buzz twang

Poor William Kristol missed his calling. He should have been a general in the army. “Kill them. Defeat them.” Good call Bill.

And, as far as this quote goes:

“We Have Not Had A Serious Three-Year Effort To Fight A War In Iraq”

I’d say this is a pretty serious effort. So is this. And, this. And this. This. This. This too. Wouldn’t you say?

What a fucktard.

James Wolcott spells out how the neocons are eating their own to survive the winter.

The Dictators covering the Stooges Search and Destroy. On their best day, the Sex Pistols never came close to this…

I’ve never been a fan of the Sex Pistols. Nor am I a fan of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Pistols were a manufactored band. Like the Monkees. Or Munudo, or In Sync. Malcolm MaLaren saw a financial window in the burgeoning NYC punk movement in the late 70’s and he capitalized upon it. He created the Sex Pistols to suit his vision of a punk rock band. They weren’t some band that met in high school, or in the hood, wanted to rock and became big. They were four guys who McLaren brought together to make money. He created massive hype around them, dressed them like all the street kids and bands like The Neon Boys, cut a crappy album and sent them out to the world to reap in profits. Of course, the hype was all about taking the rebellousness of punk and pushing it to extremes. Rebellion sells. So does shock. That’s how headlines get made. The legend of the Sex Pistols, in my view, far outweighs any real impact they had on music at the time or since. The hype also far outweighs the music they made. Which was mediocre at best.

Seriously, the genreal reaction amongst everyone I knew at the time was “What’s the big deal? They suck.” And, they did suck. Compared to The Ramones, or Television, or Bad Brains, or John Cale, or The Dead Boys, or The Damned or Poly Styrene and the X-Ray Specs or The Sic F*ucks, or any other dozens of bands that preceeded the Pistols by years. Not even close. But, the attitude, the hype, of the Sex Pistols had taken upon a life all its own. They were icons of rebellion before they had played a note before an American audience or most had even heard one song. And, that legendary status still reverberates today. So, if anyone should be inducted into a hall of fame, it’s McLaren. He created all of it.

The rock and roll hall of fame is sort of embarrassing to me. I think it’s nice that people are recognized for their work, but isn’t that what the Grammy’s are for? And, nothing makes me cringe more than seeing a bunch of people on stage together totally ruining a classic tune in a big rockestra moment. Ugh. The whole twenty guitars and fvie basses and Paul Schaffer bobbing his head in the background just does not have anything to do with rock IMHO. It’s so industry, so posed, so Kip Winger. So hair band. Now and then, a performer overcomes that nonsense. But, the whole thing is pretty self congratulory.

So, I thought it rather funny that the Sex Pistols have declined the “honor” of appearing at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

“Next to the SEX PISTOLS rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain,” the statement read. “Your museum. Urine in wine. Were (sic) not coming. Were (sic) not your monkey and so what?”

The statement slammed Hall of Fame voters as “music industry people,” and excoriated the high price of attending the exclusive event — $25,000 for a table, “or $15,000 to squeak up in the gallery.”

It concluded, “Your (sic) not paying attention. Outside the shit-stem is a real SEX PISTOL.”

It’s funny because the truth is, the Sex Pistols are all about hype. The music really doesn’t hold up at all. So, the only real reaction they could have is hype. And, the whole asshole act is so boring. It was then. It is now. The thing is, you know deep in his heart of hearts, Johhny “Rotten” Lydon wants to get up on that stage at the ceremony and tell everyone to fuck off then play “Anarchy in the UK” with the guy from the Letterman show playing bass in sub for dead Sid Vicious. You know he does.

But, he’s trapped by his own rebel immage. Pretty funny. Truth is, if he were a true rebel, one with a real message, he could do whatever he wanted, and more than likely, no fluffed up caustic answer to being inducted would be necessary. What a joke.

There’s an old saying… man asks “what are you rebeling against?” And, the punk asnwers “What ya got?” Thing is, you have to know what you are for before you can truly rebel against something.

And, the Sex Pistols were never for anything. They were just against everything. And, to top it off, they sucked and were derivative of every band that did it better, faster and with more teeth than they ever had.

