Wednesday Rock feat KYUSS

Where some of the guys in Queens of the Stone Age got their start:

Here's the video for DEMON CLEANER

Paranoid Patriotism Makes You A Real American? According To The Fox"News" Website It Does.

Fox"News", never one to let the chance to inject the deaths of over 3000 people and the unfathomable loss of others into a story, has as their lead-story on their website a tale of a "real American".

This portion really struck me as what Fox considers a "real American" to be:

In the days after the attack, Krimstein said he felt an overwhelming desire to hang an American flag in his home, something he says he probably would not have done before the attacks. So he ran down to a “25-cent store,” bought a small flag on a wooden stick and taped it outside the window of his apartment.

“I think I wanted to hang the flag so much because I just kept hearing in my head over and over again that we had been attacked, that what we stand for — our freedom, our ideals — was under siege,” he said. “I was really struck by how much of a threat freedom in our society was to some people.”

Now, it would be more than unfair to slight this man, and his family, for expressing their patriotism in this way. There is nothing wrong with it. But, in the context of the story, the way that Fox has "framed" it, the man's fear has coaxed this dormant desire to look to a symbol for comfort.

True, symbols have power. But, is it symbolism or action that makes our country great?

On September 11th, 2001, I was in college at Western Kentucky University. After hearing of the attack, seeing it played ad infinitum on every channel imaginable, I saw the entire town flocking to gas stations, filling up their cars, rushing here and there speculating on what would happen next.

This tragedy had caused an entire community to consume on a mass scale.

There was no gas in Bowling Green, Kentucky for 2 days after that.

They would be consumers on another level.

Flags, in all kinds of sizes.

Stickers on cars, on trucks, SUVs ( lots of those ), windows on houses, shops, gas station, small flags on car radio antenna, big flags on virtually every building you could think of.

"Patriotism" motivated by fear.

The conservative movement teaches fear of people of "another color", another ethnicity, of people from California, of people that went to a certain school, of poor people, people who don't vote the way they do, of news networks, of gays, even fear of yourself at times.

If you don't have a flag on your house, if you don't think that a flag lapel pin matters, you are not a "real American".

Cops Get Away With It Too

It's not just celebrities that get "special treatment" when they find themselves in situations where "average" citiziens would have multiple sentences leveled against them.

Two NYC cops - both caught on film - have blatantly assaulted citizens.

Are we to be shocked?

Not at all.

It has become common-place. They will keep their jobs, their "pay-grade", their status in life that says "you are above the law".

Video here

The New York Police Department is embroiled in controversy after a video has surfaced showing an officer brutally beating a man with a metal baton while he lays on the ground. This is the second time this week that an NYPD officer has been caught on camera in an act of seeming police brutality.

And from The New York Times, a story of a cop that attacked a guy on a bike.

A New York City police officer was stripped of his gun and badge on Monday after an amateur video surfaced on the Internet showing him pushing a bicyclist to the ground in Times Square during a group ride on Friday evening.

The cyclist, identified in court papers as Christopher Long, 29, was taking part in a monthly ride, called Critical Mass, that often draws hundreds of riders. In a criminal complaint against Mr. Long, the officer, identified in the court documents as Patrick Pogan of the Midtown South precinct, says that the cyclist rode straight into him. But the video, posted on YouTube and on the blog Gothamist.com, shows the officer lunging toward Mr. Long.

Believe it or not, the court papers read that the man "used a weapon to run down the officer".

I know that being a police officer is a dangerous job. I even know that there are "good cops". But why is it so difficult for any cop that viloates to law to be completely removed from his job?

Are police officers are "trained" to see everyone as a "potential threat", a target? Whom are they protecting and whom are they serviing?

No, not everyone can be Serpico, but the fact that so many cops get away with beatings ( and worse ) is beyond sad.

Of Course He Wasn't.

Further proof that even movie-stars that can barely act their way out of a shoebox get special treatment:

"It was immediately apparent to officers responding on the scene that LaBeouf was intoxicated and he was subsequently placed under arrest," Sgt. Scott Wolf said on Sunday.

and what happened?

LaBeouf was trying to make a left turn at the West Hollywood intersection of LaBrea and Fountain avenues when his pickup collided with another vehicle, rolling the truck over.

More here.

Yes, we all know that "celebrities" live on another plane of existance, another reality where magical doors open, flower-petals fall, money mysteriously appears in your band account, and there is no such thing as "it's your fault".

But come on - Shia LeBeouf?!?! The kid who's name ( if translated literally ) means God's meat-sandwich?!?!?!

You've got to be kidding.

Hump-Day Anarchist Musical Noise feat Atari Teenage Riot

Pretty much one of the greatest band names ever.

Your Uterus Is Not A Clown Car

That one big.......family

ABBOTSFORD, British Columbia (AP) -- A Romanian immigrant has given birth to her 18th child in British Columbia, making her the province's most prolific mother in 20 years.

Proud dad Alexandru Ionce said Saturday that his 44-year-old wife, Livia, gave birth on Tuesday. Their daughter Abigail weighed in at seven pounds, 12 ounces.

"We never planned how many children to have. We just let God guide our lives, you know, because we strongly believe life comes from God and that's the reason we did not stop the life," said Alexandru Ionce.

More here

Worst In The World v 1.7-1.8

Here's a double-shot of Countdown's "Worst Persons" honors from Monday and last night:

Tuesday Night



Monday Night

Killer Read Books By Hannity, O'Reilly, and Savage

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

source

So, I find myself in that precarious position in which I'm ready to say that this man's inability to function on a basic level with the rest of us was severely compromised by what he read.

The reason that this could even be considered "precarious" is that should anyone of conservative ideology wish to refute my arguement, all they would have to say is, "well, don't you think rap music causes violence. What about violent movies?"

But, that's where the distinction between "reality" and "fantasy" are quite clear.

In movies and music, we see a storyline, a person, a situation created for entertainment purposes. It isn't real. It may be based on actual events, but it is not presented as "this is real".

In the books by Hannity, or Savage, or Limbaugh, O'Reilly, or whomever on the "right", we see them defining an "enemy" that is present. They claim that their books, their television programs, their radio shows, are based on solid, verifiable facts. They clearly lay out who these "enemies" of America are:

Liberals

People in San Fransisco

Vermont

MoveOn

DailyKos

Progressives

Gays

the list goes on.

These are real people, in a real world that we all live in.

Tyler Durden from Fight Club isn't real.

The characters in a rap song that deal drugs and kill aren't real.

Juno isn't real.

They may be manifestations, an amalgam of various people, of characteristic, but they aren't real.

So, if asked if I think that these books helped make Adkisson attack and kill those people in Knoxville, my answer would be a resounding "yes".

But You Call It Your "Talking Points Memo" , Bill.

Bill O'Reilly has been full righteous indignation the past few days since Scott McClellan spoke with Chris Matthews about the Bush White House distributing talking points to Fox"News".

Q: Did people say call Sean, call Bill, call whoever? Did you do that as a regular thing?

McCLELLAN: Certainly. Certainly. It wasn’t necessarily something I was doing, but it was something that we at the White House, yes, were doing.

Even though Bill and Sean Hannity were cited as examples by Matthews, O'Reilly has decided to go after Scott, calling him a liar without any proof to back up the fact that he has NOT received said "talking pionts".

You can check out O'Reilly's "Reality Check" moment on McClellan here.

McClellan is more than just a little-bit of a push-over. He went on O'Reilly's radio program and then proceeded to apologize for O'Reilly's name being attached to all of this.

