THE ELVIS FACTOR

I’ve noticed over the last ten days or so, I’ve heard mention made of something called the Elvis Factor in reference to the presidential election. I will confess these references did not come at a time when I was paying any more than subliminal attention, and I can only imagine it was some pig-benighted columnist or TV news show casting for an angle, and remembering Bill Clinton.

Yeah, in the world of politicians where all things are relative, Clinton had plenty of Elvis. You only had to watch him get down with an Abyssinia Baptist Church. Both the dead Kennedy Brothers had some Elvis, but it tended to bring out the lone gunmen. I could write a whole lot about the Elvis Factor and probably will sometime, but suffice for now to say that it’s an intangible that makes girls adore and crowds act irrational. The discussion is totally spurious, however, because, trust one who knows, J.F. Kerry doe not have the Elvis. The best he might come up with is a Mt. Rushmore Johnny Cash if he smiled now and again, and the caught-on-mike aside when he called Bush “crooked” is going exactly in that direction, and I doubt it will hurt him at all.

Bush on the other hand comes in with an Elvis negative deficit. He might even be the anti-Elvis, I meditated long and hard trying to conjure a singer with whom Bush might be equated, but the best I could come up with was Andy Griffith’s malignant shitkicker in Elia Kazan’s 1957 A Face In The Crowd. Or is that too easy? Some days I have trouble seeing GWB as human. He seems more like a toxic plush monkey animated by a Chuckie Demon. And that’s a hell of a long way from Graceland.

SOME GIRLS DISSENT

some girl writes...
so i was rooting around on the internet, vaguely feeling dissent re your last doc40 post and seeking something to back up my half-baked notions that the people are not as dumb as you think they are (or as w thinks they are), but and instead i stumbled upon some links on the
drudge report (useful, that; despite him), including this article on the latest congressional action re "obscene" broadcasts.(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43113-2004Mar9.html)

i found this part to be interesting:

Perhaps most controversial will be an amendment by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) that would impose a moratorium on rules passed by Congress late last year that allow for some media organizations to get larger. The amendment, which passed on a 13-10 vote, directs the General Accounting Office to study the relationship between indecent programming and media consolidation before the new ownership rules can take effect.

indecent programming -- ya mean, like fox news and jerry springer and stuff? huh. of course it would take so-called "public outcry" (try religious-right complaint campaign instead) over "indecency" to get them to look at media consolidation. nevermind thought monopolies and the lack of a true spectrum of viewpoints/lifestyles/etc. represented in mainstream media/entertainment (cable or no) -- THAT'S no cause for concern. and no doubt people who have to do business w/media companies -- production companies, say (at least the ones not already owned by a media conglom), or bands -- also get screwed. but...hey, too bad. that's the market. and the market, as we know, is always right. (hah.)

(Doc 40 notes – Which would seem to be a veiled way of linking some kind of “decency rating” to the ability of media corporations to acquire new radio and TV stations. Its obvious application under the Bush FCC would be to hamper the competition, and give Tom Hicks and Bush’s other pals at Clear Channel a clearer path to become the American right’s corporate Ministry of Truth.)

some girl resumes...

finally, at least there's still SOME highly ironic insanity in the world (instead of just boring old horrible insanity):

from Newsday...PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- A videotape of an underage girl exposing her breasts is not child pornography, a judge decided Tuesday in a criminal case against the producer of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series. Joe Francis, 30, and several of his employees were arrested at Panama City Beach while filming during spring break last April. Bay County sheriff's deputies charged Francis with racketeering related to prostitution and other crimes, based largely on videotapes of girls under 18. Many of the 43 counts he faces hinge on what conduct is considered illegal or pornographic. "This ruling shows that the entire fabric of that claim is wrong," said defense lawyer Aaron Dyer of Los Angeles. Dyer said he expected the ruling to undermine at least 90 percent of the case. Circuit Judge Michael C. Overstreet made his decision in ordering that defense lawyers be allowed to copy tape confiscated during a search of Francis' rented condominium last spring. Prosecutors had tried to prevent the copying on grounds the videotape showing a girl "flashing" her breasts was illegal child pornography. Florida's child pornography law makes the depiction of "sexual conduct" illegal and defines that term to include physical contact. There was no physical contact in the video. State Attorney Jim Appleman did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Prosecutors contend Francis and his video crew enticed girls they knew were underage to expose themselves. The defendants deny the allegation and say the girls had lied about their ages. Francis owns Mantra Entertainment Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif., which produces and distributes the videos.

CRYPTIQUE – Let’s get real, real gone for a change.