A Future Lost

Actually, at the time, I officially hated disco music...but I was a closet Chic fan...and when the big gross commercial rock acts like, uhhh, Kiss made there tentative forays into disco, well there was some kind of a perverse thrill for me...Then I moved to NYC and started playing and writing rock music and seeing the interaction between club music and punk/no wave...it was a very licentiously fertile and incestuously miscegenatious musical atmosphere.  Anything could happen and it did. Perhaps the band that most successfully proved that all things were possible, aside from David Bowie, was Roxy Music. Roxy Music was so conceptually advanced that they could become all things....and you could always dance to the beat. Brian Eno, who left the band to blaze his own artistic path into the future said about the Donna Summer piece I posted here, I Feel Love, "When I heard this, I realized I heard the next 25 years of the future of Club Music". Eno was right, because what Giorgio Moroder created with Madame Summers here did change the face of Dance Music forever. This was the birth of Techno....Moroder was a genius....

But a lot has changed since Donna held the spotlight.

My attitude towards the entire Disco era, for one thing. My wife, who I will humbly admit is a lot smarter than I am, adored Donna Summer and Grace Jones. We worked together back then, We played in a rock band, then later worked together composing music for Dance performances and Plays. She was so much more eclectic in her tastes and influences. I was always always so Ramones and Clash and Gang of Four-but when I think about it now, there were some truly talented people back then. Songs, though they were teeth-grinding repetitive, were actually arranged well. The people playing the instruments knew what they were doing. This gradually filtered through my skull. I programmed drum machines, came up with bass hooks and guitar lines....I got slicker and slicker with out realizing what an influence my wife was exerting on my soft and porous skull....
But, then, Donna Summer could sing. There is no doubt about that. When I compare the pop of then to the favored performers of today, like superstar/white trash who deserves to be in a trailer park somewhere Katy Perry, there simply is no comparison.
But there were a lot of other things notable about that era that are gone from this world we live in now.
I knew people in the mid-1970s who actually managed to eke out a living on minimum wage. You weren’t going to get rich, or even comfortable, but you were going to survive. I know, I did as an independent artist living in New York...it would be impossible now to do what I did.
I also saw less homeless people in that era; even the derelicts all lived somewhere. They didn’t always go home every night, but they all had that option. The cities were very different places then. Squattin was an option! That's how communities like SOHO were created....people could live outside of the system and then negotiate.....
Young people, like me, still had a lot of optimism that our lives would turn out all right. Sure, we’d seen the oil shocks, and the inflation, and the cyclical layoffs, but there was a general optimism that things would right themselves, because they always did. This was before Saint Ronnie appeared, and enacted tax and budgetary policies that did things like empty out the mental hospitals, and freeze the minimum wage until you couldn’t feed a cat on it. Sure, the rich got richer, but the poor got a hell of a lot poorer. The morons that try to re-enact the visage of Jimmy Carter as an unfavorable likeness for the present President either didn’t live in the 1970s and know nothing about it, or are in denial about how things really were then, or are idiots. Carter’s era was the last one in which the American working people held their own, except for a little spurt at the end of the Clinton era. And that was after Clinton’s tax policies took hold, too. Imagine that! But, I digress…
We were, in general, trying to find our way forward then. We were having discussions about race issues, instead of trying to demonize minorities (and make no mistake, “crossover” artists like Donna Summer did a LOT to get that conversation going.) We were trying to figure out how to clean up the air and the water, instead of trying to find new ways to undermine the environmental regulations that we put in place in that era. We were committed to making sure that people didn’t die from a lack of medical care, instead of cheering the suggestion that an uninsured man ought to just die. We’d have been appalled to find out that 1 in 6 of us went hungry at some point in time over the last year.
Yeah, we lost Donna, and that is most certainly a damn shame. Especially if she was right about contaminants from September 11 being the cause of her illness and I have personally lost a few very close friends from the same type of lung cancer she died from. All lived in the plume of contaminants that swept up Broadway after 9/11.
But losing Donna makes me think about all of the other things we’ve lost since she was the Queen of Disco.

And it’s all very sad.

Terry Gilliam 1970

Terry Gilliam 1970...The boy genius from Minnesota explains how it's done...

You can't get a good noise of arms being ripped off from a disk!

He's So Damn Rich....

He's so damn rich....Mitt just doesn't even have to try anymore. Hell, he and his investors have been paying for his inherent right to be president for what...8 years now...it doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't matter what you want...Mittens is the fuckin president, okay? At a press conference in Florida today, Romney repeated that he “repudiated” the Wright attack. But when asked about his comments on Hannity’s show, Romney said he stood by them, even though he said he couldn’t remember them:

ROMNEY: I’m actually gonna — I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was. I’ll go back and take a look at what was said there.

According to percentages, most Americans will not only not be rich, but will in fact go through their lives without even knowing anyone really rich. This explains why Mitt Romney can be a perplexing individual for average Americans to understand. You’d be thrilled if you found $250. He’s worth $250 million. There’s just no way to relate.
Luckily for Americans, we have all been exposed to literally hundreds of millionaires and billionaires via television and movies. While this may seem an odd way to learn about a candidate for President, the fact remains that most Americans are informed about this planet via fiction.
Thus, here are the Top-10 most intriguing and interesting TV and Movie Rich people, as well as the qualities they share with Willard Mitt Romney?
Bruce Wayne
Batman


A billionaire playboy, Wayne saw his parents get murdered when he was just a child. Inheriting his wealth, Wayne decided to become the world’s greatest crime fighter. Incredibly intelligent and handsome, Wayne has amazing courage. Despite never being able to adequately explain what the deal was with Robin, Wayne manages to have a strong public image and is well-regarded among all social classes. Also, he’s freaking Batman.
Romney Qualities: None. Not even a little bit.

