John McCain Believes in Deragulation! John McCain Believes in Regulation!

New Playlist

I put new songs up on the playlist -- enjoy. Remember, you can open it up as a pop-out player if you want to go to other pages in this blog without interrupting the music.

This Could Be Your Next President

Sarah Palin gets formally blessed against "witchcraft".

I have so much more to say about this nutjob and how out of his tree McCain is for picking her as running mate (clearly, this race is nothing but a game to him), but I just don't have time right now.

Again I say it: be afraid, be very afraid.

Frankie Teardrop

Been listening to Suicide again this fall and decided to repost this from my Fall Music Blog of two years ago (click the headline if you wanna revisit the original post):






Suicide -- Self-titled and Ghost Riders

I've been hearing whispers about Suicide for a long time; adjectives like "influential," "underrated," "difficult" get bandied around quite a bit. Curious, I picked up Ghost Riders first, not knowing it was a live album. Still, it hooked me in and compelled me to dig up more of their stuff and read up on the band.

This decidedly unorthodox New York duo cut their teeth for most of the 1970s before finally releasing their first album in '77. As "punk" as anything else out there, Suicide eschew volume, noise and bombast in favor of cheap-sounding synth-drum loops and super-repetitive, eerily subdued electric keyboard patterns. Over this hypnotic sonic foundation (provided by Martin Rev), vocalist Alan Vega unleashes streams of harrowing verbiage and primal scream therapy. Vega's tortured narratives are as evocative of pre-80s New York as anything by Lou Reed, I'd wager. Check out "Frankie Teardrop" -- yikes.

Suicide's first two albums (both eponymous, as far as I can tell) are packaged on a single compact disc. The first one is better, in my opinion; the band's nightmare evocation of urban decay is best viewed under the harsh white light of a naked bulb, and the debut is as stark and raw and unadorned as can be. But the second album, produced by Ric Ocasek, oddly sounds, in some ways, more bizarre than the first. More conventional-sounding (although nowhere near commercial), Ocasek's production job couches Suicide's desperate worldview in smoothe, schmaltzy, chintzy sonics. It is so weird. In some ways it's more subversive -- halfway between pleasant and unbearable. I still haven't got my head around it but it's fascinating to hear.

The live disc Ghost Riders captures a live performance from 1981 (originally released on cassette-only ROIR) and gets much closer to the vibe of that unsettling debut. I can't imagine how confused the audiences must have been...

This Is Your Nation on White Privilege

By Tim Wise. Click the headline.

R.I.P Rick Wright

The legendary Pink Floyd keyboardist died today.

Rick and his band have made an incalculable impact on modern music (I for one was changed forever by The Wall). Seminal Pink Floyd releases like Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here set a high water mark for what could be achieved in a rock album, paving the way for countless bands (including Radiohead, The Cure, etc).

Click the headline for the story.

"He Will Make Cheney Look Like Ghandi"

After five years in Iraq, we have already killed over 93,000 of that country's civilians.

If McCain becomes our next president, we could remain there for 50, "maybe a hundred" more years -- and, by his own estimation, "there will be other wars".

Watch this clip and think hard about who you pull the lever for in November. Think real hard about it.

The Straight Talk Express

While the McCain campaign kicks up alotta dust over pigs and lipstick (side note: McCain himself used the "lipstick on a pig" analogy as recently as a few months ago -- in reference to Hillary's health care proposal, no less! -- AND his former press secretary, Torie Clarke, wrote a damn book called Lipstick on a Pig. Get your own copy here: http://www.amazon.com/Lipstick-Pig-Winning-No-Spin-Someone/dp/0743271165/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221154270&sr=1-1),

Here's what the elaborate smokescreen is supposed to keep you from noticing:

Click the headline for more McCain "straight talk".

McCain-Palin: The GI Joe-Barbie Ticket

By Matthew Schneeberger. Click the headline.

Happy Birthday to Me

This blog is four years old today.

The Resentment Strategy

Click the headline for an excellent Paul Krugman piece on the Republicans' uncanny ability to fabricate enmity and resentment toward progressives -- and instill it in the voting public.

Running From Reality

McCain and his far-right cronies are getting more cynical, more out of touch and more nutty by the day, are they not?

Of late he's been positioning himself as an "everyman", or a "maverick", yet he can't even keep track of how many houses he owns. He's walked in lockstep with the Bushies, policy-wise, for the last eight disastrous years; yet he fancies himself an agent of change??

And now he's made an alarmingly rash and whimsical choice of running mate in Sarah Palin, a proud proponent of God, Guns and the sesession of her home state of Alaska. She's also an apologist for the Iraq war (pretty unforgivable at this late date) and has zero experience in foreign policy. This woman could be our president, people. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Click the headline for a dead-on Bob Herbert piece on McCain's descent into lunacy and political desperation.

