Second Amendment Poster, 3rd in the series

click poster to enlarge
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Comandante Fidel Castro steps down?

Once again, the sometimes hopeful, sometimes hysterical rumors about Cuban leader Fidel Castro's health, began making the rounds following the announcement that he was handing power to his brother Raul before he underwent surgery for "an acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding."

A professor of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, John Kirk, said the tone of the official proclamation and the "ominous ring" of his statement that "imperialism will never be able to crush Cuba," suggested his condition was dire. All the articles you will read on this subject are completely speculative. . .there is no news from Cuba, other than the official statement.

Is this the beginning of the end or merely a lacuna in The Comandante's nearly fifty-year reign? Click here to read the Reuters story.
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The 50 greatest movie endings of all time

Filmcritic.com has put together a fascinating list. Of the movies I know--The Godfather, Citizen Kane, All That Jazz, A Clockwork Orange, 8 1/2, Dr. Strangelove, et al, they hit the nail on the head... a good read. Click here to see the list.

15. The Godfather (1972) - Derelicts will argue the second one is better, but the ending of the Godfather is everything it should be, foreshadowing all the dark, murky secrets that would be dragged from the depths in Part 2. Kay finally asks about Michael's business and he lies, outright, as the door closes on a good kid who turned into the ultimate family man, and a brooding, calculating monster. -CC

13. Citizen Kane (1941) - Well, we kind of have to put this one on the list, don't we? One of the earliest examples of don't-spill-the-secret endings and also I've-been-robbed anti-climax, that little wooden sled explains everything and explains nothing about Charles Foster Kane, but it's the elusive piece of the jigsaw that drives one of the greatest movies ever made. -AG

ed. note: Wikipedia (take it for what it's worth) says says that "rosebud" allegedly was a "nickname used by William Randolph Hearst to refer to the clitoris of his mistress", Marion Davies.)






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Karl Rove calls the kettle black

On Saturday, Karl Rove ripped into journalists on the political beat. They want to draw attention away from the "corrosive role" their own coverage plays in government, he said.

"Some decry the professional role of politics, they would like to see it disappear," Rove told graduates at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. "Some argue political professionals are ruining American politics--trapping candidates in daily competition for the news cycle instead of long-term strategic thinking in the best interest of the country." "It's odd to me that most of these critics are journalists and columnists," he said. "Perhaps they don't like sharing the field of play. Perhaps they want to draw attention away from the corrosive role their coverage has played focusing attention on process and not substance."

It is fascinating to hear this cynical and ruthless manipulator of voters take on the press for exactly what he practices every single day of his life (except when he was laying low, hoping to dodge an indicment for perjury).
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Catapult the propaganda!::::::::Another Presidential Poster (free to our customers!)

Click poster to enlarge...
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Catapult The Propanganda!! Another letter to the President

July 30, 2006

Dear Mister President:

It's been fourteen months since you uttered those words about catapulting the propaganda. The problem may be that you were catapulting not "the truth," but a bushel-full of bulls**t, Bushisms, calumny, deceit, myths, misstatements, fibs, fish stories, whoppers, disinformation, distortion, evasion, hyperbole, terminological inexactitude, perjury, hype, shuck and jive. Yeah, with what you're peddling it's going to take a whole lot longer to sink in than the truth.

You said "You got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in," but how many times do you have to repeat it when you're peddling wholesale lies? It's been fourteen months since you said that and now you're facing even more quagmires. Baghdad is again enveloped in chaos; Lebanon is caught in the middle of another war; our partners in the coalition are slowly packing up and going home. You have Saddam Hussein on a feeding tube!

We blown $300 billion and 2600 soldiers' lives like drunken sailors on three day shore leave. We embarked on a half-baked war with virtually no planning. And we're no closer to our goals than we were sitting on our hands.

Now, we should be in Darfur, and in Israel, Lebanon, and the Gaza strip, we cannot afford to go. We are unable to act. The great giant is silenced. You, Mister President, asked the United Nations (and organization you abhor) to handle it. Just when the U.S. could do some good, our hands are tied behind our backs in Iraq. In other conflicts like this, the United States would charge in with diplomats, and with troops when necessary. The one thing the United States was sometimes good at is not available to us, because you have the money and troops attempting to hold Iraq together.

