toward those in power, toward those who are doing the real harm to them, exploiting them, abusing them, killing them.

Expect articles like this one, and more vicious, next year, whoever the Dem nominee is. (Republicans? Why pick on them -- they just want to "lower your taxes" [sic] and "keep you safe" [sic]?) And, expect to find these articles on the front pages of corporate newspapers. This is what passes for "informed," unfortunately, for our culture.

Abuser and Media Whore: Larry Craig & Matt Lauer

Actually, in a way they are both abusers. Craig, of the state of Idaho and of the country by his anti-gay rights voting record; and Lauer, of the truth and of honest journalism. Lauer's soft-ball approach may have snagged Craig and made him look pathetically emasculated at times, but he failed to ask the larger questions of why Craig is so anti-gay and votes the way he does; why he "doesn't agree with" the gay lifestyle. Does he find it abhorrent, and why? Press this motherfucking abusive right-wing asshole on it. Oh, and Suzanne, wasn't she the picture of the dutiful wife, wearing that red tunic and smiling all the while? I wonder if Craig orders her to wear a suit and tie and shave her head before she goes down on him? Is that a wig you're wearing, Suzanne, you right-wing witch? The whole interview was so creepy, and so illustrative of this fucked-up culture. A whole hour devoted to getting "their side" of the story, of being lied to again and again and again. "Senator, are you gay?" America is dying to know. Bush wants to spy on you sans warrant, and grant immunity to telecoms, and torture and kill some more, but AMERICA WANTS TO KNOW IF LARRY CRAIG IS GAY. Of course he is, you morons! Now boot him the fuck out of office!

Keep distracting us: of course! -- the behavior of the abuser to get us to look the other way while, say, Iraq explodes, and global warming is torching southern California.

In the end this gets us no gay rights, more global warming and more war. Duh.

As for the Minnesota laws on "disorderly conduct" in public restrooms: dude, you really need to re-write those laws. Craig is totally going to win his appeal, clear his arrest record, and continue his gay-bashing ways. Guilty plea? What guilty plea? Fuck no public sex, fuck all cops everywhere, fuck Larry Craig and fuck the Republican Party.

Republican Party as Abusers

Rep. Pete Stark of California last week remarked on the House floor, regarding the lie that is the Iraq War and the inability of Congress to override Bush-Monkey's veto of child health insurance: "You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it, to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq, to get their heads blown off, for the president's amusement." For this the House of Representatives cell of the terrorist organization known as the Republican Party wants to censure him. God-damn them. They will do what they can, every time, to get what they want, to destroy people, to lie, to steal, to exterminate opposition through terror. Abusers often do these things.

But Bush is amused by the deaths and dismemberment of soldiers in Iraq. Just read Justin Frank's Bush On the Couch to get a sense of the reach of Bush's cruelty. There are no limits. There never can be, of course.

But never mind that. The fact that there was a vote in the House to censure Stark for saying the above is indicative of the insanity that is the American culture. Stark did not go far enough. Republicans -- our American Taliban -- will lie and tell us we can't afford this program or that, all the while spending us into an oblivion to pay contractors like Blackwater extortion money to kill innocent people and destroy infrastructure in Iraq. Classic behavior of an abuser. And the all-too-familiar behavior of the abused, i.e. Democrats like Stark, is to apologize (for what!?).

And Republicans ARE the abusers. Of people, of the earth, of common sense, of science, of the truth. They need to be collectively shoved up against the wall with our collective hand on their throats, and told, "If you fuck with us one more time we will kill you."

No apologies.

We need to have a world where Republicans are systematically denied any say in governing or in policy, denied in having any power to rape our minds and bodies. They are willfully and gleefully destroying the earth and all that is beautiful about it, and getting rich in the process. They are shredding our Constitution, laughing at justice and viciously attacking those who would only disagree with their policies. Derrick Jensen pretty much sums up the abuser's twisted psychology in his book Endgame: " 'You asked for it by wearing those clothes,' says the rapist." ..." 'Don't worry about it, I'll take care of everything. Things will change, you'll see,' says the abuser."..." 'I promise I will never hit you again,' the abuser repeats." And most Americans go along with this abuse, are willing to be abused. Absolutely insane.

