L'il Scottie

So...Scott McClellen has written his big "tell-all" pamphlet about how we were duped by the White House propaganda machine. Shocking eh?

As I see it, the only interesting component of this story is that for the next 72 hours, (or until a white woman disappears somewhere), we are going to see some much overdue scrutiny back on the Bush administration instead of Obama's pastor du jour.

Yes. We were repeatedly lied to and sold a unjust and illegal war by Bush Inc., Network executives and their minions in the local press. Who exactly, besides El Rushbo and Ann Coulter is left in this nation who isn't surprised by this notion?...

Harvey Korman

Yeah, no doubt that Conway is funny, but it's Harvey that actually makes you laugh.

Harvey Korman dead at 81.

Rock and Roll

...It's what's for dinner.

Studs

One door closes and another opens. Just today, my own brother sent me the link to this Roger Ebert piece about the great Studs Terkel and his continuing zest for life.

Being a regular reader and frequent commenter here at LMS, I think perhaps Bernie would've dug it.

Goodbye

Well, they buried our friend Bernie Zofcin today. The Blonde and I went to the funereal and agreed that it was the saddest fuckin' thing that either of us had been to for a very long time.

It was also the biggest laugh I ever heard at a memorial service. Seeing that Bernie was always the eternal bachelor, his brother Mick brought the house down with an opening remark that went; "Never in his wildest dreams could Bernie have imagined...that so many of his former girlfriends would all be gathered in the same place....Well, maybe in his wildest dreams". Great line.

Anyhow, I'll miss his laugh, his golf swing and his innate ability to make everyone around him feel welcome and part of whatever scene was happening at the moment.

Bon voyage, Bernie. We love you, man.

Weird Science

A Fine Young Canadian. Kudos to you kid.

Max Blumenthal

I've said it before, I'll repeat it here, Max Blumenthal is a brave, clever and smart journalist who exposes these nut jobs with humor, patience and hardly any smirking at all. Take ten minutes out of your day and watch this video.

Gosh, they're all really insane.

Juan Cole

The clip of the troglodyte from Faux News Corp. who wished aloud that someone would "take out" Obama/Osama is making its innertubian ripples this morning.

Let's just drop all the bullshit and let Professor Cole have the last word on this issue, 'kay?

Country at War

Here's X, circa 1993, with my personal favorite anti war song ever. That's rockin' Tony Gilkyson on guitar instead of the Chesire grinning Billy Zoom. Billy left for a while to build up his amp repair bidness but he's back with the band and was great when we saw X last week.

Oh, and yes, they still rock real hard...

Memorial Day

The saddest fucking holiday of all.

Jim Webb for Veep

Personally, I think that an Obama/Webb mash-up would be a kick ass ticket. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves...

Perlstein

Nixonland is number 29 with a bullet.

That's our Larry

Check out the "Bobblefoot" give away for this Sunday's St Paul Saints game in Minnesota! Whoever is running the front office of this team has got my vote for Minor League owner of the year.

Friday Random Ten

This one is for Bernie...RIP, brother.

Please Don't Rock Me Tonight--Fountains Of Wayne
Her Majesty--The Beatles
Stink Foot--Frank Zappa
Waiting In Vain--Bob Marley
Canary--Liz Phair
Inside--Chomsky
She--Green Day
Come Home To Me--Steve Earle
Indoor Fireworks--Elvis Costello
Let Me Just Follow Behind--Bette Midler

TBogg

This guy is a hoot.

Bitter Pill

I find that I frequently agree with Ms. Morrisette's style and anger management techniques. In short, I'm an asshole and, too often, so is she.

Naomi Klein

Naomi is a great journalist and writer. Naomi scares the hell out me.

She puts all together yet again for us in the latest edition of the Rolling Stone magazine.

Kunstler

This is a piece from March that I had missed. JHK holds his bitter mirror up to the face of our moribund culture and tries to see if it's still breathing.

I'm pretty sure he's made his diagnosis.

Faux Science

One needs look no further than this clip from Fox Sports' Sports Science show that we're one step closer to the satirical "Ow! My Balls" program depicted in Idiocracy.

De-evolution is moving at a nice pace these days don't you think?

Fuzzy math no more

As they say, the devil is in the details.

