"In the world which is upside down, the true is a moment of the false."
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| rock and roll means fuck "In the world which is upside down, the true is a moment of the false." |
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Wednesday, June 23, 2004 first impressions of fahrenheit 9/11 
well, i just got back from the 12:15 am screening of fahrenheit 9/11 in the east village and my head is still reeling a bit. of course, the $3 pints o' bass at my local on the way home probably have somethin' to do with that as well. i digress... the film i saw this evening is an important film, it's far from perfect, it's as close as mr. mike has ever come though, it's viciously funny at times, stone-dead somber at points, muckrakingly (it's a word now, bitches.) clever and snarky at points and viscerally effective in a visual sense at others. i now know why the wingers are fighting this film so hard. the most devastating sequences are not the ones the goopers will take the most offense at, the ones where mike is obviously interpreting facts on the ground as he sees them. rather, they are the sequences with little or no editorial embellishment. pictures are powerful things and sometimes they speak for themselves. unfortunately for the bushco fedayeen these passages are the most devastating. they are unadulterated video of what actually happened. let's just say that with regards to such figures as shrub himself and other administration notables/nutjobs as the crisco kid and wolfie, this video can be positively, um, unkind. anyhoo, love it or loathe it, the film is begging for the debate it deserves and should provoke. i, for one, welcome and encourage such a debate. it's one that is long overdue. i welcome it because i feel pretty confident that it's an argument that the wingers can't win on the merits. they know it, too. take your republican friends/neighbors/relatives to see this film. christ, take your teen kids/nephews/nieces/younger siblings. and then talk to them about it. there is much room for discussion here. take advantage. engage. also, i think steve gilliard is on to something here and here. i just read a.o. scott's review of the film and this passage really struck me. it pretty much sums up my feelings this early am. Mr. Moore is often impolite, rarely subtle and occasionally unwise. He can be obnoxious, tendentious and maddeningly self-contradictory. He can drive even his most ardent admirers crazy. He is a credit to the republic. i'm sure ill both post further on this later today and i may even drag a roomie or two out to see it again. it's that good and that worthy. oh, and to the haters, especially drunken jerkoffs like ol' hitch, bring it on. and if ya don't like the film, here's an idea: get off yer ass and make your own goddamned movie. really. the jam: "in the city" "i wanna say.. ..i wanna tell you!.." posted by downtown | 3:18 AM Tuesday, June 22, 2004 posted without comment 
A video image released June 22, 2004 by Al Jazeera television shows a group of heavily armed gunmen, standing over kidnapped Korean Kim Sun-il. Militants beheaded the South Korean hostage in Iraq June 22, 2004 after Seoul refused their demand to withdraw its troops and scrap plans to send more. 
Kim Jung-soo, left, a sister of Kim Sun-il who was kidnapped in Iraq, cries after hearing that Kim Sun-il had been killed, at her home in Busan, southern South Korea, early Wednesday, June 23, 2004. 
