June 30, 2005

Legacy

winchell

As you probably already know, Paul Winchell died this past Friday at the age of 82. While many of you younger folk knew him as the voice of Tigger, I remember him as the man behind Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff, the "stars" of my favorite kids show, Winchell-Mahoney Time. He also invented an early version of the artificial heart. And he apparently was a terrible husband and father. However, he did leave us a pretty cool legacy: His daughter April, DJ, blogger and caretaker of the most amazing audio collection of fun crap I've ever seen/heard on the internets. Looking for a Gregorian chant version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit?" She's got it. Kentucky Fried Chicken Employee Training Tapes? Yep, you betcha. Abba covers in Hindi? Hanji! (Yes, sir!)

To destroy what little free time you have, click April's picture and get lost in her wonderful collection of oddities.





And a fond Scotty, waddy, doo-doo to all former members of the Winchell-Mahoney Club.
Winchell-Mahoney Time


Is It Worth It?



(Click to Watch)

Images: ABC News
Song: "Shipbuilding" (Music: Clive Langer; Lyrics: Elvis Costello; Vocals: Robert Wyatt)

June 29, 2005

The Big Lie



"Click me, for I have no shame"

And speaking of shameless:
A Republican congressman from North Carolina told CNN on Wednesday that the "evidence is clear" that Iraq was involved in the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001.

"Saddam Hussein and people like him were very much involved in 9/11," Rep. Robin Hayes said.

Told no investigation had ever found evidence to link Saddam and 9/11, Hayes responded, "I'm sorry, but you must have looked in the wrong places."

Hayes, the vice chairman of the House subcommittee on terrorism, said legislators have access to evidence others do not.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said that Saddam was a dangerous man, but when asked about Hayes' statement, would not link the deposed Iraqi ruler to the terrorist attacks on New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.

"I haven't seen compelling evidence of that," McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN.
"Sometimes I wonder if the world is run by smart people who are putting us on, or imbeciles who really mean it."
-Mark Twain

THE TRANSISTOR WIDOW #006



Untitled
Untitled, Will McRobb (2005)

June 28, 2005

Unlimited Power



I came across the following quote today while reading the most-excellent Cloud Atlas as I waiting to be called for jury duty:
"Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty." - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
It seemed more than appropriate for the times we live in. I googled the quote to make sure it was accurate (sorry to doubt you David) and found some more "fun" quotes. Here are a few of my faves. Enjoy:
"Fear is the foundation of most governments."
-John Adams

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence-it is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
-George Washington

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government, they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten, that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of an advance auction of the sale of stolen goods."
-H.L. Mencken

"There are two governments in the United States today. One is visible. The other is invisible."
-Thomas B. Ross

"Did the mass of men know the actual selfishness and injustice of their rulers, not a government would stand a year. The world would formant with revolution."
-Theodore Parker

"Those who take the most from the table teach contentment. Those for whom the taxes are destined demand sacrifice. Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry of wonderful Times to come. Those who lead the country into the abyss call ruling difficult for ordinary folk."
-Bertolt Brecht

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
-Voltaire

"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
-James Madison 1822

"It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error."
-Robert H. Jackson, U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1950

"Sometimes I wonder if the world is run by smart people who are putting us on, or imbeciles who really mean it."
-Mark Twain
They're just sayin'...

The Bush Speech Drinking Game



truthout's William Rivers Pitt has some not so sobering thoughts about tonight's speech by The Big Turd Sandwich:
"Tonight should be interesting. If I were still in college, I'd propose creating a drinking game based on this speech. Drink a beer after every lie. Drink a beer every time Bush says "freedom," or talks about September 11 as if those attacks had anything to do with Iraq. Drink two beers after every wildly unrealistic assessment that has no basis in fact. Drink a beer and a shot every time he says "Nukular." Two beers, a shot and a kick to the head every time he thanks the troops around him for the sacrifices "we" know must be made. Anyone still standing after ten minutes wins a Kewpie doll.

It's probably a good thing I graduated."