What a fucking pussy.

Seriously, though, McClellan provides little proof other than the fact that he worked as the "mouthpiece" for the Bush White House. But, O'Reilly is expecting everyone to take him at his word. This is little more than a "he said, they said" type situation.

And it was Matthews that injected O'Reilly's and Hannity's name into all of this. McClellan just agreed that they were part of the group at Fox"News" that would have gone along with this.

Both sides need to present some hard evidence that backs up their statements.

As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't put it past ANYONE at Fox to have their hands out when the Bush administration hands them something to use.

Back On Track

Took the day off yesterday and there's lots to catch up on.....

Monday Afternoon House Music Jams

Basement Jaxx's track "Where's Your Head At".

If you weren't afraid of monkey's before, you will be after this.

There's Got To Be Some Sort Of Poetic Justice In This

Seems that "Undercover CIA Agent outer" and recent "hit-and-run" purveyor Robert Novak has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

He is quoted as saying:

"I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period."

More here.

Now, I'm about to cross that line.

You know, that line where - on one side - you're just reporting about something, and - the other side - where you're "spewing hate" as Bill O'Reilly loves to say.

I kind of see this as a form of "justice" that we don't often see. The same could be said if Rush Limbaugh were to get throat cancer, or Sean Hannity were to get permanent laryngitis and go bald within the same week, or Bill O'Reilly get slapped with a sexual harassment lawsuit and has to pay-out tens of millions of dollars to "make it go away" --- oh, wait, that already happened.

The #1 Reason Why "Terminator : Salvation" Is Going To Suck

Here's a segment from the story provided by the AP:

Director McG presented never-before-seen footage during a Comic-Con panel and offered a few hints about what to expect from the highly anticipated fourth installment in the "Terminator" franchise.

The first few words of that paragraph don't really make sense when you consider who it is they're talking about. Everything he does is the same. We've seen itall before.

I'll give you a quick run-down of a scene from "McGs Terminator". I haven't actually seen the script, but this is pretty much a guaranteed shot description.

EXT: Warehouse district near ocean at sunset.

The dying rays of light from the Thursday evening sun cascade off the glistening skin of ( insert actress name with surgically enhanced features ) as she walks toward the camera in slow motion.

Cue Music ( insert latest electronic influenced Top 40 track that you've heard 174 times this week )

Three T-6969 robots rip through a time portal in the air in a spinning back-flip sequence ( personal note: get with MTV to see If I can get the rights to direct the music video for this too ) and fire off perfectly synchronized shots from guns mounted to their legs. ( personal note 2: what if the guns were coming out of their "breats". ) ( personal note 3: do terminator robots have breasts ).

Our heroine drops into a 360-spinning-side-kick and sweeps the evil robots onto their backs ( camera note: be sure that all this is in slow-motion too )

Cue overly used rap-track remix from Kanye West.

The robots and heroine are locked in close-quarters hand-to-hand combat. ( personal note 4: can we have this really overt sexual tension between the robots and the other chick? Can they do-it in one scene? )

Cue next overlapping track that now makes this out to be glorified music video that has nothing to do with Terminators at all ( personal note 5: don't call MTV, just submit this to network. Should sweep at awards ceremony ).

Giant explosions appear in the sky from out of no-where.......

You kind of get where this is going.

If you don't know who McG is - well, if you don't, consider yourself blessed - all you have to do is watch either of the Charlie's Angels movies. Yeah, he directed those pieces of theatrical excrement.

Cuil Vs. "The Google"

Here's a new piece of internet technology for John McCain to "be aware of".

Via Reuters:

Cuil Inc (pronounced "cool") is offering a new search service at www.cuil.com that the company claims can index, faster and more cheaply, a far larger portion of the Web than Google, which boasts the largest online index.

The way it displays the "search results" is interesting. But, considering that I'm far from being as tech-savvy as I'd prefer to be, i'm not sure how this will top Google.

Church Shooting Motivated By Hatred of "Liberal Movement" And "Gays"

From a top recommended diary over at DailyKos, the Knoxville church shooter claims to have targeted the "liberal movement" and "gays"

Video of Knoxville police department Chief Owen is available.

It's interesting to note that - as of the time of this blog - Fox"News" has only made an off-hand mention of the shooting:

the mystery continues to develop

Other news outlets have been all over this since the 10:15am news conference.

Update: 1149am CST : Fox's website has updated the story and it is listed on the "top story" section in the upper left-hand portion of the main page.

It will be interesting to see how the conservative media will approach this blatant act of conservatvie-fueled terrorism.

Oliver Stone Releases Trailer For George W. Bush Movie

Here's the first official trailer for Oliver Stone's movie about Bush called ( appropriately ) "W".



We're still waiting on word from The White House on this one, but i'm fairly sure that they won't have anything nice to say. Considering that Stone has a pretty "cynical" view of how American Government - and those that are in said government - works, this should be a fairly interesting film.

Media Bias And Conservative Conventional Wisdom

The conservative media ( in all it's various forms and faces ) seem to have a difficult time actually covering the news. They seem more concerned with who/whom the other media outlets are covering and why.

Case-in-point, Barack Obama.

If you watch Fox"News", read conservative blogs, or listen to right-wing talk radio, they all love to talk about "liberal media bias". It's a nice way to keep a tight, short hold on your base, but serves no greater purpose.

Via The L.A. Times.

Haters of the mainstream media reheated a bit of conventional wisdom last week.

Barack Obama, they said, was getting a free ride from those insufferable liberals.

Challenges await Barack Obama at homeJohn McCain supports expansion of Americans With Disabilities Act
John McCain slams Barack Obama for canceling on the troops
Such pronouncements, sorry to say, tend to be wrong since they describe a monolithic media that no longer exists. Information today cascades from countless outlets and channels, from the Huffington Post to Politico.com to CBS News and beyond.

But now there's additional evidence that casts doubt on the bias claims aimed -- with particular venom -- at three broadcast networks.

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.

You read it right: tougher on the Democrat.

So, how would conservatives counter this?

Well, by stating that the LA Times and the CMPA are "in the tank for the Democrats" of course.

Monday Morning Musical Interludes feat The Shapeshifters

Orbitals rave classic "Chime" gets a fantastic reworking. And Martjin ten Velden's remix just turns up the heat:

Thank God For Keira Knightly

Keira Knightley has refused to allow any enhancement of her cleavage on publicity photos for her upcoming movie, "The Duchess," Britain's Daily Mail reports.

You know, It would be more than just a little white lie if I told you that I didn't like large breasts. What's even sexier on a woman, though, is confidence in who she is and what she looks like.

Studio heads reportedly want to enlarge Knightley's bosom in the photos, but the actress, 23, put her foot down.

"She has insisted that her figure stay in its natural state," an insider said. "She is proud of her body and doesn't want it altered."

This isn't the first time Knightley has faced this dilemma. The actress drew negative attention in 2004 with her larger-than-usual breasts in publicity stills for "King Arthur."

Read more here.



In a world where far too many women think that they "have" to look a certain way because a magazine, a television program, or another person tells them that they "have" to look that way, it's nice to see someone that is happy with who they are.

Look What Escaped From ComiCon

The video is a bit rough, but it's easy to see what it is. To bad we still have to wait a while for it to get to theatres.

TR2N cleaned up 001
by genchang2112

Worst Persons In The World v 1.6

The round-up rom last nights Countdown with Kieth Olbermann.

Rupert Murdock took 3rd place for his new "newspaper" The Wall Sreet Journal printing the op-ed piece about how Batman = George W. Bush.

