OBL in the Hizzle

So Osama is still alive and getting on the campaign trail. I'm not sure what I think of this whole scenario. First off, its pretty evident he's not living in a cave somewhere communicating via smoke signals. His tape menions a great deal of current events which disturbs me. You had to kind of expect an appearance. I mean its like watching a Ben Affleck movie and just waiting to see Matt Damon walk in for some unnecessary cameo. The troubling thing was just that it now has to have an impact in the election. I mean this guy should be still running for his life, why has he made more movies than Ron Howard? I thought he was sick, I thought he was on the run, I thought he could "run but he couldn't hide". Well guess what, it doesn't seem like he having to run or hide too much and its PISSING ME OFF! For crying out loud, how do we solve this problem? I mean for real people, its just a little obnoxious, and quite embarrassing to have some ghost still taunting Americans.

RANT
All this crap reminds me of something pretty critical that hasn't been talked about much.
This guy Capt. Josh Rushing was on NPR yesterday. Its a great listen. He was a press officer stationed at CENTCOM. He was later assigned to the world wide media including Al Jazeera (the infamous anti-american news network), on the war in Iraq. How much experience did he have with Iraq? ZERO! How much Arabic did he speak? ZERO! He apparently learned as much as he could about IRAQ on the plane over seas reading a "for Dummies" book. He was also prominantly pictured in Control Room , a documentary on the perception of America in Iraq. Why hasn't America made a concious effort to explain, explain, expain and sell, sell, sell the actions of America in that region to Al Jazeera? I know I know, many people might say this is shit because Al Jazeera obviously has biases (one of which being that its famous for less than love for America). It does no good, however, to push the American agenda on TV networks that:
1. America propped up and has NO legitimacy in the Arab world.
2. Only support the war effort at home (BBC, FoxNews, CNN).

My opinion is that the US must improve communications with Al Jazeera to get more rebuttles to the attacks they make against the US. That is the only legitimate news source to the Arab world in that region! And when I say legitimate, I mean the ONLY network repected by the people in the middle east. THEY DONT WATCH FOX NEWS!!!
/RANT

The real question is, was he saying that voting for Bush would be in his interest or voting for Kerry would be? It seemed like there was a hint that they'd love Bush because he's just like dealing with leaders of other states in that region. But at the same time, that could have been intentional to provoke a reaction by the people. So, what's the impact in the election? Well if the people know he wants them to vote for Bush, will they change their mind to be defiant? Wouldn't OBL know that Americans would do the exact opposite of what he suggested, so he'd plan for that too? Will Americans be a little bit more than annoyed that Bin Laden is making movies while we are losing in Iraq and vote for change? Will the people be reminded of 9/11 and vote Bush for the agressiveness of his war on terror? I guess the real question is does this matter in Florida, Ohio, or Penn? I live in the DC beltway so we always take this stuff much more seriously than everyone else in the country does. So how will this affect those three states since according to all the pundits (whatever they know)? Pretty pathetic that something as menacing as this video really only matters with regard to the election outcome not the potential for another attack which it seems like noone is really worried about. I am going to a football game tomorrow, and voting on tuesday and I'm just annoyed that I have to worry about the stadium blowing up, voting precincts being destroyed, or a train being hijacked and blown up (see Madrid). Its a scary world and its just a shame.

PS-My pick is that Bush gets the election on this video (which is sick). I'd love to be wrong.

Zack, where have you gone?

Rage Against the Machine 'dissolved' a few years ago, and all the members but Zack de la Rocha banded together with Chris Cornell and formed the band, Audioslave. They released a successful album in 2002. Zack, however, has been MIA. He's reportedly recorded tracks with Trent Reznor of NIN, Dan the Automator of the Gorillaz, and DJ Shadow, but no albums have been released. Zack and Shadow did release a song shortly after the war in Iraq began, but due to the oppressive patriotism that was pervasive at the time, it received little to no airplay.

Interestingly enough, it seems like some Rage songs are actually becoming more relevant as time passes. Let's examine some snippets:

Merge on tha networks, slangin' nerve gas
Up jump tha boogie then bang, let 'em hang
While tha paraniod try ta stuff tha void
Let's capture this AM mayhem
Undressed, and blessed by tha Lord
Tha power pendulum swings by tha umbilical cord
Shock around tha clock, from noon 'til noon
Men grabbin' they mics, and stuff 'em into tha womb
Terror's tha product ya push
Well I'm a truth addict, oh shit I gotta headrush
Sheep tremble an here come tha votes
Thrown from tha throat, new cages an scapegoats
Undressed and blessed by tha Lord
Tha same devil that ran around Managua wit a sword
Check out tha new style that Ollie found
I tune in wit a bullet ta shut down tha devil sound
Shut down tha devil sound
Tha program of Vietnow
Shut down tha devil sound

-Vietnow, Evil Empire (1996)

Clearly, the original target of this song was conservative radio, but much of it is directly applicable to the current election. "Terror's tha product ya push" could be a reference to the spreading of paranoia by Bush and his cronies. "Sheep tremble an here come tha votes" is the what the Bush camp hopes results from their terror pushing.

The movie ran through me
The Glamour subdue me
The tabloid untie me
Im empty please fill me
Mister anchor assure me
That Baghdad is burning
Your voice it is so soothing
That cunning mantra of killing
I need you my witness
To dress this up so bloodless
To numb me and purge me now
Of thoughts of blaming you
Yes the car is our wheelchair
My witness your coughing
Oily silence mocks the legless
Boys who travel now in coffins

-Testify, Battle of Los Angeles (1999)

This one is pretty much self-explanatory. It seems more applicable to the current conflict in Iraq since this one is a prolonged war where we're constantly hearing reports of "X number dead today in Iraq."