Kim Jong-kyu, right, and Shin Young-ja, parents of Kim Sun-il who was kidnapped in Iraq, react after hearing that their son had been killed, at their home in Busan, southern South Korea, early Wednesday, June 23, 2004. posted by downtown | 8:13 PM Monday, June 21, 2004 they're everywhere... i've been staring at zombies for weeks whilst cutting sleep away! and now it seems i see them everywhere. now even the kids at a softer world are getting in on the act. to wit: 
i can't escape. oh, and for those in the nyc area, the big, fat premiere of sleep away! will be sat july, 3 at collective: unconscious in the LES. there'll be surf rock, zombie go go dancers and a concoction of gingerale, powdered caffeine and pure grain alcohol. there may be some fights. should be a hoot! the sonics: "strychnine" "some folks like water. some folks like wine. but i like the taste of straight strychnine...." posted by downtown | 9:01 PM Thursday, June 17, 2004 i sure hope this is true Johnny Ramone Is Not Dying, His Doctor Says 
Johnny Ramone is not dying, according to his doctor. The Ramones guitarist, who has been living with prostate cancer for the past several years, was recently admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with what his physician, Dr. David Agus, told MTV News was a "complication from the cancer. But he got through it, and he's now on a new, experimental therapy. He's fighting courageously, and I think he will be going home in the near term. .... "He's not dying," Linda said on Wednesday afternoon (June 16). "He was okay for years, and he's fine now. He's in the hospital, but he's not in ICU. And I think he may be leaving by tomorrow." i also found this at a site i'd never seen before, the very cool jukebox graduate. Johnny Ramone update You can send cards and other letters to Johnny in care of Arturo Vega (legenary Ramones majordomo) at: RAMONES 1-2-3-4 6 EAST 2ND STREET NEW YORK, NY. 10003 Arturo is apparently in LA but is having someone pick up mail and forward it on. (This according to reliable sources.) There are conflicting reports as to the state of Johnny's health, and now MTV.com has his wife stating that everything is fine. I hope she is right. To quote someone on one of the Ramones message boards, "what kinda world do we live in where we're on the cusp of losing our 3rd Ramone in 4 years yet every f'in' member of Motley Crue is alive and still recording 'music'?" the ramones: "gimme gimme shock treatment" " i was feeling sick. i was losing my mind. i heard about these treatments from a good friend of mine. " posted by downtown | 5:55 PM Wednesday, June 16, 2004 yet more evidence that god is indeed dead via blah3... Report: Johnny Ramone dying of cancer 
The guitarist with pioneering punk rock band the Ramones is fighting a losing a battle with cancer in a Los Angeles hospital, Rolling Stone magazine reported on its Web site Tuesday. Johnny Ramone, 55, whose real name is John Cummings, was diagnosed with prostate cancer four years ago, and it has now spread throughout his body, Rollingstone.com quoted the band’s drummer, Marky Ramone, as saying. “Johnny’s been a champ in confronting this, but at this point I think the chances are slim,” Marky Ramone said in the report. “John never smoked cigarettes, he wasn’t a heavy drinker and he was always into his health. It just proves when cancer seeks a body to penetrate, it doesn’t matter how healthy you are or how unhealthy you are. It just seeps in and there’s nothing you can do.” i could say something snarky and cool, but i won't. i'm just totally, sincerely bummed. what a fucking drag. joey used to live upstairs from where i used to work and i had tickets to see dee dee in ventura, ca the day he died. fuck. how sad. sleater-kinney: "i wanna be your joey ramone" "i wanna be your joey (johnny!) ramone! pictures of me on your bathroom door! " posted by downtown | 2:47 AM Tuesday, June 15, 2004 krugman layeth the smack down! Travesty of Justice By PAUL KRUGMAN No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history. For this column, let's just focus on Mr. Ashcroft's role in the fight against terror. Before 9/11 he was aggressively uninterested in the terrorist threat. He didn't even mention counterterrorism in a May 2001 memo outlining strategic priorities for the Justice Department. When the 9/11 commission asked him why, he responded by blaming the Clinton administration, with a personal attack on one of the commission members thrown in for good measure. .... Since then Mr. Padilla has been held as an "enemy combatant" with no legal rights. But Newsweek reports that "administration officials now concede that the principal claim they have been making about Padilla ever since his detention — that he was dispatched to the United States for the specific purpose of setting off a radiological `dirty bomb' — has turned out to be wrong and most likely can never be used in court." But most important is the memo. Last week Mr. Ashcroft, apparently in contempt of Congress, refused to release a memo on torture his department prepared for the White House almost two years ago. Fortunately, his stonewalling didn't work: The Washington Post has acquired a copy of the memo and put it on its Web site. .... The memo came out late Sunday. Mr. Ashcroft called a press conference yesterday — to announce an indictment against a man accused of plotting to blow up a shopping mall in Ohio. The timing was, I'm sure, purely coincidental. ballsy and pretty much incontrovertible. go, paulie, go british sea power: "remember me" "We're all part of the same old bloody regime With someone taking it out whilst you were putting it in Increment by increment Increment by increment Increment by increment " posted by downtown | 3:50 AM Friday, June 11, 2004 so ya wanna change the $10 bill, eh? 
