It's All Gossip-Driven

I was listening to this radio show the other week about the state of affairs in the collapsing recording industry, and on the show many of the guests wresteld with the problem with pirated mp3s and the myriad of peer-to-peer download sites that are at their core stealing money from the artists and the propaganda organizations (the record companies). This one guest suggested that the model of cable TV be instituted for the web, in that each and every ISP would charge $3/month that a would funneled to ASCAP/BMI -- and then people can trade as much "illegal" music as they want AND the artists get compensated.

It's not a bad idea. Xtina Aguilera had recently lamented that the music business has become driven by the tabloids and the gossip columns -- if you think about it, that is too true. New music doesn't really have a chance of becoming internationally known unless the big media money is spent on it, and the Record Companies seem to only want to spend money on the well established acts (which also have a back catalog). For instance, I've been listening to this CD (yeah, I actually bought the CD) of this supergroup from the UK called THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN; it's Damon Albarn's new project that Danger Mouse produced that features Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen and The Clash's bassist Paul Simonon. You'd think there'd be a lot of buzz about this music, off the participants alone, not to mention the quality of the tracks.

It actually drives a nail into my dick knowing that the a huge element of pop culture is dictated by the bratty rich bitch behavior of Hollywood socialites. Music, arguably one of the most plebian-influencing activity, is caught in the deathgrip of "did you hear that Brittany cut off all her hair?" or "Jessica Simpson is dating John Mayer! No, they're not... oh, yes they are" or "Cameron Diaz just bitch-slapped Justin Timberlake at the Sunset Marquis." See -- nothing of any actual importance, in fact it's the kind of crappy drivel that people will talk about at the watercooler at the office or what they'll read about when 15 different photographs from 15 different photographers about the same subject on 10 different magazines... er, tabloids masquerading as magazines.

So where are we actually with music without the continuous mulch of bullshit.

A Surprise for the Establishment

Henry Box Brown - A Nigga Who GOT OVER
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

What can I say, Obama in '08 is probably the least surprising thing about Washington politics since Bush won AGAIN in '04. Mainly because I remember people talking about Barak that half-Naija/half-white junior senator from Illinois as a possible presidential candidate before he even took the Oath of Office for Senator!

I figure he has to spend all of his time creating a platform, and unlike most white politicians I seriously doubt that Barak has any skeletons in his closet -- no mistresses, no cocaine-abuse, no fake military service that Daddy can erase with the wave of a hand, no junkie wives, little known drug use, no homosexual sibilings or children, no affiliation with crooked business men, no war time scandal that comes back to haunt. All those things that if the GOP found out about they would crucify him before the Primaries.

Obama's time has CEO of the Harvard Law Review is where people will look to smack him and go negative, but even then I suspect that's

Black People in his generation, who want to go in to politics, know that whitey is out to fade, so they've been working for a long time to stay on the straight and narrow. 'Cause if ya thought skulldugger practictioners like Carl Rove stick hot pokers up the ass of people like John McCain, John Kerry or Bill Bradley -- imagine how much Rove AND HIS WHOLE CREW would like to skewer a nigga looking to hold the highest office in the land.

Let's not forget that MANY a people claimed that having Bill Clinton in the white house was a dry run for how a nigga would behave up in there! In fact, Clinton lauded by many in the Black community for acting like "we would" when he was getting lynching for using a Monte Cristo as a sex toy.

I'm reading this Rolling Stone article on Barak, and I'm getting a copy of his book from the LA Library (still homeless, so buy copies of hardbacks only works to hurt my back more) to read up on what Barak's mind-state is, 'cause if he can win the Democratic nomation... this country is about to have a dose of the racial tension that nearly drowned it after the OJ Trial.

What will happen is that because there is precious little SHIT to smear on Barak, the GOP and any right leaning Democratic, will just pull up the race card as the political game of Texas No Limit is played over the next 21 months.

Speaking of No Limit, there's been estimates that $100 million (if not quite a lot more) will need to spent to capture the White House this time. When I heard that I was like, WHAT THE FUCK? I might have miss heard, when they actually meant a billion dollars. It was on NPR, and apparently there was a breakdown on what Bush and Kerry spent their money on, so I have to check that out -- as that kind of green is obscene, particularly since Bush wasted all the United States' political capital internationally and the Country's economy doesn't affect the globe the way it used to.

But still that's a lot of money for a SINGLE campaign. I'm obviously in the wrong business, I need to be one of those guys on K-Street who collect bucks hand over fist just to peddle influence!