Thurston Howell, III
Gilligan’s Island


Howell was only referenced as “The Millionaire” in the opening of the credits of the show, which was back in the days when “millionaire” was a pretty impressive thing. His elitism was unstoppable, to the point that he and his wife packed a ridiculous amount of clothing for what was supposed to be just a three-hour tour. Even on an island where money meant nothing, Howell lived life as he always had – as a superior being who was at the top of the social class. The rest of the castaways – apparently conditioned to treat the rich as their superiors – treat him as though his being rich in the real world matters. Howell once owned Denver. One of the bigger mysteries of the whole show was what he and his wife were doing on a crappy tour boat surrounded by plebes.
Romney Qualities: While far nicer and more likable than Romney, both share a complete lack of awareness to the world in general. Also, both graduated from Harvard.

Gordon Gekko
Wall Street


“Greed is good,” said Gekko in 1987 and the phrase immediately became the motto for the United States. For some reason, being a super-rich creep who screwed anyone to make more money became the model for true Americans. Because Gekko was super creepy. From dating models to owning ridiculous boats to just being a self-loving douchebag, Gekko was everything a human really wouldn’t want to be. Self-absorbed with a complete lack of empathy, Gekko was a waste of an incredible mind. Forget Ronald Reagan, Gordon Gekko is the father of modern conservatism.
Romney Qualities: Stir in some Mormonism and remove some intelligence and they’re roughly the same person.

Mr. Potter
It’s a Wonderful Life


Easily the most constipated man in the history of entertainment, Potter could only be more evil if he snacked on baby while destroying the dreams of average, hard-working types. Potter has two goals in life – Make all the money in the world and own the Bailey family’s crappy Building & Loan operation. He travels in a wheelchair only because hovercrafts had yet to be invented. He will gladly cheat to gain financial advantages. Just a really big asshole.
Romney Qualities: They may as well be the same person.

Lisbeth Salander
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


Worth more than $2.4 billion, Salander had an abusive childhood and bears the mental scars. Like Romney, she is hard to peg, but while Romney is a blank slate, she is a cornucopia of complexity. She is a pierced, tattoo’d, bisexual computer hacking genius that uses her power and resources for good. Don’t cross her. Like a modern-day, hyper-cool chick Batman, she will get her justice.
Romney Qualities: Mitt Romney has a tattoo of Milton Friedman on his ass.

Hannibal Lecter
Silence of the Lambs


Despite spending a good chunk of his adult life in prison, Lecter was obviously a shrewd investor and manipulator of markets. How rich was he? Who knows? But the guy lived large. A one-time psychiatrist, Lecter has a taste for the finer things in life, including human flesh. An incredibly intelligent man, Lecter manages to be charming despite the fact he’s one of the most heinous killers ever put to film. Remember this dirty little secret? In the book version, he and agent Clarice Starling become lovers and live together in Argentina.
Romney Qualities: Romney once ate a census taker’s liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. I shit you not.

Tony Stark
Ironman


Like many on this list and Romney himself, Stark had to step out of his father’s shadow. Once a carefree billionaire making weapons to destroy America’s enemies real and perceived, Stark found the light, invented an awesome suit, and became one of the world’s great crime fighters. A true genius, Stark is equally adept at charming ladies as he is inventing things that have no business being invented.
Romney Qualities: If Romney had access to the Iron Man suit, this planet would be a charred ember right about now.

Scrooge McDuck
Disney


In keeping with their modern tradition of making everyone annoyingly lovable, Disney has tamed McDuck over the years, making him more of a good all-around person. But the fact is, at the height of his powers, McDuck had more money than anyone on the planet and was a miserly jerk. McDuck once used hired thgugs to destroy an African village in order to reap its rubber. He owned a private zoo that included the world’s last unicorn. He was a ruthless, money-making machine. Also, he was a duck.
Romney Qualities: Mitt Romney is not a duck.

Mom
Futurama


The owner of MomCorp, Mom is the richest person in the future, by far. Weilding un-Godly power, Mom makes it her business to get into everyone`s business in order to profit and to torment her former lover Professor Herbert Farnsworth. Commits almost constant acts of abuse on her adult children, and very possibly straps them to the roof of her car during long trips. Tries to maintain a solid public image despite only caring about herself. Her hair hasn’t moved in centuries.
Romney Qualities: These two share so much in common, it has been speculated that Romney has probably also had a stormy affair with Farnsworth.

Ty Webb
Caddyshack


The son of a wealthy man, Webb leads a free-spirited hedonistic life spent mostly at a country club his father co-founded. A genius golfer who doesn’t bother keeping score, Webb shows an ease around non-club members that belies his wealth. he takes young caddie Danny under his wing, helping the young golf phenom reach new heights. He even takes time to talk with greenskeeper Carl Spackler, even though Spackler is obviously insane and possibly even dangerous. Webb openly detests the rich people that frequent the country club, and is generally disinterested in his own wealth, leaving large uncashed checks laying around his apartment.
Romney Qualities: Ok, these two share nothing in common aside from the fact that reportedly in real life, both Chevy Chase and Mitt Romney are notable dicks.

Django Reinhardt J'attendrai Swing

The 59th anniversary of Django Reinhardt's death. Yes, he only had two good fingers on his fretting hand.

His other two were damaged in a fire when he was a young man. Stephan Grapelli was active until

the 1980s! Gypsy Swing!

Europe Fast Forward

Fast forwarding from ca 1000 AD until 2003 showing Europe's shifting borders, alliances, unions, territories, occupied land etc.

Ah Kin Doo Thet....

This was all over the place last week. I took a look at that sucker and thought, sheeit, if thet's all it takes to  get a bunch of geeks to start gawkin' and thinkin the way you want them to...
well,  I kin doo thet too.... In fact I kin be as stoopid as it takes and stoopider even still!

The Big Lawn Of History

Today, Francois Hollande became the 9th President of the 5th Republic of France. He succeeded Nicolas Sarkozy who has the distinction of being the most rapidly disposed of President of the 5th Republic. It was Sarkozy who imposed a 5 year term on the Presidency, it had been 7 years before him. Well, in one of the last official statements Sarkozy made as president in an interview, he rather inelegantly stated..."Just wait, in a year, the French people will miss me." 
Well we've placed him in a forgotten corner on the big lawn of history. Hopefully, for his sake, when we finally get around to mowing that lost corner of the lawn, we will miss the little dwarf.......

