Radio Ain't the Same

All of these "news" reports about the state of radio have failed to note something critically important. Of course, perhaps the pretty talking heads are not to blame surely all that styling gel and mousse have damaged their brains and they truly cannot focus in on one simple sound bite story at a time.

In case nobody has noticed, radio's landscape has changed dramatically for musicians (level of talent or imagination unimportant for this point), programmers, record companies, and oh yeah... those people... the listeners.

Some might argue that for an artist like say someone else that I have picked on in the past -- Sheryl Crow -- if she has to accept a commercial tie-in to expose her music through commercials and 'Net ads then so be it. She's loves writing and performing and having people enjoy what she does. Is there really something so inherently wrong with that?

Take another example, had that horribly pompous sliver of his former music-self, Sting, not accepted the Jaguar deal the song Desert Rose would never seen the light of day and the album would have stopped dead after the first single. Personally, I thought Desert Rose was a great song and I have to wonder if would have been exposed to it were it not for that awful commercial.

Of course we can apply that some logic to the Kings of Leon in recent times. Although when I saw them I was completely blown away by how simply awful they were. Damn, new levels and definition of suck had to be created.

Anyway, others will (and should argue) that radio has always chosen money first. Um, radio and the recording industry has had a few problems: payola anyone? Drugola? Hell, Cassablanca Records imploded because of the drugs and drugs for play problem. Perhaps the question should be what kind of endorsements should artists and musicians take? Would Elvis, John Lennon, or Buddy Holly have embraced the "take the money and promote yourself" mentality that we now see in so many artists hawking their musical wares. Sure, musicians turn down many more sponsorship opportunities than you or anyone else could imagine; although, I can imagine a lot.

In the case of Ms. Crow, she accepted the Dell deal when there were several other more profitable deals on the table. I am sure that her contention will be that it wasn't about the money it was about getting the music "out there." Of course, how about playing more festivals or doing something really amazing like a concert in central park -- I still remember the Simon and Garfunkle concert in Central Park in the 1980s -- or she could do some innovative direct download thang, or how about some innovative pricing to get the music into people's hands. Although I forgot that we don't believe in the direct music store experience anymore (does anyone else miss that?).

Or yet another point is that musicians like Sheryl Crow is just trying to be "cool". The question becomes what is the best way to get the most music to the people and maybe instead of thinking about making money or looking pretty, artists could be well... artists. And radio, MTV, the record labels, and all the other hangers on could just get out of the way and let the music speak for itself -- good, bad, or indifferent.

The Karmic Touch of Dear Leader

He took over in the United States, and things went from pretty good to bad.

He took over in Iraq and managed to make the place even worse -- WTF!?

And now he rode with Lance Armstrong...

Lance Armstrong hit by doping allegations

Snitchens in History -- September 25, 2002

*BURP!*

It must be obvious to anyone who can think at all that the charges against the Hussein regime are, as concerns arsenals of genocidal weaponry, true.

Hit List (In honor of PAT ROBERTSON DAY)

The Fabulous Watertiger has decreed this should be Bash Pat Robertson Day, and who am I to disagree?

You know, reknowned friend of human rights and enemy of all "strongmen" with whom he does not have a contractual agreement, Pat Robertson has been paying his 700 Club interns to do a substantial amount of research. It turns out that the "Dead Sea Scrolls" have a little known memo from none other than Jesus "Fookin'" Christ himself that demonstrate that advocating assassination is an out clause on the 6th Commandment.

12 March 27

To: Pete, Andy, James, John, Phil, Bart, Tom, Matt, Jim Jim, Thad, Sime, Judy

From: J

Re: Question concerning "What would I do?"


Recently Tom stated that he doubted that I was sincere about my statement "blessed are the peacemakers" Well, I wish to emphasize once again, that this sort of questioning the sincerity of my remarks does us no good. STAY ON MESSAGE PEOPLE! The Peacemakers have to be given lip service, because, I mean MESUS CHRIST! it's not like those people ever get any respect!

Anyhoo, last week the following people disrespected me -- C'mon, I gave you fish and wine people, for FREE, don't go complaining because its red wine instead of white. Mesus!

The Abdullah ("Our fish was too salty Lord!") Family of Tyre,

Silas & Natalie Hazekiah, who really copt an attitude, some people are soooooo jealous of me being the messiah and all

That one Roman Centurion, you know who I'm talking about, Asses Maximus!

Those stupid money changers who are bogarting us on the tunic concession!