The price of Beauty

Ever heard of Taiza Thomsen? Yeah, me neither. But anyway, she was the 2002 Miss Brazil and she fled the scene shortly afterwards and people thought she was the victim of fould play or kidnapping. Yet, she was doing well and good living in isolation in London. Even her parents didn't know where the hell she was. Taiza just wants to be left alone... that classic line uttered by Greta Garbo still has weight.

Apparently, being crown a fuck object in the world's most sexually explicit country isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Reverse Beatdown!

Birth of Fade Nigga Nation
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

This past week saw the "guilty" verdict handed down in Long Beach, CA in regards to a hate crime that occurred last Halloween in which at least 10 Black Youths beat THE FUCK OUT of three white girls (in their late teens/early 20s) -- and when I say beat down, I mean damn near massacring these babes and these niggas shouted: 'fucking whites! fucking whites" -- which immediately turned the attempted murder into a hate crime.

Skateboards and Timberlands were the weapons of choice, which lead to possible loss of eyesight, brokens ribs, arms and face bones.

Not to mention psychic scarring -- best believe these white chicks will think twice about even walking down the same sidewalk with a bunch of niggas!

Not pretty to say the least.

This event no doubt polarized the community in Long Beach... that sleepy town just south of Los Angeles that gave birth to Snoop Dogg and Cameron Diaz (who ironically were at the same high school at the same time), and doesn't crop up in the news -- at least the national news that much -- but there it was front and center.

Apparently, 9 out of 10 "Black Youths" were found guilty, but ironically they're only either facing time in the Juvenile Facilty or Probation!

For that kind of asswhipping?!?! I'm surprised they're not being hunted down and strung up by Aryans or by these Latino gangbangers that are looking to make a name for themselves by slaughter niggas in broad daylight.

Racial tensions erupt more and more in SoCal, because the economic situation continues to grow bleaker and bleaker, but people don't give a good fuck. Everyone is so concerned about their personal and familial struggles that they might be seeing that LA County is approaching the tipping point in terms it's ability to provided wages that aren't being eaten by inflation and extreme competiton that could provide extended prosperity for the bulk of the population.

Biggest issue facing SoCal is -- what does this part of the nation produce (that's in the urbanized zones) that couldn't be farmed out to India or Southeast Asia for pennies on the dollar in savings?

Not much... induststry is so threadbare compared to what it was in just late 80s, and yet 1000 people move to this city/county every fucking day.

Can anyone say, "Blade Runner?"

Niggas vs Spics!

Armed Troops in Liberia
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Ya know what the social topic of the month is in LA? A surprising strange rise of Spics killing Niggas in the mean streets of LA -- and not for drug beef, but still a simple factor of territory control.

It seems that latinos in LA are looking to reclamate certain parts of the city from the "negro menance" and they're killing innocent Blacks (like 14 year old girls) to send a message -- "Darkies get out!" The ghettos of LA have given

This one spic fool was interviewed on the radio talking about how Black people are "unclean and that they bring ghettoism." Like that's a word (more on that in a sec). Quite frankly I was shocked, because if you look at these poor Hispanic neighborhoods that have their own style of ghetto traits and sanitary habits that would make a OCD Victim kill themselves... not to mention the smell of refried beans permeates the air, the carpet and the walls of low income and poverty level latino communities.

Who would think that these two groups -- both people of color with an oppressed past in the US -- would turn on each other! Just goes to show that Afro-Americans never catch a break.

However these latinos need to recognize that all the Civil Rights work that Black people spearheaded, took the most ass-beatings and raised enough shit so MEXICANS could get a fair shake -- and here they go capping niggas for kicks and claiming that all niggas are good for is bringing ghettoism to their 'hoods.

The thing about Latino/Black gang violence is that the concept of "stopping it" has to come from a pure desire to reconcile in respect to a purely subjective issue -- it's not about drugs, it's just about skin color -- the perpertual problem of America for all times.

But back to this term "ghettoism" -- the way that word is used in popular culture days lets me know that Black people took ownership of that word throughout the mid 90s in rap music and made it a badge of dubious honor. So much so that the rest of the American population use the word ghetto as an adjective to describe behavior that is decidedly classless, behavior that has no shame, behavior that is indicative of generations of institutional racism, poverty and iirational assault by whites.

