Sunday, August 29, 2004
A Bush grows in Brooklyn and other scary eventuations....
Greg Palast with details on the relationship between George HW Bush and Ben Barnes. Palast's 2003 BBC report (first reported in 1999/London Observer) is refused air time by the "shadowy" Time Warner group.
Much more - go read it all at Greg Palast.com
And while your at it scroll down to Palast's next blog entry:
Releasing "swarms" of terror "mice" in New York City? What the fuck for? Pigeon food? That would be a little like selling the Olsen Twins to an Aryan Brotherhood tattoo parlor. And how exactly does one "dress up" like an "RNC volunteer"? The mind reels. Sends the imagination off into dark corners don't it? Especially those corners "unfit for human habitation." Dragging old cornhuskers into occult bookstores or Ghost Shadow opium dens and..... Oh the horrors! Hey, just snatch a couple of the red state rubes at midnight, drive em over the Williamsburg Bridge down Flatbush Ave to Prospect Park and leave em there with ten bucks a pack of cigarettes and cardboard signs hangin' around their necks that say "I'm just here for the heroine" or "lost - please return to John Fund." Do it for my mom goddamnit! She's from Brooklyn. She'll get a big freakin' kick out of it.
And speaking of Brooklyn: NO RNC IN NYC! and STOP BUSH in Manhattan Check it out. More art and politics - street meme art via Street Memes.com
NOW IN THEATERS
Johnny Cash:
"Death and Glory" Eric Alterman
Johnny Cash Was Not A Republican - Peter Rothberg / The Nation
Defend Johnny Cash.org
**********
"Man In Black" - Johnny Cash
Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.
I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.
Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.
I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.
And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen' that we all were on their side.
Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.
*
UPDATE Wow. The Republicans really are the party that keeps on giving, aren't they? Even I couldn't believe that one about the mice, so I went and doublechecked Palast, and sure enough, the URL exists (though mangled on his blog). Granted, the article is from the crazed and wingerly Manchester Union Leader. I quote again, for the sheer pleasure of it:
It's just too over the top, isn't it? Mice, forsooth! Girl, in New York we have rats—and they are more than released; they are fully integrated into the urban fabric....
And here's a copy of the column by Ted Rall on the Republican-hating prositutes. Why, I see the Union Leader somehow forgot to include Rall's qualifier: "Rumor has it." Lovely. I mean, when giving perfectly sensible advice—"When you're out of town "on business," make sure your sex worker insists on a condom"—the Republicans have to dress the advice up as a paranoid fantasy.
Beyond parody, isn't it? —Lambert
Greg's Web Log | STILL UNREPORTED: THE PAY-OFF IN BUSH AIR GUARD FIX | Saturday Aug 28, 2004...
In 1968, former Congressman George Herbert Walker Bush of Texas, fresh from voting to send other men’s sons to Vietnam, enlisted his own son in a very special affirmative action program, the ‘champagne’ unit of the Texas Air National Guard. There, Top Gun fighter pilot George Dubya was assigned the dangerous job of protecting Houston from Vietcong air attack.
This week, former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes of Texas 'fessed up to pulling the strings to keep Little George out of the jungle. "I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas Air Guard - and I'm ashamed." ----- THE PAY-OFF ---- That’s far from the end of the story. [...]
[...]
"TIME WARNER WON'T LET US AIR THIS"
By the way: I first reported this story in 1999, including the evidence of payback, in The Observer of London. US media closed its eyes. Then I put the story on British television last year in the one-hour report, "Bush Family Fortunes." American networks turned down BBC's offer to run it in the USA. "Wonderful film," one executive told me, "but Time Warner is not going to let us put this on the air." However, US networks will take cash for advertisements calling Kerry a Vietnam coward.
Much more - go read it all at Greg Palast.com
And while your at it scroll down to Palast's next blog entry:
PROSTITUTES WITH AIDS TO SEDUCE REPUBLICAN VISITORS - Thursday Aug 26, 2004 ~ [I couldn't make this up ... direct from the Republican National Committee website ....] -- "NEXT WEEK, people who hate Republicans plan to release swarms of mice in New York City to terrorize delegates to the National Republican Convention.
"Republican-haters plan on dressing up as RNC volunteers, and giving false directions to little blue hair ladies from Kansas, sending them into the sectors of New York City that are unfit for human habitation.
"They plan on throwing pies and Lord knows what else at Republican visitors to the city. Prostitutes with AIDS plan to seduce Republican visitors, and discourage the use of condoms ...."
Releasing "swarms" of terror "mice" in New York City? What the fuck for? Pigeon food? That would be a little like selling the Olsen Twins to an Aryan Brotherhood tattoo parlor. And how exactly does one "dress up" like an "RNC volunteer"? The mind reels. Sends the imagination off into dark corners don't it? Especially those corners "unfit for human habitation." Dragging old cornhuskers into occult bookstores or Ghost Shadow opium dens and..... Oh the horrors! Hey, just snatch a couple of the red state rubes at midnight, drive em over the Williamsburg Bridge down Flatbush Ave to Prospect Park and leave em there with ten bucks a pack of cigarettes and cardboard signs hangin' around their necks that say "I'm just here for the heroine" or "lost - please return to John Fund." Do it for my mom goddamnit! She's from Brooklyn. She'll get a big freakin' kick out of it.
And speaking of Brooklyn: NO RNC IN NYC! and STOP BUSH in Manhattan Check it out. More art and politics - street meme art via Street Memes.com
NOW IN THEATERS
If you were haunted by "Fahrenheit 9/11", BUSH’S BRAIN will give you nightmares. --- Meet Karl Rove, the most powerful political figure America has never heard of. Until now... BUSH'S BRAIN. (The DOCUMENTARY)
The Book:
This intriguing book also features previously unreported information on the Bush campaign from the primaries and the conventions to the fall general election and the complex relationship Rove and Bush currently share. Karl Rove is both feared and admired by Republicans and Democrats alike. His take no prisoners approach to politics has received mixed reviews and left everyone wondering who's really running this country? In Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential readers will learn who the real Karl Rove is and just how much power he really has.
Theater Listings/Dates
Bush's Brain.com
Johnny Cash:
"Death and Glory" Eric Alterman
Johnny Cash Was Not A Republican - Peter Rothberg / The Nation
Defend Johnny Cash.org
"Man In Black" - Johnny Cash
Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.
I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.
Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.
I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.
And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen' that we all were on their side.
Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.
*
UPDATE Wow. The Republicans really are the party that keeps on giving, aren't they? Even I couldn't believe that one about the mice, so I went and doublechecked Palast, and sure enough, the URL exists (though mangled on his blog). Granted, the article is from the crazed and wingerly Manchester Union Leader. I quote again, for the sheer pleasure of it:
NEXT WEEK, people who hate Republicans plan to release swarms of mice in New York City to terrorize delegates to the National Republican Convention. ... Prostitutes with AIDS plan to seduce Republican visitors, and discourage the use of condoms, according to liberal journalist Ted Rall.
It's just too over the top, isn't it? Mice, forsooth! Girl, in New York we have rats—and they are more than released; they are fully integrated into the urban fabric....
And here's a copy of the column by Ted Rall on the Republican-hating prositutes. Why, I see the Union Leader somehow forgot to include Rall's qualifier: "Rumor has it." Lovely. I mean, when giving perfectly sensible advice—"When you're out of town "on business," make sure your sex worker insists on a condom"—the Republicans have to dress the advice up as a paranoid fantasy.
Beyond parody, isn't it? —Lambert