More Joy Of Conservatism Even

"Grand Old Party" is a data visualization project. It is also a set of butt plugs.
Download Catalogue w/ detailed specs.
Each shape is determined by voter approval ratings amongst registered republican voters for each of the GOP presidential candidates. The height is a measurement of time, beginning December 10, 2011 and ending on April 1, 2012 (bottom to top). The width of each object is the quantity by percentage (out of 100%) of approval for that candidate. All data comes directly from Gallup polls.
Pricing
Single piece: $65 ($45 for Perry or Bachman)
Entire set: $350 (with optional case for additional $40)
email : (matthewepler@gmail.com) for more info or to place an order. All orders come with accompanying diagram as seen in slideshow (8x10).

Good Morning, Mumbai!

A student diploma film directed by Rajesh Thakare and Troy Vasanth from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Thanks to my nephew, Tom in Bangkok for sending me this lincredible
animated film!

Sacre Melenchon

Francois Hollande will officially become President of France tomorrow. It is a big deal and has already caused shock waves that are being felt through out Europe. Even in the week before the transfer of power, the atmosphere here in France has changed.

But, though it is the crucial move of the game, it could be lost if the sense of change doesn't carry through into the June legislative elections. The Socialistes control the Senate, but the Senate is not where laws originate. Most of the representatives in the legislature are up for re election. The UMP has the majority now. The feeling is that the majority is in big trouble and there is a very good chance for the Socialistes and a coalition of the left to gain control in the legislature and on a local level.

In regarding the election of Hollande, you have to look at the particular chemistry of the votes. Western France and most of the big cities went strongly for Hollande. The support of Sarkozy was mainly in the more reactionary east. North Eastern France, the region around Calais is one of the strongest sources of support for the Far Right Nationalists, It is the power base of Le Front National. A crucial factor in the election was the amount of support that Sarkozy thought he could get from the Far Right. 

At the beginning of Sarkozy's 5 year administration, Le Front National was discredited and bankrupt. The old attack dog leader, Jean-Marie LePen had alienated most of France with his repeated outrageous racist denials of the Holocaust. The party had already become fractured and had a history of scandals that destroyed it from the inside, where ever they actually had gained office. They had to sell their main headquarters.

This changed rapidly as Sarkozy tried to pick up the pieces for his own political gain. He catered to and courted the Far Right as the power base that would ensure his re election and transformed the UMP into an increasingly Far Right Racist Nationalist Party. Of course, this only had the opposite effect. While he did take France radically to the Right and used the opportunity to try to destroy the unions, coop the justice system and protect the wealthy, he created a corrupt monster. The UMP became more like the Republican Party in America. The rhetoric they used daily only empowered and unleashed the racist demons lurking in the French Psyche. In effect, they recreated the Front National. The Front National had a new leader. The daughter of Jean-Marie LePen, Marine LePen. Marine is a lawyer and she learned how to speak the language of discontent and is a skilled populist orator. She has attempted to soften the image of the Front National, cloaking the old xenophobic manipulation in a veil of vague social reform and promises. If you read the actual social platform of the Front National, you might think, except for the religious and racist and anti homosexual crap, that they were left of the American Democrats. But that what fascism does best. Dissemble and make vague promises while manipulating the basist urges of the confused and economically dispossessed masses. The power base of the FN is the NorthEast. The equivalent of the Rust Belt...the highest unemployment in France. They blame the unemployment on the influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe and their oldest demon, Islamic North Africans.

So, Sarkozy counted on the votes of the FN members for his re election. He assumed that they would vote for him against Hollande. What he didn't count on was the true hatred of the FN for Sarkozy and in empowering them he gave them their shot at seizing power. In the crucial last week of the election, on May 1st, Marine LePen urged her followers at their Jeanne d'Arc rally in Paris to either abstain or vote blanc. Later in the week, she actually came very close to endorsing Hollande, saying he was the less of the two evils.
In the first tour of the Presidential Election, much was made of the strong showing of the Front National. The sensationalistic media touted it as the rise of the extreme right. They garnered 18% of the votes putting LePen in third place. At the same time, another phenomena was occurring. The polar opposite party, Le Front Gauche was galvanizing the same disaffected masses as LePen. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the Front Gauche and their presidential candidate is a Communist. He had been a Socialiste and actually had been Minister of Transportation in Mitterands government. He is actually an old friend and adversary of Francois Hollande. Le Front Gauche is the champion of the Unions. He is an extremely charismatic, witty character as well as a brilliant, fiery orator. As LePen rose in the polling, so did he. At times during the race, he was doing better than her. Until the last days of the First Tour, they were neck and neck. He held rallies all over France drawing crowds estimated between 20,000 and over 100,000 in April at the Bastille in Paris. There was a great series of debates and in depth interviews of the candidates on French Television...a prime time show that lasted 3 hours.
One night it was LePen and Melenchon...as I said 2 polar opposites addressing the same issues. They were supposed to debate, but LePen petulantly refused to debate. It was probably one of the biggest PR gaffes of her campaign. She said to Melenchon, "I'm not going to debate you. You treat me like I'm half crazy." Melenchon instantly shot back, "Well, I did leave you the best half!"
She pulled out a newspaper and started to read it on live TV as he tore into her for 20 non stop minutes.
Melenchon came in 4th after LePen. He told his supporters to vote for Hollande.
The show is not over, In the upcoming legislative election, Marine LePen is running for the seat in the Northern Calais Town of Henin-Beaumont. The FN is trying to maintain it's visibility and capitalize on its new populist image by trying to take as many seats as they can. Obviously, as leader of the party, Madame LePen's candidacy is a must win for it's credibility.
But surprise, guess who just announced his candidacy for the same seat? Jean-Luc Melenchon! The FN has been trying to establish itself in Northern france, but this is where the Unions were born, in the mines! This was traditionally the seat of Communist power for decades and has a very well organized party. Melenchon has a very good chance of winning and if he doesn't well, he will have provided france with some of the most entertaining political theater we have seen in decades! Sacre Melenchon!