Anyway, as the title indicates, the original purpose of this post was to question why Zack hasn't released anything in the months leading up to the election. I'm sure there are plenty of 18-yr olds running around out there who support Kerry, but would rather not be bothered with the whole voting process. A catchy song and video might be all the motivation these kids need to get themselves registered and to the polls. Every vote counts...

Top 10 indicators that you're a peon.

Ask and ye shall receive. Some of these are from personal experience. Others, I've witnessed, and some are just plain made up. I think everyone can relate to at least one of these, however, and that just means that we've all been a peon at some point in our life.

10) You are referred to as a 'vassal' or 'serf.'
9) Some guy keeps demanding half of your harvest.
8) When clicked on repeatedly, you involuntarily emit a series of nonsensical sounds.
7) You realize that the girl you've been sweating for the last month actually lives in your dorm. Ugh.
6) You answer the phone, and the person on the other end says, "Hello Ma'am" to which you reply, "I'm a boy!"
5) You're picked last in dodgeball. Even the exchange student who thinks the goal of the game is to get hit, and the guy who eats paste in the coat closet were picked ahead of you.
4) You've just accomplished something amazing in your favorite avocation, but you realize that you can't tell anyone because a) they wouldn't understand the significance, and/or b) it involves a 20-sided die
3) You're the only person in your company who didn't get a laptop when he/she started working there.
2) You're last in your fantasy league despite the fact that half the people autodrafted and haven't changed their lineups yet.
1) You've asked such questions as "Is the homecoming game going to be at home?" or "Are any of you guys going to join a sorority?"

Polls...

So, I'm full of chicken wings, beer and Amphora chocolate mousse and feeling rather lazy, but I'll try to make a coherent post.

As Sam alluded to in his post, the polls have been back and forth in the last few days, but for the most part they have been within the margin of error. To the intelligent voter, this means that the polls really don't tell us anything other than the election is very tight. Given the closeness of this race, what I want to know is if it's more advantageous for a candidate to be ahead or behind on the eve (literally, definition #1) of the election. Here are some theories:

1) Being behind is better, because it will motivate voters who support a candidate, but are lazy, to hit the polls. (Similarly, lazy voters for the leading candidate might decide that they aren't needed)
2) Being ahead is better, because it will 'energize' a candidate's supporters and encourage them to hit the polls.
3) Being ahead is better, because people always like being on the winning team, so some undecided voters will vote for the leading candidate simply so they can be on the victorious side.

I'd like to think that #3 is unlikely, but given some of the reasons that people I know support Bush, I would not be surprised if it is a factor. Anyway, it's just something to mull over while you're driving to work over the next week.

And another thing...

Alright I'm relying on Ninjax's abilities (or lack of life) to think of a top 10. I'm really not the brain of the operation. I'm not sure I'm the brawn either but who really cares.

I am officially poll weary. I'm also officially poll addicted. This race is ridiculously close for a lot of people which is certainly understandable. In the real world (somewhere between marioland and candyland) there are some pretty high stakes. The polls however, I have decided are complete shit. Not that they might not end up being right. By all means a broken clock is right twice a day. A weather man can tell the world its raining outside. Ummm...The race is close. So to make it more interesting, it keeps blipping around!!! Up 2, down 1, the big O, I mean MO. Lets be honest here. Its all crap...Ninjax would say craptastic or such things but all the same, its useless. I suppose it makes everyone feel better about feeling the way they do.

I'm watching hardball yesterday and Chris Matthews has approximately a 2.3 second interview with Senator Kerry. Best part about it? They were both outside in chilly Philadelphia weather, and Kerry looked the grittiest I've seen him. Worst part of it? Same old 'sleeper hold' effect from Kerry's speaking.

I went through a few weeks ago, what I predict every Kerry supporter has gone through this year. I mean, is this guy for real? Not in a sarcastic sense, is he completely and seriously running for president thinking the world is just waiting for him to arrive? I mean does he think that a republican congress is going to do anything close to what he's promised? I'm sure Poland will be very quick to deliver thousands of troops. I mean HE FORGOT POLAND!!! Can he seriously think, with the economic mess we are in, healthcare is going to come rolling out the Whitehouse door and everyone will have the same healthcare "congressmen give themselves"? I'll give all these an understated probably not. So I have friends that say he is actually serious. Hmm.
All this goes away everytime I see the Pres. not acknowledging anything bad going on in Iraq, or handily screwing up the economy, or alienating our allies, or...I give up.

Ah well, it passed and apparently I didn't need the flu shot to keep myself from dying. At the end of the day, Kerry is a safer choice to lead us through the next four years. Why? Simply his view that America NEEDS help from the rest of the world in fighting terror, the war in Iraq, the 'global' economies (anyone know anything about the EU, and whether they have any impact what-so-ever? Yeah neither do anyone in the Bush administration). Kerry is going to be tougher with the Saudis, since there aren't any 'extracurricular' ties there. This is huge because they are this band of thugs that have been living under the US protective wing of wonderful happy times for too many years. I'm tired of them always getting left out of the freedom in the middle east talk. how many of the suicide bombers from 9/11 were Saudis? Ninjax, look that one up!

At the end of the day, a liberal politician, in a republican congress, who hasn't quite out grown his vietnam war wounds is a safer choice than a fortunate son who's six shooter always seems to have plenty more bullets, but no real aim.

This blog I do not expect to be totally politics, but since we are a week away, Ninjax and I will be sure litter this blog with politicy junk. enjoy.


Puhlease post comments and email so we can get this blog active!