Earl of Jerusalem, the guy with the stars & bars on his donkey, the Dukes of Herod, I hate that play.

I expect these people to be damned before the end of the week.

Unleash the "D'ohs!" of War

From the AP:

BOISE, IDAHO - President Bush, defending his
Iraq war policy in the face of anti-war opposition and slumping approval ratings, says pulling out before the mission is complete would dishonor the memory of all the Americans who fought and died in pursuit of freedom.

And it would make me look like the biggest failure in American history, three and a half years before I'm ready.

Well, that is simple enough

1,869 and counting killed
15,000 and counting maimed
More than $200 billion spent so far and much more on the way

All for these majestic opening phrases:

Chapter One

Article One

The Republic of Iraq is an independent state.

Article Two

The political system is republican, parliamentary, democratic and federal.

1. Islam is a main source for legislation.

-- a. No law may contradict Islamic standards.

This surely requires Pat Robertson to advocate knocking off somebody for Jeebus!

Bravery?

Did CNN just report that Bush's mentioning the number of those killed in his vanity war is somehow brave?

Looking at reality is brave?

By the way, it isn't 1,864 anymore Mr. President...

It is 1,869.

Mor(a)ns

Undoubtedly from the same people who recently said environmental activists were the major terror threat in the United States comes this missive against another popular target of the "Christian White":

Asking for increased vigilance in the wake of the London bombings, the government is warning that terrorists may pose as vagrants to conduct surveillance of buildings and mass transit stations to plot future attacks...

...Homeless people easily blend into urban landscapes, the message said.

"This is particularly true of our mass transit systems, where homeless people tend to loiter unnoticed," the e-mail said.

...and they smell funny and are all too often poorly dressed and black.

GAWD! Could their paranoia be any more interwoven with their bigotry?

Service Charge

Apparently, Michelle Maglalang is not posting edited and distilled talking points and slanders this week. Ostensibly this is because she is on vacation. However, I do believe that the 34 year old is off to enlist in the armed services. After all, Freedom isn't free, but advocating its modification is lucrative.

The Horror...The Horror!

Many of you are members of the Atrios community and are aware of a troll named "Gordon the Magnificent". It's amazing when perceptions equal reality.

One to make you Smile

A dear friend of mine sent me this only slightly doctored version of an announcement that she received at a college that she works for part-time. I thought that we all could use a laugh right now and it proves that it is not always the brightest who are heading off to college these days.

The Department of University Public Safety and Division of Student Life and Development are publishing this information in order to make members of the Wahoo State University community aware of a recent incident within the area.

At approximately 1:50 A.M. on August 19, 2005 a 20-year-old male Wahoo State University student climbed the walls surrounding an air handler cooling tower in the vicinity of the Seuss Street apartments and Hendrix Hall (near the Engineering school). While walking around the top edge of the uppermost wall of the cooling tower and possibly walking on the mesh grate, the male fell through the grate, very seriously injuring himself as he fell through the large rotary fan blades to the surface below. Wahoo State University Public Safety and Wahoo City Fire Department personnel responded to the scene. Wahoo City Fire Department personnel extricated the male from the fan well and transported him to a local hospital for treatment where he remains in critical condition.

This high risk behavior resulted in a tragic injury. Cooling towers, industrial areas, roofs, and other areas not intended for occupancy by persons are restricted areas that are to be avoided. Alcohol consumption effects the ability to make good judgments.

While you may be curious regarding this incident, please do not attempt to climb on the cooling tower or enter any other restricted areas at any time.

Make way for the Christocrats...

Ok, I could not make up stuff as good as this! Really.

Twenty-five minutes into the service, he strolls in like a celebrity.

Clearly the center of attention, he greets well-wishers with the comforting style of a pastor and the smoothness of a politician.

The Rev. Rod Parsley makes his way to his seat in the front row as World Harvest Church rolls and rocks with the thunder of praise music. He settles in, and ushers wearing earpieces patrol the aisles.

When the singing ends, Parsley ascends the steps to the stage and speaks with an intensity and eloquence reminiscent of Burt Lancaster’s fiery preaching in Elmer Gantry.

"A new heartbeat is palpitating out of Columbus, Ohio, and it’s hitting the state and reverberating like shock waves across the nation," he announces to worshippers.

From the platform of World Harvest, a nondenominational congregation with a regular weekly attendance of nearly 10,000, the 48-year-old televangelist and author has dived into politics, leading a charge against gay marriage, abortion, stem-cell research, secular humanism and, at times, other Christian churches.