i'm all teary... --via kos 5,6,7,8's: "woo hoo" "..woo hoo! ..woo hoo hoo!" posted by downtown | 7:02 PM zell, i'm a callin' you out, boy. this ain't new. we have had words before an' all. there's been feudin' in our hearts for quite some time now. but, goddamnit, zell. this is it! GOP says N.Y. would be swell with Zell Some Republicans are hoping that sharp-tongued Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia will appear at the GOP’s national political convention this summer. “It would be great if he could be there,” said Sen Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). “Zell Miller is a Harry Truman kind of Democrat. He tells it like it is. He’s plain-spoken. He doesn’t mince words. He’s the person he is, and a patriotic American.” An appearance by Miller would help President Bush try to re-establish his bipartisan credentials at a time when he has lost his polling edge on such issues as education and the economy. The centrist Democrat has aided the GOP’s political goals since he was appointed in 2000 to fill the term of the late Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.). Miller provided a critical stamp of bipartisanship to President Bush’s tax cuts. More recently, Miller has expressed a willingness to assist Bush’s re-election, “if there’s any way that I can help him,” and has delivered scathing remarks about Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) at public events. fuck you, zell miller. i have many serious problems with you being an un-elected dem-in-name-only pile of horseshit of course. but, in a more narrowminded, provincial sort of way, i take great offense that you would come here, to nyc, to complete your sad circle of treachery. in case you weren't aware, the gop convention isn't being held in marietta this year, nor is it to be found in stone mountain or buckhead. that shameful gathering is due to transpire here in new york city. this is what bothers me the most. you're gonna bring this peckerwood ass kissin' charade to the big city? i know why the repugs will love it. i know why you wanna do it. i know why it'll be such a splash. this is why i'm so pissed. this is MY TOWN, bee-yatch. you will rue the day you brought your sad ass bush love to the big apple. it's a real good thing you aren't seeking a second term, one for which people would actually have to vote for you. my only hope is that upon your arrival here for gopfest '04, the goopers will decide you can't leave. you can have him, fuckers. don't let the door hit ya in the backside, jackass. neutral milk hotel: "oh, comely" "..know all your enemies... ...we know who our enemies are..." posted by downtown | 1:45 AM Thursday, June 10, 2004 more fun with the undead 
from the bush-zombie reagan 2004 site. Q: What are some other advantages of adding Zombie Reagan to the ticket? A: He will demonstrate America's resolve to continue the battle against terrorism. Instead of retreating to an undisclosed location following an attack, for instance, Zombie Reagan will be on the front lines, eating illegal combatants. the zombies: "whenever you're ready" "..now i've been hurt, but i still love you.." posted by downtown | 6:22 PM so long, mr charles 
Legendary US singer Ray Charles dead at 73 LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Legendary musician Ray Charles, dubbed the "Genius of Soul" during an acclaimed six-decade career, died of complications from liver disease at the age of 73, his publicist told AFP. damn. michael bolton will live to be 150. you just watch. ray charles: "i'm movin' on" "..keep movin' on, keep rollin' on. you were flyin too high for my little ol' sky so I'm movin' on...." posted by downtown | 5:09 PM holy fucking shit. first, some background. we shot sleep away! a few weekends ago here at the bunker in lovely brooklyn, ny. the shoot was a dream. it was almost entirely an in house-production. actors, filmmakers, gear, grips, skills, talents, space, special effects, production design, editing, all of it, was hatched here in the house. the shoot, for the most part, was a dream. i mean, hell, we shot the whole thing in our house. it'll never be this good again, if ya know what i mean. what made the whole thing so awesome was that i got to work with my friends, my roommates and other fellow travelers who, like myself, are total pros. we flew through shot lists. we got pretty much everything we wanted effortlessly. there were times when kat and i and our protagonist, neil, were really thinking as if we were using the same brain. for the most part, it was a beyond joyous experience. we did it all with three totas and a shotgun attached to a telescoping plastic pole manufactured for the purpose of changing light bulbs. we did good, is what i'm tryin' to say here, kiddos. plus, i got to work with the lovely ms. rev. jen, always a bonus. now, before i go off the 'everything was peachy' cliff, let me explain that one of the first things we shot, the climax of the film, was both great, more than we could've hoped for and seriously lacking. one of the first shots on our list was the all-zombies-on deck-fountain-o'-blood shot. the payoff to the whole enterprise. we had to split the shoots for the finale, a sequence i like to refer to, as the editor at least, as 'zombie-palooza', in to three separate days. translation: huge pain in the ass, not only to shoot but even more so to edit. the first four-fifths of the film practically edit themselves. part of this owes to the fact that we got pretty much great sound on every take, (there were no trains over the williamsburg bridge the weekend we shot. thank you, baby jesus!) so i don't have to go picking through less than great takes searchin' for the one with the decent audio. the normal 'movie' part edits itself. i could train monkeys to do that part. but, the 'zombie-palooza' has puzzled me for weeks. it haunts my sleep. 