It doesn't get any clearer that this article as to why there is no earthly rationale to support the failed policies of the Norquistians any longer...as if there ever were.

Read this and pass it on.

Obama-mania

Hey,

Check out all of these dirty fuckin' hippies in Portland, Oregon that came out to see Barack Obama over the weekend.

Looks just like a minor focus group, eh?...

Friday Random Ten

Lord, here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
in any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.

Here Comes The Flood--Peter Gabriel
Radiation Vibe--Fountains Of Wayne
Any Colour You Like--Pink Floyd
Rivers Of Babylon--Melodians
Columbia Is Bleeding--Nellie McKay
You Can't Do That--The Beatles
No Language In Our Lungs--XTC
Submission--Sex Pistols
Trail Of Tears--Nick Lowe
African Herbsman--Bob Marley

Olbermann

It's all over the innertubes this morning but do yourself a favor and spend the twelve minutes and seven seconds to watch Keith's rant from last evening's Countdown broadcast.

He's never been more strident, angry and correct. Let's all keep this piece in mind when the first Tuesday in November comes around.

The best feed for viewing is here.

Today in history

May 15th is the 60th birthday of the brilliant and prolific Brian Eno. Happy Birthday to you, sir.

It's also the 1st anniversary of the demise of one Jerry Falwell.

Drinks all around...

Chimpy and Pickles

Ma and Pa Clusterfuck land in Tel Aviv.

Hey, Mike R!

Make sure Lisa watches this video...

Lance Mannion

He's a heap big smart guy and I agree with him frequently.

Choo-Choo Trains

Go here and do as instructed.

Thanks for playing.

Competency Exam

Go ahead, take the test. You know you want to...

Duuuude...that's my skull!

Um, yeah, that's right...it's marijuana that is causing teens to be depressed, not the grim future that faces them via the failed policies of Operation Shitstorm.

It's a Potemkin nation, folks. Of course, in long gone Russia, you at least knew you were being lied to.

Andrew Bird

Here's a cool little video from Andrew Bird I found today. For those of you previously unfamiliar with his stuff, he's kind of a male Laurie Anderson meets David Byrne via Jonathan Richman.

Nice stuff.

*Speaking of Laurie Anderson, didja know that she finally married Lou Reed a month ago? Huh.

Bill-O

I don't if anyone has sent this to Keith Olbermann or not, but it's a great piece of video from the Polk award winning Inside Edition.

Frank Rich

Wise words from Mr. Rich.

I'm particularly fond of his reference to the enormous volume of newly minted democratic voters this season, which, as I've mentioned before, is the elephant in the room(so to speak), that the press is missing entirely.

Love that Frank Rich...

Nixonland

My pal, Rick Perlstein, is heavily featured in this week's edition of the New York Times Sunday Book Review. His new tome, Nixonland, is reviewed by none other than George Will, a man once famously described as looking as if he had never had an orgasm.

Regardless, it's a pretty good review written by a man I used to respect and have now come to loathe and although I've yet to read it, I'm enormously pleased to recommend Rick's book to all eight of you who might be reading this post.

Cletus Nation

What a country! The juxtaposition of these two news items perfectly defines the clusterfuck that is this American life.

You can get a heapin' helpin' of really crappy pizza for just 23 cents to keep you fat, distracted and stoopid. Meanwhile, at the pump, the numbers just keep going up.

Kill me now.

Trash Talkin'

Don't forget to remember that the Cuyahoga Solid Waste District is having its Hazardous Household Round-Up this Saturday out at the Fairgrounds.

Here's a link to all of the particulars.

Monster uber Alles

This guy spills on why he kept his daughter and their respective offspring in the cellar for 24 years. As have many of you, I've been on the planet Earth for a good deal of time now, but this story ranks pretty high in stuff I'll never grasp in any capacity.

Dahmer, Gacy, Manson, Ted Bundy...all freakshows to be sure, but Josef Fritzl is truly a monster. Plus, he looks just like the fuckin' Grinch.

Last Night

Steve Earle was great last night. We were literally in the front row. It was an all acoustic show which might have been limited in its scope but Steve had a DJ/mixmaster that added a good deal to the over 2 hour show.

Allison Moorer was a terrific warm-up and she added a nice touch when she joined Steve on stage for his set.