I don't know how this new crop of racial violence is going to pan. I assume that it'll only get worse and the reprisal attacks will get more and more random, striking complete innocents and then when it encroaches into the white part of town, then and only then will the police and maybe even the national guard come out and crack down on the bullshit.

Congress Wants To Line Your Pocket

$20 Stacks
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Well... not really, but what Congress wants to do is raise the minimum wage... to a whopping $7.25/hour!!!!

Yeah, the price of a Large Value Meal at Wendy's.

The concept of a minimum wage is a misnomer. It is basically a wage that curbs peoples appetite for turning to crime to get by and/or avoids insanity (which usually leads to homelessness). That's not to say one doesn't need to have to two or three minimum wage jobs just to survive.

Brothers Gonna Work It Out!!!

I didn't know if this day would come before or after I had children, and I'm glad it's happened before -- what am I talking about? Well, we know that the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears are headed for a showdown in the SuperBowl, but is must remarkable is that no matter what happens A NIGGA IS GOING TO WALK AWAY WITH THE VINCE LOMBARDI TROPHY.

Yeah, that's right.
It's either Tony Dungy, who's been paying his dues since like forever, or Lovey Smith, who I'm sure has been paying his dues just as long, but not with the media spotlight that Dungy has had since Dungy's been a premiere NFL head coach for at leat 5 years.

After all those years of the Good Ole Boys claiming that Black men didn't have the mental capacity to be quarterbacks, let alone head coach in the NATIONAL Football League. Hats off to those Brothers.

You know the thing about it is Dungy and Smith are no doubt opening the doors for other minority head coaches, but I wonder if we'll see an Asian (any style - Indian, Chinese, Samoan) get on within the next decade or so (unless there already is one, I don't follow the pigskin gladiators all that much).

It's such a big thing though, because Black people -- particularly Black men -- have been systematically, institutionally and continually told that they don't have the "intelligence" to really kick it live in any era of so-called modern America. And yet here we are having two Brothas vie for the prize of all prizes, and in an era that is more complicated - technology-wise - than we've ever seen in pro football (in pro sports in general). That says something to me more than the fact that they are Black and are coaching, as there have been Black football coaches in college for quite sometime -- ever since all-Black colleges and universities suited up teams for the combat on the gridiron.

I wonder if Lombardi is spinning in his grave? I'm up on the fact if he kept niggas down or not, or even if he had niggas playing for the Packers (I doubt it though, too cold for Blacks to be up there anyway...)

Uh... is this what it has come down to?

I mean come on, now!!!! What the fuck?!?

But of course we know that a nigger can be Prez before a bitch...
Still I don't know if Hillary Clinton in '08 is a good prospect for the Country, much like Obama, Clinton immediately creates polarization amongst the voting populace. Since she's a double lightning rod for the GOP -- a bitch and a Clinton -- it gives the GOP a perfect sounding board for the "Get Out The Vote" campaign that they're going to need for the general election.

As much as I want to see Obama win the ticket, win the White House, I can see the election looking just like the 2000 election when the country was so split down Red/Blue State lines, with Obama potentially taking the popular vote (although highly unlikely, 'cause he's of Nigerian descent) and whoever the GOP prop up with Carl Rove dirty tricks winning the electorial college voting.

The same thing would happen with Hillary, and that's if she can get over the fact that she's a woman. Too many men AND WOMEN operate under the assumption that Women don't have the true-grit mindset to deal the confrontational nature of national and international politics... I think outside of Britain, the Philippines and India, there hasn't been a female leader on the world stage... until that new PM of Germany won oh, so recently. Britain and Germany get a pass, because the systematic debasing of women isn't part of their culture the way it is the land of the free, the home of the brave (my favorite oxymoron in the history of the world).

You have to realize that the GOP are going to capitalize on Hillary's scorned woman persona that she has left behind... not tripping and standing behind her man (good ole Bill) might look like she's soft and will accept being slighted to her core. Imagine the similar questions that were asked of Michael Dukakis about his wife getting raped, being aimed at Hillary? I'm shuddering now, and if she ever just once even has tears welling up in her eyes SHE IS THROUGH, completely and utterly.

The '08 means more to the GOP than it does to the Dems, because if they lose after Dubya's assfucking of the country (Iraw debacle, economy, domestic civil rights policies, sucking Big Businesses dick) then they'll be out of the national power circle for some time. As it's hard to believe that they'll win back the Congress this time around, too. Not to mention any new supreme court appointments.