To be fair, not a few Democrats behave and vote the way of their "opposition." The difference is that Republicans and their "party" are defined by power. That is the single biggest reason for their existence. And how do they maintain power? By terrorizing opponents, of course. Make it so that their position is always the right position, and make the opposition look like the enemy if they disagree. Witness the fraudulent "war on terror." Anyone who disagress with the Patriot Act [sic] must be on the side of the "terrorists." The real terrorists being, of course, Republicans, the ones (always) projecting their terroristic side. They just can't help themselves, you see.

Jensen uses the metaphor of the abuser (wife-beater, child abuser, rapist, etc. -- almost always men) to describe our culture as a whole. But I'd like to point out how singularly abusive and destructive the Republican Party is, and has been since Reagan. And this is the machine that spit out the current abuser-in-chief, George W. Bush. Bush is the ultimate abuser. Witness the smirk, the joking about not finding WMD under his desk at that charade that's known as the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner, where all the white-owned corporate media types had quite a laugh at the cruel mocking of the misery and suffering in Iraq, a nation full of worthless brown people, of course. What assholes. And we wonder why Iraq is not the lead story on every newscast. The more to distract us with the news of Britney's comeback.

To quote JFK, as Jensen does: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."

To those who would censure Pete Stark: Go Fuck Yourselves. No apologies.

"In Rainbows": A Review

Okay, so I've decided to play music critic/reviewer for this one time. Radiohead's new LP, In Rainbows, was the catalyst, and that's what I'm reviewing.

For starters, there is no price. You pay what you want, and none of that money goes to a greedy record company. Right off the bat the band deserves praise for this move. Yes, they are in negotiations right now with independent labels to put out IR in CD-format, but it will be on their terms, with a temporary license for the songs, the ownership of which will ultimately rest with the band. But back to the music.

After a good, careful listen on my Ipod today, after a few listens at home and away that were partially interrupted by things one can't control, I can only say that this is the most sublime collection of rock music (conventionally known in the past as an "album") that I have ever heard. Yes, I am an avowed and unabashed Radiohead fan, have been since The Bends. No matter. There are no other Radiohead LP's that can match this one, on the whole, for its sheer musical mastery. Witness the almost un-replicable syncopations of 15 Step and Videotape, defying the listener to follow along with a simple one-two-three-four tap on the knee. Add to that the methodical build-up of most songs, from slow, simple melodies to elegiac climaxes of orchestral proportions, such as seen on All I Need, Nude and Videotape. Yes, these elements are found in abundance throught the Radiohead oeuvre, but none so much as in this one single LP. Another thing that pops out to the casual listener is the lack of guitars in In Rainbows. Well, this is actually an ongoing practice for Radiohead since Kid A. I have to say I don't miss them. Thom Yorke is just fine when strumming his acoustic or sitting down at the piano - perfect accompaniments to his unmatched tenor voice. Add to this Jonny Greenwood's mastery at the keyboard, Ed O'brien's unconventional rhythmic guitar riffs, Colin Greenwood's haunting bass and Phil Selway's off-beat percussive syncopations and you've got one hell of a band. And when you really think about it, Paranoid Android's best moment was Yorke's elegant voice solo ("from a great height" indeed) in the middle, not Jonny Greenwood's electric guitar solo near the beginning and its coda at the end. No, a guitar is best when it accompanies, not leads.

I haven't even mentioned In Rainbow's "bonus" songs, available December 3rd to those who pre-ordered the "box set" from Radiohead's website. I've previewed a few from YouTube and Rollingstone.com. One that stands out for me is Down Is the New Up, a playful yet catchy tune that, in Radioheads new funked-up version of it (Yorke has a solo version that ITunes released earlier in the year, just he and the piano), is destined as a crowd-pleaser. I can't wait to hear these songs when they come out as studio releases.

So yeah, these songs got to me. This is nothing new for those who know me, as I get absolutely giddy with each new Radiohead LP. The band starts "touring" next May, so I've read. Yorke has said he does not like touring in the conventional sense, as it is just exhausting to constantly travel, and he adds it is not doing the environment any good. Agreed. I hope to see the band at a music festival, as is their preferred venue, away from big stadiums and greedy sponsors.

Republican Party as Monolith & Why They Suck

Wow, it turns out that in lieu of yesterday's veto override failure, not only Bush but a vast majority of Republicans also hate children. They are smug, selfish, cold, vicious creatures who belong on a deserted island off the coast of Siberia.