June 26, 2005

Men Who Tableaux



Stella

I highly recommend Comedy Central's new series Stella which premieres this Tuesday night at 10:30. The brainchild of Michael Ian Black, David Wain and Michael Showalter (formerly of The State), Stella, thankfully, is not another sketch show -- rather it's format is more like the cartoons and Three Stooges one-reelers of yesteryear. Back in the day, it was no problem to see characters you knew acting in a completely different situation with each film. ("Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard"...wait, weren't they plumbers the last time we saw them?!? Okay. No problem. As long as they still hit each other.) John Kricfalusi once told me how a Nickelodeon executive almost killed the classic Ren & Stimpy episode "Space Madness" because the exec couldn't understand how the dog and cat could live in a trailer in one episode and suddenly be space cadets flying around in a rocket ship the following week. He...couldn't...under...stand. He's probably since failed upwards to an SVP position somewhere.

Judging by the pilot for Stella, the former Nick guy does not appear to be running things at Comedy Central. The show I saw wonderfully made zero sense and felt very much like a human version of an old Ren & Stimpy cartoon, taking it's sweet time with preposterous gags and seemingly made with no audience in mind except for Michael Ian Black, David Wain, Michael Showalter and their (talented) friends (my favorite kind of self-indulgence). Some of the gags miss but there are plenty of hits (the tableau scene above was a personal fave). Black, Wain and Showalter have promised that their three characters will be in completely different situations each week, just like the Stooges and The Marx Brothers. I hope they make good on that promise. I remember back in the '80s telling anyone who would listen that this is exactly what Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis should do instead of making Ghostbusters 2. Obviously, no one listened and we ended up with another dreadful, uninspired sequel. If only I had had this blog back then...

It's Good To Be The King



Stephen King bludgeons the media in the June 24/July 1 edition of Entertainment Weekly:
With the enthusiastic collaboration of the American news media, the sideshow (the Michael Jackson trial) has become the main attraction in American culture: The weirder the guy, the bigger the headlines. It's sickening that it takes a columnist in an entertainment magazine to point out that the number of newspeople who covered the Jackson trial (2000) is roughly equivalent to the number of American servicemen and women who have died in Iraq. On the same day that crowds gathered in Times Square (and around the world) to learn the fate of the Pale Peculiarity, another four suicide bombings took place in that tortured, bleeding country. And if you tell me that news doesn't belong in Entertainment Weekly, I respond by saying Michael Jackson under a black umbrella doesn't belong on the front page of The New York Times.
It's good to see something like this in the MSM for a change...

June 22, 2005

Sir Wanker



Sir Wanker

"Tell me why? I don't like Mondays" or Bob Geldof. Or Bono, for that matter.

Here's why:
(Sir) Bob Geldof has reportedly warned a top recording artist not to publicly criticise the White House during the worldwide television broadcast of the Live 8 concerts next month.

The warning came after Geldof insisted that President George W. Bush had done more for Africa than any other American leader.

The manager of the singer was quoted as having been told: "Please remember, absolutely no ranting and raving about Bush or Blair and the Iraq war. We want to bring Bush in, not run him away."

(snip)

Geldof, often the most trenchant critic of politicians, was sympathetic towards Mr Bush in an interview published by Time magazine. He sat with the U2 singer Bono, who recently publicly shook hands with the president.

Bono was exceedingly pro-Bush, calling him "the most important and toughest nut", a stance that has annoyed singers such as Billy Bragg and Sinead O'Connor, who think he is risking his credibility by getting too close to the leader.

(snip)

The musician who was reportedly warned by Geldof to "stay on message" was anxious not to be identified, possibly noting the backlash that followed a comment by Natalie Maines, of the Dixie Chicks, at a London concert, when she announced: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

Radio stations boycotted the band's music and their CDs were smashed by bulldozers before Maines publicly apologised to Mr Bush.
Geldof and Bono have obviously bought into the Bush Administration's bullshit which includes the old bait and switch when it comes to African aid as well as a strict policy of "you're either with us or against us so watch what you say."

Here's how that tough nut Bush has "helped" Africa:
When President Bush introduced his global AIDS initiative in January 2003 -- calling it "a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts" -- the plan certainly sounded promising. Bush pledged to spend $15 billion over five years to provide life-saving drugs to at least 2 million people with HIV, prevent 7 million new infections, and care for the sick and orphaned in fifteen countries. Most of the money, the president declared, would go to sub-Saharan Africa, home to the majority of the world's 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS. In the hardest-hit countries, nearly forty percent of the population is infected, and 12 million children across the region have lost at least one parent to the disease. "I believe God has called us into action," Bush declared during a trip to Uganda in 2003. "We are a great nation, we're a wealthy nation. We have a responsibility to help a neighbor in need, a brother and sister in crisis."