John Lennon liked to quote Harry Nilsson as stating that the truth is “always the opposite of what it seems”… or in the case of the Bush Administration, the truth is always the opposite of what they say. Say one thing, do another to put it simply.

So, it’s of interest when the Propaganda Minister Undersecratary of State Karen Hughes sits down for an interivew with Der Spiegel. My favorite quote:

I don’t like the word influence and I don’t believe that’s my job. I view my job as engaging people. This is not Karen Hughes speaking at the world. This is Karen listening and our government listening and exchanging views. Yes, I want to put my country in the best possible light but my job starts with truth and so I don’t even like the word spin doctor, because that implies you concoct something. I’m communicating the truth.

Such a joker that Karen. Sad thing is, I think she truly believes what she is saying. Such is the level of decpetion of the Kool-Aid drinker.

Read the entire thing. Most illuminating.

Q: What does it mean when the occupying country – the USA – threatens to “cut aid” to the country it is ocuupying?

A: Iraqis start to realize how much power they don’t have and want more and they begin to rebel against their occupiers. But, in the end, it means that the US is using its own occupation as leverage with the government of Iraq.

Gee. this sounds so familiar.

Torture, Abu Ghraib, the American soul. Not for everyone. Violent content.

Yes, the site format has changed, yet again. There is a reason that the three column format for blogger is referred to as the Holy Grail. Cause, it’s a real pain. Finally, think I’ve found one which works in Internet Explorer. So, all you people who said you can’t see the right hand column should now see it. Hopefully. Heh. You should be using Firefox anyway.

So, please bare with me as I rebuild.

…but the problem persists. In the battle for “hearts and minds”… both stateside and abroad…

From Brandweek:

The Bush administration spent $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars on 137 contracts with advertising agencies over the past two-and-a-half years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released by House Democrats Monday.

With spending on public relations and other media included, federal agencies spent $1.6 billion on what some Democrats called “spin.” [...]

Trends in spending on PR and ad contracts were not documented, but a prior study by the minority staff of the Government Reform Committee found that spending on public relations contracts rose rapidly under the Bush administration. That report found that spending on contracts with public relations firms had increased to $88 million in 2004 from $39 million in 2000, an increase of 128%. [...]

The PR and ad contracts included providing “expert advice and support in the development of several marriage-related research initiatives,” an educational campaign regarding the “Medicare Modernization Act, and its coverage and benefits,” and a contract regarding “message development that presents the Army’s strategic perspective in the global war on terrorism,” the study said.

Meanwhile, the problem persists. A recent poll by the BBC found that…

Iran is the country most widely viewed as having a negative influence in the world, with the US in second place, a new poll for the BBC suggests.

The survey for the BBC World Service asked how 39,435 people in 33 nations across the globe saw various countries.

The image of the USA around the world continues to spiral downward. This is not a new perception either. And, it’s rather illuminating and scary.

Gee. You’d think a billion dollars in advertising would surely convince American’s that Bush is doing a good job and his policies are acceptable and convince people abroad that the USA is to be loved, not hated, right? Wrong.

What could the problem be? I wonder.

The headline reads: Cheney Says He Can Declassify Secrets:

Vice President Dick Cheney says he has the power to declassify government secrets, raising the possibility that he authorized his former chief of staff to pass along sensitive prewar data on
Iraq to reporters.

Cheney coupled his statement in a TV interview Wednesday with an endorsement of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, his ex-aide. Libby is under indictment on charges of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI about disclosing the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.

It’s is, of course, possibly true that Cheney may have the power to declassify classified information. But, it would be an abuse of that power if classified information was declassified in order to be utilized as political leverage. That is the question.

Dick is slick. But, not that slick.

From We make money not art:

SVEN – Surveillance Video Entertainment Network, aka “AI to the People,” is a real-time video performance system that takes a humorous but critical look at artificial intelligence surveillance algorithms by developing techniques that detect when people look like rock stars instead of criminals, terrorists, or other “undesirable passersby”.

As noted in the post, this is a close cousin to the Surveillance Camera Players, who I’ve linked to much in the past at ye olde Jakeneck.