then, on sunday, something happened to me that almost never happens. i got sick. i can count on one hand the times i've been truly sick in the last ten years. i spent sunday afternoon/evening through about 4 pm yesterday in this awful feverish, achy, cough-y hell. i was only partially cognizant, if at all, for the most part. this is what i remember for those lost days/hours: hot. it's hot as hell here in brooklyn for the past few days. i've been one feverish/jittery freak for the past few days. i seem to remember lots of dreams about reagan, lots of very personal dreams where the gipper and i are saving a sinking ship or admiring a cute puppy, saving some monkeys from poachers or telling gorby that 'bosco' just don't cut it. go get some hershey's, bee-yatch. so, i've been rolling around in a 'bedtime for bonzo'-like daze for days now. trying to figure out how i'm gonna wrap this zombie movie up. it's been really taxing, so to speak. that was until today. via susan at suburban guerrilla who happened to link this: Bush dumps Cheney and instead choses... Zombie Reagan as his running mate. Bush/Zombie Reagan 2004 Announcement [Transcript of press conference in the Rose Garden on June 7th, 2004.] BUSH: Hello. Thank you all for coming. I know you're not here to listen to me talk, so I'll make this brief. America has always needed strong leaders, and as you know, we are lucky enough today to have one of the strongest back with us. Now more than ever, our country needs the wisdom, courage and pride that defined the presidency of the man I am about to introduce to you. And, so, ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present my new nominee for the Vice Presidency of the United States: Zombie Reagan! [Applause.] ZOMBIE REAGAN: BRAAAAAINS! BRAAAAINS! BUSH: I'm afraid we're out of time. Thank you. [Transcript ends.] i follow the link. this is where i end up. amazing, really. 
i think i've found not only one of the cooler new memes out there and a way to save our movie in one fell swoop. i really wanna talk to these zombie-reagan dudes. i'm certain we have beautiful music to make together i usually sign these off with some little pearl o' whatever from the world of rock and roll. today i go one better. if you have not yet done so(c, i'm talkin' to ya, girl.) run, don't walk, to get the new loretta lynn record. you'll be so happy you did. it's absolutely effin' brilliant. really. loretta lynn "women's prison" "..now they've strapped me in the chair and covered up my eyes.. ..and the last voice i hear on earth is my momma's cry...." posted by downtown | 3:59 AM Tuesday, June 08, 2004 not so fast, crisco-boy.. 