Dubbed the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the ambitious agenda provided the administration with some much-needed PR at the very moment it was preparing to defy international will by invading Iraq. But from the start, Bush has failed to deliver on the funding he promised -- and what little money he has provided is being used to promote a right-wing agenda that undercuts international efforts and puts millions of people in AIDS-ravaged countries at greater risk of infection and death.

Thanks to the president's foot-dragging, his "emergency plan" took its sweet time getting going. Bush requested only $2 billion for PEPFAR in its first year -- a billion less than one would expect. Then, when Congress decided to approve $400 million more than the president asked for, Bush unsuccessfully fought to block the increase. By the time the first relief funds arrived in Africa, nearly a year and a half had passed since the president announced his plan -- a costly delay in fighting an epidemic that claims 8,500 lives every day.

The administration insists it will meet its goal by 2008, saying it planned all along to gradually "ramp up" the program. But public-health experts say it looks increasingly unlikely that Bush will fulfill his promise -- and that even if he does, the money will fall far short of what is needed. According to UNAIDS, a partnership involving the World Bank and nine other international aid groups, the world needs to spend $20 billion a year by 2007 to wage an effective war against AIDS. What Bush proposes to spend annually, if funding remains constant, is less than half the $6.6 billion that America would be expected to contribute based on the size of its economy. "The fact that the United States can spend $300 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but cannot find a relative pittance to rescue the human condition in Africa -- there is something profoundly out of whack about that," says Stephen Lewis, the secretary-general's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The president's AIDS initiative, like his invasion of Iraq, is a go-it-alone affair that ignores the clear global consensus on how to fight AIDS. In launching his own initiative, Bush has shifted the bulk of U.S. money away from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an international organization that has funded projects in 128 countries and is widely recognized as the best way to distribute AIDS funds. "Bush is starving the fund," says Dr. Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "It's despicable, frankly."

In addition to shortchanging international relief efforts, Bush is using AIDS funds to place religion over science, promoting abstinence and monogamy over more effective measures such as condoms and sex education. Before overseas groups can receive U.S. funding, for example, the Bush administration requires them to take a "loyalty oath" to condemn prostitution -- a provision that AIDS workers say further stigmatizes a population in need of HIV education and treatment.

(snip)

Nowhere is the effort by conservative Republicans to turn back the clock on sex education more pronounced than in Uganda. By aggressively promoting condom use and sex education, Uganda has managed to cut its HIV rate from fifteen percent of the population to barely six percent during the past decade, making it Africa's biggest success story. But under pressure from the Bush administration, Uganda has taken a dangerous turn toward an abstinence-only approach. In April, the country's Ministry of Education banned the promotion and distribution of condoms in public schools. To make matters worse, the government has even engineered a nationwide shortage of condoms, issuing a recall of all state-supplied condoms and impounding boxes of condoms imported from other countries at the airport, claiming they need to be tested for quality control.
Soothsayer Bono "has a hunch" that Bush will step up his efforts:
"It's hard for (Bush) because of the expense of the war and the debts. But I have a hunch that he will step forward with something. And it'll take somebody like him."
And you know this because...? Man, what an incredibly stupid statement, Mr. Vox. America wouldn't have "the expense of the war and the debts" if your new hero hadn't decided to be such an arrogant ass. What makes you think he's going to stop being an ass?

And as far as "ranting and raving" against Bush is concerned, has Sir Bob forgotten this little comment from three months ago?
Rock star Bob Geldof urged Tony Blair yesterday to tell President George Bush it would cost the US "f***-all" to help to relieve African poverty.
I guess Bob has changed his tune and decided a little "thought control" is a good thing...

June 20, 2005

Should Congress investigate the Downing Street minutes?



Go here and let your voice be heard.





Rall's been on a roll lately. Click the comic for more Ted...

June 18, 2005

"The mission isn't easy and it will not be accomplished overnight."

