buzz twang

From the good folks at GNN comes American Blackout. Here’s the trailer:

It was a very busy week, so posting was scant. Here’s some of the stuff I’ve been reading…

Went to a discussion between Douglas Rushkoff and Daniel Pinchbeck last night, kindred spirits with very different perspectives on the Apocalypse, the afterlife, altered states, prophecy, change, spirituality and a host of other equally as interesting topics.

Video will be forthcoming, but until then, here’s a link to the first two chapters of Pinchbeck’s latest work 2012 : The Return Of Quetzalcoatl and a link to the interview (mp3) Douglas did with Boing Boing for their new Get Illuminated podcast series.

Friend Douglas Rushkoff’s recent article for Arthur magazine has me thinking, as always, in new and inspiring ways. Douglas never ceases to hit me between the eyes when I most need it:

So was democracy a failed experiment? Should we just let these guys run the country as long as they let us eat? Clearly, they’re not scared of us or what we might be saying about them. In fact, their best argument that we haven’t descended into fascism is the fact that we’re allowed to distribute columns like this one. How could we be living in a totalitarian propaganda state if there are articles pronouncing the same? Because fascism looks different every time around. 1930’s fascism failed because it was too obviously repressive. Today’s fascism works because it has turned the mediaspace into a house of mirrors where nothing is true and everything is permissible. The fact that there are plenty of blogs and even major books saying what’s happening and still it doesn’t matter is proof that it has worked.

But there is hope. It’s not just the radicals and militias who are alarmed, but mainstream congresspeople and government wonks. I, myself, have been approached by two separate government intelligence agencies and three members of congress (of both parties) for help understanding what they already deem to be actionable offenses against the American people by some of our leaders. They are disturbed by the disinformation campaign leading up to the Gulf War, voter fraud, and the way Americans have been frightened into supporting the curtailment of civil rights. Surprisingly, most of my conversations with these patriotic people involve two main concerns. First, they have been ostracized by their peers for their views. This has created some urgency, for they fear they will not get enough party support for re-election if they don’t succeed in their efforts in the next few months. Second, and more troublingly, they are afraid to disillusion America’s youth. Isn’t there a way to fix this problem, they wonder, without raising an entire generation of Americans in environment of acknowledged voter nullification? And what of our reputation in the world? Which is more damaging to democracy: voter fraud, or the public awareness of voter fraud?

To this, we simply must conclude that the reality of voter fraud is more dangerous than any associated disillusionment. To worry about the impact on public consciousness is to get mired in the logic of public relations – and that’s what got us into this mess to begin with.

It’s time to get real, and either fight (through the courts, if possible) to reinstate the rule of law as established by the Constitution, or accept that Enlightenment-era democracy simply doesn’t work and move into a new phase of government by decree or market forces or whatever it is that comes next.

As chaotic and dark as the current times may appear, we can change it. We all have some serious decisions to make. People are thinking, and talking and looking for answers. And, that’s the key: solutions.

I for one am searching for ways to utilize my skills as a filmmkaer and writer to further the fight, as the masthead above says, to “kick the darkness until it bleeds daylight” and to facilitate the work of finding solutions.

Make sure you read Douglas’ entire article. It’s an important piece IMHO.

What’s the difference between this:

And this?

Conservative Christians and Conservative Muslims both strive for the same end: the destruction of those they perceive as the enemy. And, that means killing their perceived enemy and innocent civilians that are in the way.

The only difference, at the moment, is that the Evangelical Christian’s are working from the advantage of being comparitively well off and from a position of power, while their Muslim couterparts are working from a relative lack of power. Hence, the propesnity for suicide bombings.

The general perception is that Christian Evangelicals have not yet fully embraced terror acts such as suicide bombings. It should be noted though, that acts of Christian terror are not unknown to be sure.

I expect they will be increasing in the days and years to come, if the videos above are any indication.

Scary shit.

Election season is upon us once again. That means that the right-wing is gearing up big time to launch yet another “October Surprise”. We’ve seen this before of course. But, that doesn’t mean that the faithful, obedient and scared Kool-Aid drinkers won’t respond as Karl Rove knows they will.

The two most handy and time honored election time fear and disinfo campaigns are: “Is Osama bin Laden dead?” and “Where’s the Nuke?“

The bin Laden is/or isn’t dead theme is used by the Bush propaganda meisters in two contrasting ways that both benefit the Administration.

The fact that, thus far, bin Laden has not been either caught by US forces (and proven dead with accompanying 8 X 10 color glossies) or in a prison somewhere eating Spagetti O’s is a big political liability for the White House. Thus, it’s important to create a diversion from this liability. Yet, in doing so, they must also define the Osama question in a way that benefits Bush.

The best way to do this is to create doubt and fear in the minds of the American people. “Maybe he’s alive, maybe he’s dead.” This recent article at Media Matters outlines those contradictions rather well as parroted by a willing doggy Fred Barnes at Fox News. Note how Bush straddles the bin Laden question, stating on one hand that capturing and killing him is a “top priority” while at the same time insisting it’s not a priority at all. It’s basic doublethink, “the act of holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously and fervently believing both.” Doublethink allows the White House to stay on both sides of the issue. From a pragmatic perspective, why would one have to be on both sides of this issue? I can think of two reasons in the case of the Osama question: Either Osama is indeed dead and the White House knows it and are using it to their advantage, or they simply do not know and are cutting their losses playing both sides of it. Makes sense.

Which raises the most interesting point regarding the bin Laden question: Is he alive or dead? Current wisdom is that there seems to be a general consensus, or at least strong inclination from a number of intelligence and political sources, towards the idea that bin Laden is most likely indeed dead. Such rumors go back to December 2001. It would also explain why the CIA closed the unit charged with finding bin Laden. For what it’s worth, the Israeli’s don’t consider bin Laden a threat either.