Second place went to David "Yes, That's Really My Last Name" Assman for his speculation that people in Europe liking Barack Obama - who is probably going to be our next President - is a bad thing.

The winners - Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham go after Obama's speech in Berlin and how it was "bad" that he mentioned that America has tortured.

Not Exactly The Guy From Ferris Bueller, Is He?

Several years ago, when Ben Stein started to really show up - A LOT - on Fox"News", I started to see that he was a full-on, right-wing, talking-point infused, conservative mouth-breather.

But now, he's pretty much jumped headlong into the shallow end of the pool.



I would have expected this kind of crap from Glenn Beck, but Stein has apparently just lost it.

The political discourse from the Right is getting so diluted with "Nazi-isms" that before too long, people are going to forget who the real Nazis actually were and what they actually did.

Friday Afternoon Freakiness feat Alien Sex Fiend

I keep coming back to my days as a radio DJ @ Western Kentucky University for some reason. Most likely it is because in the those days - the mid-90s - college radio was still vibrant, still the purveyors of underground music.

I ran 4 different radio programs every week.

One was a show that played nothing but goth/punk music. That's how I discovered this band - Alien Sex Fiend

IGNORE THE MACHINE

Michael Savage's "Clarification" On His Autism Statement

Alright, so I wrote just a short while ago about right-wing talk-show hack Michael "Weiner" Savage insisting that kids with autism were just "brats" who "in 99 percent of the cases... [haven't] been told to cut the act out."



Well, the man in the picture above - who aparently thinks he looks dashing in a white sport-coat and apparently thinks Matt Drudge has impeccable taste in hats - issued this completely insane "clarification":

My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as "autistic."

Just as some drug companies have overdiagnosed "ADD" and "ADHD" to peddle dangerous speed-like drugs to children as young as 4 years of age, this cartel of doctors and drug companies is now creating a national panic by overdiagnosing "autism, for which there is no definitive medical diagnosis!

Many children are being victimized by being diagnosed with an "illness" which may not exist, in all cases. Just a few weeks ago doctors recommended dangerous anti-cholesterol drugs for children as young as 2 years of age! Without any scientific studies on the possible dangers of such drugs on children, corrupt doctors made this controversial, unscientific recommendation.

What?

Well, Caroline Linkins ( a special education specialist who has years of experience working with children who have autism ) had this to say:

1. "How anyone can observe autistic children and conclude that they are "brats" completely eludes me. A great many autistic children are actually perfectly sweet, compliant children."

2. "'Drug companies' do not 'diagnose' people, let alone 'overdiagnose' people. I'm a little shocked that I actually need to explain this."

3. "Autism does not have a 'definitive medical diagnosis?' Really? Really. I'm going to have to bet Michael Savage a smack across the face with the DSM IV that there totally, totally is."

4. "In my professional opinion, I feel it's likely that this Michael Savage fellow has failed to arrive at, or at the very least, complete the formal operational stage of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development."

The Wall Street Journal Has Gone Batty, Seriously

It certainly didn't take long for The Wall Street Journal to start loosing is credibility once Rupert "NewsCorp" Murdock bought it.

Here's an excerpt from Andrew Klavan's op-ed piece entitled:

What Bush and Batman Have in Common

There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.

I think I just threw-up in my mouth a little. Are you fuckin kidding me?

This is the second time this week that someone has used Batman as a political tool of the conservative-right.

I wrote about the first one here.

Is this the new "talking point", use super-hero movies and there "themes" in conjuction with the Republican party and the alleged "War On Terror"?

Holy convolution Batman!!!!!

You Know Why They Put Oxygen Masks On Planes?

I'm reminded of an episode of Mythbusters where they proved that something puncturing a hole in the fuselage of a plane would NOT cause you to get sucked out.

A Qantas jumbo jet carrying 345 passengers made an emergency landing Friday with a gaping hole in its fuselage after a mysterious "explosive decompression," officials said.

There were no injuries, but some passengers vomited after disembarking the Boeing 747-400, said Octavio Lina, Manila International Airport Authority deputy manager for operations.

more here


And there's passenger video as well:



Holy shit!!!!

You remember that scene in Fight Club where Tyler Durden talks about "oxygen masks on planes"?

Yeah.

Aronofsky and Robocop

You either know who Darren Aronofsky is or you don't.

If you've seen the movies Pi, Requiem For A Dream, or The Fountain, then you know that when it comes to films, Aronofsky doesn't just do something "half-way"

Looks like he's getting ready to take on "Robocop"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Somewhere, there is a crime happening.

Indeed. But "RoboCop" is coming out of retirement courtesy of director Darren Aronofsky and writer David Self. The writer-director of "The Fountain" and the writer of "Road to Perdition" have signed deals to develop a big-budget 21st century installment in the saga of the human-machine hybrid crime fighter.

MGM plans to release the film in 2010.

more from Reuters.

With such a long wait ahead of us, there's bound to be many changes made to this project. I just hope that Aronofsky stays "attached" to this in some form.

John Hagee Is Pretty Much Crazy - So Are His "Followers"

The more we learn about Pastor Hagee, the more we start to see that he is one of the more ( if not the most ) controversial of the "religious right". By that, I mean that this man is certifiable - he's nuts. He, as well as his followers, are hell-bent ( pardon the cliche ) on bringing about the end of the world.

I don't think I've ever seen a "religious leader" this crazy, with this many devout followers, that has influence into some of the higher levels of Republican government.

In late May, after three months of deliberation, John McCain called Pastor John Hagee "crazy" and renounced his endorsement. But Hagee has come back stronger than ever -- thanks to friends like William Kristol, Joe Lieberman . . . and the public relations firm W5, which also represents Microsoft, Snoop Dogg and Pamela Anderson. This week in Washington, D.C., Hagee's non-profit organization, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), brought together five thousand supporters of the bedeviled pastor, and a new regime of media relations was much in evidence. Hagee avoided issues that have caused controversy in the past (Armageddon, homosexuals, God's purposes for the Holocaust, Hurricane Katrina, etc.). By pulling back the veil and conducting unauthorized interviews with several of Hagee's Christian Zionist followers, ANP reveals the fanatical ideology that still lies behind the CUFI's more restrained rhetoric. One CUFI member argues that "hard-core Jews deserve the anti-Christ." Another describes how the anti-Christ will take over the European Union, broker peace in the middle east, then destroy the world.

Story via The Huffington Post / video from American New Project

Thursday Afternoon Thoughts feat Hunter S. Thompson

I often look back at the first time I read anything of Thompson's. This was before I had even heard of "Fear and Loathin in Las Vegas". It was an old issue of Rolling Stone that I found at a garage sale when I was in high-school. I can't remember what the article was intended to be about, but I do remember the style was frighteningly surreal, just like the man was.

Here's some video of the man who made journalism interesting.

Rudy Guiliani's Kid Is Going To Sue - Why? - Because He Can't Play Golf.

Seriously, didn't Andrew Guliani get the memo about his dad's good friend - George W. Bush - giving up golfing in order to show respect for the military?

DURHAM, N.C. — The son of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is suing Duke University, claiming he was wrongfully kicked off the golf team.

Andrew Giuliani claims he was dismissed without cause from the golf team earlier this year because coach O.D. Vincent III wanted to cut the team of 13 players by about half. The lawsuit claims the coach has interferred with Giuliani's efforts toward becoming a professional golfer.

Duke University spokesman Keith Lawrence said Thursday the university was discussing the lawsuit but didn't have an immediate comment.