- George W. Bush, in his weekly radio address, June 18, 2005

Hey, what the? Wait, um, but you said...oh, never mind.

(This latest gem from The Big Turd Sandwich would be freakin' hilarious -- if only 1,582 U.S. soldiers hadn't been killed since our mission was accomplished on May 1, 2003.)

June 17, 2005

"Coming" Soon



The Rude Pundit in The Year of Living Rudely
Starring: The Rude Pundit
Writer: Lee Papa
Director: Mark H. Creter
Based on the cult blog with thousands of fans worldwide, the Rude Pundit attacks assholes and pisses on the powerful. In this (very rude) one-man comedy, he gives a scatological skewering and a pornographic wedgie to preachers, politicians, and presidents.
Where: The New York International Fringe Festival
When: At least five performances in New York City between August 12 and August 28

For more information, leave me alone and bother The Rude Pundit
here.

43 is 42



...and sinking:
President George W. Bush's job approval rating is now just 42 percent, and most Americans think he does not share their priorities.

Iraq and the economy -- not the President's signature issue of Social Security -- are most important to Americans, and Americans' assessments of both remain mixed, with support for the decision to send troops to Iraq matching its lowest percent ever.
Perhaps it's time to find a new occupant for the White House...




(Click banner for more information)

THE TRANSISTOR WIDOW (#005)



Untitled
Untitled, Will McRobb (2005)

I Love The Smell Of Impeachment In The Morning



Georgie Boy is in deep doo-doo. Here are the top four stories as of 12:05 a.m. on my Yahoo home page:
White House rejects call for Iraq pullout 
Iraq rebels kill 5 marines in blast 
Halliburton to build new $30 mln Guantanamo jail
U.S. Democrats cite British memo in Bolton fight 
Here are the top three political stories:
Democrats Urge Inquiry on Bush, Iraq
House Ready to Give Pentagon $45B for Wars
Bush Seeks to Calm Anxieties About Iraq
And in entertainment news,
Clinton, Letterman Talk Heart Surgery
I wonder what Conan's gonna talk about with "W" on The Tonight Show in the not-too-distant future. Binge drinking? If I was George, I'd currently be deep in the throes of a bender...especially if I saw the results of this MSNBC poll which asked the question: "Do you believe President Bush misled the nation in order to go to war with Iraq?"

June 16, 2005

I Heart My Town



Two nights ago, I joined 47,999 other New Yorkers to listen to members of the Met Opera perform Tosca in 90 degree heat. I'm guessing that many of the audience members, despite the presence of a few shooshers, were on Central Park's Great Lawn to be participants in a large, communal "event" involving food and wine rather than as opera lovers. I was there for a bit of both. Admittedly, I was never much of an opera fan: Before meeting my wife, I learned all I knew about the art form from The Marx Brothers, Bugs Bunny and the end credits of The Beatles' Help. Over the past 13 years, I've grown to like opera a lot. I haven't quite reached the love stage yet.

greatlawn

But I do love my town, which is what I said to my wife and dear friend L.J.T. as I settled in on the picnic blanket they had laid out. I had arrived late and was just starting to soak in the atmosphere (just as the humidity had soaked into me as I walked from the subway and through the park). I loved the fact that people who normally have some serious space issues had no problem hanging close together with thousands and thousands of strangers. And I loved how the strangers were from all walks of life (okay, I admit there was definitely a short supply of African-Americans but the crowd was still pretty diverse). After my unabashed gushing over NYC, my wife told me what had happened when a representative from Bank of America, one of the sponsors of the Met in the Parks series, introduced the evening's program. Allow me to paraphrase:
"Welcome to the opening night of the Met in the Parks concert series."

(tremendous applause)

"Featuring the greatest opera company in the world."

(tremendous applause)

"In the greatest park in the world."

(tremendous applause)

"In the greatest city in the world."

(tremendous applause)

"In the greatest country in the world."

(cue the crickets...)
Yet another reason to love my town. Now some of you (and you know who you are) might be thinking that this non-display of affection toward the U.S. of A. confirms your belief that New York is a bastion of commie-pinkos who hate their own country. Au contraire (perhaps using French is not the best way to convince you that we don't "hate" America). So, on the contrary: Most New Yorkers love America and we, rightly I believe, see New York City as representing the best of what America can be (open-minded, diverse, tolerant, liberal and fun). But not all of us love the direction our country is going in: You know, the bullying, torturing, war-mongering, global-warming denying, fundamentalist leaning, healthcare lacking, freedom curtailing direction.

For many of us, it's just kind of hard to cheer for the robotic "greatest blah, blah, blah in the blah, blah, blah" rhetoric these days. It is, of course, a phrase that has been drummed into all Americans for decades (briefly replaced by "Love it or leave it" during our last failed war). How many times, in the face of some atrocious act committed by a politician or company have you told yourself, "Yes, but we're still the greatest country in the world"? I know I have. But, over the years the phrase has become increasingly hollow for me. Seriously, could the greatest country in the world really have elected George W. Bush?

So, may I humbly suggest a replacement phrase until "we" somehow set things right? How 'bout: "America: Potentially The Greatest Country in the World." Sure it doesn't roll off the tongue but at least it's honest.

June 13, 2005

"A travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham."



Okay, now that the latest Trial of the Century is over, can we move on to real news?

Who Loves Ya Baby?

"I've never been able to understand his appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does. He's never won anything, as best I can tell," Cheney said in an interview to be aired Monday on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes."

"My view is FOX News is a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party and I don't comment on FOX News," Dean said. That was in response to vice president Dick Cheney calling Howard Dean (who was elected governor of Vermont five times between 1992 and 2000) "over the top" on Fox News on Sunday.
No question who wins the love contest in the reality-based world. Keep givin' 'em hell Howard...

June 12, 2005

"Little Thought..."



Tiny brain:

A briefing paper prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers eight months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq concluded that the U.S. military was not preparing adequately for what the British memo predicted would be a "protracted and costly" postwar occupation of that country.

The eight-page memo, written in advance of a July 23, 2002, Downing Street meeting on Iraq, provides new insights into how senior British officials saw a Bush administration decision to go to war as inevitable, and realized more clearly than their American counterparts the potential for the post-invasion instability that continues to plague Iraq.

In its introduction, the memo "Iraq: Conditions for Military Action" notes that U.S. "military planning for action against Iraq is proceeding apace," but adds that "little thought" has been given to, among other things, "the aftermath and how to shape it."
Gee, what a surprise.

By the way, you don't need brains to be a war criminal, you just need a willing ally:
Ministers were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.

The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.

The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal.

This was required because, even if ministers decided Britain should not take part in an invasion, the American military would be using British bases. This would automatically make Britain complicit in any illegal US action.

“US plans assume, as a minimum, the use of British bases in Cyprus and Diego Garcia,” the briefing paper warned. This meant that issues of legality “would arise virtually whatever option ministers choose with regard to UK participation”...

The document said the only way the allies could justify military action was to place Saddam Hussein in a position where he ignored or rejected a United Nations ultimatum ordering him to co-operate with the weapons inspectors. But it warned this would be difficult.

“It is just possible that an ultimatum could be cast in terms which Saddam would reject,” the document says. But if he accepted it and did not attack the allies, they would be “most unlikely” to obtain the legal justification they needed.

The suggestions that the allies use the UN to justify war contradicts claims by Blair and Bush, repeated during their Washington summit last week, that they turned to the UN in order to avoid having to go to war. The attack on Iraq finally began in March 2003.

The briefing paper is certain to add to the pressure, particularly on the American president, because of the damaging revelation that Bush and Blair agreed on regime change in April 2002 and then looked for a way to justify it...

(John Conyers) and other Democratic congressmen plan to hold their own inquiry this Thursday with witnesses including Joe Wilson, the American former ambassador who went to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium ore for its nuclear weapons programme.

Frustrated at the refusal by the White House to respond to their letter, the congressmen have set up a website — www.downingstreetmemo.com — to collect signatures on a petition demanding the same answers.

Conyers promised to deliver it to Bush once it reached 250,000 signatures. By Friday morning it already had more than 500,000 with as many as 1m expected to have been obtained when he delivers it to the White House on Thursday.

AfterDowningStreet.org, another website set up as a result of the memo, is calling for a congressional committee to consider whether Bush’s actions as depicted in the memo constitute grounds for impeachment.
Now we're talking...

June 11, 2005

Why Do Republicans HATE Democracy?



Check out this video at Dem Bloggers and watch as Rep. James "Tex" Sensenbrenner, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, abruptly ends a committe hearing about the renewal of the Patriot Act because he's obviously a thin-skinned, fat-fuck fascist (the fireworks begin about 3:30-3:45 in). Champions of democracy, such as Jerrold Nadler of NY (my rep!) and James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, bravely forged ahead to defend, among other things, freedom of speech (with their microphones turned off...oh, the irony):
"We are not besmirching the honor of the United States, we are trying to uphold it." - Jerrold Nadler, D-NY

"I'm troubled about what kind of lesson this gives" to the rest of the world. - James Zogby
Well, as we know all too well, Republicans don't give a rat's ass what the rest of the world thinks.

Just a Reminder



I'm going to keep this near the top until the MSM pays attention...(link has been fixed; thanks to reader Tony for the heads-up)


Conyers

Click to support John Conyers' efforts to save our country.


(Image courtesy of horkulated.com)

Update: Billmon, over at the new & improved This Modern World is skeptical the mainstream media will suddenly jump on this story
"unless (and this is a big unless) there are fresh developments in the story, or the editorial herd can be persuaded there are unexplored angles that can be developed into fresh stories. Big stories...

That's why the focus needs to be widened to include the entire policymaking process that led up to the invasion. The memo itself may be the smoking gun, but the story is the crime, or crimes rather -- particularly the cover up, which is still in progress...So in addition to flooding the corporate media with calls and letters demanding that they get on the ball, complaints also should be directed to the offices of Sen. Pat Roberts, R-KA, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee -- (202) 224-4774; 109 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510 -- and Vice Chair Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D(alleged)-WV -- (202) 224-6472; 531 Hart Senate Office Building.

Or how about the chair of the House Intelligence Committee: Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-MI: (202) 225-4401; 2234 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington DC 20515. Or ranking member Rep. Jane Harmon, D(alleged)-CA: (202) 225 8220; 2400 Rayburn House Office Building.

Of course, if the intelligence panels are actually part of the cover up, then asking them to investigate further is pretty pointless. But a closer look at their role in the scandal might at least give the story a fresh news hook, and some possible strings for reporters to follow."
For information on how to flood the coporate media, click on the MSM link up top or the "Awaken the Mainstream Media" logo on the lefthand column. I thank you and your country thanks you...

June 10, 2005

Like Shooting Fish In A Barrel









Comedian Dane Cook perfectly captures the insanity that is currently known as Tom Cruise. Click the pics to watch the videos.

Some Mashups Are Created More Equal Than Others



Click DJ Earworm's logo below and scroll down to "Stairway to Bootleg Heaven" featuring Dolly Parton: Stairway to Heaven vs. Eurythmics: This City Never Sleeps vs. Beatles: Because vs. Laurie Anderson: O Superman vs. Art Of Noise: Moments in Love vs. Beastie Boys: So Whatcha Want vs. Pat Benetar: Love is a Battlefield.





Thanks to

Traveler Radio for the tip. Click the tiny logo to listen to their most recent show which also features:
A track from the upcoming new release from the Real Tuesday Weld kicks off an extended set of psychedelic influenced pop/rock on this week's edition of Traveler. We delve into brain expanding tunes both old and new from XTC, Robyn Hitchcock, the Bryds, Elvis Costello, Adrian Belew and Procol Harum as well as brand new stuff from Brian Eno (a sneak peak at his upcoming new vocal CD!) and a track from the new remix project from 60's psychedelic cult faves, the Free Design.

There's also plenty of globalicious sounds including brand new music
from Mali's Amadou & Mariam (with special guest Manu Chao) and the
master of Indian slide guitar Debashish Bhattacharya.

June 06, 2005

THE TRANSISTOR WIDOW (No. 004)



Untitled
Untitled, Will McRobb (2005)

The Chronic

Funny how The Right is always happy with our court system when rulings go their way:
The federal government has the power to prevent sick patients from smoking home-grown marijuana that a doctor recommended to relieve chronic pain, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a setback for the medical marijuana movement.

The 6-3 ruling means the federal government can enforce a federal law prohibiting the cultivation, possession and use of medical marijuana even where it is legal under state law. At least nine states allow medical use of marijuana...

