this might be of some assistance

A Battle Of Ideas, Not Sound Bytes

l'image de la semaine

This image appeared in last weeks Le Nouvelle Observateur, one of France's most prominent popular cultural and political magazines. The image of course referred to the loss of an "A" in the nations Standard & Poor's credit rating. The allusion is very clear to the sunken Italian luxury cruise ship, Costa Concordia and the floundering presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.

What was most interesting about this image and what made it all the more powerful was the sub text. The day after the disaster, The UMP Party Minister of Defense, Gerard Lonquet made the unfortunate attack on Francois Hollande, the Socialist Presidential Candidate by comparing him to the Captain of the Costa Concordia. It was a totally inappropriate and embarrassing attack by an undisciplined "sniper" trying to smear Hollande. 

Basically, the Socialists have been out of power since Mitterande. There was a cohabitation with Lionel Jospin during the Chirac years, but the bluster at the helm of the french economy for almost a decade now has been solely the Conservative ever drifting more right UMP Government.

Wisely, the Socialists never even acknowledged the comment. The UMP pretended like it never happened. The normally verbosely belicose Lonquet has been strangely silent. In fact the only reference I have seen in the French press to the remark was this very powerful image which I feel was directly inspired by Lonquet. But, the methods that Sarkozy used against Segolene Royal five years ago which were inspired by the American Republican Party attack tactics have gotten old fast here. There still are many political parties that cover the full range of the political spectrum. The UMP has wasted a lot of time and energy in trying to woo the extreme right and in the process has only empowered them. Meanwhile, the Left has really regrouped and has learned a lot from the cyber organization of the American Left. The biggest difference is that though lobbying has a role in the political process, the actual funding of campaigns is strictly regulated. The media time is strictly monitored. Ads are banned. Only the far right clandestinely puts up their hate filled  illegal posters in discreet locations, usually under the same railroad underpasses out in the country or shopping cart shelters in budget food market parking lots.

There is a lot of debate, but nothing to do with the sideshow circus of the media debates now playing as the most painful reality television series ever on American TV. There is no audience.

Last night was the kick off. Francois Hollande was on France2 for 2 and a half hours from about 8:30 to 11 pm. That's Prime Time folks and it was the highest viewed program. Hollande was grilled by political reporters, foreign affair and economic experts on the platform he had unveiled for the Socialist Presidential campaign. Then he debated Alain Juppe, the present Minister of Foreign Affairs and ex Prime mInister under Chirac who is still presently Mayor of Bordeaux. Juppe is considered the intellectual of the party, but he tried to make the debate into a personal assault on Hollande accusing him of arrogance and trying to exploit Hollandes perceived weaknesses rather than the actual issues.

Holland, for much of his public life has had the image of a slightly chubby joker. He always has been a highly intelligent deadly debater and you would think that his recent past might be a handicap. He was the companion of Segolene Royal, the candidate in the last election. I have to admire Hollande, in the last 2 years, he physically transformed himself and is looking very hard and fit these days. He has a new girlfriend who is a very glamorous, intelligent journalist with her own popular program on the M6 Network.  He was totally focused and used his wit and sarcasm to its fullest advantage last night. Today, even his critics are looking at him with new eyes and talking about his armor plating. He went into the debate with some very positive polling numbers, If the Second Tour of the election was held today, he would have won it with 60% to Sarkozy's 40%. The new numbers haven't been released yet. The election will be in May. This is not a painfully drawn out process like in America. There is an air of despair on the Right.

My thoughts last night as I watched the program was how could this ever go down in America? A battle of ideas and complicated concepts having to be argued and explained in detail, rather than tasty amphetamine flavored testosterone coated jingo filled sound bytes for an attention deficit afflicted audience who would rather see Chaz Bono Dancin With The Stars........?

The Republicans Normalization Of Racism

This is really disgusting, but vital and educational compilation by ThinkProgress that is a very succinct expose of the "normalizing" of racist and racially-coded language during this desperately pandering Republican primary season. It was not so long ago that the chairman of the Republican National Committee apologized for his party's history of "trying to benefit politically from racial polarization," and told the NAACP, "I am here today as the Republican Chairman to tell you we were wrong." Such leadership cannot be found now. 

Newt Gingrich may be the new master of race politics with his efforts to label Barack Obama the "food-stamp president" and his generous offer to lecture African-Americans at the NAACP on why they should demand paychecks instead of food stamps. We know that Mr. Gingrich's claims of being a "historian" for Freddie and Fannie are a strain, but would it be that hard for him to check the history of NAACP's leadership on developing and demanding groundbreaking job creation policies? (Or to note that more food stamp recipients are white than any other race or ethnicity?) But why would a historian let facts get in the way of historical racial prejudice?

This compilation was made by ThinkProgress' Jeff Spross and I felt compelled to share it with you.

The True Funk Fatha...

The Jimmy Castor Bunch takes us back, way back, all the way back to 1972

with the protofunk power of 

Troglodyte!