The 198-page lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court by Durham attorney Robert Ekstrand. Ekstrand did not immediately return a message for comment.

198 pages!!!!

Jesus-fucking-Christ-on-a-par-four!!!

You've got to be kidding me.

Hey Andrew, I hear they've got a great Lacrosse team. Their parties are legendary. Strippers and everything.

Seriously though, there's probably more to this story than we're getting here. But something tells me that if he's still the little attention-whore like he was back in '94 -----




----- then he's probably worse than his dad was during the Republican debates. I mean, would you be able to play a round of golf with some twit prattling-on about his "dad and 9/11" all afternoon?

Worst Persons In The World v 1.5

Last night's trio via Countdown and Kieth Olbermann.

Bill O'Reilly gets the bronze for sending one of his "producers" to run into Congreeman Robert Wexler's driveway with a microphone and some trumped-up accusations.

Senator Joe Lieberman gets the silver for comparing Rev. John Hagee to - off all people - Moses.

And, the winner last night, was Brian Kilmede of Fox's morning show "Fox and Friends" ( seriously, do they really have any friends? ) for completely making up a statistic about truck convoy attacks in Iraq.

G.I. Joe : The Rise Of Cobra - Not So Sure About This One

Dennis Quaid as Duke?

Really?

IGN.com has got the low-down and more here.

Not often are afternoon cartoons translated into good films. But, with G.I. Joe, the source material allows the writers/directors/producers to play around a bit. Unfortunately, that playing around usually leads to a pitiful film translation that ends up having less-the-convincing special effects, D-list acting, and a script that sounds like it was written by a 5th grader.

That-being-said, maybe a 5th grader could write a better script than most dome-a-dozen people registered with the WGA.

But, G.I. Joe is a "visual" medium first and foremost.

Here are some studio-released images of some of the characters.

Storm-shadow



Snake Eyes



The Barroness ( uniform complete with fake boobs )



Here's what I want to know - where's Cobra Commander, Destro, Serpentor, those freaky twins with the scars that talk in unison.

I'm almost thinking straight to DVD, but there's lots of juice being pumped into this. Let's just hope it's not a lemon.

Damn, that was a lame joke, even for me.

"Cited" With "Hitting a Pedestrian"?

Are you serious?!?!



For the rest of us, that would be called a "hit-and-run".

And, how can you not notice a guy laying on the hood of your car while you're driving?

Novak tells us he was listening to NPR in his Corvette when suddenly, "Some guy came up and hit my car with his fist. I figured I had done something that had created road rage, but I didn't know what it was. Then a bicyclist blocked the road in front of me. I asked what the problem was. He said, 'You can't just hit people and run away!'"

No, but he can help "out" and undercover CIA agent and get away with it.

I loved John Stewarts take on this ( form last night's DailyShow )

You Really Think McCain Could Pull This Off?

Yes, I am going to vote for Obama.

Yes, I live and work in a rather "sheltered" town that sees racism as "tradition" by more than I care to think of. And, what's even more scary to think about, it's those samw people that call themselves "conservative Christians".

Yes, I live in a town that is going to overwhelmingly vote for McCain.

This isn't to say that there aren't going to be people that live in my community that won't vote for him - but we are certainly in the minority.

I saw this pic from Obama's speech in Germany and it made me realize that McCain could never draw that type of crowd.



I mean, seriously, look at that.

For far too long, America has had this image of being run by rich, old, white-guys. Our current "leadership" has ruined our foreign policy because they don't even know what foreign policy even is.

Their constituancy, as well as their punditry, thinks that grade-school recess taunting and name-calling in tantamount to hard-hitting commentary. Their news is nothing but random conjecture and spin.

McCain would never be received this well around the world.

NAS Steps Up And Takes It To Fox, Literally

In one of the first pieces on this blog, I talked about how "rap" has been maligned with hip-hop, how some rap-artists that were once great started to become more "corporate minded" and NAS seems to be moving back to what had made him great in the past.

On NAS' new album, he has a cut called "Sly Fox". Guess who it's about?

Here's the video:



Recently, NAS delivered a petition with over 600,00 signatures on it that demands that Fox"News" stop its "racist" attacks on black America.



NAS even stopped by The Colbert Report to talk.

I'm certain we'll be hearing from O'Reilly on all this very soon.

Thursday Morning Music feat Aphex Twin

There's an odd sense of megalomania that purveys every video that accompanies a Aphex Twin video. Perhaps it the constant presence of the near-fear-inducing grin that Richard D. James has.

The video for Donkey Rubarb is no exception. Well, the fact that "the face" is on a bunch of giant teddy-bears is a more than just a tad creepy.

Of Course They Know There's A Difference

Take your liberal ethos and shove it in your dirt chute putz. Don’t come here with that game.

That statement was directed at me as a response to me pointing out the difference between being against a "policy" or against a "person" and being "anti-American".

But, "anti-policy" doesn't have that evil-sounding ring that "anti-American" does.

That's why so many conservatives use it.

Not because it's true, but because it sounds good.

Rush Limbaugh continually uses it.

Click here to take a listen.

Transcript below:

LIMBAUGH: And this Obama thing is a pure unadulterated sideshow. Obama is not a great thinker; he's a believer. He has been inoculated -- indoctrinated at his schools, and he's believed what he has been told there. And among those beliefs is that the United States is fundamentally a force for provocation in the world, and that the United States is at root responsible for the way we are treated and seen by those who hate us. This is what he believes. He's not a thinker.

It's a form of self-loathing, ladies and gentlemen -- not of himself, of course, 'cause he's the messiah -- but in the aggregate self-loathing of nation, the kind of self-loathing of America that the left here and in Europe embraces. And that's why they love Obama -- because he loathes America. He blames America. America's responsible for all that's wrong in the world. If we just did somebody in touch who has compassion, sensitivity, the rest of the world will miraculously love us. There will be no more evil.

This is standard operating procedure for Malkin, Limbaugh, and O'Reilly uses it when he calls people who post at DailyKos or attend the Netroots Nation convention "Nazis" or "just like the KKK".

You'll find this used ad infinitum on conservative talk-radio, on Fox"News", and online at every conservative site you can think of.

What's almost more frieghtening, is that far too many people aren't willing to call these people out. Too many Democrats, too many bloggers, to many "liberal guest hosts on news programs for balance" seem to be afraid to throw this back in conservatives faces.

It's far more patriotic, far more "American", to voice decent that it is to blindly follow.

Worst Persons In The World v 1.4

Last night's round-up from Countdown. Keith bestows the "honors" on Fox"News'" Bret Baier and a two-for with Bill O'Reilly.

Lunchtime Live Music feat Chris Connelly & The Bells

Chris Connelly was another mainstay on my radio program at Western Kentucky University. His work with bands as diverse as Ministry, Pigface, and Chainsuck have made him one the most influential artists in underground music.

How To Read WAY Too Much Into The New Batman Movie

Kyle Smith over at PajamasMedia must use his lower intestines as storage space for all the wild inferences and over-reaching meanings that he likes to attach to things.

That being said, Mr. Smith has just reached up into his ass and came out with this, the subtitle for his latest piece on PajamasMedia's website:

Who would have guessed that the latest Batman movie would have a conservative point of view?

After containing my laughter and cleaning up the coffee I just spat all over my desk, I re-read his article and was literally astounded by how clueless Kyle is about movies in general, Batman in specific.

I've quoted the later half of Smith's ill-informed piece on Batman here to show you where he dives straight off the edge:

There is no pretending necessary to fear the Joker (Heath Ledger, in a role that is already a screen landmark). It is said of the Joker that “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

How to deal with such a figure? There is no easy answer, and here is where The Dark Knight strikes me as a conservative movie.

Liberals live in a world of “and.” Full security and full civil liberties. Universal health care and the best quality with no waiting. A dynamic economy and full welfare and unemployment benefits. Liberals, in other words, live in that scene in Spider-Man in which Spidey, forced to choose between saving a tram car full of innocent civilians and saving his girlfriend, chooses both. Liberals live in a fantasy.

Conservatives, though, live in a world of tradeoffs, of either/or. For having this relationship with reality, conservatives are caricatured as grumpy, stingy and negative. Surely all it takes is a bump in taxes on the wealthy and everything will be affordable? Where’s the Hope? Where’s the Dream? Yes, we can!

The Dark Knight lives on a razor edge of tradeoffs. In the coin flips of Harvey “Two-Face” Dent there is a message that not only can’t you choose both heads and tails, but sometimes you’re up against a trick coin that ensures you lose either way.

Innocents get killed, civil liberties are infringed, and Batman ardently defends lies over truth in the pursuit of propaganda. Extremism in the defense of liberty is Batman’s virtue, and he ventures much farther into the wilds of lawlessness than any politician would dare. Moreover, his Gotham is a place where some believe that chaos can be managed, that giving into a simple demand from the Joker that Batman turn himself in might be a workable alternative in the long run.

Despite his name, the Joker doesn’t really seem crazy. Perhaps listening to him is a better option than a war that will have untold costs for everyone. “I like this job,” the Joker says on one of his many missions of conflagration, reminding us why his type will always be around. The future looks like it may bring a lot more Jokers than Batmen. “I’m not a monster,” the Joker tells Batman. “I’m just ahead of the curve.”

How can Smith possibly speak about Batman's ventures into lawlessness and even equate that with modern conservativism? The two couldn't be more diametrically opposed if you wanted them to be.

True, Bruce Wayne grew up in a world of privilege, of power, of his every want and desire being provided to him. Though this is generally the seed, the catalyst from which most conservatives are born, Bruce Wayne - as Batman - is nothing like a conservative.

He protects the innocent, and defends the freedoms that modern conservative politicians are attempting to usurp every chance they get. Wayne used his corporate ties to sieze control of the empire that his father built in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the corrupt.

How is this "conservative"?

Batman is as much a conservative as he is a liberal. The character cannot be classified as either, as he has removed himself from a society that overtly eager to define things in such narrow terms.

If there is one thing that Mr. Smith is correct in stating, it's that conservatives live in a world of "trade-offs". They will trade another's well-being in order for themselves to be comfortable. They will trade away their individuality in order to be part of the collectively ignorant masses, all for the sake of acceptance.


If Liberals live in the alleged "and" world, it is so that we can see things together like "security" and "freedom", "blacks" and "whites" co-existing, and we are certainly able to see the difference between "the truth" and "lies".


Truth-be-told, I haven't seen the new Batman movie, yet. But, if there's one thing I do know, it's that Kyle Smith's ill-informed opinion is blatantly obvious and makes him appear as stupid on the internet as he probably is in real life.

Bush "Might" Say Something Stupid? No, Surely Not!

Bush thinks that a recessed economy is something to joke about. The housing crisis topic just kills at Republican fundraisers.

This video was taken of George W. at a fundraiser for Houston Republican Pete Olson.

Then, making light of the foreclosure crisis, he said: "And then we got a housing issue... not in Houston, and evidently not in Dallas, because Laura's over there trying to buy a house. [great laughter] I like Crawford but unfortunately after eight years of sacrifice, I am apparently no longer the decision maker."

Youtube has since scrubbed the original video from its site, but ABC has still got it.

More from The Huffington Post:

An ABC-TV outlet in Houston, and now the Houston Chronicle, have posted a video taken at a political fundraiser for Pete Olson, featuring George W. Bush last week -- capturing some embarrassing/revealing moments after, he noted, he had asked cameras to be turned off.

An conservatives wonder why Democrats don't take this man seriously. It's because he doens't take his job seriously.

.......And People Actually Call This Woman "The Boss"?

Michelle Malkin, the woman originally behind the HotAir video-blog site - whom if given the chance would most likely sell-out her entire race, family, and group of friends for just one more second in the conservative spotlight - joins Brian Kilmede and Steve Doocy in berating Barack Obama about his choice of a speaking venue:



Yep, that's some "fair and balanced" coverage.

Seriously, what is it with conservatives and the "Nazi" thing? Oh, that's right, it scares people dumb enough to believe what they are saying. And, if you check out the HorAir link at the top, you'll notice that there are quite a few people that are willing to jump on that train with Malkin and ride it out until it gets derailed again. And they'll keep going, just like the little obediant sheep that they are.

So, are the Fox and Friends crew and Michelle Malkin really going to run with this "Nazi imagry" schtick? Yeah, probably.

It's interesting to note that the Victory Column is also linked to film directorWim Winders, the band U2, and Berlin DJ Paul Van Dyk.

If your primary news source is Fox, you'd start to get the impression that the statue was built by Hitler.

How About Some Heavy Metal

Down was a favorite of mine in college. Loved Pepper Kennans guitar work in C.O.C. and his riffs in Down were no exception. Phil Anselmo could be ( and more than likely still is ) a prick, but he was a quentisential front-man.

This song - off Down's first CD NOLA - just jammed.

Enjoy

I Hope Michael Medved Doesn't Have Any Children

As I'm sitting here thinking about what word to use that would aptly describe movie-reviewer turned lunatic-right-wing-pundit/radio-host Michael Medved, and I can only think of the word "idiot".

I'll let his latest piece at townhall.com speak for itself:

The new head of the national teacher’s union describes a dream for education that sounds more like a socialist nightmare.

Randi Weingarten, incoming president of the American Federation of Teachers, wants schools to become community centers for medical care and social services as well as classes. She called for a “federal law” promoting “schools that are open all day and offer after-school and evening recreational activities, child care and preschool, tutoring and homework assistance”, plus “medical dental and counseling clinics.”

In other words, she sees schools as big city versions of all-encompassing collective farms, with students their prize crop. Maybe such schools should also offer barracks for the kids, eliminating any need at all for parents or home. Ms. Weingarten forgot to mention that her vision involved a huge expansion of government and a crushing burden for taxpayers.

Ok, so let's take a look at this.

Medved is using that "buzz-word" that conservatives are so eager to use: "socialism".

I mean, give me a fucking break. We're talking about programs that would help children further their education, provide a safe environment for them after school, and assistance in promoting good health and wellness.

What sort of world does Medved live in?

Does he not know that there are more parents that are having to work longer hours just to provide basic medical care for their children?

In Medved's world, are there no opportunities for kids to get educational assistance, or are they all just indoctrinated and conditioned to be as willfully ignorant as him?

He claims that such a system would see children as a "crop" when he and those that he claims to be representative of are nothing more than easily lead cattle.

You know, i don't think "idiot" is all that appropriate now.

I'm thinking more along the lines of "fucking stupid".

I Bet He Was Mad Because None Of His Songs Were On The Jukebox

You can't make this headline up:

Kid Rock gets probation in Waffle House fight

I guess he really wants to keep up that "I'm hip-hop, but i'm redneck, and got mad stree-cred, and still love Skynyrd" image. So, what better place to get into a fight than at a Waffle-House.

