buzz twang

There is a very powerful reality at the heart of the reason the US has lost the war in Iraq, and why the media and the Bush Administration has always had its head up its collective ass in dealing with the Iraqi people and the war in general. The following exchange between Ann Curry and Laura Bush sums up the arrogant self-centered truth behind the people who got us into this mess in the first place:

“You know the American people are suffering watching –,” Curry said to the first lady.

“Oh, I know that very much,” Laura Bush responded. “And believe me, no one suffers more than their president and I do when we watch this, and certainly the commander in chief, who has asked our military to go into harm’s way.”

Curry then asked, “What do you think the American public need to know about your husband?”

“Well, I hope they do know the burden, the worry that’s on his shoulders every single day for our troops,” Bush said. “And I think they do. I mean, I think if they don’t, they’re not seeing what the real responsibilities of our president are.”

Yeah, the American people and President Bush are suffering so much. Man, it really sucks having to see stuff like this, let alone having actually caused it:
Somebody should give people like Curry and Bush a slap in the face. Feeling bad isn’t suffering. Having your parents blown away right in front of you and having their blood splatter all over you, that’s suffering.

The pathetic thing is that someone like me actually has to point that little fact of reality out.

Via Atrios… Michelle Malkin reduced to name calling. Which is pretty much all she’s truly good at when you really stop to think about it. The bully tactics are amazingly pathetic. But, when you combine it with the shitty graphics and the sophmoric attempt at some type of humor, it’s hysterically funny.

The sad thing is: Michelle very likely thinks that this type of idiot theater will have an affect and change peoples minds. If she doesn’t think that, then all she’s left with is a silly version of “You suck.” Take a bow Michelle.

Douchebag of the Week: Tom Delay, who trouts out the treason accusation yet again like the good little fascist that he is, oblivious to the actual meaning of the word and its application in American legal and Constitutional terms. But, of course, it’s important to remember that fascists such as DeLay aren’t interested in truth. They are only interested in intimidation meant to manipulate others to their point of view. They are merely bullies.

From back in the day… Some songs just don’t lose their meaning, even after nearly thirty years. This is one of them. There’s a profound lesson in that fact.

WW III, WW III, WW III, don’t you bloody see? WW III
It doesn’t matter what you say, you won’t make it no bleedin way
You haven’t got any choice, you really haven’t got any voice
Preventive measures have been taken, it’ll really help against
nuclear rapin
No streets, no people, left on the land, the policy ran out on our
plan
That’s right…
World war, lotsa fun
People in a panic, on the run
World war, lotsa fun
White House is aimin the gun
World war, lotsa fun
People in a panic on the run
World war, lotsa fun
The kremlin’s aimin the gun
We’re pawns in the middle, sittin ducks with no acquittal
They’re gonna make us fight, protectin oil is our right
Unlock them now on the flag deck, Soviet bombers you’re gonna net
It’s breakin up the Richter scale, bombs away, they’re gonna sail
No human lives stand in the way, cause we’re on our way to a new
clear day
That’s right…
CHORUS
I really don’t want to die, World War III
With A-bombs droppin from the sky, World War III
Don’t give me your reasons why, World War III
Just know I don’t wanna die, World War III
Give’em any chance they’re gonna take it, give’em any rules they’re
gonna
break it
It really ain’t no riddle, I just know it ain’t gonna be little
We haven’t got a clue on what we’re gonna do
So we’re just pawns in the middle, sittin ducks with no acquittal
End up dead, end up dead, end up dead
End up dead, end up dead
World War III, World War III, World War III, World War III
Give’em any chance they’re gonna take it, give’em any rules they’re
break it
It doesn’t matter what flag you hoist, you really haven’t got any
choice
No human lives stand in the way, cause we’re on our way to a new
clear day
We’re just pawns in the middle, sittin ducks with no acquittal
World war, world war
World war, I don’t want it
World war, I don’t need it
World war, I won’t take it
World war, world war, world war

A performance piece by John and Saori at 3rd Ward Brooklyn in conjunction with PICA’s TBA Festival, from 2006 I believe. The video gives a different feel than being there live of course, but you get the idea…

Orignially, “Baba O’Riley” was from a project called “Lifehouse”. Songs from the project have been scattered throughout several Who albums over the years. Townshend would often write songs with something specific in mind, then when the Who would record them, something entirely new and different would manifest.

Here’s a slower version of Baba from 2000 that shines a different perspective on the themes he was dealing with in Lifehouse.

And so it goes…

In 1986, I read a little tiny letter to the editor in the New York Times Op-Ed section. I thought so strongly about it that I cut it out, and it has remained in my copy of Breakfast of Champions since them. It seemed unerringly important to me at the time. The words were undoubtably prescient for the time. They are no less so, probably more so, 21 years later.

Kurt Vonnegut was one of those rare birds who could see truth and understand it as such, and see injustice and call it such, and smell evil and say it was such, in succinct and stunningly clear words. He had vision when the rest of the world wears bifocals. We shall not see his kind again.

Sorry for the radio silence. I’ve been producing a trailer for a feature film entitled “The Goldberg Variations (Portrait of Saori)”. It’s being directed by John Moran. The trailer will be used to complete the fund raising process for the full film. It’s a pretty amazing project. A dramatic, tragic love story set to original music, but done in a way we haven’t really seen. I’ll blog more about it very soon.