Pink blogule to Hollywood - followers at best

Ang Lee truly was the best director around. To me, it means even more than the best picture award : he won on the human side, and anyway "Brokeback Mountain" has already become an all time great.
"Crash" won't reach that level. That movie reminds me of "Boyz n the Hood" : a "sign 'o the times" flick with a clear message and an interesting twist, but a little bit too much arranged and caricatural... just like Haggis' scenario for "Million Dollar Baby". You can enjoy it on the spot (good parts, great actors) but unlike Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", the effect doesn't last. I guess Hollywood voters* were touched by the painting of the L.A. clamors reaching almost the top of their Beverly Hill fences.
That was a nice year for indies, but Hollywood didn't go all the way for their 2006 Academy Awards. George Clooney nailed it quite well by saying Hollywood "reflect society, not truly lead it".
Hollywood was two years too late because the majors accepted a deal with the Devil : our Administration passes the laws you want, don't attack us before the elections. Last year, it was as if the majors offered more playtime to their independant arms. But come moneytime or the All Star Game, only the big names did get their chances.


* (as Jon Stewart put it) "the first time many of [which] have ever voted for a winner".

Red blogule to W's preemptive counterstrikes

"43" said he was open to a debate over Iraq... provided it only did "bring credit to our democracy, not comfort to our adversaries".
So only he has a right to wage a dirty war at home, using all the illegal tools one dictator could dream of. And he denies politicians as well as medias the right to investigate, to use such terms as illegal eavesdroppings, abduction, torture or all of the above ?
This isn't what I call an open debate. Nor even a debate, for that matter. Actually, it rather looks like the denial of a genuine debate, the refusal to confront democracy, and once again, a shame for America.
I don't think history will "bring credit" to Dubya's democracy*. And I do think democracy's adversaries find a lot of "comfort" in seeing Amerika turn its back to its own values.


* Mercifully enough, Iraq will eventually move towards democracy. But this far, all major steps have been reached thanks to a lack of Bush doctrine : the UN made the first elections possible and the talks with insurgents are the only way of kicking Al Qaeda out of the country (yeah, those very foreign terrorists who came in after the US invasion).

White blogule to unconstitutional ID and illegal eavesdropping

In Seattle, WA, the Discovery Institute receives $9.5M from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That's a charity supposed to eradicate evil bugs from all children of the world. I mean the B&MGF, not the Discovery Institute, a known promoter of Intelligent Design.
In New York, NY, Fox intelligently designs new films fit for the fundamentalist audiences (FoxFaith.com). Next time, they won't let Mel Gibson take all the risks on his own (nor grab all the benefits).
In Washington, DC, President George W. Bush, still waging his intelligently designed war in Iraq,maintains illegal eavesdropping is not only legally but morally OK.
In Dover, PA, U.S. District Judge John Jones rules Intelligent Design teaching illegal. At last, somebody is waking up this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

White blogule to John Murtha - My kingdom for a horse

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) : "I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and sent people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions that what may need to be done."
VP** Dick Cheney (R-BA*) : "A few politicians are suggesting these brave Americans were sent into battle for a deliberate falsehood. This is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety. It has no place anywhere in American politics, much less in the United States Senate." NB : Lobby Dick, who couldn't win any Purple Hart since he doesn't have any (last time he tried it attacked him) should know about revisionism, corruption and shamelessness, which take place anytime in Amerika's White House.
Scott McClellan (R-BA*) : (Murtha) "is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party."
Michael Moore (I-MI) : "Is that the best you can do to persuade them to stick with you -- compare them to me? You gotta come up with a better villain. For heaven's sakes, you had a hundred-plus million other Americans who think the same way I do -- and you could have picked on any one of them! But hey, why not cut out the name-calling and the smearing and just do the obvious thing: Come join the majority! Be one of us, your fellow Americans! Is it really that hard? Is there really any other choice? George, take a walk on the wild side! Your loyal representative from the majority, Michael Moore."
Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) : "By misrepresenting the facts, by misunderstanding Iraq and misleading the war, I believe the administration has brought us to the verge of a national security debacle."
VP*** George Bush (R-BA*) : "I'm here (NB : in Mongolia) on an important international mission. Secretary Rumsfeld asked me to check on his horse." A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!

Who said that ? Richard The Third ? Dick, The Turd ? I don't care : here comes the Debate, at last.

But so late. More than one year behind schedule. We knew all about the lies, the torture, the disinformation, the CIA Airlines FFPs..., yet Dubya got reelected.