Hundreds of pictures of Earth, each taken at about 6AM , showing the terminator - the day/night line - over the course of one year (2010sep-2011sep).

Taken by METEOSAT-9 Earth-observing satellite.

Time Is Tight

One of my true influences as a musician...I am a bass player...Donald "Duck" Dunn died yesterday in Tokyo. Playing with the great forever American Institution, Booker T and The MG's. Dunn always worked from the bottom up, my credo as a bassist. If you play bass, you are the distillation of the entire essence of musical and percussive energy. This piece, by Booker T and the MG's is such a perfect example of theory transformed into funky flesh! Thank you, Duck!

Goldfinger

Why I loved Blondie...Their cover of Goldfinger from a 1977 German TV Show.

It inspired me to do a pretty drunk punk version in the early 80's.

More Lies

Yes, it's the Honeybees, Ginger, MaryAnne and Lovey Howell, the wife of Thurston Howell III, dancing to the boss sounds of Liar, Liar by The Castaways, the groovy hit all the kids are groovin to...The big bad today type sorta hip sound of the new Romney Youth Movement!

I suppose all of us are, by now, used to politicians bending, twisting, spinning and throttling the truth.
Before our current president, there was George W. Bush who looked at truth like a butcher examines a side of beef before knife hits the flesh. He seemed to think the truth needed a lot of trimming and only about half was fit for public consumption.
Bill Clinton looked right into the camera lens and told the American people "I did not have sex with that woman" without so much as blinking a watery blue eye. Later he fell back on his personal- or perhaps a sort of hillbilly- definition of sex. ("That's not sex. We were just a-playin and a-foolin'")
The lies of George H. W. Bush are possibly some of the most shocking in American history but because he was so successful at covering most of them up we may never know the truth. His involvement in the Bay of Pigs, the Kennedy assassination, the naughty things he did with the CIA, and so many other exploits will require quite a monstrous backhoe to uncover them all.
Before that, Ronald Reagan told lies easily enough- about, for example, what he knew and what he did not know about shipping weapons to Iran- but then he was an actor and lying is part of the craft. The only time he got flustered was at press conferences when a grandfatherly smile and a witty retort just wasn't quite satisfactory.
Generally speaking, Americans are not so naive to expect their leaders to tell the absolute truth all the time. All in all, Jimmy Carter was probably the most honest of our recent presidents before Obama. However, when Carter bravely described the limits of American growth and materialism, the public found that truth was less preferable to the Reagan fantasy of a glorious American rebirth and a world ripe for conquest in the name of democracy. So, a wee too much truth cost Carter his re-election.
So it's rather hard to shock your average American when it comes to politician's fibbing. Sadly, we've grown all too accustomed to being lied to by our leaders.

Types of Lies
As one writer said, all lies are as corrosive as acid. They can "dissolve trust in a heartbeat." Yet not all lies are equal in the public mind.
Lying to avoid punishment or embarrassment, while it is definitely frowned upon, is at least understandable. People might have condemned Clinton for lying but facing that kind of public humiliation- (mostly of his own making) Clinton did what we expect. As former first lady and freelance sexologist, Barbara Bush remarked:
“Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is.”
(Everybody should be an authority on something I suppose. For Babs, it's bad oral sex.)
So, Clinton lied and most people understood his reasons, whether they approved or not. Again, there was Nixon who, in the Watergate scandal, lied about the cover-up and paid the price for it. But again, his motives were clear.
Much less understandable is another variety of lying. That is, lying for self- promotion or as a boast. That kind of lie is something that people seem much less likely to tolerate. I suppose it is because it is doubly insulting to the audience. Not only is he telling a needless lie designed at promoting his image, the liar is also implying that he believes his victims to be so stupid that they will swallow any tale he spins.
There's one other type of lie. It is the type that originates from a compulsive need. It goes beyond questions of morality and carries us into human psychology.
This is where Mitt Romney comes in.

Mitt's Memories
This year we have already seen some astounding manpulations of truth from the Republicans. The presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, has gone way past this expectation of routine dishonesty and into a much darker realm.
On Meet the Press, Mitt Romney told his interviewer that he was with his father when they marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.
He had earlier told the same story in a speech at College Station, Texas.
However the story began to unravel when a reporter began asking for the specifics, as journalists are wont to do occasionally. Turns out, Romney's memory of the event was apparently of the false variety.
Romney had obviously lifted the story from a 1967 source which contained a chapter on his father. As it turned out, the original reference was incorrect and Martin Luther King never marched in the town of Grosse Point as described. Furthermore, the local historian believed that George Romney never appeared at a protest, march, or rally in Grosse Pointe. Here's a more complete telling of the event and the non-event.
And that's not the first time, Romney has made up a fantasy about his childhood. He told Michigan voters about attending at the age of four Detroit's Golden Jubilee, celebrating the American automobile's 50th anniversary. One source reports it this way:
“My dad had a job being the grandmaster. They painted Woodward Ave. with gold paint,” Romney told a rapt Tea Party audience in the village of Milford Thursday night, reliving a moment of American industrial glory.
The Golden Jubilee described so vividly by Romney was indeed an epic moment in automotive lore. The parade included one of the last public appearances by an elderly Henry Ford.
And it took place June 1, 1946 — fully nine months before Romney was born.
Perhaps unfertilized eggs are people after all. This strange story at least gave the journalist an opportunity to flaunt his wit with this delicious remark:
The timelines suggest Romney could well have been conceived that day. But it is inconceivable he was actually there.
A Scary Question
What started out as "flip-flopping" - a polite euphemism- has become outright lying. But now, after witnessing what appears to be a pattern of being unable to tell the truth, is it time to question whether Mitt Romney might not have some kind of pathological condition?
While pathological lying is not formally considered a mental illness by psychologists, it is considered a symptom of other disorders. The Mayo Clinic categorizes pathological lying as belonging to the spectrum of behaviors known as Antisocial Personality Disorder. Here's a description, brought to you by the helpful people at the American Psychiatric Association.
Individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder frequently lack empathy and tend to be callous, cynical, and contemptuous of the feelings, rights, and sufferings of others. They may have an inflated and arrogant self-appraisal (e.g., feel that ordinary work is beneath them or lack a realistic concern about their current problems or their future) and may be excessively opinionated, self-assured, or cocky. They may display a glib, superficial charm and can be quite voluble and verbally facile (e.g., using technical terms or jargon that might impress someone who is unfamiliar with the topic). Not particularly convincing, in my opinion. Nearly every politician in the last 100 years could fit into that category.
Here's is a checklist to determine whether a person is your run-of-the-mill type of lying SOB or a mythomaniac.
• Excessive lying that is easy to verify as untrue.Check.
• Lies are told that bring no benefit and may be harmful to the liar.Well, that's debatable. If Romney lies enough and is not caught, he could very well become president. Harmful to the liar, yes, but only if our mainstream media journalists awake from their childlike slumbers.
• The behavior is repeated again and again with no regard for consequences.Check. But then that's also called the campaign trail.
• Pathological liars often can't seem to tell truth from lies and may contradict themselves when questioned. Hmm.. that's seems to be true in Romney's case too. What do you think? The Republican party's general policy of abandoning the truth whenever pressed too much makes it nearly impossible to spot the truly pathology cases.

