THE DEATHSTAR

The matter of the November contenders is now settled, and short of a lone gunman or some other external intervention, it will be Kerry v Bush when the time comes. And that may well be the next problem. With 245 days to go, the Bush machine and the Bush money have months to throw anything they like at John Kerry, and almost unlimited resources with which to manufacture the ammunition. I would be foolish to pretend that the Bush campaign will be anything but a political Deathstar, a massive, obscenely funded juggernaut, that is formidable, although not by any means invincible, because, as we all know, to blow up a Deathstar, all one has to do is fly along the correct trench under heavy fire and drop the bomb in the right vent or conduit. Maybe not easy, but not impossible, given courage, fortitude, and a suitable supporting cast of reliable and friendly androids

It’s late at night, am I’m aware that I risk going down in an welter of mixed metaphors, but if the last ten days have proved anything, it’s that we not only have to tackle the Deathstar itself, but also all of its related rabid dogpacks who cannot be defined as part of the Bush machine, but are all working to the same concerted, corporate, and essentially fascist agenda. We have just seen a combined counter-attack by these allied interests, a laying of smoke to allow the Chimp Boy to cover himself after the massive floundering that set in following his disintegration on Meet The Press. Clear Channel, the religious right, and Mel Gibson have spun the focus to redundant debate over gay marriage and all the incipient homophobia contained therein, the nonsense over Janet Jackson, Jesus, and the negation of Howard Stern, when all attention should really have been centered on the electorate's coronation of John Kerry, and the primary Deathstar soft areas, like the scary economy, and the quagmire in Iraq. Tomorrow Bush will launch a full Deathstar cash attack with TV ads in seventeen states designed to take the gloss off the Dem primaries. The long haul to the presidential election is not going to be easy, and definitely not pleasant, but it's so crucial fucking crucial we have to hang in for the long summer haul. No ruptures in the Force, okay?

BUT CHEER UP

Seems like there might just have been Martians a billion years ago.

FROM THE EMAIL

Fidicen pays tribute to Jack Elam (and we run his letter in full, even though Doc kinda likes Clint Eastwood.)

Good on ye for saluting Jack Elam. I thought I was the only one who knew who he was. His death saddened me much this year and I will give the pretentious silly twits at the 'Academy' (ha) a pass from further bombast for acknowledging him in death in a way I assume they never did in life. What a putrid thing, the Academy Awards. Whoops, more bombast. When I am King, all awards will be banned, from the Nobel on down, except for those in sports, which is in fact about winning in the first place. For "artists" to participate in awards programs is to betray everything that is art but then again Hollywood is not art at all. So why not just give the awards to the highest grossing productions in each category? That would be honest. I might even watch that, even though I hate almost every movie I see now. I thought Mystic River a piece of shit, one of the most overwrought and manipulative, hate filled and cynical bids for box office gross I ever endured. I grew up in that area and know people not unlike those characters, but the film was absurd, an insult to anyone who ever tried to write or tell an honest story. Fuck Eastwood. You want treachery? Intensity? Woozy, booze soaked hard assed men trying to get ahead in a wicked, corrupt world? Watch Jack Elam in Pat Garret & Billy The Kid. Now there's a film that's honest even when it lies.

CRYPTIQUE – Beans, beans, spinach, beans...