Both the Democrats and the Media hold a share of responsibility in this failure. To do the right thing, I'd expect them to lead the first double impeachment in History. A Late Summer Night's Dream ?

* Bush Administration
** Vicious President
*** Virtual President

White blogule to Bob Woodward - Blowing another fuse

Going for another impeachment ? With an exquisite sense of timing, Bob Woodward revealed I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby wasn't his Plame-Wilson deep throat. The Bush Administration may have to blow another fuse and look for another scapegoat.
They easily replaced Scooter with another hawk : the only specie to avoid the laws of evolution does breed by entire flocks at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC, USA (watch out : herd flu hazards). David Addington is already at work to please his masters Lobby Dick and King Dubya, revising the U.S. Army Field Manual in order to allow torture and escape such un-american and un-patriotic documents as the Geneva Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture or the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights.
If he were to chose, W could pick Rummy instead of Dick or even Alberto. He would then please a great part of the Army and even find an alibi to change strategies in Iraq, "his" Rep majority pushing harder than ever for a clear withdrawal agenda before 2006 elections.

Red blogule to Karen Hughes

If you managed not to punch your TV set each time this most iritating Bush passionaria would comment on her Texas pal's crushing victories in last year's prez debates, get ready for it : Karen Hughes's now in charge of sweetening US' world image. Within the US State Department, she will manage "rapid response" teams to counter all foreign liars, the "liars" being people who lie about the Bush Administration's policies (Hughes even dared taking the so called "flushed Quran scandal" as the ultimate example), people who defend Geneva Conventions or the freedom of journalism, people who are "against us", people who voted Kerry, people who said the Iraqi invasion was poorly planned, people who demonstrate their un-Americanness because they lost their kid at the market the other day (the Baghdad market, not your average Iraqi-village-sized Wal-Mart)...
So the best response to your own failing policies is not to change them but to change the background music with which you advertize them. The best answer to fair foreign criticism is to strenghten US unfair propaganda. The best way to cure Amerika's sickness is to send a spin doctor. The best way to make up for your own lies is to put more make up on them and lie even further, be it at the cost of turning unpopular USA into masquerade-ugly unpopular USA.
According to the NYT, Hughes isn't even dealing with the 80% who are already questioning US policies but focusing on the last 20% who are not among the "insurgents" yet. But Karen, how many will sing along with you : "I see your face, I'm a believer" ?

White blogule to Yee-haoo! Mail

This time, Howard Dean's spam got all my attention : "I agree with George Bush" is not precisely the kind of title you would expect from this Democratic National Committee Chairman. The e-mail was worth the click, thanks to this interesting quote : "Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors." (speech given by George W. Bush on April 26, 1999).
I'm not proud of revealing the source of this quote but I love the idea : Karl Rove as the traitor and NYT's Judith Miller as the hero.

White blogule to "Paris 2020"

The year of the Trafalgar bicentennial, the year when Saint Tony reached the European throne, the year France said merde to Europe, how could Paris win over London for the 2012 Olympics ?
Paris has to wait at least after New York 2016 : (ex-) Europe can't possibly get two Olympic Games in a row and the Lords of the Rings cannot offer more than three consecutive gifts to non-US televorus popcornicum vulgaris. Dubya's successor is a sure winner in 2009, but he'll also need a second mandate to fully enjoy the show... and if Hillary is not that one, she can always claim part of the success (exhibit A : a token for attending Singapore 2005 board meeting).
If Paris were eventually awarded the 2032 Games, Chirac could be celebrated for the centennial of his birth as a turn of the millenium Coubertin breathing to his last gasp the spirit of Olympism : "the important thing in the Baghdad 2028 Olympic Games is not to win, but to participate", citius, altius, fortius, fabius...

White blogule to deep throats

If W. Mark Felt actually is Watergate's "Deep Throat", the best kept secret in journalism has come to an end.
What puzzles me is first the timing of the disclosure... right after the "flushed Quran" scandal (which, as I suspected, should never have been called the "Newsweek scandal") : just to remind the not so courageous guy who leaked the Guantanamo mess before retracting the whistle blower can be the hero.
What puzzles me next is the paper releasing the scoop, "Vanity Fair" being a joke on the media exposure. Exposing himself as Deep Throat to the mass media mirrors wasn't about vanity - the guy is 91 and just wanted the truth to come out. What wasn't fair was the necessity to hide for telling it in the first place.

