Billmon:

That, of course, will never happen, but if the Dems don’t turn the full weight of the FBI, the DoJ and the IRS loose on the Rovians the very first chance they get, they’ll just be asking for it. The Octopus will have it tentacles wrapped around throats again so fast it will make their tiny little brains pop.

The Octopus

Billmon:

III. The Really Idiocratic Vote

II. Words to Live By

—

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s never to misunderestimate the power of electoral inertia, or the efficiency and effectiveness of the Republican machine. Some of the more ambitious scenarios — of a 40 or 50 seat Democratic wave in the House, or a Democratic Senate — may, I repeat may, be slipping away.

I. The Idiocracy Vote

Some barflies, current Moon of Alabama and former Whiskey Bar commentators, have ganged up to descend on me in my current hometown of Hamburg, Germany on New Years eve and during the week following it. I have already preemptivly surrendered to that assault.

Those who didn’t take part in that aggression now have a unique chance to join the coalition and will be rewarded with meeting some of the faces behind a few of the blog-handles here – (plus a great harbour tour – [the harbour that is – not the tour]).

If you think about coming, please let me know what day you would prefer for the central event. Inevitable wet/dry discussions about blog-sex, unjustified sarcasm and evil prejudice against marxism or whatever ideology you prefer to judge irrelevant or not: 12/31/06? 01/03/07? 01/06/07?

I’ll somehow (though don’t know how yet) figure out/decide on the best date for this and then will release a second call with a defined date.

If you are thinking about joining this baccanal, I may be able to help with some local accomodations and such. The relevant email address is available on the About page.

Billmon:

We can only hope Lind’s "Okhrana" isn’t reading the tea leaves correctly. War with Iran would be a special kind of disaster. But there are plenty of other places in the world where Shrub and company could cause trouble, plenty of other crises they could use or create to demonstrate their continued relevance.

The Next Wave

Billmon:

I do wonder how deeply into the doo doo the empire is going to have to sink before someone decides that leaving the allocation of power to a zoned-out mob of reality TV addicts and cable news carnie barkers isn’t such a great idea after all.

The Joke’s On Us

Billmon:

Halperin makes a fairly plausible substitute for Zinoviev or Kaminev or Bukharin, or any of the other "Old Bolshevik" who groveled before the cameras and meekly confessed their mostly imaginary crimes in Vishinsky’s court. They begged Stalin for forgiveness and were shot for their troubles — just as I suspect Halperin is still going to lose his job one of these days, no matter how hard he cries for Hewitt’s mercy. He just can’t shake those "liberal" social origins.

Treason in the Blood

Billmon:

But in the meantime the oil will continue to flow, and Middle East Mukhabarats will continue to hunt and kill Al Qaeda operatives and keep Islamist movements under close surveillance. At this point, that’s about the best the American gas guzzling public can hope for — that is, barring a complete 180 in the direction of U.S. imperial foreign policy.

Stopped Clocks

(update below)

Jana is one of my favorite local street artists. She sings balads/chanson in four languages, with an impressive voice and seemingly in trance.

Today she had selfmade CDs for sale.

Drachenblut (mp3) is sung in bard style and a mixture of modern and medievial German

Living A Sunday (mp3)

my favorite: Gold ("why aren’t you here with me …") (mp3)

(I didn’t compress much, so filesizes are about 4Mb)

bigger pic, another pic

(sorry, only cellphone cam pics)

How do you like her music? I’ll let her know your opinion.

Update:

Today I met Jana for a coffee/tea and did get the CDs for those of you who asked. (And yes Rowan, she is really pretty …)

Here are four more songs by her, though only as teasers – i.e. incomplete. Still, very enjoyable music – give it a try.

Toute En Ronde,
Mis Sueños,
Is It Okay? and something special.

If you want to have a CD by this coming star, let me know.

Billmon:

You could say: To hell with old media, they’re just a bunch of senile dinosaurs anyway, who cares who they pander to? But old media, for better or worse, still set the news agenda, and still dominate the political process. And they’re doing an energetic, if not yet totally successful, job of sucking up new media and sticking them in the same corporate straight jacket. If they decide, as matter of cold capitalist calculation, that one-party Republican rule is the smart way to bet, that could also be come a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Maybe I’m wrong — I hope I am. But if I’m right, then there may come a time when progressives look back and sigh for the good old days when journalistic "objectivity" still encouraged the corporate media to give the truth and conservative propaganda equal weight, instead of simply repeating the latter.

The Enemies of Truth

Billmon:

I think I hear that same sound coming from the Rovian machine right now — a doomed, crazed animal in its final death throes.

Road Kill

Billmon:

Now it’s the Rovians who potentially are standing in the oppressor man’s shoes. Would they really have the stones to try to steal an entire congressional majority, wholesale instead of retail? I guess that would depend on how narrow the Democratic margin was on November 8, and how many close races there were — close enough to make a challenge seem at least halfway plausible.

Some Like It Hot

Shortly after North Koreas first nuke test, there were reports on CNN and elsewhere about South Korean protests against NoKo. The most replayed TV clip included the burning of a North Korean flag.

These protests looked as genuine as the tearing down of Saddams statue in Baghdad. Was the main stream media telling a straight story here or was the reporting biased?

Monolycus, who lives and teaches in South Korea, gives us his impression.

by Monolycus

My position then (as it is now) is that there is no peninsula-wide hysteria as you see reported on CNN.

I did not think it would be any problem to write up an authoritative article to that effect, complete with sources and pictures. But I discovered very quickly that what I am trying to do here is to prove a negative. Few people write about things that haven’t happened to them.

I’ve tried to interview many, many people about this non-issue. They are aware of how they are being portrayed on CNN and elsewhere, they just don’t think it’s important enough to make a fuss about.

A standard South Korean response to a Westerner who tries to make them see something as important is
"Don’t worry about that", and that was the bulk of the responses I received when I asked about North Korea, Kim Jong-il, nuclear weapons or the United Nations.

It’s just not something they feel is worth worrying over for a few reasons.

Cont. reading: South Korean Protests? – Not Really …