Ritchie's tour bus stopped at the Waffle House about 5 a.m. on Oct. 21 after a performance in downtown Atlanta. An exchange of words with a customer escalated into a fight that spilled from the restaurant into the parking lot.

Ritchie and five members of his entourage were arrested. They appeared with him in court, and two of them pleaded no contest and received similar sentences of probation and community service. The judge dropped charges against the other three.

"After viewing the videotape, it was decided that they weren't involved," said Artealia Gilliard, spokeswoman for Solicitor-General Robert D. James Jr.

source

I say release the tape. I've got odds that say "Kid" got scattered, smothered, and covered before the cops showed up.

So, You Defend Children By Attacking Them? Really?

Apparently, Micheal Weiner Savage appeared on Larry King the other night to defend his verbal attack against children with autism.

I blogged about this earlier.

With substitue host Glenn Beck ( yeah, he's pretty much useless too ) Savage was given a nice platform to defend his "defense of children".

When it was stated that Savage "didn't believe Autism exists", he came off with this gem of a reply:

Savage: No, no, no, no, no. Again, you took what they gave you. But you didn’t take the entire preceding material. […] This was in the broader context of the overmedicalization, the over-diagnosis of disease, using our children as profit centers. I’ve spent all day saying what a shame it is that I — as a man who has spent his entire life defending the defenseless, mainly children — should have to defend myself from charges leveled at me from men who specialize in hating families and children, namely MediaMatters — who probably come after you as well — by ripping things out of context and making me look like the monster that they are.

Click here to take a listen.

SilentPatriot over at C&L has more info.

You know you've cornered yoru opponent when they fall back on the "context" defense. It seems that people like Savage don't even know the definition of the word "context". But, it sounds impressive and there are plenty of people that listen to conservative talk-radio that are easily impressed with "fancy-sounding" words.

Who's That Guy In The Hockey Mask By The Lake?

Jesus, how many does this make? 24, or something?



If the thought of another movie about Jason isn't enough to make you throw-up in your mouth a little, when you find out that Michel Bay and MTV have something to do with this you won't be able to eat for the rest of the day.

The fact that there is a "spoiler warning" on the website is just plain hilarious.

Seriously, Micheal "EXPLOSIONS" Bay and MTV?!?!

Rotten Tomatoes is going to have a field-day with this.

Charlie Kaufman's New Film "Synecdoche, New York"

Probably one of the greatest screenwriters working today is about to see his first "directed" project released by Sony Pictures Classics.

The film chronicles 40 years in the life of a writer played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who sets out to stage the ultimate play. He spends decades creating an enormous set with actors who mirror him and the many women in his life (Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson and others).

source


Apparently, the viewers at Cannes weren't sure what to make of the film. The original version is over 4 hours long. That's the one I want to see.


Check out the cast - very impressive.

The Cannes has loads of info on the film as well.

Lunchtime Music feat. My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult

From the Cool World sndtrk:

Sex On Wheels

What Special Finishing-Move Will Molly Ringwald's Character Have?

Dear god, please, NO!!!

Paramount is getting “Clueless,” hanging with the “Mean Girls” and looking “Pretty in Pink” for its first slate of videogames.
Studio is co-publishing casual games based on those three pics from its library for release later this year. It’s splitting production costs with partner Legacy Interactive.

Par first disclosed plans to start financing its own videogames several months ago (Daily Variety, March 28). The three teen-pic properties represent the studio’s first investment in the low-cost casual vidgames it will co-publish this year and next before moving into more expensive console titles.

source

Seriously, what demographic is going to be a fan of both Pretty In Pink AND Mean Girls.

Al Gore Is A Coward And ( Apparently ) I'm A Nazi Sympathizer

Recently, I posted a blog on DailyKos in regards to a challenge that Sean Hannity laid-out to Barack Obama.

Hindsight being the perpetually clear-eyed bastard that it is, I came to realize that my concern over this was severely misplaced. Obama doesn't have to appear on Hannity and Colmes or anywhere else that he is 'challenged' to appear by hyper-partisan conservatives.

When Obama doesn't appear, Hannity will refer to him as a "coward".

This is a tactic that Bill O'Reilly uses ALL the time.

Most recently, it was in reference to Al Gore's suprise appearance at the Netroots Nation convention in Texas:

O’REILLY: Al Gore now is done. He’s done. Ok. He is not a man of respect, he doesn’t have any judgment. The fact that he went to this thing is the same as if he stepped into the Klan gathering. It’s the same. No difference. None. K, he loses all credibility with me. All credibility.

( ThinkProgress has the audio link )

Bill's rationale that Gore is a 'coward' is due to the fact that he won't appear on his show. I'm certain that Gore has more important things to do than go on O'Reilly's program.

Bill likes to create the illusion that he gives a hard-hitting interview. But, did you see his ham-fisted verbal exchange with Hillary Clinton?



So, is Clinton now a "brave soul" capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound?

No, but she wasted precious time better spent on endeavours such as cleaning her bathroom or perhaps hanging out with Bill and watching Ugly Betty.

So, Gore is a coward. But that's not all. Everyone - and I do mean EVERYONE - that not only attends the convention, but those that post on DailyKos, are just like the Nazis and the KKK.

O’REILLY: Ok, now he shows up on Saturday at the most hateful, there is not — and I’m including the Nazis and the Klan in here — there is not a more hateful group in the country than these Daily Kos people. Now, will they come to your house and hurt you? I don’t know, probably not. But, do they want to hurt you? Do they say terrible things about Tony Snow when he dies? All day long. Ok. Hateful hateful hateful. The rhetoric that they use and the rhetoric that the Klan and the Nazis use are the same rhetoric. It’s hate. Everyone knows that.

Now why would you go to a convention sponsored by these people when you know that currently on the Kos is stuff about Tony Snow, it’s good that he’s dead, he’s in hell, all of that. But Gore did, Gore went there. So did Nancy Pelosi. That disqualifies Gore from any serious consideration by me in the future. Al Gore now is done. He’s done. Ok. He is not a man of respect, he doesn’t have any judgment. The fact that he went to this thing is the same as if he stepped into the Klan gathering. It’s the same. No difference. None. K, he loses all credibility with me. All credibility.

Let's see, Nazi's try to kill all the Jews, DailyKos members post blogs on the internet about Republican-controlled government and the media that prop them up.

Members of the KKK have attacked and even killed African-Americans and DailyKos bloggers talk about Bill O'Reilly being - for lack of a more appropriate phrase - maybe just a little racist.

Yeah, so many simularities.

Worst Persons In The World v 1.3

Here's Kieth's list from Friday, July 18th

New Mix 7-21-08 Endemic

Endemic

This week's mix was inspired by several sources.

Primarily, from several sets by Danny Tenaglia, as well as John Digweed's sets from 1999 when he started the "Compiled and Mixed" series for Bedrock Records.

Many of you will notice a rather "haphazard" transition between the last two tracks. But, that's how a live mix goes sometimes.

Tracklisting:

Eric Borgo - 1900
Oel & Polygon - Sexophonia
Will Saul - Tech Noir
Tabius - Sonando
Paul Ritch - Crazy Madness
Solomun Woodstep
Phillip Young - Conflict Of Interest ( Boy Bianchi Situation )
Ross Couch - Playing Jazz ( Kirby Mix )
Pete Gooding - Darkstar ( Francois Dubois Mix )

Selected Mix Images:

Late Afternoon Jams feat The Raconteurs

For me, The Raconteurs were one of the highlight performances of Bonnaroo this year.

