Release the Bats!

Happy All Hallows Even!

"spreading the wealth"

Socialisms All-Stars

It seems that Faux News and the McCain campaign are, in the last days of the election, trying to rebrand Barack Obama as a Marxist style socialist.

On Monday, a reporter in Florida asked Joe Biden about Obama's "spreading the wealth" asking him how he could defend that statement as anyting but marxist socialism. Biden dropped the ball by asking "is this a joke?"

It was not. It was an opportunity to clarify, and seriously broaden the discussion.

It seems that even over a decade after the end of the cold war we still can't have a national discussion about socialism without invoking hysteria.

Listening to Fox News you'd think Karl Marx himself had risen from the grave and was possessing Obama's body.

The repugs are down in the polls and some are even already calling the election for Obama (dangerous). The Republicans are desperate.

I read an interesting quote on a blog last week. I think it was on Wonkette, or SadlyNo, or maybe a comment to a story of Cnn or some other major news site... I can't remember, anyway, the quote went something like this:
"When Democrats lose an election they get depressed, when Republicans lose and election they go insane" which is what I feel like we are seeing.

Seriously people, Karl Marx and socialism are the least of our current worries.

Marx was wrong about a lot of things- mainly his belief that people would do the right thing if given a choice... ha ha. WRONG.

Some would chosse to do the right thing, but most will cheat and lie and steal and become hopelessly corrupt. Thus the failure of 20th Century experiments in Marx's ideas such as Lenin's Bolsevik Revolution, Stalin's Soviet Union, Fidel Castro's Cuba- all corrupted by the top tier officials, all regarded by history as failures. (China and Vietnam are special cases).

Does any reasonable person really believe Barak Obama is going to try to implement a 20th Century style Socialist system on America? Apparently right wing nuts do.

Only an ignorant fool and wacked in the head Republicans would entertain such nonsense.

The ruling Republicans of our current regime are hopelessly coruptthemselves, and are desperate to stay in power..... now that's what really dangerous and scary.

Their policies have failed. Reaganism is DEAD, yet they blam democrats for their failures in an attempt to distract. The question remains will the American public be stupid enough to fall for it ... again?


While Marx was wrong about a lot of things, he was right about some too.

Including the idea that unregulated capitalism, seeking ony to enrich itself and grow at the expense of all else would lead to it's own self destruction. Hello! Economic meltdown anyone?

The unfettered corruption of the financal sector in the hands of deregulation obsessed Republicans proved Marx's theory, and we barely escaped global disaster... by nationalizing the banking system.... so, now, who has the socialist tendencies? Didn't McCain vote for the bail out to? HYPOCRITE!

Besides,Socialism shouldn't be a dirty word.
Look at the more successful socialist governments in Europe like Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Holland, to name a few- they have the lowest crime and the highest living standards in the world. Why? because SOCIALISM, they way they implement it, works.

It can work, but one size does not fit all.

One reason those governments have been successful is that they have relatively small populations to accommodate.

Their methods would not work here in the same way because our population and sheer size is too big to manage.

Why are the Repugs so scared of the "S"? Well, most are stinking rich and afraid we the people may take their hoard. Hoarding wealth and class over people used to be called elitism... not anymore, now it's patriotism.

And why are they so eager to deregulate and give corporations tax breaks and more power? because they reap the benefits, they sit on the boards and hold large amounts of stock, are paid generously for congressional favors and consulting.....classic corruption.

One particularly effective rovian tactic the Republicans are using with abandon is to accuse your opponent of what you yourself are doing, and lie boldly about it.

The legacy of Reagan is deregulation and greed, the legacy of Bush I & II is incompetence and corruption.

Not to say the democrats don't have their share of flaws.... the rigid two party system we have is itself a relic of the 20th century that we, sadly, are still saddled with.
But for the republicanas to say Obama is a socialist is to try to discract for their COLLOSAL failures.

Remember back in 2003 at the beginning of the Iraq war... duing the "shock and awe" phase? When coalition forces were closing on on the airport and Government buildings... how Saddam's offical (I forget his name) kept claiming on TV that nothing was happening?
It was surreal.... and he kept it up right until the American soldiers hauled his demented ass off to jail.

what is playing out on the political stage here, now is much the same. The jig is up for the Republicans and they will stop at nothing to stay in power...

It's pretty pathetic when you cry election fraud at new and recently registered voters. But's always been the Republican philosophy... The the book about everyone but violate the law with impunity everytime you can possibly get away with it.

shame on them.

Halloween favorites (part 2)

Diamanda Galas, speaker for the dead, the dispossessed, and the forgotten.
In Litanies of Satan she channels the spleen of Baudelaire and offers a homocidal love song for solo scream. indispensable!

Ouija, need we say more?

Alice Cooper

Smashing Pumpkins. Who can forget Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness?

Marilyn Manson

Wolfman in the cemetary

Thomas Edison's Frankenstein, 1910

What was that description in Shelley's novel of the monster..... "Victor describes his creation in full detail as “beautiful” yet repulsive with his “yellow skin,” “lustrous black, and flowing” hair, and teeth of “pearly whiteness.” Victor describes the monster’s eyes, considered the windows upon the soul, as “watery eyes, that seemed almost the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.”

Now, where have I seen that before.....

Of course! Our own celebrity monster, Michael Jackson! - represented her in exquisite mask form

Spooky mansion. Based on a real house in Eureka California

Aleister Crowley

Illustration by Gustov Dore from Milton's "Paradise Lost"

It's the great Pumpkin ,Charlie Brown!

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Jack Skellington

Another haunted mansion

One the greatest performances ever... Lon Chaney in "Phantom of the Opera" 1924

The Bride of Frankenstein

OZZY!

The original reluctant vampire, Barnabas Collins, from Dark Shadows

Endora from Bewitched

Weekly world news sensation Batboy! (bigger than Elvis!)

A bit of history on All Hallows' Even

(excerpts from wikipedia) Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain.
Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores.
The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops.
The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.

The term Halloween is shortened from All Hallows' Even (both "even" and "eve" are abbreviations of "evening", but "Halloween" gets its "n" from "even") as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day",which is now also known as All Saints' Day.

The carved pumpkin, lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols in America, and is commonly called a jack-o'-lantern. Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the "head" of the vegetable to frighten off any superstitions.

John McCain gets a new high level endorsement...

McCain's latest celebrity supporter

from Al Qaeda. The Washington Post reports.

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF adds great insight and in-depth understanding to the reasoning behind AlQaeda's support in his column in today's NYtimes.

More GOP bullycrap

GOP doing what they do best

California Republicans try to bully businesses into supporting ban on gay marriage (Prop. 8). SF Gate reports.

Understanding the 2008 California ballot measures

need information on the 12 ballot measures on the November 4 ballot? start here at Ballotpedia!

It's getting ugly....

LIAR

McCain Campaign worker Claims she was attacked by an Obama supporter over her support of McCain.
Problem is it's all a big fat lie. She confesses to Police after repeatedly changing her story.

and speaking of financial fallout....

Dow plunges again.... and again, and again.....

Are you smothered in debt?

Do you think it's all your own fault? (well it is but thats another issue...)

We live in a culture that encourages spending WAY beyond our means. Alternet author Frank Joyce explores the history and implications of our debtor nation.

Oops, my bad.

Alan Greenspan, financial charlatan

“Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

and further....

"I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organizations, specifically banks and others, was such as they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders."

Really. Really? And how many millions did you make off this "mistake" during your tenure as chairman?

The real crime is that he and crooks like him will all get off scott-free while the rest of us pay the price of their schemes.

Auguries of Brilliance

Patti Smith

"life is an adventure of our own design, intercepted by fate, and a series of lucky, and unlucky accidents...."

So says Patti Smith at the beginning of Steven Sebring's Documentary on her life and music, Dream of Life.


My partner and I went to see Dream of Life, the Patti Smith Documentary on Friday at the Nuart theater in West Los Angeles.

Directed by Steven Sebring, the film is structured loosely and nonlinearly. The film is as fiercely poetic and moving as Smith's extraordinary music. The experience was heightened by the appearances of director Steven Sebring and Patti Smith herself, who was witty, casual and candid.

As we were all exiting I found myself beside her for a brief walk up the aisle to the lobby. I wanted to say something, but only an emphatic "thank you" came to mind, and that seemed utterly underwhelming for what I wanted to express.

Standing so close to her I found the hair on my arm stood up and my heart raced and it was like being close to live electricity. While she has an intensely magnetic persona, I found her calm and disarming in person. When she was doing the Q&A after the film she spoke as comfortably as if she were in a room with a few close friends.

Don't miss this wonderful film celebration of Patti Smith's music, life and loves.

D'OH!!

Politico shades the shiny story of McCain's everydude "Joe the Plumber."

Debate reaction overload

I can't wait for this all to be over with..... I am so tired of all the same talking points and hand wringing over "undecided voters," insta-punditry, focus groups, and issue degrading rhetoric.

And enough with Joe the plumber already! Each side could present numerous similar cases to make their points.... but each one is at the expense of the bigger picture. The devil is in the details and none of facts behind these stories is as simple as the one liners that get repeated ad nauseam in the media.

Fact check .org examines the debate and all the claims by both candidates and sets the record straight.

Who needs facts?

Byron York contemplates the flat Earth with Matt Taibbi

Apparently not wingnut conservatives.

Matt Taibbi exposes the blatant ignorance of the National Review's Byron York on the fundementals of the financial collapse in New York magazine.

York has written that the collapse was in large part due to risky loans made to immigrants and "minorities" (cue white elitists screaming) in truth he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.

Antony and the Johnsons at Disney Hall

Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons

I had the pleasure of seeing Antony and the Johnsons last night, performing with a 20 piece orchestra from the LA Philharmonic, playing scores co-arranged with Nico Muhly and conducted by James Holmes, at Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

It was an extraordinary show. Antony is destined to become a legend... Seeing him sing is a transcendent experience. Antony's voice is so otherworldly, so haunting and yet so achingly sweet and tender... it was one of the most intimate and moving shows I've ever seen. The music and his voice literally brought tears to my eyes.

Antony and the Johnsons "Another World" EP
The cover features a portrait of Japanese Butoh co-founder Kazuo Ohno, taken by Pierre-Olivier Deschamps in 1984.

The performance showcased new songs from the just released "Another World" EP which is a precursor to the January release of the bands new full length release- ‘The Crying Light,’ the highly anticipated follow-up to the mercury prize winning "I Am A Bird Now" (2005). Antony and the Johnsons music is available through Secretly Canadian records.

Toward the end of the performance Antony paid homage to the bands namesake Marsha P. johnson and the influence of Sylvia Rivera.

The band and the orchestra received repeated and extended standing ovations. It was a magical evening.

read more about Antony and his talents here, here, and here.

The Decline of Western Civilization.... The Metal Years... revisited.

Harvey Milk (the Band) "Life—The Best Game In Town"

I should have known It was only a matter of time before someone went and revisited Southern Rock.
This amazing new record traces it's lineage not back though to Lynyrd Skynrd, but to Black Sabbath.

This is not your stepdaddies girlfriends .38 special reunion, or some third generation Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band...

This is epic Post-Southern-Rock DOOM, distinct enough to spawn a genre all it's own...

It is what I have been waiting for since I was a lost 15 year old growing up in the rural/suburban south.


Like many people, I filtered all of my experience through music.
Southern rock was a local favorite in the late 70's through the mid 80's.
And while the standard bearers of the genre, such as Lynyrd Skynrd, and 38 Special, always rang hollow to me I couldn't get some of the tunes, and musical phrases and intonations out of my head. This is not to say that some of the original music wasn't extraordinary, but it all lacked the sense of HEAVY that I carried around with me, that I was so eager to find reflected....

Soon enough the metal revival emerged, lead by bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden. They initially added some much need menace to the palate before other dumber bands became more popular and devolved the genre into a mullet ridden fashion joke.
Still nothing seemed to speak to what my experience of that time was.

I imagined something very slow, ugly, and extremely heavy....
Harvey Milk's Life—The best game in town filled that gap. Nearly thirty years after the fact, I find myself listening to what should have been my soundtrack to living in Hopewell, Virginia.

This is smart Heavy Metal.... and while my impression of their music may have nothing to do with their intention, it easily allows for me to project those impressions on to it.

From the cover with the Iron Maiden poster peeling off the wall, to the gatefold image of the corner of mattress on a box spring surrounded by all kinds of neglected trash.

Harvey Milk is from Athens, Georgia, so they know the complexities of that regional identity.

I don't have the musical knowledge to explain specifically what I am hearing.... and how to break it down to explain it, but I hear it.

For me it liberates everything rotten about the South that I have every seen or repeatedly found myself near, ever, that has stuck in head and formed a monster truck vision of hell on earth that I find myself trapped in when in the blackest of moods.

What exactly am I talking about?

Imagine if you will a post industrial landscape of mostly overweight people narrowed by decades of sameness, with children dumbed down in public school, ever listening to the metastized conservatism of their parents, all projected through their frustration and disappointment in life, always in earshot of some ignorant ass parroting rabid right wing talk radio, embittered and thwarted by every failure large and small– to the point of sabotaging their own prospects, blaming everyone and taking no responsibility, always suspect of others and people from far away. Vicious mean too, when drunk.

The South at it worst is still a cliche teeming with aggressively untalented rednecks threatening to "kick the ass off" of everything that isn't as limited as the low expectations they aspire to.

In my dulled concentrated memory the lowest of the low amounted to....
dumpy fluorescent lit living rooms with junk piled up over fossilized pizza slices under acres of dirty laundry stained by the piss of quivering toy dogs and feral cats... or sour white trash fools entrenched in doublewide trailers parked in backyards rebel yelling that same bullshit about damn yankees this and damn foreigners that.... wearing and flying the confederate battle flag and talkin bout the civil war as the "war for southern independence" and how the south is gonna RISE again....

In my own experience I got so tired of people who were always against anything they didn't already know, against everything new, clinging to same three or four hundred classic rock or "new country" songs endlessly droning on the radio between the blather of idiot minded djs. Crashed on old 80s box furniture crowded around sagging shelves piled up with scratched old Molly Hatchet and Alabama records that never get played anymore, homemade VHS tapes of movies replayed on network television, paperback novels, and bobblhead dolls of down home heros like gallagher and Jeff forxworthy, snowed under inches of dust and discarded CD players, VCRs, laser disc players, broken nintendos, and remote control toy car parts, everything smelling of marlboro lites or Winston cigarettes and stale beer in cramped rooms looking out to rusted out Trans-Am's, Cameros, and 380zx's nested in tall grass serenaded by cicadas and gameshow repeats....

Yee Fuckin Haw.....

When I listen to this record every rotten experience, every depressing scene from my time there flashed through my mind and was obliterated, released, and absolved by Creston Spiers wail.

If Ronnie Van Zandt came back as a zombie, this is what he'd sound like.

Life–the Best Game In Town is more than the sum of it's parts. While it may invoke the extremely heavy, it also represents the South at it's best... when all expectations are exceeded, and you have the experience of being raised up rather than let down. And that is what the best of the original Southern Rock bands did.

In the news today

Who says the the Iraq war wasn't about oil?
Iraqi Government plans to sell off oil reserves and access to 40% of it's oil fields to Western Petrol Corporations.

Dishonor roll: who are the culprits in the financial meltdown?

The NYT takes a look at Greenspan's legacy and the real magic of the market place.

Could Brooksley Born, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have prevented the financial crisis?


Paul Krugman wills the Nobel prize in Economic sciences. He has been warning of the financial crisis for years, and also has been a relentless critic of BushCo.

Heres one of his best columns, published on Slate.

and another on the current crisis in todays NYT.

make no mistake, stocks may have rallied today
but the only ones making any money
are the crooks who robbed us in the first place.
Notice how they smile today. You can just smell the money.

Glenn Greenwald on McCain campaign manager Rick Davis on Fox News this morning blantantly lying about Palin's "Troopergate" inverstigation findings.


Matt Tiabbi on McCains return to Rovian tactics.

more on extremism by the McCain Campaign on Slate.


and for perspective on election mudslinging The washington Post examines viscious campaign of the past.

And just in case you needed in more evidence of McCain's record on economics.

Obama may be ahead in the polls buy the election is still 22 days away. Salon points out ways McCain may still pull off a win.


GOP to the rescue! Gotta reign in those big spendin' Liberals!


Quote of the day:
"A poor man voting for a Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders."
from rednecks for Obama.

Fox News Alert: Voter Fraud!

Fox News Reports that there is evidence of massive voter fraud in numerous states! Thats right... suspicious number of NEW voters causes our Ever Vigilant Republican Defenders of Justice to raise the call ... Protect your corporate fascist plutocracy! PURGE, PURGE PURGE!*

*just the votes we don't like.

Republicians lead voter purges in six states....
It's interesting that they are only looking for fraud in heavily Democratic areas, and only in swing states.....

Don't take my word for it!

Read it in the New York Times, and on CBS.

Protect your vote!

Visit the Election Protection Wiki at sourcewatch and votersunite.org

Party of Lies

"We are a prosperous nation with immense resources and a wide range of tools at our disposal ... We can solve this crisis and we will." —G.W.Bush junior

Such Bullshit.

Read this great column by Joe Conason at Salon.com on bailout scam- and this piece about the future of capitalism in The Washington Post.

Historic plunge: Stocks have lost nearly 40% of their value in the last year.
Worst losses since the crash of 1929 that led to The Great Depression.

Now lets recap a bit. Our government lead by the three stooges: bush jr, paulson and berneke (lowercase intentional), with the help of congress, pass a nearly trillion dollar bill to bail out the financial sector. The Fed even starts giving the crooks the money so they can start lending again and what do they do? They start hoarding- trying to shore up their own power and position.... the exact opposite of what the bailout was designed to do..... am I surprised, should you be surprised? No....

Wall street has always been a self interest bunch of licensed thieves... this only further proves then the need to reclaim their pirated monies, convict them, toss them in jail and throw away the key.

and now junior has the audacity to ask us to remain calm and have confidence in the system? This coming from the person who help enable it's total collapse?

This is just more evidence of his (and his administrations) criminal incompotence.

Yet, will he and his cabal of loyal cronies be punished?
Highly doubtful... they will most likely waltz off into the sunset with all the money.
In the past this was the stuff of revolutions.
Not any more.
Not as long we have Wii, and ipods, and Tivo.... and time to git stoopid.

In the most perverse way possible Republicans have achieved some of the most far ranging goals- to prevent the furthering of a progressive agenda.
If the only way they can do this by destroying the world as we know it... well their fortunes may be dented but for the most part they will not be affected so, fine.

This what Reagon/Bush Republicansim has come to. This isn't conservatism, this is corporatist fascism.


Even as the corrupt investment houses were begging for a bailout they were giving themselves multimillion dollar bonuses....

In the final bail out package congress passed that added 140 BILLON in earmark spending- insane, ridiculous and excessive.... and shows no respect for those who are genuinely suffering.

What "confidence in the system" is this supposed to inspire?

And yet still barely any outrage on the part of the public.....

bush jr. and his Republican cronies have singularly reduced the Superpower status of the U.S.A. to that of a third world country.

I want people to remember that REPUBLICANS have lead us to this.

Yet they won't.

The Republicans will lose in November (even if they manage to steal it again).
They will magically become the party of fiscal responsibility.
Now that the country is bankrupt there really is no money for social programs... sorry.
Looks like we will have to cut Soical Security, Medicare, money for public education.... etc. etc..

We allow the worst mistakes to be repeated, and as long as we are entertained we shrug and go back to whatever we were doing....

and the stupid American public will forget that it the Repugs who have put us all in the crapper.... but as long as we are entertained (and I guarantee you entertainment will stay cheap) we will go along and soon enough they will ride the gravy train back to the white house and the whole mess starts all over again....

and so Rome fell.