Gentle Metal-heads and Indie Rock Slackers

I thought this was an interesting article. Click the headline.

(thanks Beenie!)

Palin on the Gender Card

God bless Jon Stewart.

Fun Facts About McCain's Running Mate

• Palin recently said that the war in Iraq is "God's task." She's even admitted she hasn't thought about the war much—just last year she was quoted saying, "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq." ^{1, 2}
• Palin has actively sought the support of the fringe Alaska Independence Party. Six months ago, Palin told members of the group—who advocate for a vote on secession from the union—to "keep up the good work" and "wished the party luck on what she called its 'inspiring convention.'" ³
• Palin wants to teach creationism in public schools. She hasn't made clear whether she thinks evolution is a fact.⁴
• Palin doesn't believe that humans contribute to global warming. Speaking about climate change, she said, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being manmade." ⁵
• Palin has close ties to Big Oil. Her inauguration was even sponsored by BP. ⁶
• Palin is extremely anti-choice. She doesn't even support abortion in the case of rape or incest. ⁷
• Palin opposes comprehensive sex-ed in public schools. She's said she will only support abstinence-only approaches. ⁸
• As mayor, Palin tried to ban books from the library. Palin asked the library how she might go about banning books because some had inappropriate language in them—shocking the librarian, Mary Ellen Baker. According to Time, "news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor." ⁹
• She DID support the Bridge to Nowhere (before she opposed it). Palin claimed that she said "thanks, but no thanks" to the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. But in 2006, Palin supported the project repeatedly, saying that Alaska should take advantage of earmarks "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist." ¹⁰

Sources
1. "Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'," Associated Press, September 3, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=24701&id=13701-6892066-waTpwTx&t=6

2. "Palin wasn't 'really focused much' on the Iraq war," ThinkProgress, August 30, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=24702&id=13701-6892066-waTpwTx&t=7

3. "The Sarah Palin Digest," ThinkProgress, September 4, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/palin-digest/

4. "McCain and Palin differ on issues," Associated Press, September 3, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=24703&id=13701-6892066-waTpwTx&t=8

5. Ibid

6. The Sarah Palin Digest," ThinkProgress, September 4, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/palin-digest/

7. Ibid

8. Ibid.

9. "Mayor Palin: A Rough Record," Time, September 2, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=24704&id=13701-6892066-waTpwTx&t=9

10. The Sarah Palin Digest," ThinkProgress, September 4, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/palin-digest/

Hope-Mongering

I'm not sure if I'm one of those people who considers American elections to be empty, meaningless charades -- pointless formalities that merely keep a docile public thinking they've got some kind of control over their lives, as the same political players get shuffled around a little bit every four years or so while the richest one percent continue to run the USA from on high.

I feel that way sometimes -- it's hard not to. Our system only has two corrupt -- and often indistinguishable -- parties to choose from and only the mega-rich have a shot at the presidency. How could that be a good thing? What kind of choice is that?

But I admit, it's hard not to get excited over Obama. He's built a grassroots campaign funded by real citizens; he's articulate and impassioned without seeming haughty or dramatic. He comes not from a super-rich family, but from the humblest of single-parent households. He's strong but not arrogant, a characteristic that goes a long way in dealing with our neighbors in the world.

I like when Obama talks about "our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters". That's bold. John Kerry would have never used that kind of language because he was too busy trying to appease everyone, including the bible-thumping dumbfucks in Arkansas. Fuck that. It's time to move on. It's time for those people to catch up with you and me and the rest of the world.

I like how Obama doesn't use his religious convictions as a bludgeon. I like how he takes the high road, always, when dealing with his competitors. And most of all, the mere fact that a black man is running for -- and is likely to be -- president of the United States this year, when just a few decades ago blacks couldn't even take a seat on the front seat of a damn bus, makes me think that maybe elections aren't meaningless after all. That positive, progressive change in this country is indeed possible -- it just takes time. Obama's very presence in the 2008 election bears this out.

John McCain is a venerable war hero but he's also an old man (with a lunatic running mate), he has agreed with most of GWB's lame-brained policies and decisions, and he doesn't even know how many damn houses he owns.

(Side note -- can you imagine losing track of how many houses you own?)

I don't know what Barack Obama will be like as a president, but at the very least, he'll be a great precedent (sorry for the pun). I'm a hopeful cynic. Let's give this guy a whirl. Let's shake up this dull-ass party and see what kind of stuff happens. Let's see if we can move this glacier forward another few inches.