Check out the video for "Steady As She Goes"

I'm Guessing This Guy Can't Do An Interview --- Well, Gillian Andersan Might Be A Bit Ditzy Too

.....and I think it might be a little bit of both.

I have fond memories of Gillian Anderson on the X-Files. Perhaps it was my affinity for red-heads when I was in high-school. Perhaps it was constant look of ferociousness that she had. It was a mix between i'm going to screw you senseless or I'm going to rip out your spleen and show it to you.

I think the interview - brief though it was - could be summed up as such:

A journalist said interviewing you is like wrestling a crocodile.
What does that mean? I have no idea.

>Did you try to bite him?
Metaphorically.

Read the remainder of Ramin Seetodeh's brief exchange with Gillian Anderson here

The new X-Files movie ( which also stars Billy "fuck off" Connelly )

McCain Needs A Geography Teacher

Last night, I was at my local Wal-MArt buying some groceries for the week, and I noticed an 'endcap' with globes for sale: $15.00.

They were actually rather nice, with raised releif mountains, various colors that easily sepereated states and nations, longitude and latitude points, lots of great things that enhanced an already basic educational tool.

It appears that John Mcain could use a geography lesson.

Think Progress and Huffington Post have the video up.

Now, some might claim that "oh, it's just a little mistake", but there's far more at work here than most would soon realize. Both John McCain and Barack Obama are trying their best to get the same job. McCain's one and only point that he can make against Barack Obama is that he has "more" forein policy experience.

But, when you make such a blatant error on what is basic, elementary geography, the American voting public start to think that perhaps you really don't know as much as you are pretending you do.

Monday Morning Musical Musings feat Psychic TV

There's always been some bizarrely attractive musical quality surrounding Psychic TV that I never quite could put my finger on.

A shade controversial when they want to be and always daring to create the music that most would never think of, Genesis P. Orridge and crew will always have something for your mind to chew on.

Of Misinterpretations and Associations

It's quite hilarious when conservatives get all up-in-arms over issues that they obviously know nothing or dangerously little about.

Today's latest right-wing hissy-fit revolves around a statement made by Nuri al-Maliki regarding Barack Obama's plan of withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Hot Air captured the following passage from the English translation of Maliki’s Der Spiegel interview:

SPIEGEL: Would you hazard a prediction as to when most of the US troops will finally leave Iraq?

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we’re concerned. US presidential candidate Barack Obama is right when he talks about 16 months. Assuming that positive developments continue, this is about the same time period that corresponds to our wishes.

Here’s how the exchange reads now:

SPIEGEL: Would you hazard a prediction as to when most of the US troops will finally leave Iraq?

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we’re concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.

There is no explanation of the rewrite.

Spiegel says: “SPIEGEL stands by its version of the conversation.” That’s great . . . but which one?

SHOCKING POSTSCRIPT: The L.A. Times ignores the earlier version — as does the rest of the world, apparently.

Nor does the L.A. Times report that Maliki’s office disputes the rewritten Spiegel translation.

The gloriously ignorant people over at Redstate are in it, as well as Allahpundit over at Malkin's appropriately named HotAir site.

What's interesting to note, is that all this righteous indignation ignores the fact that the translator was NOT employed by the magazine Spiegel, which ran the original article.

Who did the translator work for?

Nuri al Maliki, of course.

Oops.

What Sort Of "Business" Do You Cover?

Maybe it's just my own particular view on things. Maybe it's that it takes a little more than a massive screen-crawl and a far-too-clever-for-its-own-good setting for me to think that this is the latest "cutting edge" business program.

But, that's what Rupert Mudock's Fox"Busiess" Channel is offering up to it's viewership.

In a previous episode of it's "after the closing bell" program called Happy Hour ( yeah, now you can see why it's set in a bar - very clever indeed ) Fox expects us to listen to an "oil trader" and a woman who looks like she's just at the bar to get chatted-up, down a couple of Cosmos, and then taken back to your house and bent-over your wife's new sofa to get our "business" news.

The two "business hosts" are talking about Bush lifting the banon off-shore drilling. Naomi Klein ( author of Shock Doctrine ) brings up the well-known fact that this is not a "short-term" fix like the Republicans are trying to make it sound like.

The pair seem all too eager to simply disregard Ms. Klein's presence, as well as the validity of just about everything she is saying:



Here's a short film on The Shock Doctrine:




Here's some interesting info on off-shore drilling and if it will have the desired effect on gas prices.

( hat-tip: HumeSkeptic @ The Huffington Post )

JessWonderin ( also from The Huffington Post ) provides some further info from the Department of the Interior

1. While the number of drilling PERMITS issued to the oil industry INCREASED by 361 percent between 1999 and 2007, gas prices increased from $1.25 per gallon to over $4.00 per gallon during the same period;

2. The majority of crude oil and natural gas believed to be available on the OCS - 79 percent of oil and 82 percent of natural gas - are already available for drilling through existing leases; and

3. Nearly 64 million acres of federal land and water leased to the oil and gas industry are NOT being used to increase domestic production.

Lunchtime Jams feat Aquasky

This mini-mix was featured on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 program:

...and This Guy Is The #3 Talk Radio Host In America?

Michael "Savage" is just another in a long line of lunatic-fringe conservatives whos lies eventually become "conventional wisdom" with their audience.

Savages latest claim is that Autism is a "fraud".

SAVAGE: Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism, since I'm not talking about autism? A fraud, a racket. For a long while, we were hearing that every minority child had asthma. Why did they sudden -- why was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], "When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], 'I don't know, the dust got me.' " See, everyone had asthma from the minority community. That was number one.

Now, the illness du jour is autism. You know what autism is? I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is.

You see, with Savage - like many other talk-radio hosts such as Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, et al - you get told that every problem in the United States is because of "minorities". You get told that this person is a "communist in disguise", that this group of people are going to rape your daughters, that you are going to have your job taken away, your pension, your home, your wife, your husband, on and on.

It's mindless, psycho-babble packaged as rational thought. It's fear that every one of these radio personalities and conservative "celebrities" know their listeners are going to feed off of. They count on the ignorance of those that pay attention to them, that buy their books, that listen day in and day out to their shows on the radio, that pay money to hear them give speeches.

Savage's rant in regards to autism is nothing new. His show serves no purpose at all.

Here is how to contact Savage and his employers.

Michael Savage
michaelsavage@paulreveresociety.com


Talk Radio Network
P.O. Box 3755
Central Point, Oregon 97502
Phone: 541-664-8827
Fax: 541-664-6250


The Savage Nation
The Paul Revere Society
150 Shoreline Hwy, Bldge E
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Fax: 415-339-9383

Worst Persons In The World: 7/17/8

Last night's list features former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Homeland Security, and our pal Bill O'Reilly.

I'm Not So Sure That You Know What That Word Means

John McCain recently had an interview with David Helling of the Kansas City Star in which they discussed Barack Obama:

"Extreme? you really think hes an extremist? I mean, he's clearly a liberal," interviewer Dave Helling asks.

"That's his voting record," McCain responds. "All i said was his voting record, and that is more to the left than the announced Socialist in the United States Senate, Bernie Sanders of Vermont."

"Do you think hes a socialist, Barack Obama?" Helling asks.

McCain responds with a with a shrug, "I don't know."

Check the video out.

This is one of the conservative movements favorite things to talk about - what Obama "might be".

Ooooo, scary.

He's got a funny name, he might have been a Muslim, he lived in another country, ooooooo.

Give me a fucking break.

