Have you ever heard the complaint about capitalism that states that our best talent is being pimped by the advertising industry? The logic goes that if this era does have a Beethoven, he (or she) composes jingles for Frito-Lay and Kit-Kat. Even thought the sites above are for the most part for slick interactive ad agencies, they are pretty cool to check out. So go have a look at what DaVinci and Van Gogh are up to…

So it’s been said that we’ve just been through 28 years of the Bush/Clinton cabal. Let’s do the math:

Bush (selected) president: 2000 - 2008 = 8 years (barring impeachment?!)
Bill Clinton president 1992 - 2000 = 8 years
George HW Bush president 1988 - 1992 = 4 years
George HW Bush Vice President for Reagan 1980 - 1988 = 8 years
Total= 28 yearzzzz.

If Hillary clinton wins, or if Obama wins, that will extend the tally. Time for a change, people!

um. Holy Fuck? Evidently I am at a loss for words. Except to say that there was once a time when members of the public were sufficiently cowed by someone in power saying “No” that they gave up their cause, even if that meant abandoning a family member. Thankfully, times have changed. Not.

one of the best cartoons I’ve seen yet.

I have plenty more to say on this topic, but I didn’t want this article to pass by without registering some indignation. Surely you have heard of Valerie Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson? Turns out that by outing her identity to the press, someone not only blew the cover of a covert agent for the CIA, they also severely hampered several operations in progress to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Kind of a two-fer. Not only do they get to retaliate against a political enemy (Wilson), but they destroy intelligence gathering capabilites on Iran, their next intended target. Makes it easier to make bogus intelligence claims, when there is no solid intelligence either way.
Is Bushney that cunning? I wouldn’t put it past them, but I acknowledge I am on thin ice here.

I’m about to make the first of many wild predictions. It is this: if Stephen Colbert has the stomach to stay in it, and he is actually motivated to constructively disrupt the political process, then I think he could actually sway the end result. There is enough discontent out there (League of Pissed Off Voters, the election of Jesse “The BodySlam - Don’t vote for politics as usual” - Ventura, and the Governator, to name a few instances) to make Colbert’s run more than just a passing publicity stunt, if that is his intention. At least the man is eloquent, and let us not forget that it is the unique privilege of the satirist to be able to speak truth to power. By being so used to ferreting out the absurd, it can be said that Colbert has spent a career calibrating his “moral compass”, to borrow a hackneyed term.

and I can’t organize my inbox. Unbelievable.

I found an interview Frank Zappa did on Crossfire in 1986 about censorship. Robert Novak was the conservative voicebox, Tom Braden played to the left, and some uppity journalist named John Lofton was “in the Crossfire”. Zappa was in control of he conversation from the outset, complete with a well deserved ‘Kiss My Ass’ to Lofton, but what struck me in particular was this exchange in the final seconds of the clip:

FZ: The biggest threat to America today is not Communism, it’s moving America toward a Fascist Theocracy. And everything that’s happened during the Reagan administration is steering us right down that pipe.

RN: Mr. Zappa, do you really think, I mean, all kidding aside, that in this country, with all the permissiveness that we are moving toward, that we are really heading in that direction?

FZ: You bet we are buddy.

That was 21 years ago. What’s interesting is that the entire time, the right wing has been able to propagate the idea that the country has been sliding into a liberal-sponsored moral crisis (rock ‘n roll, recreational drugs, casual sex, disrespect of authority, etc) when the real shift has occurred in the cultural worship of capital. The blatant consolidation of private power and the subsequent subjugation of the public sphere has been somehow sold under the guise of Freedom and The American Dream. The stock market keeps hitting new highs, even though the income gap is widening at a faster rate and the average American is in more debt than at any other time in history. Yet the real villains are liberals, celebrities, etc. How does that saying go?

“A gentler, kinder fascism.”