Shouts of approval ring out from the ethnically diverse worshippers nearly filling the 5,200-seat sanctuary, and Parsley doesn’t take long to hit his stride.

There are issues that all sides of the political spectrum must address, he tells the crowd — "righteousness" issues, such as abortion; "justice" issues, such as poverty.

"It may not be intellectually stimulating, but nevertheless it is true," he declares. "The only way to be consistently right is to get on the solid foundation that this nation was founded on, the B-I-B-L-E, that’s the book for me."

A woman rushes toward him. Ushers chase her, but Parsley orders them to leave her alone. He calms her as she repeatedly shouts, ‘‘Save me, Jesus!"

Parsley tells her that, to be saved, she must allow Jesus to become her life. And she returns to her seat, agreeing to surrender to the Lord.

Wiping away sweat, Parsley says that a similar ‘‘great awakening" is about to cover the land.

The sermon that follows on this recent morning is tinged with politics.

Parsley tells worshippers that Americans must be ‘‘Christocrats," becoming citizens of both their country and God’s kingdom.

‘‘And that is not a democracy; that is a theocracy," he says of the divine world. ‘‘That means God is in control, and you are not."

Whatever

Follow the trend...(changing demeanor)

Heh!


Indeed!


"I'm a big dummy and I had sex with Tom Daschle."

Just how big a Sack 0' Crap is Limbaugh?

Keith Obermann shows us, via Seaxneat.

Limbaugh made remarks claiming that Cindy Sheehan's story of her son's death was as fake as Bill Burkett's Bush TANG documents. What the hell that analogy means is beyond me? If Sheehan's story was actually analogous to Burkett, she would have forged her son's death certificate -- even though he was actually killed in Iraq. But Limbaugh's remarks were so over the top Limbaugh went all "1984" on them:

Yet, apparently there was something so unpopular, so subversive, and so crazy about those remarks that he has found it necessary to deny he said them - even when there are recordings and transcripts of them - and to brand those who’ve claimed he said them as crackpots and distorters. More over, that amazing temple to himself, his website, has been scrubbed clean of all evidence of these particular remarks, and to ‘prove’ his claim that he never made the remarks in question on August 15, he has misdirected visitors to that site to transcripts and recordings of remarks he made on August 12.

Limbaugh is terrified. And he has reason to be.

Understand this about Limbaugh. He doesn’t believe half the junk he spouts. I’ve met him, and had pleasant enough conversations with him, twice - at the 1980 World Series when he was still a mid-level baseball flunky with a funny name, and once in the mid ‘90s at ESPN when he was just beginning his campaign to get a toehold there. He is a quiet, almost colorless man who, if he could be guaranteed similar success in sportscasting, would sell out the sheep who follow his every word - and would do it before close of business today.

But with that ESPN bid having gone up in flames just under two years ago, and sports forever closed off to him, he’s gotten into what the novelist Robert Graves called a “Golden Predicament” - overwhelming success in a field he really had no intention of pursuing - and he has to keep churning this stuff out every day. And when you’re just free associating to kill time and keep the ditto-heads happy, you sometimes drive right off the end of the pier.

Like on August 15th.

Since we declared Limbaugh “The Worst Person In The World” two nights later for the remarks about Sheehan, he has had the transcript of his pier-drive expunged (even though he initially thought so much of it, that it was posted as a “featured quote” for paying subscribers to his website). Simultaneously, the hapless Brent Bozell, who runs that scam called The Media Research Center, declared that I was guilty of “distortion” in quoting the Sheehan remarks.

Well, as you’ll see below, the only distortion here, is that which lingers in Limbaugh’s ears. His remarks about Sheehan were so embraced by at least one of his fans that they were preserved on another website, and we can present them in full here. You will notice that nothing has been taken out of context, nothing in the minutes before nor the minutes afterwards mitigates against the utter callousness and infamy of his comments about Sheehan.

Dayum!! Bonus insight into the pathetic soul that is Limbaugh.

Run away Daryn, Run the fuck away! Jesus, marry that bitter mexican-hater Lou Dobbs before you spend another minute with this twisted, sad-fuck.

Remember this

When Dear Leader goes before the VFW in Salt Lake City today to speak that these words were spoken by him on September 18, 2003:

President Bush, having repeatedly linked Saddam Hussein to the terrorist organization behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said yesterday there is no evidence that the deposed Iraqi leader had a hand in those attacks, in contrast to the belief of most Americans...

..."No, we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th"

What the Chimp did at the time, and which many continue to do is use Emanuel Goldstein, Al-Zarqawi to tie links between Saddam and Al-Qaeda. These too are bullshit.

Most of the administration's public assertions have focused on the man Bush mentioned, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a senior Osama bin Laden associate whom officials have accused of trying to train terrorists in the use of poison for possible attacks in Europe, running a terrorist haven in northern Iraq -- an area outside Saddam's control -- and organizing an attack that killed an American aid executive in Jordan last year.

Security analysts, however, say al-Zarqawi made his way to Iraq, where his leg was amputated. . Unconfirmed reports claim he then visited northern Iraq, where a militant Islamic group affiliated with al-Qaida is encamped not far from the border with Iran.

The group, however, far from being an ally of Saddam, sought to replace his secular government with an Islamic regime.

A senior intelligence official, who asked not to be identified, said the information linking the group, Ansar al Islam, to Saddam comes "almost exclusively from defectors produced by the Iraqi opposition. They are not uniformly credible."

See Curveball et al!

Of course there is more than a little irony of Bush speaking to the VFW. He and his family used all sorts of connections to make sure that he would never qualify for membership, while he and his minions spent last Summer and Fall trashing the service of John Kerry, who earned his membership the hard way.

Stories you won't hear from CNN/MSNBC/Rupertland

Just how well do we control Iraq...not very.

The executions are carried out at dawn on Haqlania bridge, the entrance to Haditha. A small crowd usually turns up to watch even though the killings are filmed and made available on DVD in the market the same afternoon.

One of last week's victims was a young man in a black tracksuit. Like the others he was left on his belly by the blue iron railings at the bridge's southern end. His severed head rested on his back, facing Baghdad. Children cheered when they heard that the next day's spectacle would be a double bill: two decapitations. A man named Watban and his brother had been found guilty of spying.

...

A three-day visit by a reporter working for the Guardian last week established what neither the Iraqi government nor the US military has admitted: Haditha, a farming town of 90,000 people by the Euphrates river, is an insurgent citadel.

That Islamist guerrillas were active in the area was no secret but only now has the extent of their control been revealed. They are the sole authority, running the town's security, administration and communications.

...

From attacks on US and Iraqi forces it is clear that other Anbar towns, such as Qaim, Rawa, Anna and Ramadi, are to varying degrees under the sway of rebels.

In Haditha hospital staff and teachers are allowed to collect government salaries in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, but other civil servants have had to quit.

Last year the US trumpeted its rehabilitation of a nearby power plant: "The incredible progress at Haditha is just one example of the huge strides made by the US army corps of engineers."

Now insurgents earn praise from residents for allegedly pressuring managers to supply electricity almost 24 hours a day, a luxury denied the rest of Iraq.

Meanwhile Chimpy vacations, and we hear none of this in American media.

We keep going in there...for example on February 25, 2005, on May 25, 2005, it was near Haditha that 15 Marines from Ohio were killed earlier this month.

Clearly, outside of the green zone the American forces do not have the personnel to do any more than skirmish and withdraw, leaving the cities run by the so-called insurgents. This appears to be Iraq in microcosm.

How this is better than Saddam is beyond me.

Cool kids

Incontinent Wasteland eroding down to bedrock over at "Imbecile Junction"...

See someone actually go after Hagel for saying Iraq is worse than the Administration has been saying for two years and think they, and not Hagel, are the bright one.

See Byron York be jealous of the entertainment for war protesters because pro-war folks NEVER get the good songs.

And see Jonah Goldberg rave over a joke about "those black people"...what conservative doesn't like one of those?

Jeepers, Freepers!

I for one

Am happy to see Karen Hughes coming back to work. I give her a fighting chance against the Iron Sheik.

"Who cares about GeoPolitics, I drive a Hummer"

It has been reported and commented on (to death) that China and Russia are conducting joint wargames. How should the US-of-A respond to that little military misadventure seems to be the short-sighted reportage of the moment. Mostly because to focus on Iraq could damage Mr. Bush or hurt the republican party that the owners of the media all belong to.

Could we be witnessing another major shift in realpolitik that will change the world that we all live in, including the fantasy world of the Neoconservatives (its different for the far religious righter or the old conservatives); or reenergizing the freightened Neo-McCarthyites out there in the ranks of the GOP who still cannot get past that bastard Stalin and his dumb neophytes in the US Communist party? Talk about a grudge with no merit, sheesh.

