Saturday, March 24, 2012

Psycho Ricky HORROR Ad Looks Terribly Dark Lord-ish ...

It's a post-apocalyptic vision of a dystopian America, a horror landscape of boarded-up homes, crumbling infrastructure, small-town main streets gutted by Reaganomics, Bain vulture capitalists, Wal-Mart and China, empty rooms with no furniture except the TV machine zapping our eyelids with Fox 'News' images of the Iranian dictator juxtaposed with President Obama, a baby squirming in a bathtub as a woman's sinister face appears bathed in shadows with crimson red ruby lips that whisper "shhh ..." Who could this be — a demented home schooler giving her child tough love? We see images of dark, empty examination rooms and creepy dilapidated hallways of an abandoned rural clinic or hospital, because the Republican Congress refused to fund the community health clinics in President Obama's Affordable Care Act, and we see the last of the Hummer owners hold a gasoline pump to his head as those cool gas-sipping Volt rocket ships zoom silently by just out of sight without need to stop and refuel every twelve miles or so.

So why do they call it Obamaville? Because ... it was this evil township resident's gift-wrapped mess left at the President's Oval Office door the moment he occupied it. And why is this man smiling? Because he just got a new lease on his miserable life, and he doesn't care what wreckage he's sown. This Psycho Ricky ad has more subliminal messages than an Absolut commercial. And if Hogan Gidley, who should so have populated this ad, along with his boss, misses the point, or is unwittingly ironic when he calls it 'provocative', it may be that they've just been punked — and have yet to realize it.


"Welcome to a place where one president's failed policies really hit home." 
Does this prominent "Obamaville" resident look familiar? Take a closer look.

Friday, March 23, 2012

GUYS WHO WEAR 'HOODIES' ...

THE MIAMI HEAT, and Gregorian Monks.

Geraldo, the right wing Latino Fox fixture, blamed the hoodie for the execution of Treyvon Martin, then presumed to give the parents of 'black and Latino youngsters' advice on acceptable dress code: "I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters, particularly, to not let their young children go out wearing hoodies. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was." Presumably, white youngsters are exempted. Really. This was no hoax.

Memo to Geraldo Rivera: Don't you have a sailing trip to take off the pirate-infested coast of Somalia?

(In response, Lebron James tweeted this photo of his team, the Miami Heat, wearing hoodies.) 

Mitt Romney Becomes A Twilight Zone Episode: "THE ETCH-A-SKETCH CANDIDATE"

"SUBMITTED FOR YOUR APPROVAL:

Willard Mitt Romney. Millionaire. Financier. Perennial political candidate. Governor of the most liberal state in the union, driven by a burning ambition to be president. Because he can. Because his father ran for president and failed. Because he suffered a humiliating loss to the president's brother running for United States senator. Because he is shunned by his class when his back isn't even turned, his religion is mocked, his wife is a better politician and privately disdains him, and his dog Seamus hated him — with good reason.
Willard has no core, no belief system, no political convictions. He is a moderate when it suits him, a liberal when he needs to be, and 'severely conservative' when he craves the acceptance of his party faithful. But they have no faith in him. Willard despairs. Then one day, he awakens from a nightmare and discovers to his horror, like the character in Kafka's Metamorphosis, that his nightmare is a living reality: He has become The Etch-A-Sketch Man, who can 'hit the reset button, shake it up like an Etch-A-Sketch, and start all over again'. Yet his curse is to realize that trying to be like everybody, 'is the same as being nobody, for on the periphery of every success lies a brooding monster known as a flash in the pan.'

And so begins Willard's FINAL political journey — into THE TWILIGHT ZONE."
Back on the campaign trail, Willard tries to shake his Etch-A-Sketch persona — to no avail. His opponents won't let him forget, and he begins to feel the metamorphosis: “Strange Things Are Happening To Me ...” says a despairing Willard. Indeed.

"What's So Hot About Three O'Clock In The Morning?"

Chris Matthews, on the return of Mad Men, asked the question about that infamous Hillary Clinton political ad: "It's three a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?" Here's what's 'hot' about 3 a.m.: It's the "witching hour," Chris, the time witches, demons, goblins and ghosts (with the exception of Republicans, who are pretty much 24/7) appear. In Christian religious terms, 3 a.m. is the hour of the Devil, as noted by a character in the film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose: "3 a.m. [is] the Devil's hour, as opposed to 3 p.m., when Jesus was said to have been crucified" — it's the hour of darkness versus the light, as the Devil stands in exact opposition to God.

Sleep well, and if you hear strange, creepy noises at 3 a.m. you'll know what they are ...