Granted, all of this could be disinformation from a number of sources. It’s an unknown. But, if bin Laden were indeed dead, it would explain the existence of the doublethink. He’s not a concern because he’s dead, but they need him as a propaganda asset, so they play it up. It wouldn’t be unprecidented. As said, it’s an unknown, and if he is indeed dead, it would be a fact known only to a select few at the highest levels.

But, the fact that it is unknown whether Osama bin Laden is alive or dead doesn’t preclude his being used by the Right Wing Noise Machine™ as propaganda fodder in order to instill fear and doubt in the minds of the masses. Bin Laden is, of course, the most recent (now that Saddam Hussein is behind bars) incarnation of Ultimate Evil™, ie: Hitler. It’s all the right wing propaganda bozos have really. The daily news from Iraq is bad and getting worse. The propaganda war for “hearts and minds” in the Muslim world is a total loss. The entire situation is a downward spiral for the Bush Administation. Throw in the fact that bin Laden escaped US forces at Tora Bora, suspicious to say the least, incompetent at best, and you’ve got a real case for ousting anyone associated with the Bush Doctrine and calling it a day.

It’s not a leap of faith to suggest that the recent right-wing push to define the entire bin Laden saga, most especially to attempt to lay responsiblity for 9/11 at the feet of Clinton, is a propaganda campaign to divert people from the ever increasing litany of Bush failures, including the Tora Bora debacle, not to mention the Pakistan and Saudi connections to 9/11. (Both of which are unraveling.) Throw in some fear and loathing. Rally the hateful base of the right wing. It looks good when the brownshirts get all revved up. It has nothing to do with keeping us safe of course, in any real way, while also ensuring the values that make us all proud to be a US citizen, but it looks good.

This is what we have become: Half the population willfully allowing themselves to be manipulated and played like saps, insisting all the while it’s the other guy, the Liberals, their own fellow citizens mind you, who are really the enemy, just like the terrorists, and the saps. It’s so exceedingly sad. It’s also not unprecidented from a historical perspective. It was only a matter of time until the world’s greatest military power went down the rabbit hole. Violence begats violence, and at some point it turns inward.

In the end, therein lay the rub: The right wing of this country have allowed hate towards their fellow citizens to go mainstream in a manner which denies the democratic process it’s proper role and power in our lives. They’ve decided that vengeance and hate and the impression of security shall overrule liberty and true American values. The right wing has utilized time honored techniques of totalitarian and fascist regimes in order to solidify and maintain their own base and their power in government. When you ostracize and demonize your Liberal opposition to such an extreme that right wing bloggers and commenters on right wing sites feel comfortable talking about how all Liberals should die, should be rouned up and shot, well that’s a problem in a democratic society.

The eliminationist rhetoric should be a bone jarring hint to every American with an ethical backbone and a grasp on basic reality.

We’ll have to wait and watch to see what Karl Rove produces this time, if anything, in the way of an “October Surprise”. It’s pretty basic. They will either produce another tape, which real or fake will do the job intially, or they’ll produce a corpse. Or they’ll produce nothing at all. Rove announcing that he has an “October Surprise” in advance tells me one thing… just putting it out there is enough to get the “Bush Bounce Bus” rolling, at least as a spin project. And, it serves up nice and toasty as kitty nip for wingnuts.

It’s going to be an early Halloween this year.

Update: Glenn Greenwald has some interesting thoughts on the matter as well. (c/o Avedon)

Joly from comments links to a nice Dufus vid… “Sick and Tired” from a performance at Mercury Lounge in 2002. Thanks!

Paul Rachman, who I worked with back in the early 90′s on a couple of music videos, has a documentary out entitled American Hardcore: The History of Punk Rock from 1980 – 1986, which was pretty much the time I lived in the Village. I’m interested to see it, and any footage of those days. Maybe there will be a shot of Charlie. The stories he could tell. It was a fun, weird and heavy time. Sadly, a great many people from that time are no longer with us…. for many different reasons. There was so much rage, and love, and hate and friendship, and intelligence, and confusion and focus, it had to deviate for some, explode for others, and just fade away for even more. Anyway, here’s the trailer.

It was a simple statement, but it really is important. On Hardball with Chris Matthews, the GOP strategist Ed Rogers and Matthews were discussing Venezuelan President and Iranian President Ahmadinejad, and the speeches they made at the UN from a “historical” perspective. Rogers made a really ignorant and telling comment:

MATTHEWS: …I was thinking as they went to the U.N., Ed, we grew up, you know, Khrushchev banning his shoe on the table there. It was scary but it was also ludicrous. It did not make him look good. It made us wonder, geeze is this guy as scary as we thought he was. He looks like a nut. Does the president benefit to have two bete noires, like Chavez and Ahmadinejad, basically making ridiculing remarks about him in America?

ROGERS: Absolutely. Chavez and the president of Iran, whose name I can‘t say, because I can‘t pronounce it, they look like good bad guys. (emphasis added)

It was amazing for three reasons: First, Matthews had pronounced it just seconds prior. Two, it’s not that hard to say and three, saying something like that is just arrogant and ignorant at the same time.
It seems pretty obvious that words with more than two syllables are a challenge for Rogers. Five, well, that’s like remembering a phone number or something.

Rogers gets the dipshit of the week award. And, considering what a week it’s been, that’s saying something!

Was turned onto Dufus by Mobius… actually. Dig it.

The documentary Something I’ve Got To Tell You: A Life in the Death of Joe Meek will be released soon. Meek was one of the most inflential and weirdest producers and musicians in the early years of rock and roll, credited with introducing the idea of the concept album to rock.

Here’s a peak at the Meek doc: