Shklovsky's Estrangement Technique: Exhibit A

While I refuse to do that "stop thinking about politics and post a picture of a cat" meme, I give you the best thing ever, the MIM notes reviews of pop music, which I clicked on while I was trying to find the MIM review of Ani Difranco for trochee. Hours of endless entertainment at your fingertips:

MIM on Jewel

Unbelievable. First, we thought Jewel is another complacent Amerikkkan who just "wants to have fun" and "mesmerize" the public with "milky thighs."

It's hard to imagine the female singer with a "bedroom" voice and the rest of album devoid of much meaning but typical gender aristocracy mixture of ambiguity ("U have 2 be careful with me") and pornography ("Press yourself into me") still thinks about CHANGING this country. Of course, we salute and truly appreciate such attempts and give Jewel thumbs up just for this song. If only she could drop the rest...

MIM on Celine Dion
The one good song is "Love is all we need," because this refers to "we" as in all people.

MIM on Shakira

Shakira sings in "Whenever, Wherever" "Baby I would climb the Andes solely/To count the freckles on your body." But nowhere in her songs does she talk about what she (or others) might do to fight oppression or end the needless deaths of people around the world at the hands of those who profit.

MIM on Shania Twain

Womyn is not just a pretty face. We would give Shania additional credit for saying that. Also contrary to the opinion popular in some pseudo-feminist circles, it's desirable and admirable for wimmin to be not only astronauts, but ballerinas as well.

MIM on Britney Spears

When MIM comes to power in the dictatorship of the proletariat, entertainment won't be for profit, and we believe we will suddenly see a drop-off in pornography when there's no money in it. It may rightly be considered artistic expression under capitalism, because that's the best capitalism can do anyway, but once the money element is gone there won't be the Britney Spears phenomenon anymore.

All reviews are followed by this caveat:
MIM has explained that one might even "like" this music while knowing rationally that there is something wrong with it, maybe even profoundly wrong and evil. Being a Maoist means being a revolutionary scientist and that means having the ability to question everything that we like.

Enjoy!

New developments

Ohio counts 93,000 more votes than were cast.

And the trouble in Ohio started with Cuyahoga

It Ain't Over Yet says Keith Olbermann:

NEW YORK— Here’s an interesting little sidebar of our system of government confirmed recently by the crack Countdown research staff: no Presidential candidate’s concession speech is legally binding. The only determinants of the outcome of election are the reports of the state returns boards and the vote of the Electoral College.

That’s right. Richard Nixon may have phoned John Kennedy in November, 1960, and congratulated him through clenched teeth. But if the FBI had burst into Kennedy headquarters in Chicago a week later and walked out with all the file cabinets and a bunch of employees with their raincoats drawn up over their heads, nothing Nixon had said would’ve prevented him, and not JFK, from taking the oath of office the following January.

This is mentioned because there is a small but blood-curdling set of news stories that right now exists somewhere between the world of investigative journalism, and the world of the Reynolds Wrap Hat. And while the group’s ultimate home remains unclear - so might our election of just a week ago.

Stories like these have filled the web since the tide turned against John Kerry late Tuesday night. But not until Friday did they begin to spill into the more conventional news media. That’s when the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that officials in Warren County, Ohio, had “locked down” its administration building to prevent anybody from observing the vote count there.

( Read more... )

Also the Nader-initiated recount IS ON in New Hampshire, as was just reported by Air America. They will be looking into Diebold & optical machines and looking to set precedents for the other 37 states.

Official announcement from the Nader Campaign

Washington, DC:The Nader/Camejo campaign has filed a challenge to the voting results in New Hampshire after receiving numerous complaints from voting rights activists. Below is Nader's letter to New Hampshire requesting a recount. Also, below is Nader's view on electronic voting without a paper trial. In addition, the Nader/Camejo campaign offered our campaign to poll watchers who wanted to be credentialed to be inside to monitor electronic voting. Hundreds of democracy activists in Maryland working with TrueVoteMD.org were credentialed to monitor polling through the Populist Party which was created by Nader-Camejo supporters in Maryland.

Obviously the irony of the situation isn't lost on anyone. Further contributing to the irony is the fact that Nader was illegally propelled onto the Florida ballot now makes him eligible to force a recound there.
But dude. Never thought I would say this in a million years, but Go Ralph.

Maybe three days ago it was just us "crazy" bloggers.

But now the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District
says he has evidence of hacked voting going back two years, and has reported it to the FBI.

According to Bev Harris (blackboxvoting.org) there is a media lockout for all issues of election/fraud. So shit, this is the moment for any and all grassroots distribution of information. Things are starting to seep into the mainstream.