But perhaps it matters less and less what the United States is doing or not doing in the world. I mean, sooner or later the US won't be able to afford all the things it is doing. Georgie Spendie may call himself a "compassionate conservative" but he has destroyed the "compassionate" trope with refusing to talk with mothers of dead soldiers. And buried the "conservative" with run amok government spending. The old man Clinton is looking pretty damn good right now, isn't he?!

And alas bit by bit, the American Indians may be taking back their land, without blood and war. How well do middle class Americans understand the world outside of the US? And what the world thinks of them? How well does the average politician know and understand (much more important than knowing) about global markets, globalization, international culture, or the vagaries of international political alignments?

Seems the freedom fries got stuck in somebody's throat these days. And nobody understands why some Americans (mostly middle-aged male divorcees or as I like to call them MAMDs) need to ride motorbikes (cruisers) with 2.3 liter engines. I know we can all relate someone we know to that imagery... it may not be pretty but it tells us a great deal about the American political psyche or for that matter -- what's wrong with it.

And actually I do understand these desperately-grabbing-for-some-sense of youth and empowerment MAMDs. They want to feel like they are "cool" or "hip" or "with it." And they have some money, although they complain that they don't. And they drive big big BIG automobiles (compensation or some such stuff going on). Because despite increases, gas is the smallest cost item for driving something extremely motorized - in these United States. And if they can buy chic or credability -- even if its only perceived by them -- then they buy.

Perhaps the US that we were taught in high school no longer exists, and there is only Shell, Exxon, GE, Microsoft, Halliburton, Toyota, and -- of course -- Walmart... among all the other faceless impersonal corporations. Perhaps they should all have their own security forces so that they can keep the rift and the raft out of their stores. Want an exercise in fun? Just try calling the main phone number of one of these corporations and see how long it takes you to get to a living human being.

These comapnies and stores are run by MAMDs who prize the gory intense massification and economies of scale that allow them to gorge themselves on huge boxes of goldfish crackers while they drink imported beer or wine, all the while hitching up their pants and talking about the good ol days of the orgy of consumption that they once engaged in while listening to "true rock music" or the purity of some shitty stuff that they used to do. And these are the people who are running corporate America --governmental or retail.

No, for these masters of consumption, gas that did not require promises of blood or the possession of a first born were not their central concerns... and are still not what they care about most. Showing us all that they still have something down "there" and can do what they want regardless of price is what moves them.

And nothing says you are a rebel than massive spending and huge metalic environment-hating shiny machines. And these are the people in charge. Damn it all my friends, it does not matter what China and Russia are doing because these MAMDs are the real danger. Oh, and because of that: we are screwed.

Nice Summation

Gilliard:

Walking point in Ramadi is not the same as writing a policy paper at the Heritage Foundation.

What you need to be told, repeatedly is that it is disrespectful in the extreme to compare such work to serving in combat. It trivializes and demeans those who risk their lives daily in Iraq.

Claiming you support the military while demeaning their service with your facile comparisons indicate the opposite.

Thomas Paine supported the Revolution with a rifle as an infantryman.

He didn't support it from Starbucks over a nasty blog post.

These fools don't support the troops for the troop's life, they support the troops for their policy agenda.

The fact that Iraq is in the toilet only makes things worse for them. Like a cultist the day after the world was supposed to end according to their "leader" they hold fast, having so sold themselves to the notion that to abandon it, means abandoning all their words of advocacy, it means accepting they were wrong, that they were fools.

You can make an individual do all sorts of things, but unless they are actually faced with brute force, they will never humiliate themselves. Not having to put their life on the line, or being threatened in any real substantive way, the stakes are raised for others but not them. They will hold to their ideology come what may, and when it is shown (as it is being shown) to have been both foolish and craven they will not abandon it, for rationality goes out the window, just like a cult. To preserve their status, their self-worth, they will not accept being wrong. They will look for scapegoats -- and those scapegoats are almost ALWAYS the folks that were correct from the beginning.

At the time the Statue of Saddam fell down, Andrew Sullivan was busy questioning our patriotism for doubting the Iraq invasion. Now that "Mission Accomplished" is nearly two and a half-years gone and the war worse than ever, he still clings to the notion that it was a worthy cause. He cannot remove himself from the notion that he staked so much credibility, wrongly, on the lying and manipulative Bush Administration. To do so means that he, Andrew Sullivan, accepts that he applauded as 1,863 Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis were killed because of people like him enabling it. He accepts that he enabled more than 15,000 Americans to be permanently wounded physically for his cheerleading...God only knows how many Iraqis. Plus there