Light Field (In Consonance)

An Orchestral piece by the American composer Glenn Branca from the early 1980's.

Glenn writes large, loud guitar based symphonic music that is best heard live, because so much of what he does realies on acoustic phenomena that is almost impossible to actually record, let alone reproduce, but this piece echoes the actual brilliance.

This is for my friend Mudrake. Check out his blog and his ongoing discussion

 about religion and society.

 Street Poster From the May, 1968 Student/Worker Demonstrations in Paris

Your Daily Duchamp

Glitter Bomb In Sewage Treatment Plant?

If the title wasn't on the video, what would you think you were looking at? 

This is a fissioning corium releasing mega gamma rays...it is also FISSIONING hundreds of radioisotopes of the alpha and beta kind...strong and weak ones...toxic to mammals...they recombine with water to form oxides and hydrogen bonds...those white streaks could be gas bubbles rising to the surface...whisked by the air, traveling through the cracked containment and gases like cesium can morph to solids, plutonium travels in an oxide molecule like a hot air balloon!!!

 This is not a metaphorical view inside a nuclear reactor. This is for real-real.

This month, the good folks at TEPCO sent a remote-controlled endoscope and thermometer into the containment vessel of Fukishima's crippled reactor #2, hoping to learn something about the level of cooling water, the state of the fuel rods, and the temperature in the reactor. The view is obscured by steam, the effects of radiation, and (are you sitting down) actual goddam gamma rays just whizzing by. According to the PBS Frontline blog, those are the little streaks and flashes that you see in this video.

The probe revealed corroded piping and dripping humidity, but did not reveal the water’s surface level, which TEPCO had expected to be as high as four meters. The containment vessel was flooded with seawater during the reactor meltdown when other attempts to cool it failed. Current water levels inside the reactor remain unknown.

The probe’s thermometer function proved more revealing; it recorded the interior temperature at 44.7 degrees centigrade (112 degrees Farenheit), demonstrating that the unit’s own thermometer, thought to be off by as many as 20 degrees, is still functioning accurately.

It ain't over...by a long shot.

Anyone Remember This Dude?

November 16, 1995

don't you dare interrupt, his serene royal majesty, queen mittens

when is you ungrateful peasants gonna buy ME a damn yacht? I be buyin this damn election wit my dime, it's my time, so fuck y'all!
You know, I was being rather polite here, I could have called him Adolph Mittler...
In fact, I could so easily go there....if he decides to pick Santorum as his vice presidential running mate...we would have the first real Republican Corporate AXIS ticket...
The Mittler/Santorini Axis of EVIL.....

KIKI

Kiki of Montparnasse

Queen of 1920s Parisian bohemia, in Emak Bakia (akaLeave Me Alone, 1926, dir. Man Ray) (film online here)

Forever's A Long Time

Okay, this was Don Was's 1997 movie...a collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola.

Forever's A Long Time

A soundtrack with a conceptual band, The Orquestra Was, featuring Herbie Hancock, Merle Travis, Kris Kristopherson,Wayne Kramer and Sweet Pea Atkinson among others as well as Don playing bass among other things. Songs by Hank Williams that are somehow transmogrified inot R&B and Jazz...  Avery hard movie to explain, but for me it is so close to the surface of my unconscious feelings about Detroit...the imaginary no mans land that extended between Cass and Second Avenues where somehow Detroit Soul and Country and Western culture fucked, fought and interbred. Too bad the quality is so lousy...I have this on the original cd, but I can't play the video on my computer.

Knocked Down

As a humble apology to Don and Dave was and all the other was (not was)'s for my audacious insolent proposition of their piece, I Blew Up The United States as Mittens new campaign song, I am posting this version of Knocked Down from a performance at Montreaux around 1990. The piece was originally released on Born To Laugh At Tornadoes and this is almost an accoustic version of the original.

Ladies and Gentlemen, one of Americas greatest small orchestras ever, Was(notwas). I always loved this song.

Mitt Blew Up The United States

Today on CNN, Republican strategist, Alex Castellanos advised how Mittens could parley his tough guy CEO role into a winning strategy in next weeks Florida Primary:

CASTELLANOS: There's more to it than that you know. We don't know what a president will be faced with. You want somebody in that chair who can handle big things. Newt Gingrich got attacked. He demonstrated tremendous strength. Mitt Romney, next time somebody accuses him of closing down a steel mill should say “Yeah, I'm that guy and you know what? I'd do it again. I'd hate to do it... I'd hate to do it, it would hurt, but somebody needs to go to Washington and I think I can replace most of these buildings in here with like three good web sites.”

We've got to change this country dramatically . He's that kind of guy. He does transformational things.

I don't know about anyone else but the kind of “transformation” that Castellanos is talking about here is not exactly the kind most Americans think is good for our country. If shutting down steel mills, outsourcing jobs to China, raiding pension funds, slashing wages, busting unions and lining your pocket while doing it is something he thinks Romney ought to be bragging about, I just wonder what anyone is smoking that would ever hire this guy.