Steve Earle paces the stage with a sense of gloom that has an intangible air of humor and anger to it. You can tell how possessed he is to make music almost as if he's deeply conflicted by the need to create and the medium itself which appears not to be entirely satisfactory to him. It was almost hard to watch his performance...very compelling, yet dark. We loved it.

Next to John Doe, he's officially one of my favorite contemporary American songwriters...

Steve Earle

The Blonde and I are heading out to Playhouse Square's Ohio Theatre this evening to go see Steve Earle and Allison Moorer. I absolutely lurve Steve's last couple of albums and his fantastic cover of Tom Waits' Way Down In The Hole from The Wire in this video.

His honest and pointed objections to the current American wars have been spot on for 5 years and his latest, Washington Square Serenade is a beautifully crafted collection of tunes aimed at his favorite new sweethearts...NYC and the aforementioned Ms. Moorer.

I can't post the video of City of Immigrants here as it's been flagged by Youtube as"embedding disabled by request". I can point you to it tho'. Go yonder and enjoy...

I'll try to put up a short review after the show. I sure hope that he plays "Fuck the FCC"...

Matt Taibbi

Those of you unfamiliar with Matt's stuff either from Rolling Stone or Bill Maher's show have really been missing something.

He's not only fearless, but funny as all get out.

Here's an excerpt from his book that is slated to drop sometime in June. Great stuff and timely.

An oldie but goodie

In the "me too" department, here's an Op-Ed classic from Russell Baker that's just as true today as it was 12 years ago...

Steve Bell

Ah yes, it's just great being an international butt of jokes is it not?

Rev. Wright

Some much of the kerfuffle over Jeremiah Wright eludes me. It's just the ring wing hate team throwing a lot of dirt clods at Obama is all. Was not this behavior to have been expected? Yeah, I thought so.

Anyway, good old David Neiwert captures this essence of this media event very nicely with the added bonus of an Al Franken quote...

Friday Random Ten

Next Time Round--Elvis Costello
Breakout--Foo Fighters
Nothing Clings Like Ivy--Elvis Costello
Unconditional--The Bravery
Beep Beep Love--Gruppo Sportivo
Rudie Can't Fail--The Clash
Party Started--The Cat Empire
Come Back Jonee--Devo
Overkill--Colin Hay
Jonathon Fisk--Spoon

Bonus monster rock:

Television, Television--O.K. Go

"The Big One-Five"

He remains, by far, the most friendly and mellow puppy I have ever met.

Ladies and gents, boys and girls, friends and neighbors...Jack the Dog is 15 years old today.

Happy Birthday, boy...we love you!

Mission accomplished

Yeah, I know that the blogosphere is filled on this anniversary with references to King Merdre's famous speech 5 years ago today and I meant to put something snarky up here at LMS.

However, after reading Juan Cole's entry today, I thought why bother and instead just link to his post.

April Showers

Okay, okay, I admit that I lifted this from Firedoglake this morning but I don't care. If you can watch this clip and not feel measurably buoyed by Gene Kelley's dancing, regardless of the state of the world and an accompanying sour mood, then I'm sorry, you just can't be helped.

That is all.

May Day redux

Then again, these tulips that GG planted last Fall that have shot up in the front yard is just as legitimate a rationale to celebrate the coming of May.

Enjoy.

Workers Unite

A happy May 1st to all of my fellow Librul apparatchiks in the 'Murkan gulag. We've been branded Socialists by the brilliant minds of such luminaries as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh so I say let's embrace our inner leftist and go the whole mile to outright Socialism.

Of course if any of these wind up toys of men would read a few lines of Marx and Engel's rhetoric as it relates to community property and individualism, they'd see that we're anything but Socialists. Remember though, reading and deep thinking are for fags, so lets' just go with the zeitgeist of the right wing hate machine and accept the label.

Of course, if one were to read the two minute definition of Fascism, ...a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond reach of traditional solutions; 2. belief one’s group is the victim, justifying any action without legal or moral limits; 3. need for authority by a natural leader above the law, relying on the superiority of his instincts; 4. right of the chosen people to dominate others without legal or moral restraint; 5. fear of foreign `contamination....it would be plain to see that the Right Wing in the US is closer than not to that particular ethos that we are to Socialist thought.

Anyway, have a happy May Day muthafuckers.