One thing is for certain: Mitt Romney's unnecessary lies should be extremely worrisome to the upper echelons of the Republican Party. Why? They ought to be used to hearing lies.. lots and lots of them, you might be saying.But, as Southern writer Dorothy Allison wrote:
“Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.”
The only question is whether the Mitt Romney mythology project will come apart before or afterNovember.

The Taiwanese Version

Liar Liar

This post is dedicated to Mitt Romney, who wouldn't be caught dead on the campaign trail unless  without his special Mormon underwear with the magic fire retardant properties

The Liar

Deceiver, dissembler

Your trousers are alight

From what pole or gallows

Shall they dangle in the night?

When I asked of your career

Why did you have to kick my rear

With that stinking lie of thine

Proclaiming that you owned a mine?

When you asked to borrow my stallion

To visit a nearby-moored galleon

How could I ever know that you

Intended only to turn him into glue?

What red devil of mendacity

Grips your soul with such tenacity?

Will one you cruelly shower with lies

Put a pistol ball between your eyes?

What infernal serpent

Has lent you his forked tongue?

From what pit of foul deceit

Are all these whoppers sprung?

Deceiver, dissembler

Your trousers are alight

From what pole or gallows

Do they dangle in the night?

William Blake 1810

Mittens 2012

The Prison Industrial Complex...explained again!

I found this rant excellent, you might not like his style, but the passion, facts and logic are exceptional!

 The US has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners. Why is this happening? 

[Get more at LeeCamp.net]

Le Vie En Rose

✿ Hollande voit la vie en rose par cocobrownlasectedupal

Well the rose is the symbol of the Socialiste Partie. A simple ensemble playing the classic song in the style of a Bal de Musique, the apotheosis of Sarkozy's orgy of materialistic bling and legendary obscene party at Fouquets in Paris after his election in 2007. This was the scene last night in Tulle, France in the Correze where Francois Hollande delivered his first speech as the new President of France. Tulle is not a large town, but it is the home and center of Hollandes life. And, of course, Tulle is the accordion capitol of France! In spite of the vicious illegally funded and media controlled campaign of bile and misinformation waged by the UMP, Hollande managed to win. It was as if the windows were thrown opened and the stale noxious atmosphere of 5 years of Sarkozyism were dispersed in the fresh air. A government which was drifting more and more to the far right, using racism, nationalism, religion, fear and economic destabilization as political tools to establish a death grip on power is gone. We can start breathing freely again.
The real path to Hollandes victory was through the ballot box. The voter turn out in the election was the highest in recent history. 81% of the registered voters cast ballots. In France, the process is very open. We are encouraged to vote. If you cannot physically be present to vote, the process of appointing someone to legally vote for you is relatively simple. There are no voting machines to hack. In most cases, the ballots are dropped into a glass tank in full view. The counting process is open to all citizens to witness. That's how elections work. That's where power really lies in a true democracy. That's the most alarming problem with America today.
Voter apathy coupled with the actual disenfranchisement of large portions of the population are keeping many Americans from participating in their democracy, even if they wanted to. Thanks to a sluggish economy, and restrictive voter identification laws from Republican lawmakers, voter registration is down for the first time in years. In particular, registration among African Americans and Latinos has taken a plunge:
Together, the number of registered blacks and Hispanics across the country declined by 2 million from 2008 to late 2010, when the Census Bureau collected the data through its Current Population Survey.
The figure among blacks is down 7 percent, to just over 16 million. Among whites, it dropped 6 percent to 104 million.
Among Latinos, the decline has altered a trend line of steady growth. Given that 12 million Latinos were registered to vote in 2008, some analysts had projected the number would grow to 13 million in 2010 and 14 million this election cycle. Instead, it fell in 2010 to 11 million.
I don't feel this means doom for President Obama’s reelection effort. The Obama campaign has spent millions of dollars on building field offices, registering voters, and navigating the new laws. My hunch is that, at the end of the day, these restrictions won’t have as much as affect as we think on the Obama campaign’s ability to mobilize minority voters.
Of course, the horse race is the least important aspect of this development; what should worry everyone is the degree to which the Republican Party has normalized the idea that there ought to be voter restrictions. Remember, voter fraud is virtually nonexistent; between 2002 and 2007, the Justice Department failed to prosecute a single person for impersonating another voter. But rather than confront the reality of voter security, proponents of voter ID push faulty analogies; we check ID for cigarettes and ‘R’-rated movies, why should we leave it at the door when for voting?
The easy (and correct) answer is that voting is a right of citizenship, and restrictions—even if they sound reasonable—do nothing but limit the voices that have input in our democracy. Indeed, as the Washington Post shows, the actual effect of voter ID laws is to make voting rights contingent on race and income. If you’re poor, a minority, or both, it is now harder for you to vote than if you were better off and white.
Americans love to call theirs the greatest democracy in the world, but as long as we actively work to disenfranchise our fellow citizens, there’s no way that we have a claim on “great,” much less good. You will never have a real working democracy that can effect change if you turn back the clock and make voting a right of race and class. When voting becomes a tactic of manipulation for those that assume they are the privileged class to sieze and hold onto power, the entire system is degraded and will inevitably collapse. Democracy is a system that must constantly renew itself if it will succeed!

