in the house of flies

...or Jim Morrison, or John Belushi. Take yer pick. As long as you feel alive.

It's getting near time..

I made a wreck out of my hand,
I put it through the wall.
I made a fist and not a plan,
call me a wreckless wrecking ball.
I threw my plates against the wall
and give it all I got.
I aim to break, not one but all,
I'm just a big ol' wrecking ball.
I am unruly in the stands,
I am a rock on top of the sand,
I am a fist amidst the hands
and I break it just because I can.
Dah dah dah dah.. oh oh..
It takes a dedicated hand
to put it through the wall.
You gotta wanna break the hearts
of all those pretty porcelain dolls.
You gotta wanna be the drummer in the band
You gotta wanna be a battering ram
You gotta see the artistry in tearing the place apart with me, baby...
Mother Mother - Wrecking Ball

When Canada Geese Attack!

Don't say I didn't warn you.

His Finger is on the Button

Seriously, he will.

But Seriously, Who The Fuck Drives a Chrysler Anyway?

SNL (you can decide whether or not it sucks) not only understands the Republican party but is quite prescient about domestic economic issues. That, or the big three automakers are just re-hashing a three month old tv sketch for their survival strategy.

Mainly I just feel photoshoppy.

Via Blue Gal we find this from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State:

When then-Senator Obama announced his plan for the Faith-Based Initiative last summer, his comments on government-funded religious discrimination were encouraging. When outlining the principles of his plan, Obama clearly stated: "if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them - or against the people you hire - on the basis of their religion."

. . . instead, President Obama has failed to deliver on his campaign statements. When creating his Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Obama failed to adequately prevent harmful discrimination on the basis of religion by government grantees. Although President Obama had originally proposed a new take on the Faith-Based Initiative, one that will not maintain the constitutional and civil rights pitfalls of the Bush Administration, the executive order he signed last week leaves the entire architecture of the Bush Faith-Based Initiative intact - every rule, every regulation, every executive order. And thanks to an aggressive anti-civil rights push from the Department of Justice near the end of the Bush Administration, nearly every social service tax dollar distributed by the government can be used for discriminatory hiring

So ya...Blog Against Theocracy, I'm down.

Cross-posted @ Mccs1977

I'm a bit Leary

Leary by Me, 2009.

“That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary’s trip. He crashed around America selling ‘consicousness expansion’ without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him too seriously . . . All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create . . . a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody—or at least some force—is tending the Light at the end of the tunnel.”

HUNTER S. THOMPSON —Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1971

Take ’Er Easy There Pilgrim

We'll be thinking about our comrade The Culture Ghost as he goes under the knife tomorrow. Stop on by his place and wish him good luck. Knowing him, I'm sure we can expect some great photoshop-rendered images of his hospital experience.

Knock those cells dead, big guy!

The William F. Buckley School of Film Criticism

If Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters and Juno are the paramount exemplars of conservative cinema, then I'm sure I could make the case that the evolution of Radiohead's musical style since Pablo Honey perfectly coincides with the continued dissolution of modernity into a postmodern spectacle of ooze. See, it's fun to imbue cultural artifacts with meaning! For instance, in Andrew Clavin's narrow ideologically-driven mind, George W. Bush is the Batman of The Dark Knight who sacrifices time-honored principles such as the rule of law and human rights in order to catch a terrorist. Well, no wonder I love the Joker so much...

Bizarro Bush

Shock Absorbers: Progressives Stunned by Obama Non-Surprises

There is certainly a great deal of slack-jawed shock going around these days, especially in progressive circles, where pundits, commentators, analysts and kibitzers continually find themselves reeling from yet another "inexplicable" move by the Obama Administration to uphold the core principles of their predecessors: enriching the rich, extending the empire, and enhancing the authoritarian power of a thoroughly militarized state.

For example, Glenn Greenwald and Scott Horton at Harper's (among many others) are deeply shocked by Team Obama's draconian maneuvers to quash a court case based on clear, abundant and credible evidence that American security forces -- and their corporate accomplices -- colluded to inflict horrendous tortures on a gulag captive (whose only "crime," it turns out, was reading a satirical magazine article). While Horton struggles to find some small justification for what he sees as an unwise decision, Greenwald is scathing and detailed in denouncing Obama's action, in which the new president seeks to uphold -- and to seize for himself -- some of the most egregious claims of arbitrary, tyrannical power once advanced by George "Unitary Executive" Bush.

It is good to see these worthy gentlemen -- lawyers both -- give us chapter and verse on this act of evil, yet one still must ask: why all the surprise? From the beginning of his presidential campaign to this very day, Obama has always made it perfectly clear -- as another great unitary executive used to say -- that he has no intention whatsoever of dismantling the unbridled powers of the "imperial presidency." He has also made it clear that he would not prosecute Bush and other top government officials who created and supervised blatantly illegal systems of torture, warrantless surveillance and indefinite detention of kidnapped captives, including U.S. citizens, arbitrarily designated "enemy combatants" by -- who else? -- the unitary executive.

Had a neato idea yesterday to start a comic here that would portray an alternate universe where Bush declared himself Consul for Life in the aftermath of the financial disaster that took place on September the 18th (a day that will live in infamy for what could have been). The kicker would be that everything he did I could model on things Obama is actually doing, thereby criticizing our actual President and killing the second bird with the same stone...what is fast becoming the origin of all suck, Left Blogistan. Maybe I'll follow through, maybe I won't.

Image source: The Jailbreak

Just Plain Nuts

Take it from the kid, 'cos Mr. Parnell just pleaded the fif.

1-2-3-4-FIF.

On Interwebs, Fame Finds You

Kid on acid = funny. Vice President on acid = scary.

I wonder if little David knows that he is more popular than Batman this week.

Joe on Acid

Man, I had a thought there, it was so beautiful and round and symmetric...it's like it fit anywhere, an all governing theory OF LIKE EVERYTHING, MAN! And then fucking Rahm came in here and started prattling on about the great space cakes his Grandmother used to make at the same time I'm trying to explain to him how the universe is one big slow motion orgasm and that the world was, IS, so pregnant with possibility...what the fuck was I just saying?

See also: Not As Hawkish As Bush Is A Low Bar

If Shepard Fairey can do it why can't I?

Ooh, baby, you are so talented! ...And they are so dumb!

Associated Press Sues Over Obama Poster

The Barack Obama image in Shepard Fairey's Obama poster is from an AP photo -- as we noted last month -- and the Associated Press now says its use requires permission.

Fairey's attorney responds: "We believe fair use protects Shepard's right to do what he did here."

I believe he's right too. I'd consider it an honor to be named in the lawsuit along side him. I regularly appropriate from AP, Reuters, and just about anything I can get my hands on. Come and get me.

See also: The Candidate who couldn’t shoot straight.

Driving Miss Daschle

Hoke?
Yes'm...
You're my best friend.
We're pulling into Governor Dean's residence right now....