RelentlesslyOptimistic

Fox News begins catapulting the propaganda to justify attacking Iran and Syria

Most intelligence experts believe that Osama Bin Laden is in Pakistan near the border with Afganistan. Agitprop, the source of this post (and the images below) said that yesterday on Your World With Neil Cavuto on Fox:

Fox News Military Analyst Lt. Gen. Paul Vallely claimed that Osama has been hiding in safe houses outside of Tehran. Vallely also believes that Iran is the "center of terror today" and advocated applying the Bush doctrine to the Islamic republic.

The other guest was Ken Timmerman, a conservative author and former GOP Senate candidate in Maryland. Timmerman claims to have testimony from Iranian defectors about Bin Laden's networks and safe houses within Iran. He also believes that Iraq's WMD were moved to Syria. Watch the clip for yourself, it's located on the right of the page.

Now that the intelligence and facts have been fixed around the policy, we're seeing the beginning of the Administration's catapulting of the propaganda that we need to justify attacking Iran.

This is consistent with Seymour Hersh's article last January and Scott Ritter's article in April, both of which claimed to have heard from intelligence sources that the Bush Administration planned to launch attacks on Iran in June.

 

Found Art Records

show and tell music has two very full galleries of thrift-store records, including three pages of "do-it-yourself" cover art. There's some amazing folk art here, so many that it was hard to make a choice for this post. The buddhist in the woods with a rabbit in his lap? The "Hot Bagel" cellist? The non-Elvis impersonator? There are even some downloadable MP3's!

Before my mom became a lesbian...

The mom in question is not mine, but Patrick Hughes' of Bad News Hughes, and that's the first line of the latest "Diary of Indignities." The kind of writing that makes you laugh out loud when you're alone is a treasure, even if it involves beatings, snot, blood and suburban pedophilic predators. Or maybe especially so.

Warning: if you're easily offended, pass on this one. Also, don't eat or drink while reading unless you like the feeling of things coming out your nose.

Courtney Love does the math

Courtney Love gets it. That's the essence of this entry - she understands that the purpose of art is to change people, and she understands how the internet can create a connection, a relationship between artists and fans to help change happen. As part of her June, 2000 description in this Salon story of what that might be like, she describes how it works now: a system that is so weighted towards record companies at the cost of the artists that it's appalling. So while I don't know if I've ever heard Courtney Love's music, after reading this I have to respect her as an artist.

Salon.com Technology | Courtney Love does the math.
And filters are replacing gatekeepers. In a world where we can get anything we want, whenever we want it, how does a company create value? By filtering. In a world without friction, the only friction people value is editing. A filter is valuable when it understands the needs of both artists and the public. New companies should be conduits between musicians and their fans. [emphasis added]
...
The present system keeps artists from finding an audience because it has too many artificial scarcities: limited radio promotion, limited bin space in stores and a limited number of spots on the record company roster.
...
Maybe each fan will spend less money, but maybe each artist will have a better chance of making a living. Maybe our culture will get more interesting than the one currently owned by Time Warner.
...
Since I've basically been giving my music away for free under the old system, I'm not afraid of wireless, MP3 files or any of the other threats to my copyrights.
...
[to AOL's Steve Case] Honestly hire honestly committed people. We're in a "new economy," right? You can afford to do that.

But don't talk to me about "content."

I get really freaked out when I meet someone and they start telling me that I should record 34 songs in the next six months so that we have enough content for my site. Defining artistic expression as content is anathema to me.

What the hell is content? Nobody buys content. Real people pay money for music because it means something to them. A great song is not just something to take up space on a Web site next to stock market quotes and baseball scores.
...
Every single artist who makes records believes and hopes that they give you something that will transform your life.[emphasis added]
...
Don't tell me I'm a brand. I'm famous and people recognize me, but I can't look in the mirror and see my brand identity.
...
Keep talking about brands and you know what you'll get? Bad clothes. Bad hair. Bad books. Bad movies.