Better yet, ship them to Mars, let them build gated communities there and then let them die.

George W. Bush Hates Children, Too

Monkey-asshole Bush is at it again, vetoing another program everyone wants and which would benefit millions, this time millions of poor children. What a class act.

So, chucklenuts, I guess you think it's just fine to take out all your aggression against your cold, unfeeling ice queen of a mother out on the country now that you are Preznit. Poor Georgie, all those times you needed your Momma, especially when your younger sister Robin died when you were seven -- Babs was just unavailable. And Pappy, well, forget about him, he was too busy digging for oil in Texas and jetting off on exciting CIA trips to have time for you. You never even got the chance to say goodbye, to grieve for Robin, because your momma, the one who ended up having to stick around to "take care" of you, is such a cold, uncaring witch. Now you have to project all that bad stuff, all that neglect, out onto the world, out onto other even more unfortunate children than you.

I get it, I totally get it. But you don't, and you never will.

Radiohead the Revolutionaries

The music industry is about to get a big kick in the ass thanks to Radiohead. Their new EP, In Rainbows, due out October 10th, will not have any promotion or come with any pricetag. You can download it entirely for free, or pay whatever you want.

This is huge.

The best rock band in the world is about to give away their new album. No record company, no promos, no manufactured buzz. Just a band offering their music for anyone to download, pay what you want. This is exactly what needs to happen with music. This is fucking amazing; this is...this is just huge. Pay what you want for the recorded music, then go see the band in concert, live, where you'll pay more. Simple, egalitarian, meritocratic. Fuck you, record company whores and theives! What you gonna do now? Clone more Ashley Simpsons? How's that working out for you? And I see the record stores are just booming in sales, aren't they?

Now if only other big acts like Madonna and Prince could follow suit, what a flood this would be.

[Update: Prince already has offered a pay-what-you-want album; still waiting to see what Madonna does with her new record deal.]

MacBook Adventures II (Cont'd)

...But it turns out I don't need Windows on my Mac because the Student version of MS Office for the Mac, i.e. MSWord, works just fine. So, six long days and nights and a couple of Starbucks mobile office set-ups later, I finished, zombie-like, at home hunched over my MacBook on the rolling table, sitting in our lounge chair, at 6:30 in the morning. What a relief, but also quite a lesson in time/task management.

Now that I've sold me G4 IMac, me only computers are me laptop, me phone and me brain.

MacBook Adventures II

Actually, my MacBook adventures have come by way of professional adventures from hell. First, the good, Mac-ish adventures.

So I bought my MacBook - the white one, since to own a black one will cost you $200 more! Jesus Christ! - last Thursday, in a panicked but clear-headed frame of mind that damn it, I am going to finish this report I've been hacking away at since May, and that technically was due at the end of June. So it totally helped me - saved me! I befriended Starbucks, and our relationship evolved into something much deeper. Oh, we shared laughs, we shared tears, we shared frustrations - you have to stop what you're doing, save your work, close up the computer, put it in your bag and carry it with you to the bathroom every time you have to pee. Yes, you're right, Jeff, I thought - you never leave your laptop alone for ANY reason. Oh we people watched, Starbucks and I, especially all those amused students enjoying their half-caff venti skim lattes, deconstructing $10.00 films. What bores. And then those conversations come streaming in, you know, the ones in foreign languages just to distract me from my typing. Oh, fine. By the way, did you know that these new computers automatically find free WiFi networks? Well, most times they do. And did you know that they have names? Names like pastawater, giraffe, and - I really liked this one - getyourown? Oh, and if you log on to the one called TMobile, you get sent to the Starbucks website featuring free wifi with your TMobile phone service, or if you pay just $29.99 a month, you too can surf the web at Starbucks worry-free. Um, no thanks. And how annoying? If you try going to any other website, it sends you back to the Starbucks site. Lame. I also learned that Icahn Stadium in Randalls Island Park has free WiFi. In fact, pretty much everywhere I've been with this thing there has been free WiFi. So go suck it, TMobile! So anyway, I finished my report on my laptop, and though I was home at the time, it was Starbucks that came through for me when I needed it most. Just find a table with access to a nearby outlet, plug in, and stay as long as you need. It's quite a community, us laptoppers. I know, I never thought I'd be ONE OF THOSE people. But I was this week.