The First Official Congratualtion

General Aladeen is the first world leader to officially congratulate Francois Hollandaise on his

historic victory!

Actually, we are over joyed with Hollandes victory. This is the end of 5 years of destructive, divisive, and frankly fascistic policies. Also, the beginning of the prosecution of one of the most corrupt administrations in the history of modern France. Francois Holland spoke in Tulle an hour ago and I have tried to translate his remarks:

“The French have chosen change in me with the presidency of the Republic. I appreciate the honor done to me and the task before me.I pledge to serve my country with dedication and exemplary function required. I extend a hello Republican Nicolas Sarkozy, who deserves our respect.I express my gratitude to all those and all those who by their votes, have made the victory possible. Many have been waiting for this moment for many years. Other, younger, had never known. I am proud to have been able to restore hope.I imagine their excitement tonight, I share it, I feel. That emotion should be that of dignity, pride, responsibility. The change must be equal to France and it will start now.

To voters who have not given me their vote, they know that I respect their belief and that I will be president for all. Tonight there are no two faces of France but a nation united in the same fate.Everyone will be treated on equal rights and duties. No child of the Republic will be left out or discriminated against. And the promise of success will be honored for the completion of each. Too many fractures, wounds, ruptures have been allowed to separate us. We have reached the end.The first duty of the president is to reassemble and meet the challenges ahead. Recovery of our production to take our country out of crisis. Deficit reduction, preservation of the social model to protect the public service, equality of all our territories. Educational focus, the schools of the Republic, will be our commitment. The reorientation of Europe for employment growth, the future.

Today when the French elected me president of the République, I ask to be judged on justice and youth.I have confidence in France, I know it well. I traveled over France, witnessing the suffering, the difficulties of the people. I was able to measure all the assets, strengths, the chances of our country.I know we will recover, we have always done in our history and we will succeed again in the next five years.

Human dignity, equality between men and women, that is how I have accomplished my mission.The French dream is our history: progress. Give our children a better life than ours. It is this dream that I will try to accomplish with the mandate I was given.

I realize that Europe is watching us. When the result was declared, I’m sure it was a relief and a hope in many countries. It is the mission which now is mine and that’s what I say as soon as possible to my European partners.We are France and President of the Republic, I will come back to carry the aspirations of the people of France.May 6, must be a milestone for our country a fresh start for Europe and a new hope for the world.

I love my country, I love France and I want trust between us all.
I am a socialist, I always wanted the us to be to the left but we all are Republicans. (translation note: not in the American GOP sense…but as citizens of the republic)Finally, I salute my department of Correze. I owe you everything, you have always given me your votes.Now I am in the service of France. I serve the Republic, France with the causes and values ​​I brought. Long live the Republic and long live France! “

Our In Flight Entertainment

While we are waiting for the results of the French Presidential Election in another 2 hours or so, let's 

watch this Tex Avery Cartoon from 1953 about the fabulous world of tomorrow!

BTW, Carla is wearing a very sad mousey grey Jackie Kennedy style outfit, which might be more telling than any other physical sign at this moment. Well, there are hundreds of journalists in the Rue Solferino and cranes erecting giant video screen at the Bastille....The UMP Thugs are booking flights to places where they won't be extradited from.....

I feel good, I feel very good, I feel just like James Brown....

Hey Mitt, Go Fuck Yerself....

Hey, I usually don't drink and well, I try not to use coarse language, at least when their are women and children in the room, and usually, when people attack me like this I work it off by building houses for folks and readingGoodnight Moon to little baby goats at this petting zoo near my house. But Rosalynn's on a trip with relatives, and... and I just got to thinking about some of the stuff that's being said out there. Anyway, next thing I know, I'm back from the package store, and the Wild Turkey isn't even out of the bag, but I've already had a few. Lemme just get this out, before I overthink it.
Mr. Romney, I would like to sincerely and cordially invite you to go fuck yourself. Is that clear enough? As a longtime peace negotiator I'm always trying to find exactly the right words to convey the full nuance of what I'm trying to communicate. So let me add that I hope you get beaten in this race in an ugly and embarrassing spectacle, and that it actually causes you to soil your shorts in public, you smarmy, creepy, robotic freak.

I know your handlers are making you throw my name out there as a sort of catchall term for liberal wimp, so you can link me to Obama. Those handlers can go fuck themselves too by the way.
Let me see if I got this: You're calling me a wuss, because of the hostage crisis and the failed rescue mission. Because I didn't go in there and just bomb the crap out of everything that moved, crush the government, and bring back whoever survived. And that I often used restraint, and I always tried to negotiate instead of sending in the Marines, and so I wasn't a strong leader, like Ronald Reagan. Is that the narrative?
Yeah, well, here's something you and Reagan and most of the 2012 GOP candidates all have in common. You motherless jagoffs have never put on a uniform. I actually served in a goddamn submarine - do you have any idea how small and claustrophobic those bastards are, and how unnerving it is to be out there under enough water to kill you if something goes wrong? Military people of all branches live with the constant threat of death, and so when you become the Commander in Chief your job is to not treat them like extras in an over budget action film. Sometimes I think I'm the last president who realized that.
The other fact that has not yet dawned on you is that every action you take has consequences that last long after you're gone. The whole reason we were in a conflict with the Iranians in 1979 was that back in 1953 the CIA thought it'd be cute if we toppled their government and help put in the Shah. That's why they're a pain in our balls, even now. They're mad at how we don't treat the lives of people in their country - hell, the whole region - like they're actually worth something.
Instead of blowing stuff up, I got the Soviets to sign an agreement on human rights at the Helsinki Accords. Everyone called me King of the Pussies for that one. You know who didn't?Lech Walesa. In Robert Gates's spy memoir, he talks about how Walesa said the agreement gave dissident groups in Poland a way to begin attacking the brutal regime in their country. Gates also writes that an entire generation of dissidents in Russia itself say it inspired them to push for change. So we did something smart. We did something right. And no one had to put a hundred thousand troops in harm's way or create a secret prison so we could waterboard people.
By the way, you know why I treated foreigners like their lives were worth something? Because I was the first modern evangelical president. I actually have a relationship with Jesus. And contrary to what you may have heard at your GOP fundraisers, He's actually not that big on indiscriminate killing. You right wing folks say you're all up in His grill, but I honestly don't even recognize the violent, bigoted hillbilly you assholes pray to.
Anyway, I gotta clean up. Rosalynn'll be home soon and there are Slim Jim wrappers everywhere. But think about what I said, Mitt. You're going to lose this thing and lose it bad. And when you do, maybe try to learn a little from it, okay?
Jesus loves you. I may want to cock punch you myself, but He is good that way. He got me through that rabbit thing. He'll get me through this. And Tylenol will help.
Peace.