If he really believes it's good advice that Romney should be playing the tough guy when it comes to shutting down industries in America and putting people out of work during his time at Bain Capital, someone's overpaying him to manage their political campaign if he can actually find work other than being an overpaid right-wing hack at CNN (or sadly a guest on Meet the Gregory a.k.a. Karl Rove's dance partner as well) these days. Perhaps this is just the song Mittens needs for his campaign to get America moving and groovin...apologies to the Was Bros, but hey if Mittens takes my advice, the royalties? just sayin....I Blew Up The United States, was(notwas) live 2007...added bonus, Pusherman from Superfly by Curtis Mayfield....Sweetpea Atkinson!

actually, I had to change my original version...
NEWT 20012 AMERICA MAH BITCH NOW!
but, I knew if you wanted to print it out and sport it on your
Chevy's bumper, you might have a problem.

KIM DOTCOM

I'm in Europe and enjoy an internet connection much faster than most Americans and have profited from a very competitive Internet market. I get ADSL, Internet Telephone and a TV hookup for about 25 US Dollars a month. Believe it or not, there are a few providers out there who want to sell me cheaper service. More so, I live in an extremely rural location....we are in the hinterlands as far as Digital TV is concerned...my digital signal has to compete with the strange interference waves generated by the DC cow electrical wire security systems which I self administer electro shock therapy to myself with occasionally. So, internet is my link to the rest of the world. I go to the big city to see movies, but I have discovered the joy of streaming films. I don't do it often, but there are so many possibilities. I watched the new J Edgar film a few weeks ago and then realized that it hadn't even been released here in France yet. 
Yes, I have a few moral reservations about the strict morality of viewing films free on line. I have many friends involved in the film industry. I worked on the fringes of the legitimate film industry for many years...But, I believe in the future and the evolution of internet technology and the entertainment industry. One hand washes the other. 
I totally support internet freedom. I followed the MegaUpload case from its inception in the USA. After the defeat of the SOPA/PIPA legislation due to the massive education of the public and the active participation by most of the internet last week, it was very interesting to see the US Justice Department take down of MegaUpload.
 Putting aside whether Megaupload is truly dangerous and a pirate haven or not, it didn't cause the global economic collapse.  Yet it was shut down last week, while the barons of Wall Street remain unscathed.

Megaupload had nothing to do with the ugly unemployment numbers that are likely to stick around for years. It had nothing to do with families being thrown out of their homes. It had nothing to do with retirement accounts being slashed in half. It had nothing to do with the rapidly increasing divide between the middle class and the super-rich. It had nothing to do a lousy economy that is going to hang around for many more years. How is it possible that the feds can organize a global program to hunt down the owners of a Web site and shut it down (protecting the 1%) when they can't even be bothered to prosecute Wall Street for ruining the economy (again protecting the 1%)?

Outside of the movie and music industry, few give a damn about Megaupload - but everyone still cares a lot about the crisis that Wall Street brought down on our heads and pocketbooks. We also continue to be upset that Wall Street bonuses - even though they are being reduced - will still be considerably more than most Americans can expect to get for years to come. Even people working in industries with similar experience and backgrounds don't make the crazy money that is still being offered on Wall Street. As a rough analogy, since antipiracy crusaders are fond of equating filesharing with shoplifting: suppose the CEO of Wal-Mart came to Congress demanding a $50 million program to deploy FBI agents to frisk suspicious-looking teens in towns near Wal-Marts. A lawmaker might, without for one instant doubting that shoplifiting is a bad thing, question whether this is really the optimal use of federal law enforcement resources. The CEO indignantly points out that shoplifting kills one million adorable towheaded orphans each year. The proof is right here in this study by the Wal-Mart Institute for Anti-Shoplifting Studies. The study sources this dramatic claim to a newspaper article, which quotes the CEO of Wal-Mart asserting (on the basis of private data you can't see) that shoplifting kills hundreds of orphans annually. 

It was also very interesting to see the immediate action by Anonymous in taking our the US Department of Justice and the RIAA websites. As far as I am concerned, the action by Anonymous was the equivalent of a playful warning shot over the bow of a little schooner. The real message was, you fuck with us, you enact PIPA/SOPA, you take out the internet and rebuild it, and a few months later you'll have to it again and again. You cannot afford to fuck with us.
But MegaUploads had to go. They were a real time criminal enterprise and living too large. They weren't just selling movies illegally, they were laundering money on a massive scale. 
 There are plenty of players in the no-questions-asked online storage game: HulkShare, MediaFire, YouSendIt. They're all staples of web sharing—and they're all still up and running today. Partly because they're smaller than Megaupload, partly because they're smarter, but mostly because they're don't operate like sloppy drug kingpins.

Ha Haaaa

Gingrich wins in South Carolina. Perhaps, now we're gonna see the real Mitt!

I am presently writing a musical version of the Republican Primary Race to be directed by Lars Von Trier.