I just don't want to see the Monica Lewinsky shit get rehashed AGAIN, and it will be. I can see Carl Rove know pulling up the video tape from the archives already, getting ready to smash the prospect of women president -- in general, let alone Hillary -- by showing the bullshit media coverage of "Cigar-in-the-pussy-gate."

The election season just got cranked up to nasty level 12...

I'm single now, so.... who wants to fuck?!

Did you see the Golden Globes on Monday? Yeah, blah, blah, blah, -- nothing exciting except for Helen Mirren (at 60 she still looks sexy, and you know from his recent appearance in the Caligula remake, she's still freaky) but Reese Witherspoon perhaps looked the best, nay the most fuckable that I've ever seen her...

Of course she always looks movie star beautiful when ever she's OUT at events to get photographed, but this is her first time amongst the rich & beautiful since her split from what's his name, and she HAD to look extra hot, to let people know that, "okay, yes, I'm sexy, but I'm not getting sex right now -- so all you hot, young men who want to get down, don't not think of me as the Sexiest MILF you'll get to see.

Considering that she's way under 30, she is probably one of the primest catches in Hollywood at the moment; and since she's done with her first marriage, she's most likely to "do it right" the second time around... which is basically what they say, "the first one is practice."

Return of the Show of Shows

No, not Syd Casear, but the return of Jack Bauer and the gang at CTU! I've been telling people since the very beginning that this is TV best show since the invention of cable TV networks. Sure, THE WIRE and update of BATTLESTAR GALATTICA and SEINFELD fall within the pantheon of great shows, but they're not as captivating and addictive as "24".

"24" is maybe the most gripping piece of televised drama that we'll ever likely see -- the editing style (which changed the game) and the pulse-pounding storylines were finally reward for an industry-insider award -- The Emmy this past fall. While some people complain about some of the logic in the show, "that's not real", I'm like, "fuck off, it's TV" -- because all that TV has to do is deliver 40 minutes of truthful emotions within in believeable scenes, so if any individual scene bends reality but its emotional core is true... then the scene works, and the show wins (for example car bombs that are wired to the ignition, I was reading up on how that happens, and most of the time the victim survives the actual explosion).

The thing about this scene of Jack Bauer's exploits is that we see a broken man tracking down terrorists under the auspecies of a presidential administration that is ready to suspend civil rights & liberities at a moments notice to get the answers that it wants... which closely resembles what's actually going on in the Dubya Bush administration. You have to love the way a TV show can criticize what's going on within the Beltway, and seem like its grandstanding on a soapbox.

What like so far about the latest daily installment is that Bauer, who was used to using torture to extract information, has been the victim of dehumanizing physical & mental abuse at the hands of the Chinese (before this season began) and he's unable to take on the "mindset" to be an effective counter-terrorist... or at least he's unsure of his abilities... which again makes for fantastic drama. And Bauer is initially released from the Chinese, because he's to be traded for information about an Arab terrorist; Bauer tortured and killed a defecting terrorists brother several years ago and now that dude -- in perfect Arabian mode of eye-for-an-eye -- wants to torture then murder Bauer... however, Bauer does escape.

It's an intersting prospect to consider what would happen if the names and addresses of the Haliburton-hired private contractors who ordered or carried out some of the most heinous toruture for info extraction purposes in Iraq, was leaked to terrorist cells operating here inside the US? It calls into question the concept of War Crimes by private citizens... what's the purview for that?

Anyway, the second part of "24"'s season openner is in about 3 hours, so I gotta get back to rousing the rabble on another subject...

Whole Sale Slaughterin'

Niggas cain't help but kill themselves, and over the most stupid things you can think of. I was listening to a report that in the past week in New Orleans there have been 8 murders! 8! The wackest of them all was the murder of the drummer for the Hot Eight Brass Band, because his death was apparently random violence.

Ray Nagan needs to get his ass in gear and put a lock down on that city. If you think about there is more killings per capita in New Orleans than any place else in the United States. The population is so small well under a million people, yet you get a person getting killed everyday - maybe even a few people each day. Over drugs and gold and women... three things that don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things, yet a triumvirate that holds sway over niggas like you won't believe!




And let's not mention Darrent Williams senseless killing on New Year's Eve! And what's even worse is not no one wants to come forward and drop a dime on the killers; who are apparent gangstas with some fear on the street rep. Being a snitch is the worst thing possible in the world of street niggas, because at a certain level one is perpetuating violence, abuse and gangsterism by not fingering dirty, society endangering people. But then again the police are going to do what they gotta do to bring you down, and for Blacks in America the history of getting taken down by Cops with trumped up charges and confessions has been too much.