Now, the not-so-fun professional adventures. I had no office time in which to work - I was sent to the field at the beginning of June. Fine, I said, I'll work at home, after I get home from bridge inspecting, I'll do what it takes to finish by the magical date of June 30th. Could I maybe make it to the office on occasion to work a late night and get some things done there I couldn't otherwise, like PDF management on Acrobat Professional and AutoCAD drawings? Well, no, since the office opens no later than 8, and if you aren't one of the chosen ones with the master key to the office you gotta leave, them's the rules. And trying to get someone to open the office on Saturday or Sunday had limits, too, because then you're at the mercy of personal schedules, appointments and errands that just will not be interrupted no matter what. Yes, the administrators are king, you see. Damn them peon (oops, I almost just wrote porn engineers, which, when you think about it, is fucking funny) engineers, the ones who actually get the work done so that we can busy ourselves administrating. Okay. Way to run an office, don't you think? Okay, so time goes, by, avoidance behavior starts setting in, and I keep doing small tasks that I can get done at the office, telling myself I did a lot of work, I can enjoy a nice night doing whatever it is that's not getting my report done. Finally I said enough, I'm getting a laptop. Yes, the Mac kind of course. I was worried that trying to get done what I needed to get done efficiently required a Windows machine. But then I thought, the new Macs all come with the ability to install Windows on them, so fine...

More later.

Neo-Nazis in Our Midst

I just read this snippet from Micheal Moore's website. These stories infuriate me, as well they should anyone. The (I'm assuming) men who attacked this man are some of the sickest, sorriest people one could ever (hope not to) meet. In essence they are abusers. And abusers have no place in this world. Their appropriate residence is in hell. This man's attackers do not deserve and are unworthy of any type of debate. They only deserve contempt. And dare I say should I ever come across someone who, unprovoked, willfully beats up or helps to beat up a grieving parent of a dead child, I should like to think I'd be the one to pull him off and proceed to bash the living shit out of him. Not all violence is bad, only violence perpetrated on the unsuspecting, the unprovoked, children. Like that done by wars of aggression. Basically, that which is perpetrated by the abuser to the abused. You know, by George W. Bush- and Barbara Pierce Bush-type people. Violence visited upon the abusers themselves, and only the abusers, IS justified, IS moral.

Always remember that.

MacBook Adventures

Just bought a MacBook (laptop) and loving it. The East Village is wired, too. Way wired!

More to come on this post...

Mass Transport Hell (Why This Should Not Happen)

Nothing like being advised to "stay home," as MTA has advised commuters to do. What an idea! Hey, why not just take the day off! Tell that to countless medical workers, public works workers, social workers who had to work today. What about bridge inspectors?

The fact that I and many others could not get to work today is unacceptable. Subways flood and have flooded. Fine. Provide contingencies, or tell the truth and just be straight with people. Don't tell people to take express buses (in Bronx, Brooklyn & Queens, perhaps) and then not provide express buses, or have drivers turn them away. Don't imply that there is regular service at a particular station when there really isn't any at all. Stop fucking obfuscating!

I personally could not get to the Bronx by 10 a.m., and that was starting at 7 a.m. attempting to get on the 6 train to the 4/5 train going uptown. I then had to find a bus to take me up to 86th Street/Lexington Ave to get on the 4/5/6 uptown train there. Well, at 9:30 a.m. I reached 86/Lex only to find out nope, no trains running uptown, or, they may be running I don't know, or, all uptown 6 trains running on the downtown track (huh?) but no the trains are downtown trains and they're packed so you can't get on them... Did I even have any chance whatsoever? I stayed home, after walking 60 blocks south on 2nd Ave, exhausted, red and sweat-soaked. Thanks, MTA! Thanks for the day off, assholes! Good luck making sure your bridges are safe for the SUV-driving douchebags from Long Island!

This is what I posted to 1010wins.com:

"I was unsuccessful in getting to work today, with the mass confusion of the NYC subways and buses. Interestingly (or not) I am a structural engineer working on bridge inspections - specifically the Throgs Neck Bridge of late. I was trying to get to the site, on the Bronx side of the bridge, by bus, but was unable to get to the site because of crammed buses and no uptown subway service from Manhattan, even at the 86th St 4/5/6 station where they told people there was service. I finally gave up at 9:45am at the subway station, realizing I could not make it to the Bronx at a reasonable time. This should not have to happen. There should be contingencies for flooded subways for everyone to get to work. I saw plenty of empty/nearly empty buses on the avenues that were not taking people. This is unacceptable and stupid. I missed a day of crucial bridge inspection because of the MTA's lack of planning and poor communication to the public. Thanks."