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

THE ETCH-A-SKETCH MAN: Romney Rendered SKETCH Dust; Rachel Deconstructs The LIES

WELL DONE, RACHEL. (The book, too!)

ALEX AND HOGAN, ON MSNBC ... : THEY'RE BAAACK!

There's no denying that the lovely Alex Wagner brings out the best in Hogan Gidley, the strange young man who is Psycho Ricky's 'Communications Director'. Watch the sparks fly, and the cryptic repartée:
HOGAN: "Welcome back from vacation, Alex."

ALEX: "HA! Don't give away all the secrets, Hogan."

(Interestingly, Hogan vanished from public view around the same time Alex went "on vacation." Then he re-emerged today on Alex's show looking tanned, with a professional haircut, and sporting new threads that could have been recommended by Michael Steele ... with mixed results. Just sayin' ... But we kid Alex.) When Alex throws it over to the Steelenator for a question, he gets into the spirit of things:

STEELE: "I'm just enjoying the moment, that's all ..."

Then Hogan — a compelling reason to keep Psycho Ricky's campaign afloat long enough for Gidley to attain cult hero status — summoned up the best of his wit to WOW Alex:

HOGAN: "We've been doing pretty well without the Establishment endorsements so far, we don't expect them ... You want a candidate, the old adage to walk across broken glass to support, the problem with Romney's folks is they won't even walk across a paved parking lot with a pair of Nikes on and a golfing cart to ride across it, I mean they just won't do it. We want to do this in November, we want to unseat this president, and we will walk across glass to do it, and Rick Santorum's the only guy that offers that at this point."

AND WOW ALEX, HE DID! Excellent, Hogan. That was inspired.

ALEX: "WOW. Nikes and broken glass — Hogan Gidley! Take care out there ..."

Nicely done, Hogan, doing his best Don Juan DeGidley impression. Keep up the good work, dude!


Memo To MSNBC Party Crashers: STOP trying to anoint Mittens the prematurely presumptive nominee following his unconvincing Illinois win and endorsement by Brutus the Jeb Bush backstabbing White Knight. And Chris, you've had a SERIOUS relapse following your fawning over 'Game Change' (yeah, it was a good movie to the extent it was loosely based on portions of that repugnant book) and declaring Chuckles (who worships at the altar of some mythical Republican Party in his scrambled Reagan era formative poli-brain) your 'political guru'.

Memo To The High Priests of The Idiot Punditocracy: STOP reciting the Last Rites to Psycho Ricky's campaign; be more like MIKE, my new favorite Republican — I like Stevie Boy, but he's too full of himself since the movie came out — advising us to 'hunker down', pass the popcorn, and enjoy the ride!

The Fact Remains: 53.3% of GOP Primary Voters In The Land Of Lincoln Voted AGAINST Romney

Illinois is a state a strong, credible and compelling Republican frontrunner is expected to carry — given its affluent "moderate" Republican demographics and weak, marginal competition of Santorum, Gingrich and Paul — by at least 55%. Romney couldn't even manage a plurality of 47% meaning 53% of Illinois Republicans chose other candidates over Romney. In combination, the Psycho Ricky (35%) and Newt The Tourist (8%) tallies bring the ultra-conservative anti-Romney votes to within 3.7% of the struggling frontrunner, enough to knock the 'presumptive nominee' off his perch and label Mittens a vulnerable, if not false favorite.



In most horse races in which there's a weak frontrunner loose on the lead, he is invariably caught at the wire by a well-timed charge from one of his closing competitors. Why should this race be different? You might say Mittens is no racehorse. Right you are. Thoroughbreds are much too noble and dignified — and they love dogs.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Mittens FAILS ... AGAIN! To Gain 50% Of Illinois REPUBLICANOS

And what's with Psycho Ricky and those STEPFORD Kids?! Hogan Gidley fits right in ... Where is he?

BTW, before the night is out, this election will tighten up for Psycho Ricky; Illinois statewide elections are a lot like New York in this respect: The big-city vote (Chicago, New York City) rolls up the numbers early (obviously for the Democrat in non-primary elections, but here Romney is the stand-in city-suburban collar counties boy), then upstate starts reporting in (NY) or downstate (IL) and the candidate who got off to a big lead is slowly reeled back.  The race tightens with leisurely reporting rural, small town counties tallying up their votes as the leader sweats out a narrowing margin the rest of the way. Just ask Illinois Democratic governor Pat Quinn.

"Saddle up"!? I liked "lock-and-load" better ... Psycho Ricky might benefit from a teleprompter. Watch Mittens' lead dwindling, dwindling.

Note to Mittens: I still have incandescent bulbs but I like the energy efficient ones better. And whether the Wright brothers were grounded or not by mythical dust regulators (how silly), the airplane which first took off on its own power in 1906 and not with gravity's help going downhill on rails was invented by a Brazilian, Alberto Santos Dumont. He's the guy in that slick Cartier commercial with the leopard. Why Cartier? Because Santos Dumont also invented the wrist watch, especially crafted for him by Cartier, so he could time his flying experiments with his hands at the controls. Santos Dumont also invented the dirigible and the monoplane, called the Demoiselle. But I digress.

Oh what fun! Watch Romney's incredibly shrinking lead ... It's almost down to single digits now.

I Saw A Psycho Ricky Lawn Sign Today ...

NO REFLECTION on my neighborhood, I'm sure, because it fronted a vacant diner. (OK, that didn't come out right; it was a Greek diner.) Did anyone see Romney's sound bite dutifully reported by the MEDIA IMBECILES? Some woman complains at a Romney event that she wants her "free" contraception. To which Mittens the PANDER BEAR replied, "if you're looking for 'free stuff' you don't have to pay for, vote for the other guy."

Hello, you fucking mediaite IMBECILES — THAT WAS A SETUP! You really think Mittens is capable of extemporaneous speech like "free stuff" without having been fed the line in advance? WTF's wrong with you IDIOTS?! Romney even helpfully SETS UP the SET-UP: "Yes, ma'm ... Here's the microphone ...WATCH THIS."


Did anyone have the reportorial presence of mind to follow up, ask questions of the fraud who really poured it on with the lib freeloader stereotype fake-confronting Romney: “So you’re all for like, ‘yay, freedom,’ and all this stuff. And ‘yay, like pursuit of happiness.’ You know what would make me happy? Free birth control.” Yeah, Right. Just browse Mediaite, freepers, beckistas, wingnuts, et al ... they're having conniptions of ecstasy.

This was such a CRUDE setup, it's rather unbelievable you all fell for it. So unbelievable, in fact, that I'm sure many of you didn't. But you're all in on it, because it makes for a good sound bite. Another lowlite in the pathetic existence of the MSM/Idiot Punditocracy/Beltway Media. And I have to sit here and listen to Chuckles Toddy proclaim that the "Republican Party is looking for a transformational leader." WHAT REPUBLICAN PARTY, CHUCKLES, YOU STUPID IDIOT!? And having to put up with a FRAUD and a CHARLATAN like John Heilemann, who fancies himself rather pathologically, I think, the reincarnation of Hunter S. Thompson.

God, these people, fucking confederacy of DUNCES and FRAUDS!

PS — this is another Romney LIE. there's no such thing as "free stuff" in health insurance plans. We all pay into it, and we all benefit from its economies of scale. That is why a drug on the retail market costing $150, if obtained through an insurance prescription drug plan may cost a covered individual $1 or $15. Romney is one of the few Americans who can afford to pay full cost for his and his freeloader family's hospitalizations and drug coverage. Bully for him. And SEAMUS on all of us.

ENCORE: We Don't Need No More Trouble

STOP THE WAR, once more with feeling.

Playing For Change: This Is Awesome

I was looking for a music student friend I hadn't seen since college. She studied piano. I also found this. Don't know how Playing For Change passed me by, but they're made to be shared. Their Foundation promotes peace celebrating our common humanity and raises funds for music programs and schools around the world. It was a good search:

Sittin' On The Dock of The Bay


Gimme Me Shelter


Redemption Song

Monday, March 19, 2012

IDIOT PUNDITOCRACY WATCH: Need I say More ...

I was puzzling over this RI-DI-CULOUS (channeling Joan Walsh) piece in Salon of all places (Joan, where are your standards?) entitled (says it all, read no further) 'No estrogen tsunami for Democrats', thinking what kind of IDIOT is Linda Hirschman, then of cooourse! she explains not her idiotic premise but why she cannot help being an IDIOT: "I’m a pundit, so I will say that Barack Obama will probably win the 2012 election. He may even be the first president to win even while losing among men, technically a gender victory." The smart folks posting comments disposed of this card-carrying member of the Idiot Punditocracy.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

POSTCRIPT: FEAR Can Force Corporations To Behave Ethically

If and when multinational oil drillers adopt strict safety procedures for their offshore operations because they FEAR rotting in a Brazilian jail for 20 years, Americans who are currently being victimized, terrorized, and poisoned by out-of-control, wild west oil and gas cartels in this country, will have Brazil to thank for their reprieve. Then maybe someday — soon — we can dream again of an EPA with the authority and backbone to regulate offshore drilling polluters, curb man-made earthquakes and stop the ruination of our freshwater underground reservoirs caused by phracking — before it's too late.