Aren't You Curious...

So from time to time a serious bout of perversity invades my mental state, and I'm always wondering where the hell did that come from... well this clip below is probably what gave birth to it. It's a trailer to a fictionalized remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula. Take a look and then we'll get back to the good stuff...


When I was a college refreshman there was a lot of talk about FINALLY getting a chance to see the original film starring Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren (who coincidentally shows up in the remake, I wonder what a weekend with her would have been like in her prime?!!) -- we had to get on a waiting list that was like six weeks of people. When my night finally came, I think about 15 to 20 people came to my room and we sat down to watch the film, and slowly minute by minute people began to drift out of the room from the highly, highly perverse and dehumanizing and disgusting sexual acts, sexually-charged violence and outright brutallity until there was maybe two or three people left (I left myself maybe 30 to 45 minutes in, just too disturbing; didn't want those images in my head... at least that's what I thought at the time).

However, here it is 17 years later and after seeing the frank/explicit sexual images in this film clip (which reminded me of the uncut sequence of sexual barbarism -- if you could call it that -- in EYES WIDE SHUT) I have to say that those images and the ideas expressed in Tinto Brass's CALIGULA easily shaped a look of the darker sexual imagations that I have today. Makes me wonder what other films have done to shape the minds of others...

I'll leave you with this: consider this... to be uninhibited about one's own sexual acitvities is not the same as being unshockable...

From Camp David to Concentration Camps?

Have you read the Peanut Farmer President’s book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”? I’ve haven’t yet, but it’s next in line for me, particularly after reading an article in today’s NYTimes that 14 of Atlanta’s business and civic leaders resigned from the Carter Center’s advisory board on Thursday to protest Jimmy’s recent criticisms of Israel and American Jewish political power.

Their multi-signature letter of “I’m quitting, peace!” dragged the best-selling book through the mud for its [scathing?] criticisms of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. The letter also took issue with comments Mr. Carter has made suggesting that Israel’s supporters in the United States are using their power to stifle debate on the issue.
Here’s a quote from the letter, “It seems you have turned to a world of advocacy, even malicious advocacy,” the letter said. “We can no longer endorse your strident and uncompromising position. This is not the Carter Center or the Jimmy Carter we came to respect and support.” .

Now, Carter has a STRONG point that Israel’s backers in the US do quell any meaningful questioning of the US’ near 60 year unwavering, unquestioning support of Israel – even when it’s damaging to our oil & security interests in the so-called Holy Land region.

Truth be told you can’t criticize the current US-Israel foreign policy, by doing so it is de facto consider anti-Semitic and brings up charges of denying the suffering Jews faced during the 1930s & 40s during the Nazi pogroms...

That's a little problematic in my book, because the security concerns that are plaguing our nation, having all these troops sent to the Middle East to get killed (ranging all the way back to the Beirut bombing in 1984) stems from an unwillingness by the people of the United States and its government to approach the problems of the Holy Land (and the subsequent seepage into the rest of the Western world) with a neutral gaze.

There was a film I saw earlier this year called “Paradise Now” or something like that, it was from the Palestinian Territories and it followed two mid20s Arabs who wanted to become suicide bombers and blow up themselves and good chunk of Israelis in Jerusalem. And I was captivated on the depiction of everyday life in the occupied territories, just the location footage alone was enough to make you say, FUCK...

Is comparing the treatment of the Palestinians in refugee camps for close to 60s years comparable to Apartheid?

I’ma say, “Hell yeah!! ‘Cause muthafuckas who ain’t got no cribs for Big Mama and Big Mama’s mama -- let's be real, now, they had their cribs stolen from them --and are treated like the worst bunch of foul peoples on the face of the planet (that might be that regardless though) smacks of being too close to the P.W. Botha government view of niggas in South Africa.

Maybe it ain’t right to compare these apples and oranges (as the South Africans were extremely docile compared to the rock-thrown-at-tank Palestinians), but there ain't no reason for the issue not to be debated, and if Israel and its US supporters need to be put on Front Street for the hypocracy... then so be it!

Pump Up The Troops! Pump Up The Troops?

Dubya is determined to “win” in Iraq, but apparently his definition of winning is woefully out of date; in fact, it’s a 1950s definition. As “The Decider”, he asinine decision to increase the troops on the ground in Iraq (thereby overextending the military) is perhaps the most hubristic act of military inanity since Hilter thought he could overrun Moscow in the middle of the pre-global warming Russian winter!!

I don’t understand why a bicameral legislature – extremely similar to ours, where one house is proportionally represented and the other is a fixed representation – wasn’t in the “Game Plan” from the beginning. Dubya & Crew invaded the country under the aegis of bringing democracy to these wayward sand niggers, and yet the democracy that they wanted to bring (to a country/region that has no philosophical or actual precedence for it) wasn’t even considered; particularly in a region where the feuds and hatreds have been boiling over since before the concept of democracy existed!!! At least with a government similar to our congress (don’t ask me about the executive branch, maybe the two houses choose or there are general elections), the ethno-religious violence that is beyond out of hand (and approaching dastardly disturbing)

Some people say that we (i.e. the US via the Bush Administration) can’t let Iraq tear itself apart, that the vacuum that would appear if the G.I. Joes pulled out would tumble the region into chaos… uh, wasn’t the region circling the chaos drain during Hussein’s reign of terror anyway? If he wasn’t warring with the Islamic revolutionaries in Persia, then he nerve gassing people within his own borders with Sarin and other neurological goodies. It might do the region good, if Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran gobbled up the country – getting the oil out would be hard, and the price per barrel would skyrocket (although it shouldn’t because how much is the global economy getting out of that forsaken land as it is?), but eventually the region would calm down.

Nobody said that the country HAS TO continue to exist… it’s just that in the last 20 years, we’re used to seeing more countries from internal squabbles than less (i.e. break-up of the CCCP, East Timor, Ethiopia split, Czech Republic and Slovakia…), we’d be hard pressed to believe that the disappearance of country would be a good thing for its people. But let’s face it, the Arab Shi’ites would feel comfortable under Arab or Persian Shi’ia control, whereas the Kurds don’t want to be down with the Turks, but ethnically that’s where they belong. With the annexation by the surrounding countries, there is sure to be great amounts of Arab blood shed, but that’s not my concern – as that’s going to happen regardless of the outcome.

This one pundit last night posited the question, if a Marine scout force stumbled upon a Shi’ite militia versus Sunni insurgent firefight, the Arabs where join forces to eradicate the Marines, then go back to fighting themselves… now if that doesn’t sound hopeless, I don’t know what does…

Mockery of So-Called Justice

I was just reading some shit about how the Shi'ite Government was "investigating" the leak of the cellphone movie of Saddam's execution... like they need to go through that kind of bullshit PR stunt?!??! I guess they're losing sympathy from other Arab states/leaders for the mocking, taunting and jeering that Saddam received before getting his neck stretched.

It just continues to show that Iraqi Shi'ite Muslims trully WANT civil war, so the place can go even further in to the 9th Hell, and suck dry the world's attention, resources and dipolmatic energy.

The Violence Channel - All Violence 24/7, Watch It!

The internet village can't get enough of seeing human slaughter transmitted through fiber-optic signal lines -- ever since beheadings were broadcast from Iraq during the beginning of the current Gulf War, the public keeps clammoring for more and more video of people actually get snuffed.

So we all waited with baited-breath for the secreted, near-stop motion video footage of Saddam getting the noose... and then it was available for us all to see and relive on Google Video 24/7 (close to three million people have seen the killing on that Google site, and it's rated with like 3.5 star??! That's fucking sick, just shows how outrageous we still really are as people -- that many people watching it makes me remember those negro lynching photos for the early and middle part of the 20th century... all the white people (men, women & children) hanging around to see the basest killing of another human. I wonder how many people who witnessed lynchings as kids, actually were scarred by the imagery either to crusade against injustice toward Black people or to become dangerous devil-humans themselves? Beating on their wives or children and what not.

The Iraqi Gallows were in some dank basement that looked like something out of a bad scifi film from the '60s, and somebody JUST HAD TO HAVE a video camera in that room -- regardless of the poor taste, the abuse of power it demonstrated or the sadism that we now have to expect from all Iraqis -- to broadcast the death of a warlord president for the whole world to see, and to let it sink in so the outrage can begin. What was it there for ? To prove that Hussein was actually hanged? Wouldn't his dead corpse on display be enough of a convincing act? Why weren't the black masked guards and hangmen searched?