Noir Desire

Here's a live clip from the great French Rock Band, Noir Desire from 2001.

Bernard Cantat and his friends from Bordeaux were one of the most powerfully creative forces in French music in the 90's into the early 2000's. At the peak of their success, they confronted the powerful media industry figure Jean-Marie Messier as he presented them with the French version of a Grammie...La Victoire de Musique with a powerful damning indictment of his strangle hold on the industry. 

Tragically, a few months later, Cantat was in a Romanian Prison for the accidental death of his girl friend, the actress, Marie Trintignant. That was the effective end of this band. Perhaps we will never know the real facts in Maries's death and perhaps Bernard will never either. Please visit my friend. Clement's blog, Musicoldnews, for a pretty good sampling of the bands music. They collaborated with Leonard Cohen, 16 Horsepower and the Gun Club. Cantat recorded in English occasionally, but Desire Noir really made a very passionate case for the use of  the French language in Rock...Clements blog is a French blog, but he wrote this post in English, just for you!

Adam Rauch

The Beastie Boys, around 1982. This is the band I remember sharing stages with at The A7 and the Pyramid on Avenue A in the East Village. A real punk band that played their own instruments, the drummer later went on to play with Luscious Jackson.  Hard for me to believe that Adam Rauch was only 47...too young too hip too smart....Adam is the bass player in this version of the band.

Le Debat

Last night , we got to watch something that Americans will probably never see. A real down and dirty, face to face presidential debate. It was on all the major networks, prime time and lasted 3 hours. The UMP President Candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy went into the debate telling the press that he was going to "explode" his opponent, Socialiste Francois Hollande. Sarkozy debated Hollande's ex partner, Segolene Royal 5 years ago and narrowly won the presidency. During that debate, he was successfully able to exploit his attempt to make Segolene lose her temper and in the days following, the inherent sexism of the public and press. Interestingly enough, going into that debate, the polls had Sarkozy ahead by 4 points.
After the debate, the numbers did not change.
Going into this debate, the polling numbers were almost exactly the same, but this time it was Hollande who has the lead. Today after the debate, nothing really changed...for the time being. Hollande still holds the same lead. They say the debate never really changes anything, but there have been some pretty dramatic debates in the recent past. Mitterand /Balladur...when Mitterand, who was the underdog, slyly toyed with an envelope labeled "diamonds" during the debate. Balladur was facing a scandal involving illegal donations involving diamonds at the time. Mitterand won the presidency and was probably the most popular president of France's recent history.
Sarkozy is facing multiple scandals which would lead to his prosecution except for the fact that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted under French Constitutional law. The latest scandal involves the funding from Gadhaffi for his 2007 presidential campaign. That's getting very messy. He denies it, and claims he is suing the journalists who are making the charge. He claims the evidence is forged. The evidence is a letter from Gadhaffis' Foreign Minister who is now in prison awaiting trial. The journalists are counter suing Sarkozy for calumny. Implicated in the scandal are both the present Foreign Minister, Claude Gueant and the former Foreign Minister, Brice Hortefeux. The Foreign minister of course controls the "Secret Service". Today, making it even more interesting is the claim from Gadhaffi's prime minister, who is in prison in Tunisia, that he was at the meeting when the arrangements were made and to further muddy the waters, another player in the scandal, the Gadaffi's Oil Minister, Shokri Ghanem, who had been granted diplomatic immunity, was found mysteriously drowned in the Danube in Vienna on Tuesday.
This didn't come up in the debate last night, but it could have as at one point Sarkozy tried to smear Hollande with guilt by association by bringing up Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Hollande shot right back, "I was waiting for you to go there. Who appointed him to be head of the IMF? You know as much about DSK as I did and if you want to start bringing up scandals, where should I start?"
Hollande was like Muhammed Ali, he floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee. It was pretty amazing to watch the coolness and the razor aggressiveness. Hollande comes across as a pretty likable fellow, a trait that is exploited by his critics, but last night he defined himself as a tough dominant player.
Sarkozy was reduced to a parody of himself as performed by the political humorists who have his tics and gestures down to an art. He was reduced ti calling Hollande a little liar and arrogant. Of course, in calling Hollande a liar, it only gave Hollande a chance to prove his point in demolishing Sarko's arguments. The debate covered all aspects of politics, economy and foriegn policy.
In todays fall out in the French press, Hollande is being called the winner by both the editorialist and analysts on the left and right. He had a huge rally in Toulouse this evening and Francois Bayrou, the PollyAnna of French politics even gave his endorsement to Hollande. The kicker was Marine LePen, who Sarkozy's UMP was desperately trying to court, making the statement today that stopped short of an endorsement, but saying of the two candidates, Hollande was the better. On Tuesday, she urged her followers to vote blanc...or abstain.
Yesterday morning, I awoke with angst. I still have the feeling that if I am too positive that I could jinx the election, but I will admit, tonight I have considerably less angst. It was a nice day, the sun came out.
I mowed the lawn.