Musician's Urinal

Via: A Welsh View: A Musician's Toilet.

"Oh my God, what is the world coming to? They're giving commie hillbillies radio shows." -- Steve Earle

.

.
.
.
Steve Earl has a radio show called "The Revolution Starts...Now" on Air America, with MP3s available for each show. Each guest brings some musical selections, which they play and discuss. I'm listening to a Patti Smith show right now.

Thanks to Body and Soul for the link

Pink Floyd Reimagined: “Add some banjo, fiddle, a large dolop of pedal steel and, well, you’ve got yourself a real good time.”

Rebuild The Wall.

Who knew the astounding and admittedly bizarre secret that there is a hidden bluegrass record suspended within the epic Pink Floyd album?
.
.
.

What's really frightening is how well it works. "Comfortably Numb" will never be the same for me, but I can't imagine listening with only the light of the stereo while any of these play.

Via Idiolect

Eminem on the election

Far better than I'd expected from the couple of verses I'd read, though he is one of the few hip hop artists whose music I've bought.
Here's the entire song, from azlyrics.com. Also, a movie, and a couple of links, via Daily Kos, which has some screenshots from the video down in the comments section.

Go here to nominate it for Total Request Live on MTV.

Go here to nominate it for MTV's hip hop request show.
Scroll to the bottom, click "Other", and enter Eminem for artist and "Mosh" for song title. Vote it in as many times as you can!

Lyrics:
EMINEM LYRICS

"Mosh"

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
And to the Republic for which it stands
One nation under God
Indivisible...
It feels so good to be back..

I scrutinize every word, memorize every line
I spit it once, refuel and re-energize and rewind
I give sight to the blind, my insight through the mind
I exercise my right to express when I feel it's time
It's just all in your mind, what you interpret it as
I say to fight, you take it as I'mma whip someone's ass
If you don't understand, don't even bother to ask
A father who has grown up with a fatherless past
Who has blown up now to rap phenomenon that has
Or at least shows no difficulty multi-task
And in juggling both perhaps mastered his craft
Slash entrepreneur who has held onto few more rap acts
Who's had a few obstacles thrown his way through the last half
Of his career typical manure moving past that
Mr. kisses ass crack, he's a class act
Rubber band man, yea he just snaps back

[Chorus:]
Come along follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength
Come with me and I won't steer you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
To the light at the end of the tunnel
We gonna fight, we gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march
Through the swamp, we gonna mosh through the marsh
Take us right through the doors (c'mon)

All the people up top on the side and the middle
Come together lets all bomb and swamp just a little
Just let it gradually build from the front to the back
All you can see is a sea of people some white and some black
Don't matter what color, all that matters we gathered together
To celebrate for the same cause don't matter the weather
If it rains let it rain, yea the wetter the better
They ain't gonna stop us they can't, we stronger now more than ever
They tell us no we say yea, they tell us stop we say go
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell we gonna let em know
Stomp, push, shove, mush, Fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home (c'mon)

[Chorus]

Imagine it pouring, it's raining down on us
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone's tryina tell us something,
Maybe this is god just sayin' we're responsible
For this monster, this coward,
That we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head noddin'
How could we allow something like this without pumping our fists
Now this is our final hour
Let me be the voice in your strength and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify the times it, and multiply by six...
Teen million people, Are equal at this high pitch
Maybe we can reach alqueda through my speech
Let the president answer a higher anarchy
Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go, fight his own war
Let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil
No more psychological warfare, to trick us to thinking that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country, we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes its all lies
The stars and stripes, they've been swiped, washed out and wiped
And replaced with his own face, Mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you know why,
Cause I told you to fight.

[Chorus]

And as we proceed,
To Mosh through this desert storm,
In these closing statements, if they should argue
Let us beg to differ
As we set aside our differences
And assemble our own army
To disarm this Weapon of Mass Destruction
That we call our President, for the present
And Mosh for the future of our next generation
To speak and be heard
Mr. President, Mr. Senator
Do you guy's hear us...hear us...[laughing]