Who would have imagined that the protection and conservation of our environment, a proud and vital government role adopted by one great, visionary president, Theodore Roosevelt, could itself ever end up being outsourced? Said T.R. of the generational responsibility we all share to preserve our natural heritage for our children's children's children:
"Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the 'the game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method."
Are you listening, President Obama and Attorney General Holder?

Only (NOT!) In America: This Is How It's Done Against Criminal Oil Companies

A reminder to the "only in America" triumphalists: One democracy on this planet which does not have a corrupt oil lobby running its government, did in four months what the U.S. Justice Department and the courts have failed to do going on two years, regarding the BP Gulf oil spill — bring civil and imminent criminal charges against the principals.
Brazil Bars Oil Workers From Leaving After Spill
By SIMON ROMERO

RIO DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian court has ordered 17 employees from two American companies, the oil giant Chevron and the rig operator Transocean, to surrender their passports, barring them from leaving Brazil as authorities prepare to file criminal charges in coming days in connection with an offshore oil spill involving the companies.

The ruling by Judge Vlamir Costa Magalhães, issued late Friday night, adds to Chevron’s woes in Brazil, which began in November when oil was found to be leaking from an offshore field controlled by Chevron. Prosecutors have already filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages of 20 billion reais, or about $11.2 billion, from the company.

Brazil’s Navy and Chevron said Friday that they had detected a new sheen of oil from the same field where the earlier spill occurred.

Chevron’s legal battle here points to the high stakes involved in Brazil’s plans to tap its huge offshore oil fields. If Brazil meets its ambitious production targets, by the 2020s, the country may rank among the world’s largest oil producers, with output rivaling or surpassing traditional oil powers like Iran or Venezuela.

But achieving those goals requires companies to drill in immensely challenging offshore conditions. Pointing to the example of BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, environmental officials here say that stiff penalties are needed against Chevron in order to pressure it and other companies to adopt strict procedures for preventing and dealing with spills. (Emphasis mine.)
Notice that the same oil rig operator involved in the BP oil spill, Transocean, has its oily criminal malpractice fingerprints all over this spill. Chevron corporate asswipes immediately started whining that this was "a tiny fraction" of the BP oil spill and therefore an "overreaction" by Brazilian authorities. Aww ... Hey, Ali asshole: complaining to Rupie's Wall Street Journal gets you nowhere in Brazil.
Chevron, the foreign oil company with the largest operations in Brazil, has argued that the country’s response to the November spill, which was a tiny fraction of the size of the 2010 BP spill, was an “overreaction.”

“I’ve never seen a spill this small with this size of reaction,” Ali Moshiri, the head of Chevron’s Latin America operations, told the Wall Street Journal in late 2011.

Such comments did not seem to sit well in Brazil. Authorities accused Chevron of lying about the scope of the November spill. And the news media lambasted George Buck, the head of Chevron’s Brazil operations, after he and Mr. Moshiri were summoned to Brazil’s Congress to discuss the spill, questioning why Mr. Buck relied on a translator instead of speaking Portuguese.

Now Mr. Buck, an American, is barred from leaving Brazil and a lengthy legal battle awaits him and other employees at Chevron and Transocean.

Judge Magalhães issued his ruling preventing the departure of the 17 Chevron and Transocean employees at the request of a federal prosecutor. “There is no doubt the exit of these people from the country, at this moment, would generate considerable risk to the investigation,” the judge said.

Prosecutors said the criminal charges for environmental crimes could result in prison terms of 20 years for each defendant.
See, relying on the old translator trick won't fly in Brazil. My dad once told me about this: Foreigners in the hot seat who speak the native language fluently will pretend they don't, turning instead to their "translator" so they have more time to craft some weasely nonresponsive reply to tough questioning. It pisses Brazilians off, who pride themselves, culturally, in knowing every trick in (and out of) the book. I love how the judge confiscated their passports, barring Buck and his cabal from leaving Brazil. They shouldn't complain. Here in the U.S. some poor sap without corporate legal resources or a personal fortune who is deemed a "flight risk" is immediately thrown in the slammer. In Brazil, these dudes have their run of wine, women and good eats while awaiting trial.

Of course, if found guilty, the jail terms of up to 20 years won't be quite so pleasant. Here's la difference: Brazil is a democratic republic, just like the U.S., with a thriving, dynamic capitalist economy, and an immensely popular socialist government. There the government places the people ahead of corporations because, you see, corporations aren't people in Brazil. It's not perfect, but one could say they've learned from the American experience — what not to do.