John Walters, the White House drug czar, said in a statement, "Today's decision marks the end of medical marijuana as a political issue."
Now I'm no medical expert (although I'm fairly certain that you can't get AIDs through sweat or tears and that Terry Schiavo was, indeed, in a persistent vegetative state even after I looked at the home videos), however I can tell you this: Not only is marijuana extremely effective as a reliever of severe pain, it also is a helluva lot less dangerous then oxycotin, the drug of choice of America's favorite junkie, Rush Limbaugh.

Yes, folks, I myself had some serious back problems a couple of years ago and tried everything the doctors gave me, including Rush's hillbilly heroin. And, yes, I admit, the oxy helped relieve my chronic pain and enabled me to finally sleep through the night. Unfortunately, I also slept through most of the day and when I did finally wake up I felt as if my head had turned into a bowling ball. A few days later, I was at a party and by chance I was offered one of those marijuana cigerettes I've heard so much about. I tried a couple of "tokes" as the young people would say and that night, for the first time in months, I not only slept like an innocent little baby, but I woke up feeling remarkably refreshed. No hangover, no pain.

I'm just sayin'...

June 05, 2005

What? He seems like such a sweet guy...




Click the manly mustachioed man and see if he doesn't charm the pants off of you (or, scare the crap out of you if you're one of those latte-drinking "girly" Americans). America kicks ass!

(Video courtesy of metafilter)

Fortunately, Bolton just might be toast. And, as a result, he might ultimately provide the MSM with an opening to finally begin discussing The Downing Street Memo:
John R. Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront the head of a global arms-control agency and demand he resign, then orchestrated the firing of the unwilling diplomat in a move a U.N. tribunal has since judged unlawful, according to officials involved.

A former Bolton deputy says the U.S. undersecretary of state felt Jose Bustani "had to go," particularly because the Brazilian was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad. That might have helped defuse the crisis over alleged Iraqi weapons and undermined a U.S. rationale for war...

The Iraq connection to the OPCW affair comes as fresh evidence surfaces that the Bush administration was intent from early on to pursue military and not diplomatic action against Saddam Hussein's regime.

An official British document, disclosed last month, said Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed in April 2002 to join in an eventual U.S. attack on Iraq. Two weeks later, Bustani was ousted, with British help.
My, my, how the plot thickens...


June 04, 2005

Headline Porn



Bush picks Cox to head SEC


Okay, I'm a 12 year old...

(source: Reuters)

The Song Is Over...Priced



Methinks one of my longtime musical heroes has finally completely lost his mind:
For Pete Townshend, the kids are all right. But a certain film about the kids isn't.

The Who mastermind is distancing himself from an in-the-works documentary about the legendary band by Oscar-winning filmmaker Murray Lerner and Spitfire Films, criticizing the project's creative direction...

Apparently worried the Who's history will play out like a soap opera-like production, Townshend threatened to withhold Lerner's access to the band's recordings unless the filmmaker focus more on the music.

"I am the one in the Who family who writes science fiction musicals and operas, and my music--Who music--is not a commodity I will make unconditionally available to filmmakers. My entire mission is to preserve the integrity of Who music, and I'd rather offer it to sell soap than have it turned into a 'soap' by Lerner," said the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer...
Yes, Pete, you have forever preserved the integrity of Who music. I remember as a teenager thinking that Who music would be perfect for selling cars and as a backdrop for Crime Scene Ivestigations. Urgh. Even sadder: Rumor has it that Pete refused to license "We Won't Get Fooled Again" to Michael Moore for the finale of Fahrenheit 9/11 (as a musical punctuation of Bush's infamous "Fool Me Twice" speech) because Townsend was a supporter of Blair and the Iraq war. Instead we got Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" -- an appropriate counter-choice seeing how Neil is the man who wrote "This Note's For You":
Ain't singin' for Pepsi
Ain't singin' for Coke
I don't sing for nobody
Makes me look like a joke
This note's for you.

Ain't singin' for Miller
Don't sing for Bud
I won't sing for politicians
Ain't singin' for Spuds
This note's for you.

Genius




Debate

Click to watch. Drink milk at your own risk.


"It's funny 'cause it's true"...sort of.