He's been labeled by The National Journal as the most liberal senator.

But, what does that really mean?

How can someone define who is to the "left" or even the "right" of you. The National Journal is trying to tell you what your viewpoint is in order to define who/what Obama is to you.

But, more to the point, what do you think Socialism means?

Far too many people in the Republican party toss out the word a know that they don't have to explain it - they know you'll be afraid of it. It's just like with the word "Fascism". To them, that has nothing to do with the Fascisst party or Mussolini but is just a more fanciful way of calling someone "bad".

By strict definition, Socialism means:

a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

Conservatives use the term to stoke fears within people that they are going to have their jobs, their homes, their money, their very lives taken away from them.

It's gone so far, that if you are for a "fair tax" system - meaning that the taxes that you pay should be proportionate to what you make - then you are advocating "Socialism".

Watchmen : 3-6-9

For any of you that are comic/movie fans, mark down March 6th of next year as the day Alan Moores masterpiece finally makes it to theatres.

It's been a long and grueling process, but it's finally happening.

Here's some background on the series:

Alan Moore, who wanted to transcend the perceptions of the comic book medium as something juvenile, created Watchmen as an attempt to make "a superhero Moby-Dick; something that had that sort of weight, that sort of density." Moore also named William S. Burroughs as one of his "main influences" during the conception of Watchmen and admired Burroughs' use of "repeated symbols that would become laden with meaning" in Burroughs's one and only comic strip, which appeared in the British underground magazine Cyclops.

Moore and Gibbons originally conceived of a story that would take "familiar old-fashioned superheroes into a completely new realm." Initially, Moore looked towards the defunct MLJ Comics line of superheroes for inspiration. "I'd just started thinking about using the MLJ characters — the Archie super-heroes - just because they weren't being published at that time, and for all I knew, they might've been up for grabs. The initial concept would've had the 1960s-'70s rather lame version of the Shield being found dead in the harbor, and then you'd probably have various other characters, including Jack Kirby's Private Strong, being drafted back in, and a murder mystery unfolding. I suppose I was just thinking, "That'd be a good way to start a comic book: have a famous super-hero found dead." As the mystery unraveled, we would be led deeper and deeper into the real heart of this super-hero's world, and show a reality that was very different to the general public image of the super-hero. So, that was the idea."

Dick Giordano, who had worked for Charlton Comics, suggested using a cast of old Charlton characters that had recently been acquired by DC. However, the Charlton heroes were being slowly integrated into the normal DC continuity. Because Moore and Gibbons wanted to do a serious storyline in which some of the newly acquired characters would die and the world would be drastically altered by story's end, using the Charlton heroes was not feasible. Giordano then suggested that Moore and Gibbons simply start from scratch and create their own characters. So while certain characters in Watchmen are loosely based upon the Charlton characters (such as Dr. Manhattan, who was inspired by Captain Atom; Rorschach, who was based upon the Question; and Nite Owl, who was loosely based on the Blue Beetle as well as Batman), Moore decided to create characters that ultimately would only casually resemble their Charlton counterparts.

Originally, Moore and Gibbons had enough plot for only six issues, so they compensated "by interspersing the more plot-driven issues with issues that gave kind of a biographical portrait of one of the main characters." During the process, Gibbons had a great deal of autonomy in developing the visual look of Watchmen and inserted details that Moore admits he did not notice until later, as Watchmen was written to be read and fully understood only after several readings.

more here.

And here you'll find lots of info on the struggles the production has faced.

Here's some character stills:







And, the trailer:



The film was directed by Zack Snyder who also brought us 300.

Early Evening Techno feat Steve Lawler

Steve Lawler is one of those DJ/Producers that never ceases to amaze. His sets are often moody, almost malevolent. He prefers to call them "filthy and sleazy" as well as being influenced by "vices and dark experiences".

his newest track is called - "21st Century Ketchup" :

Whoopi vs. Hasselbeck On Racism

Whoopi, who earlier in the broadcast had used the n-word repeatedly, sending the censors into overload, argued that the word is only as powerful as a society allows it to be and advocated for using the word to give it new meaning. Elisabeth, meanwhile, felt that she couldn't teach her children not to say the word if her black co-hosts and their children were using the word, arguing that, "we don't live in different worlds."

Click here to see the video.

What is it about race relations that Hasselbeck doesn't understand?

I'm not really a fan of Whoopi Goldberg, but she is more right than she knows when she tells Elizabeth that they are - in fact - living in two different worlds.

It appears that this consistant stream of tears that she conjures up whenever she is challenged are merely used to create the illusion that she is compassionate. It's nothing more than a defense mechanism.

To me, this seems to be nothing but an audition for her to get on Hannity and Colmes. She knows that discussing "racial issues" with Hannity will be much more to her advantage.

Metal Monk!!!!

There's something oddly intrugiing about this. Mixing reglion and heavy-metal has never really created anything great. Anyone remember Stryper?

Brother Cesare is better known among Italian heavy metal fans by his nom de rock, Fratello Metallo (Brother Metal). Describing himself as a "preacher-singer", "Brother Metal" has been singing for over a decade and has just released his 18th album.

I'll take a thrasher-monk over a "Rapping Rove" anyday:

The Worst Persons In The World v 1.2

Kieth was back on Countdown last night. So, here's last night's worst person's list:

Conservative Idiocy Knows No Bounds

Apparently, this Mike Meehan guy thinks he knows a thing or two about political advertising and national security.

CNN) -- A Florida man is using billboards with an image of the burning World Trade Center to encourage votes for a Republican presidential candidate, drawing criticism for politicizing the 9/11 attacks.


Businessman Mike Meehan says he has put up three billboards such as this one around Orlando, Florida.

"Please Don't Vote for a Democrat" reads the type over the picture of the twin towers after hijacked airliners hit them on September, 11, 2001.

Mike Meehan, a St. Cloud, Florida, businessman who paid to post the billboards in the Orlando area, said former President Clinton should have put a stop to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda before 9/11. He said a Republican president would have done so.

"I believe 9/11 could have been prevented if we'd had a Republican president at the time," Meehan said Wednesday on CNN's "American Morning."

But Democrats and Republicans are saying Meehan shouldn't be using a 9/11 image to make a political point.

"This is a blatant exploitation of that terrible tragedy for political and, perhaps even worse, personal gain," Bill Robinson, the Orange County, Florida, Democratic Party chairman told CNN affiliate WFTV-TV in Orlando.

It's also a blantant misrepresentaiton of the facts.

But hey, that's how the lunatic-fringe-conservatives ( both within the media and those that they target ) often operate.

Let's take a look at a few facts, shall we.

There's a CNN report about targeting Al-Queada training sites, some info regarding the Clinton administration's tracking down of terrorists, as well as more facts here and here.

This guy even latches onto Sean Hannity's favorite talking-point about having Bin Laden "offered up on a silver platter" - which is also wrong:

On July 20, ABC radio host Sean Hannity thrice repeated the false claim that former President Bill Clinton refused a 1996 offer from Sudan to hand Osama bin Laden over to the United States. Hannity has previously propagated this claim, for which the 9-11 Commission found "no reliable evidence to support."

Mr, Meehan doesn't seem to realize that the George W. Bush and his own adminstration didn't see terrorism as an "urgent issue":

President Bush's former counterterrorism chief testified Wednesday that the administration did not consider terrorism an urgent priority before the September 11, 2001, attacks, despite his repeated warnings about Osama bin Laden's terror network.

"I believe the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue," Richard Clarke told a commission investigating the September 11 attacks.