Red blogule to the flushed Quran scandal

Tough times for journalists : you need bullet proof evidences and witnesses to publish anything in BC04 Amerika or else... you're to commit seppuku publicly, explain you told lies*, that you never meant to criticize Uncle Joe... er... Uncle Sam. Dubya's mob is as efficient as Stalin's : they can forge any untruth they want (hey, that got'em reelected) but if you can't have your own sources confirm their off the record leaks (which could get them fired) you're a bold liar. So you become the one responsible for fueling hatred within the Muslim world, you're the one carrying the scapegoat nickname (Rathergate) while the Karl Rove squad of forgers walks away, you're the one shooting a sick remake of sex, lies and videotapes in Abu Ghraib, you're the one bringing shame on Guantanamo, that pleasant resort for tourists from the Middle East...
I suppose the Quran was truly desacrated in Guantanamo but I can't prove it. But I know for sure America has been desacrated by its own rulers : Bush flushed the US Constitution down the toilet of History.

* Newsweek's mea culpa : "On Monday afternoon, May 16, Whitaker issued the following statement: Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Qur'an abuse at Guantanamo Bay."

Red blogule to Bae Yong June Airlines

Yonsama Grandeur ? Winter Sonata ? Korea Pride ? How about Secondhand Tico ? Instead of milking the Bae Yong-Jun cow, the KNTO (Kora National Tourism Organization) should move towards better vehicles and more perennial attractions. Wake up Korea ! How dare you want to be reknown for this scarf-wrapped excuse of an actor (Choi Min-Sik doesn't need scarves, but he is an actor) ? Can't you see this mirage is bound to crash, this "April Snow" is bound to melt ? Why not sponsor Dan Brown's next blockbuster so that the plot sits in Seoul while you're at it ? Don't waste time on fads and invest on the country's unique know how, what makes its culture so much tastier and spicier, even in the movie pictures industry.

White blogule to You

I started a joke... which started the world both laughing and crying. For over two years now, I've been hearing from some of you. You sent me encouragements and hate mails, sometimes pictures, links to your own blog / site, and even a couple of viruses. Students & researchers, soccer addicts & gimchi lovers, Reps & Dems, Christians & Buddhists, Muslims & Jews, moderates & extremists, even a negationist (portals have to be open and sometimes you do catch a cold). Oddly enough, you land from all 6 continents on my personal portal or on one of my blogs (blogules, blogules VF and mot-bile). Sometimes by accident, sometimes with enough masochism to come back more often than I refresh my sites.
Yet, not all of you dare feeding me back. Don't hesitate and go ahead !

Red blogule to the Department Of Justice - "Preserving life and liberty" or Propaganda 101