Happy Mother Fucking May Day!
We Will Always Fight For the Right Reasons!
The Struggle Will Never End!
The People Will Always Eventually Win!

Clairvivre

Right Across The Valley, La Cite Sanitaire de Clairvivre

I have to admit that I am in a comatose state walking the high tension tightrope of the French Presidential Election and trying to think about American politics. I start writing and then I get sidetracked and sometimes I just get so pissed off that I cannot be coherent. Then there is the rain. It has been raining here almost nonstop for the last 3 weeks. We went from drought warnings to flood warnings. It has been a truly bizarre period of weather. After an unusually warm winter; many people were worried that their fruit trees were blooming in January, we had a brutal cold snap. A week in march with sustained sub freezing temperatures not seen since the early 1990's. Then it got hot...I was actually getting a nice tan in late March. Plants started to grow again. Then, another brutal unexpected cold snap that took a lot of tender spring growth. It was strange here...I lost all of my kiwis, but my mirabelle plums are just fine. I think I will have my best strawberry crop ever. But all the early 2012 weather was extremely dry. My pond had totally dried up. Now it's beyond full, the valley below me is flooded. It's been raining non stop for 3 weeks. I can't ride my bike so I have to invent new forms of abuse for my stomach muscles. At this time last year, I was working on the 22 hectares of grapes at Chateau Vieux Chevrol. They are waiting for the grapes to recover from their traumatic early pre growing season  It's making me crazy.
So, I am into horticultural therapy.  I have been buying new plants. Each spring we go to La Cite Sanitaire de Clairvivre, across the valley from Badefols d'Ans. You could walk there if you had an afternoon. If there were straight roads here, you could drive there in 10 minutes, but there are probably only 2 straight roads in the Dordogne.
We see Clairvivre on the hillside on the other side of the huge valley gleaming white at is ascends the ridge through the foret de Born. Clairevivre was established in 1931. It is an almost utopian cite radieux.
It was founded by a visionary doctor, Albert Delsuc and designed by the architect Pierre Forestier for the survivors of WW1 gas attacks and the treatment of TB. They tried to create a place where the victims of pulmonary disease could be treated and rehabilitate themselves in a communal setting with their families.

The Art Deco Central Re education and administration Center.

most of the homogenous deco architecture is painted white,
 but many are attractive pastels.

The plans from the late 30's showing the layout of the cite...

Originally Clairvivre was planned to have a development of over 500 dwellings but the cost proved too prohibitive so the project was scaled down to 200 dwellings. Workers from Albania, Italy, Poland, Germany, Algeria, and some locals worked day and night to acheive Albert Delsuc's goal. Surely this truly socialist idea was a blueprint for future projects and an example of true europeanism in action; somewhat different from the more egocentric and presciptive arrangement most of us have to work with today. Strange to think that in the six short years from the completion of Clairvivre the workers responsible for the construction would be killing each other as that particular part of the european dream disappeared down the sewers of history. As with most sanatoriums the houses and bungalows were built with a southerly aspect so patients could benefit from the maximum amount of sunshine and fresh air, at that time one of the standard treatments for diseases such as TB. They all enjoyed open terraces and balconies and it's not hard to imagine injured and diseased patients sunning themselves whilst enjoying the magnificent views and silence of a Dordogne forest. But don't think they were too isolated, Clairvivre enjoyed state of the art technology, each dwelling place benefitting from a four ring electric stove and 
oven, fridge and running hot and cold water. Separate systems were installed to deal with rainwater collection, sewage and wastewater. All the waste was processed on site by a fully biological sewage treatment system. The site enjoyed its own telephone switchboard for communication with the outside world, along with its own post office. This city in the forest also had a full range of shops selling luxury items such as cameras and radio sets. In 1939 the University Hospital of Strasbourg established a centre for recuperation at Clairvivre and in June 1940 shortly after the German occupation of France, Irène Joliot-Curie began experiments with radium here. This work unfortunatley left a hazadous legacy which was only established and rectified as recently as 2003. The inaugauration of July 30 1933 sounded like a party not to be missed. Present were detachments of the French Republican Guard along with one from their Scottish counterparts, the Scottish Guards. There was a water festival with Gala and fireworks and apparently during the celebrations six thousand bottles of Chambertin were downed. The local peasant farmers must have wondered what was going on and the disparity with the lives they lived. Whilst they lived in conditions not too dissimilar to the middle ages, the folk up at Clairvivre were partying, cooking on four ring electric stoves with ovens, washing in hot water and enjoying indoor flushing toilets.

Interior of one of the 7 huge Greenhouses open for business

Today Clairvivre fulfills another function as well as continuing in its social role as a centre of re-education. As in the past people can still come here to learn new skills such as working in wood or electrical mechanics whilst for those wishing to be re-trained in agriculture or horticulture there is a farm where pigs and fowl are raised and vast greenhouses where various plants and crops are grown.

That's how we learned about Clairvivre. The beautiful well maintained art deco green house complex is one of the most beautiful facilities of its kind I have ever seen. I bought another great rose today, a variety called Honore de Balzac. Last year I bought a Victor Hugo. The Victor Hugo is incredible with huge deep red blossoms all season. I bought a few flowering tobaccos...they were so cheap. I got my aubergines, basil to replace all the seedlings that got wiped out in the cold snap, batavia lettuce, purple flowing sage, a lot of little fill flowing plants like begonias and impatiens, some other foliage plants for the planters and huge pink and white fuschia. I had to restrain myself, because we are getting all of our tomatoes, zuchinnis and peppers from friends who have their own huge green house. I already have my potatoes in the cave ready to plant. I bought all new spunta stock this year. I had been using my own spuntas as seed potatoes, but it's good to renew the stock from time to time. 
My morning in Clairvivre, in spite of the rainy drizzle was very rewarding. A trip to another world, where a true socialist humanitarian utopian dream was realized and still successfully exists after 80 years on a sunny hillside in a forest in the Dordogne.