I also called and e-mailed same to Channel 7 News. I also contacted the White House and told Monkey-Boy and Dr. Death to go suck it because they do not care a whiff about any of this and can go fuck themselves. I plan on sticking it to Bush & Cheney, Inc. at any and all occasions.

Bill O'Reilly (a.k.a. Felafel Man), You Know Not What You've Wrought...

So Bill O'Lie-ly's (please notice his initials are B.O.) at it again with the denouncing of the Daily Kos website, listed as a link on the right here, www.dailykos.com. Calling it a "hate" site, as if his whole raison d'etre weren't hate speech itself. Well, thank you, Bill, actually, for making the site so widely known and popular. And exposing yourself for the crazed loon you are. This posting is hilarious!

It would seem the Republicans' Death Star machine ain't quite what it used to be.

"I'm Not Drinking Gold -- I Wish"

"Did you know that in the past 12 years, the value of gold has gone up a little bit?

"Speaking of gold case, I'm late for work. I work for GOLD."

Just Say 'Motherfucker' Already!

What's with the irritating ad campaign on NYC buses for the latest Die Hard movie (Live Free Or Die Harder: Die Hard 4 -- gaaah! That's a total rip-off of New Hampshire's slogan, 'Live Free Or Die! How fucking lazy)?

"YIPPEE KI YAY MO- -John 6:27" (The 'O' is cut off in the middle! I need a cigarette.)

What the fuuuuuck? AAAAAAGGGHHH!

Yes, I know it refers to the famous line Bruce Willis (John Whatever in the movie) swaggeringly delivers just before a big explosion in all the Die Hards -- "yippee ki yay, motherfucker." I wish I didn't know this, but I do. What make the ads so irritating -- and insipid -- is the ever so American notion of the 'tease.' You know, come up with some obscure (at first) phrase that just registers enough to make people salivate with recognition -- "Ooh, another Die Hard is coming out! Awesome! Right, that line I love so much -- Yippee Ki Yay, Motherfucker! I love that part!"

Of course, you know that kids all over are asking, 'What is MO (and the 'O', by the way, is cut off to make the Pavlovian response all the more intense), Mommy?' 'Oh, I don't know, sweetie. I think it might be Motherfucker. Let's go to the zoo, hon.' Yes, and so kids at school are now giggling in class talking about how cool the ads are, whispering 'Motherfucker' everywhere and probably getting not a few detentions/suspensions for it. The profanity part doesn't really bother me, really. It's that wink-and-a-nod way it is presented, appealing to the lower back part of our brains instead of the front. These artless teases have always bugged me. Why not just be direct? If you want to say Motherfucker, just say it! Otherwise, come up with something else. Here's one: 'Catch the new Die Hard -- "Live Free Or Die Harder: Die Hard 4," starring Bruce Willis, in theaters June 27th.' There. Simple. To the point. Doesn't annoy me or waste my time making me think about how much I hate the Die Hard franchise and the endless insipid comparisons to it to sell other movies, "Die Hard in a..." "Die Hard on a..." "Die Hard with a..."

"You know it's ah, really difficult to open mayonnaise, when your fingers are covered in your own blood and your head is filled with the endless ticking of a stupid sound effect!"

A Question

JimmyQ1: Do you think Jesus Christ lighsk bright lighst during the long winter nighst?

JimmyQ2: I don't know. Let's ask our neighbors, the Wighst.


[Another night on cold medication.]

Last Post On Meaning of Liberal (Part 3 of a series)

Okay, so I'm closing this series of posts on the topic of language, media and the meaning of 'liberal' -- and, by extension, 'conservative.' This subject needs to come to a point where I can leave it for a good...long...time. Aaah, now let the headiness commence.