The Department Of Justice proposes a justification to the Patriot Act on its "Preserving life and liberty" website (http://www.lifeandliberty.gov), with a special focus on "dispelling the myths" because this is about providing truth to those who dare objecting to the Propaganda and refusing "the pursuit of Happiness" (ignorance).
Note the site's title : this Administration sure knows how to preserve liberty (at the cost of thousands of lives, the apology of torture and the negation of justice), and it just proved it knew how to preserve life (theotherapeutical harassment for Terri Shiavo, not one finger lifted for Columbine II).
Right under the title lies a quote from the Declaration of Independence : "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted..." And that's it. They don't go any further. "Governments are instituted" in this context means this is the right, self-evident unalienable and secure body which shall do the job. Yet, I'll complete the quote, just for the education of the masses (not for fun, alas) : "... among Men, deriving their JUST POWERS from the CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED, that WHENEVER ANY FORM OF GOVERNMENT BECOMES DESTRUCTIVE OF THESE ENDS, IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR TO ABOLISH IT, AND TO INSTITUTE NEW GOVERNMENT." This site is definitely a masterpiece in editing for the sake of Propaganda...
Their justifications are very clear : the Patriot act...
... "Allows law enforcement to use surveillance against more crimes of terror" ("courts could permit law enforcement to conduct electronic surveillance to investigate many ordinary, non-terrorism crimes"... translation : we decide who is a terrorist)
... "Allows federal agents to follow sophisticated terrorists trained to evade detection" (translation : federal agents can act as terrorists, kidnap anyone anywhere anytime and evade the detection of human right groups)
... "Allows law enforcement to conduct investigations without tipping off terrorists" (translation : get rid of all safeguards to democracy. tipping off journalists is just as dangerous as tipping off terrorists so lets get rid ov'em too)
..."Allows federal agents to ask a court for an order to obtain business records in national security terrorism cases" (strange : they care about legality only when corporate money is involved)
... "Enhanced the inadequate maximum penalties for various crimes likely to be committed by terrorists" (translation : illegal detention without any proof, torture or death for the luckiest. shall we consider "likely to be" as "not committed yet but with such a profile it's just as well" ?)
... "Enhanced a number of conspiracy penalties" ("conspiracy" as in "I wish Bush weren't reelected" ? "penalties" as in "torture" ?)
The propaganda goes on with the "support of the people" section where polls justify the Patriot Act :
=> These two questions were asked by USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll on August 29, 2003, at a time when the heat was not at its peak on the Patriot Act : "Do you think the Bush administration has gone too far, has been about right, or has not gone far enough in restricting people's civil liberties in order to fight terrorism?" and "Based on what you have read or heard, do you think the Patriot Act goes too far, is about right, or does not go far enough in restricting people's civil liberties in order to fight terrorism?".
=> These two questions were asked even earlier (July 31, 2003) by a very trustable propaganda tool (Fox News/Opinion Dynamics) : "After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act which, in part, gives federal officials wider authority to use wiretaps and other surveillance techniques. Some people say the Patriot Act is a necessary and effective tool in preventing terrorist attacks, while others say the act goes too far and could violate the civil liberties of average Americans. Which comes closer to your view - overall, would you say the Patriot Act is a good thing for America or a bad thing for America?" and "To the best of your knowledge have you or a member of your family had your civil rights affected by the Patriot Act?"
Now moving on to the "stories and articles" section : the first quote is an editorial from a very conservative magazine, National Review and the rest is a selection you would expect from a political brochure but not from a Government's official site.
This is a textbook example of a dictatorship justifying itself. Stephane MOT on a forum

Red blogule to the Clintonian Republic - Spamilial planning

3 mails in one day from the DNC... are the Dems that desperate ? And I still have to receive Howard Dean's greetings. Obviously, "Yee-haa" scared the Clintons so badly they had to attack first : Hillary ignites a motion to secure the ballot system so that "every vote counts" - a great initiative launched with her dear friend McAuliffe but why announce it the very day the minority leaders sends his farewell note ? And between both mails Billy manages to release his own message : come visit my library and help me fight AIDS across the globe. Here again, a noble crusade and a nice reminder weeks after the inauguration of the Presidential Library. But the royal couple had to communicate today : "hey guys, we now the crazy boy from Vermont is taking over, but this remains our party and we're still the front runners for 2008 - besides we don't know if the new leader will let us use this channel for our personal messages".
Washing your laundry in public seems the latest reality TV / reality spam trend. That's how modern and developped countries proceed. Poor Togo relies on foreign news providers to relate the familial succession matters, changes in constitution included. Great Britain may be developped but not modern yet. Imagine receiving your Buckingham palace mail newsreel : in the morning a mail from Harry ("Save on drugs : get rid of hangovers and other nuisances"), at noon Charles' delivery ("Petition : support the institution of marriage in the U.K."), and in the evening Camellia's first mail ("Fight the blues with the blue pill : cheaper viagra now"). Pathetic.

Red blogule to propaganda - How much for a journalist ?

How to tell the difference of wealth between an American and an Iraqi ? The price of a Big Mac ? You'd better check the value of the journalist in the commodities section :
. in DC and in the heat of the Presidential campaign, the Bush administration paid columnist Armstrong Williams $240,000 to have him praise the successes of educational reforms on the TV
. in Baghdad and in the heat of the campaign, Allawi offered $100 to all journalists showing up at a campaign press conference (read FT's Allawi group slips cash to reporters)
A 2,400:1 ratio ??? Keep working on it if you want to catch up with your model democracy, King Dubya's banana republic of the divided states of america. Stephane MOT

Back to the RSS

E-nuf is E-nuf. Shoulda done it two years ago. Back then, I hesitated starting my blog directly in the industrial RSS / XML feed format and launched my "blogules" ye olde way, building my page with pre-Blogtenberg tools (straight on PageBuilder). The output ? More delays between the production, edition and publishing phases.

So on december the 22nd, 2004, almost two years after their launch, "blogules" switched to the easy-feed mode - Merry XMLas !

2004, Year of the Monkeys (how the **** could we let Chavez and Bush get reelected ?), isn't over yet but the BLOGULES are now full speed blogs.

Stephane MOT