In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill today, Attorney General John Ashcroft said he was not aware of any order by President Bush that would violate U.S. laws or treaties banning torture of military prisoners captured in Iraq or elsewhere in the war on terrorism. the more i think about it, the more i'm convinced that something rather significant transpired this afternoon as the crisco kid appeared before the senate judiciary committee. a worm turned, shoes dropped and it seemed that there were many more pieces of the puzzle out there for the world to see than the AG was ready to address. i saw something in one of the cabal that i had yet to see before. i've seen the big fish in this enterprise be clueless, smug, mean, arrogant, cooly efficient and hapless. but, before today, i'd never seen one scared shitless. and, well, he should be. they all should be. and i think i know why. as much as mr. assclown tried to deny (or, more accurately, non-deny deny) that the president had not personally authorized, through some sort of presidential finding or directive, the aggressive and arguably criminal interrogation techniques so absurdly detailed in recently leaked memoranda, the more hollow it sounded and the tighter those gospel spewin' lips got. i posit this: that document exists. there exists a document with language jumping through every twisted rationale and bizarre psuedo-legal construct offered up in these memos that effectively loosed the hounds. that document is affixed with shrub's signature. it's out there. i can feel it in me bones. think about it. there are a number of career uniformed folks at the pentagon who were horrified but what they learned about abu ghraib. they have equally horrified counterparts at CIA and state. why are all these memos floating around? because the ones tasked with getting ugly and committing what for all intents and purposes are war crimes wanted something to cover their ass with. take this from today's WaPo: The August memo was written in response to a CIA request for legal guidance in the months after Sept. 11, 2001, as agency operatives began to detain and interrogate key al Qaeda leaders. The fact that the memo was signed by Jay S. Bybee, head of the Office Legal Counsel, who has since become a federal judge, and is 50 pages long indicates that the issue was treated as a significant matter. .... The former administration official said the CIA "was prepared to get more aggressive and re-learn old skills, but only with explicit assurances from the top that they were doing so with the full legal authority the president could confer on them." i think the president gave it to them. i mean all the memos we've seen so far seem to touch on the perception in the WH general counsel's office and in the civilian legal dept at DoD that the president, in a time of war, can grant such authority and that the power to disregard any law the chief executive saw fit was 'inherent in the president'. hell, president's own counsel advised him that the limitations on torture and confinement required by the geneva conventions were, in his words, 'quaint' and 'obsolete'. what i'm saying is that i think the dumb little shit was just fucking stupid enough to sign off on something so immeasurably dubious and ultimately criminal. the manner in which the AG became more and more evasive about what the president may or may not have OK'd seems to bear that out. this is what 'high crimes and misdemeanors' actually look like, kids. futhermore, the crisco king painted the administration even further in to the corner by not only refusing to release the documents to the senate committee specifically designated to oversee DoJ, (a panel assclown himself served on) but absolutley refused to say exactly why he refused to do so. as was explained to mr. ashcroft repeatedly and at length by the likes of senators biden and durbin, there are only two acceptable excuses to fail to produce them. 1. an assertion of executive privilege from the president or the invocation of a relevant statute that would prohibit such a release. he refused to to do either, placing himself, in a pretty black and white way, in contempt of congress. the only thing standing in the way of such a finding is my favorite fossil, senator orrin hatch. hell, assclown couldn't even say if any or all of the documents in question were classified. i love this from the times: Over the past few weeks, The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have disclosed memorandums that show a pattern in which administration lawyers set about devising arguments to avoid constraints against mistreatment and torture. Mr. Ashcroft's appearance before the committee had been scheduled before most of the memorandums were disclosed, and he looked deeply uncomfortable under the harsh questioning. but, wait, it gets better. even after putting the administration in the tightest possible corner regarding these memos, as mr durbin pointed out, good chunks of what the committee is seeking have already been leaked. i have a feeling that these won't be he last of the leaks about such documents either. the folks who are at most jeopardy up and down the chain of command are trying to show the world (or potential future grand juries) that the legal rationales and direction came from above. it would appear that they're succeeding famously. touche'. the afghan whigs "honky's ladder" "got you where i want you, motherfucker. don't you try to move.." posted by downtown | 8:35 PM Saturday, June 05, 2004 R.I.P. Ronald Reagan Dies at Age 93 
posted by downtown |
6:14 PM
a tale of two trailers first: the trailer for the film that everyone should see and will surely make lots and lots of money. with any luck, it'll bring down the government. go, mikey! and second: the trailer for a film that i hope some folks will be able to see and which will probably never make a dime. in fact, the $200 we put in to it is probably lost forever. oh well, anyhoo. i'm cutting it together now and i totally cut this trailer together in a whoosh a few days ago in a rather blatant attempt to impress a cute girl. i should mention that, for all intents and purposes, sleep away! is an almost completely in-house production. take a look! (at both of 'em, silly!) dressy bessy: "little TV" "Bat out of hell--your head is starting to swell -- You got a song in your pocket -- dying to sell" posted by downtown | 4:33 AM |
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Cost of the War in Iraq
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