It's about time for you to dislodge you head from your sphincter and figure out how to disentangle ourselves from your Iraq adventure. We've got places to go and people to see. You have proven we are not miracle workers. It's time to get back to doing what we do right. We'd prefer not to wait for your retirement for that.

Your buddy, friend and pal,

Jack Brummet
Seattle, Wash.

Crosslink: George Bush's letter to All This Is That.
Crosslink: Catapult the propaganda poster
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All This Is That Poster: men in black

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One of four posters/handbills I am exchanging with a coalition of art and poetry bloggers
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Poster 2: repeal the 2nd amendment

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Keelin Curran With President Ronald Reagan

click photo to enlarge

The former President appears to be expressing disapproval in this photomontage from about 1981.

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Neil Young's lyrics to "After The Garden"

The lyrics to one of Neil Young' great new songs on the album Living With War, being performed across the U.S. right now with CSN & Y. If you want to hear the album, he has the entire thing streaming. But you should probably just buy it--it's that good. To listen go to Neil's always interesting web site click here. He also streams it from his myspace page




After The Garden

won't need no shadow man
runnin' the government
won't need no stinkin' war
won't need no haircut
won't need no shoe shine

after the garden is gone
after the garden is gone
after the garden is gone

what will people do?
after the garden is gone
what will people say?
after the garden

won't need no strong man
walkin' through the night
to live a weak man's day
won't need no sunshine
won't need no purple haze

after the garden is gone
after the garden is gone
after the garden is gone

where will people go?

after the garden is gone
what will people know?

after the garden

after the garden is gone
after the garden is gone

(we live in the garden of eden, yeah
don't know why we wanna tear the whole thing to the ground
we live in the garden of eden, yeah
don't know why we wanna tear the whole thing down

and we've got to get ourselves
back to the garden)
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Poster: repeal the 2nd amendment

Click image to enlarge.
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Holy Smokes! Mel Gibson Goes Apes**t in Malibu & The Cops Cover It Up

Mel Gibson went bananas when he was arrested Friday for drunk driving. And because they believed the arrest report was so inflammatory, detailing ethnic slurs, and religious epithets, they had the arresting officer create a new one. They kept the real one under wraps. TMZ leaked the original arrest report. You can read it in a PDF here.

On being arrested, Gibson began swearing uncontrollably, and said over and over

My life is f****d.

The deputy asked Gibson to get into the squad car. Gibson said

I'm not going to get in your car.

He then ran to his own car. The deputy subdued [1] Gibson, cuffed him and put him inside the patrol car. Once inside the car, a source directly connected with the case says, Gibson began banging himself against the seat. The report says Gibson told the deputy,

You mother f****r. I'm going to f*** you.

The report also says "Gibson almost continually [sic] threatened me saying he 'owns Malibu' and will spend all of his money to 'get even' with me."

Gibson launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements:

F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.

Are you a Jew?



Arriving at the police station, a sergeant started videotaping Gibson. When Mel saw the camera, he said

What the f*** do you think you're doing?

Gibson noticed a female sergeant and yelled,

What do you think you're looking at, sugar tits?

Gibson took two blood alcohol tests, which were videotaped, and continued saying how "f****d" he was and how he was going to "f***" the arresting officer, Deputy Mee.

Deputy Mee thought Gibson was going to take a leak on the floor of his cell and had someone take Gibson to a bathroom. After finishing up business, Gibson demanded to make a phone call. He was taken to a pay phone and, when he didn't get a dial tone, we're told Gibson threw the receiver against the phone. Deputy Mee warned Gibson that if he damaged the phone he could be charged with felony vandalism.

On Saturday, of course, Gibson was contrite [excerpts]:

...I drove a car when I should not have, and was stopped by the LA County Sheriffs. The arresting officer was just doing his job and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person....

...I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true...

...I apologize for any behavior unbecoming of me in my inebriated state and have already taken necessary steps to ensure my return to health...


[1] A great police word that may mean anything from ordering the "suspect" to stop to truncheoning him senseless with your "baton," or billyclub.
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