Saddam was definant to the end, even as the Shi'ite executions and guards shouted the praise of that radical cleric Moqtadha al-Sadr, Saddam was pretty much like, fuck you and the American horse you rode in on. I think that Saddam is now being viewed as a marty, because the Shi'ites just had to kill him so damn quickly. What kills me about these executioners is that they're wearing those maudlin black masks that harken back to the days of Louis XVI and the beheadings during the Reign Of Terror.

I don't understand why the Americans didn't write the constitution when they overthrow Saddam (much like what they did in Japan after ww2), in they outlined what the power structure was going to be - 1/4 voting blocks to each of the groups (Kurd, Shia, Sunni and fourth block that ups for grabs), in which the representational officers that make-up each Block is voted on via democratic elections. Then each power group would have a power base to flex their muscle, and we wouldn't have such bitter reactions toward each other or the absurb sectarian violence that's been de rigur for the past couple year.

This way the vengance is mine sayeth Muhammed Shi'ites wouldn't be fucking the country with the way it's being governed now.

Does this seem to hard for the old white men who were runnin' shit to understand? You have to factor in the fact that all these white dudes in power have an vindictive arrogance that reered up after the '90s in which the American white man came under attack by so many different ethnic and minority groups (ever notice that since Dubya has been in power all that talk has gotten REAL quite?), and since they've been runnin' shit (into the ground I might add) they've figured we can flex on niggas and people of color at home, why not the rest of the world? Guess again, huh?

Dubya was always against "nation building" but for a so-called country that never knew anything about being a country in the first place, to rule out that kind of systematic laying down the law has been a fatal mistake.

Do you remember this image? It's of Mussolini after the people of Italy got a hold of him and his bitch when they were trying to escape at the end of WW2.

It came to come 'cause our favoriet Iraqi strongmand got his neck stretched last night. Hard to believe he's actually dead... too bad his fucked-up kids didn't get to be publically hanged as well, Uday and Quesay were some right mean bastards.

The funny thing is, what's the difference between what George Bush and Donald Rumsfield did and what Hussein did? They each instigated wars of aggression, and only Saddam is paying for it. I have to imagine that Dubya and Rummy will never be travelling in Europe anytime soon; particularly Germany 'cause they have standing warrants to arrest those fools for War Crimes.

Can we honestly called the "War On Terror" in Iraq a war crime? Possibly, 'cause at least in Afghanistan we were going after a government that supported the 9/11 Attacks. However, no such evidence ever surfaced with Hussein to justify the subsequent invasions and sad, sad, sad occupation of Iraq.

You have to give it up to Saddam though, he held power nearly as long as Castro and raped and pillaged like the best of them. To top it off, he was defiant till the end! Always sitting up in court claiming that those judges had no right to convict him of anything. He was just doing what he felt he needed to do to maintain his power -- I'm sure Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover felt they needed to do the same thing when they signed the death warrants to numerous Black Panthers and other uppity niggers in the '60s -- yeah, I said it! When cut out all the bullshit, Hoover, Nixon and Johnson were complict in the execution of numerous notorious negro aggitators... and we never called them murderers. I figure half the original founders and leaders of the OSS and CIA signed the death warrants for a bunch of "undesirables", too, and they were lauded as heroes.

So what I'm trying to say -- it's all bullshit, whoever gets killed by a government. Pinochet never stood trial, yet I'm sure he probably personally killed or oversaw the killing of people in Chile during his brutal reign.

Well, once the Iraqu civil war is over and the country is divided in three, and people begin to write about what happened during the Saddam years, I'm sure will have some interesting books and memoirs -- that is, if any of those people survive the current fuck-shit that's going over there... but is that my problem?! Hell no, 'cause I'd be handling that shit differently. I wouldn't have dismantled the army (like the US did to the Wehrmacht at the end of Nazi Germany), 'cause at lose people had some military training, and they would have had jobs (i.e. food, money and access to contrabad shit) to assuage the anger that instantly turns to violence among Arab peoples... and I would have installed another strongman, who I'd then kill after a few years, and then allow a democratic government. Also, the US should have written the Iraqi constitution the way MacArthur did with Japan -- that way the ethnic power struggles wouldn't be in effect. It kills me that this wasn't part of the plan, the concept of Nation Building is EXACTLY what should have happened there, and yet it didn't for inexplicable reasons -- well, that's not true -- the arrogance of a fundamentalist Christian president and his "we can conquer sand-niggers, no problem" cabinet and staffers thought differently.

I just wish those fucked in the nuts Hussein kids could stand trial, or at least get them to testify in front a psychological review board!