First, on language, media, political implications of the 'liberal' meme, political implications of the 'conservative' meme, blah blah blah. Mainstream Media (MSM) types like Blitzer, Hume (I know, why do so many millions watch FoxNews and call it legitimate NEWS???), Stephanopoulos, Russert and Couric; and right-wing media (RWM)types like Hannity, O'Reilly (ick - FoxNews again), Drudge, Coulter and Malkin form a sort of critical mass in the collective (un-?)consciousness, and all misuse the term 'liberal' to describe the political left, both noun (person) and adjective (quality of political philosophy); and 'conservative' to describe same on the political right. Okay. Please don't be pissed off at how mechanical this sounds, I have Asperger's Syndrome and tend towards the literal at times, bear with me. Still, I have a problem getting branded a 'liberal' as something derogatory, this pisses me off. It has (maybe not so much now, with Pelosi et. al. flexing some muscle) become a linguistic sword of Damocles coming down too often on politicians of the lefty sort (Democrats). And, for too long, same politicians have run away from the 'liberal' brand and looked ridiculous, and ended up losing elections anyway. At the same time, 'conservative' is looked upon positively, more distinguished, serious, mature, polite, statesman-like, whatever: 'He's a true conservative on this issue, therefore he is the serious candidate, someone you can trust...She is JUST TOO LIBERAL on that issue, she can't be trusted.' That sort of thing, what you hear over and over again come election time.

Let me try to end this somehow by asking...How? How did this come to be? And Why? Why are politicians running away from the L-word? Was it the Sixties? Is it just out of expedience? I suppose, in the end, as some have pointed out to me -- who the fuck cares? Words are things that can mean one thing to one person at one moment, and something else to someone else in the next, and on and on. We do our best to communicate with whomever it is we need to communicate. And we choose certain words we feel will resonate the most with the group to whom we are communicating. I'd like to hear one of the Democratic candidates (it is almost axiomatic it will not happen on the Re-thug-lican side), when asked during a primary debate -- as happened to John Kerry -- if he or she considers himself or herself a liberal, to just say, yeah, what's it to ya, 95% percent of Americans are, and this is why... That would be great. That's all. Just fucking do it, stop hemming and hawing, and be truthful. One could counter with something like, 'Oh, you mean providing armor for the troops in Iraq, making sure they are well-rested and that new troops are well-trained before sending them over -- is that what YOU would call liberal? Because I would.'

And so would I.

End scene and...fade to black.

Blacksburg: We Have No Right To Be Shocked

How many times does this need to happen before we wake up? I'm so pissed off at headlines shouting Evil! Maniac! Sicko! (read NYPost, FoxNews, + other various Murdochian amphibian outlets) describing this guy Cho. Oh, pleeeease! Yeah, he was pathetic, miserable and a sociopath, I get it. Oh yeah, he was also a young male. Ooooh, that was not supposed to happen! Fucking fuck of all fuckosity, just stop the moralizing blather about how heinous this was, because we've seen it before, way too many times.

For Christ's sake, it's about our pathetic lack of any sensible gun laws -- and I'm just talking state level, never mind anything on the federal level! We just let a ban on assault weapons expire, and for what? You can't even sue gun companies, or check records to see if suspected terrorists have bought guns. The stupid NRA is way too organized and has stopped way too many common-sense measures from becoming law. Politicians have cowed to them like sheep and the result is 30,000 gun homicides per year in this country. This is embarrassing let alone shameful. In Virginia, you can buy a gun with no questions asked once you turn twelve -- TWELVE! Does not the Brady Law apply here? Someone educate me.

In 2004 not one major Democratic candidate brought up gun control as an issue, and I was starting to believe we should just drop it in order to win some western mountain states like Montana. But no, as long as we look the other way when someone acts suspicious, as long as we only just denounce instead of look for ways to prevent gun violence, this will continue. And it will get worse. So, what I'm looking to see from Obama, Clinton, Edwards et. al. is sensible gun control proposals that go beyond Brady and actually address where all guns are sold, namely gun shows. Where, of course, there is a loophole to the Brady Law. We already know Decider-Monkey Bush will have no part in fixing this problem -- his "solution" is to arm everyone. As if that would solve the problem of protecting yourself in a split second against someone armed with a semi-automatic weapon already pointed at you. Fucking should-have-been-impeached-by-now idiot.

Should we be shocked? Yeah. Can we be, at this point? Memo to most major media: no, no, no! Get on with talk about gun control -- hint: we need it. The Second Amendment is BUNK!