MOVIE REVIEW - LITTLE CHILDREN

Last night I watched Todd Field's latest film (hard to believe it's only his second, but hey) that adultery drama starring Katie Winselt and Jennifer Connelly -- two smoking hot chicks in their 30s, who stiffen the dick pretty much immediately. I'll never forget Connelly's turn in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, when she did an ass-2-ass two-headed fuckstick session in front of a screaming, gaggle of old men... all for a single hit of heroin; talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Anyway, she resurfaces in this film (and BLOOD DIAMOND) during Oscar-season to add the extra oomph that some films need -- however, this was not one of those films. Sure, she was great in the film, but her role was limited although biting. In fact, now that I think about it, shes' perfectly cast -- with those perfectly shaped tits and those legs that go on for days, she inhabits the high maintenance chick perfectly; the kind of chick who is an over-achiever and who can easily emasculate her man (in this case husband) for not living up to the potential that her kind of beauty usually requires to stay satisfied in a relationship. You know the kind chicks, who might not be from money, but because of their looks and brains are courted by the power players of this world.

The film itself was a joy to watch, excellently crafted, written, acted and photographed; there's even this quirky narrator that adds the right amount of spice to an already gripping film.

Boredom in life, particularly domestic life leads to fantasy, and fantasy that is usually borderline perverse, because of the repressed nature of suburbia and the tranquility that a 9-to-5 job inflicts upon you. That boredom is what triggers the illicit affair in the film, and it's quite believable. It's not based upon jealously, but based upon a poor choices that the individuals made before the story began.

Poor choices can and will fuck up your life, so you have to be judicious about the choices you make, and then snap judgements that we then allow to dominate our lives for far too long.

The one thing about this film that sucks, is that we'll probably see less and less of these kind of insights into the human condition, because Hollywood hasn't opted to make a film like this in probably 10 years (minimum) and the independent money that would finance these projects might find better places for a higher ROI, as this kind of intense human drama doesn't mean SHIT to the under 25 set, so for go an enjoy this endangered species of cinematic fiction while you can.

Soon, you'll only be able to see this kind of beautiful writing and acting and musical enhancement of stunning photography perhaps 3 or 4 times a year (in English that is, foreign cinema from Europe hits this mark routinely, but we're seeing less and less of those films coming over here, too) -- never on TV proper (DVD truly did commodify and thereby eviscerate the "meaning" of movies) and perhaps just in art house or when a major studio is gunning for an Award for the prestige business that they are in for that brief period the week before Thanksgiving up to Xmas Day.

Scavengers at The Tower

Yesterday I was down in Redondo Beach area going to a friend's house, and I stopped by a Tower Records that was going out of business; had a "Five Days Left" sign blazooned across the front of the store. I had to stop, maybe there might have been a CD or a DVD that I could buy (I snagged teh 20th Anniversary of PLATOON the other day from the Tower in Sherman Oaks for only eight bills).

I walked in the door and was like, "FUCK" the place look liked a bunch of scavengers in a Mad Max film had looted the place, and recently, too. All the aisles and bins pushed to the side and where picked clean of anything of substance, the workers looked like that didn't give a rat's ass about anything (and why should they? They probably don't have any new jobs lined up).



It was sad to see this store, shit any store, in this state of complete "i-don't-give-a-fuck", because records and tapes and CDs mean a lot to me, nothing can soothe you like music, nothing can set the mood to get some fuckin' done like music, and yet we all have migrated to acquiring our music thru wired digital means -- with no desire to amass CDs anymore. I love album cover art, there's just something potentially cool and interesting about the artist that can be said in a few brief photographs... no all we have to look forward to is, the squared image on iTunes or what ever pose struck their fancy for a Rolling Stone or Vibe photo shoot.

Let's face facts though, mp3 files sound like shit, unless their being played back on those two-way or micro speakers that most computers come with OR over the earbud headphones that came with your iPod or Zune (is anyone even thinking of wasting their money on a Zune? Fuck, Bill Gates, if you ask me; and I don't give a shit that he's giving away his money to needy Africans -- and they need it, too).

But you know what? This is just the beginning, the face of things to come, when all the retail establishments that dispense with crap that we really don't need (yeah we NEED music, but not nearly 75% of SHIT that is recorded and sold to us). Just go to a Third World Country and see if they got music stores there, and then imagine what Tower was looking like when it was one it's last legs, and then look around at the other stores in the shopping centers and burn that image in your mind, 'cause something wicked this way comes...

Lipsticking????

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