Glacialmelt Reggae - the new big chill

Alaska Prays to Become Arabia (Cry Cry Cry) (Glacialmelt Reggae Remix)

This is now a second rough entry in the Johnny Cash remix thing, building off a little from the more subtle invention of Alaskan Reggae in that less "on the nose" entry.

Here, Johnny Cash counterpoints with "Cry Cry Cry" as Sarah Palin states her faith and exhorts prayer to build her favorite pipeline, sell Alaska and rid the world of community organizers once and for all. Remapped to a defective reggae beat. Not enough skank (guitar) I realize now. Here's the rough cut of the music video. VH1 (or MTV), I'm waiting to hear from you.


Alaska Prays to Become Arabia (Cry Cry Cry) from Toomb Paine on Vimeo.

This mix is a refinement of several earlier versions. Palin vocals have been rebalanced somewhat, and some of the repeats have been thinned out to be a little less annoying. Most of the samples of Palin that were not from the RNC come from the full speech from which the following video is an excerpt:



This may be my final revision on this particular remix. That doesn't rule out adding more mixes that are derivative of this basic track, however.

I was listening to a radio interview with Tom Friedman as I was making the final adjustments to the video for this remix. Here's a Tom Browkaw interview where he likens the "Drill Baby, Drill!" chant at the RNC to a convention of executives chanting "IBM Selectric Baby, IBM Selectric" at the dawn of the microcomputer revolution. For investors, though, this brings up the question -- just where is the Microsoft or Apple of alternative energy production? Enjoy the movie.

One Quick Reminder Before I Sleep

It seems that our soldiers abroad are no more thrilled about the "winning surge" than most of the rest of us. Soldiers are donating hard-earned pay to Obama at a 6:1 ratio.

And for those who might be unconvinced or skeptical about what people mean when they say Sarah Palin is a "red meat" Republican, here's another video.




I especially cringed at the images of brave hunters shooting wolves from airplanes. I guess there's a risk they could fall out, or shoot the propeller off the plane? That makes it "sporting," right?

Toomb Paine Beats the Net

Just started, a place where you can listen to or download insane remixes and other compositions of Toomb Paine, Patriot in a despicable age.

The page is on AcidPlanet. You can also find the link over there in the righthand margin along with other fun stuff.

World Beaten-down Folk-Funk for the 21st Century. Aren't you glad you're alive in this interesting age?

The List Just Keeps Getting Longer

Small wonder McCain would like to focus on the non-issue of Sarah Palin's personal life or that of her children. Better that than look closely at the long list of liberties she's alleged to have taken with public resources in order to advance her own career as a spectacularly ill-prepared, but personally charming government official.

The list comes from the Daily Kos. I hope to add other, less partisan sources as the days go on and we find out more, hopefully more than McCain himself knew, when he made this impulsive decision.


Analysis may follow.

Does this mean I need to believe in God?

This caps it. The mean-spiritedness of the wacked-out right has reached new lows.



Then, of course, there's the remix. Maybe not as great as the dance hit that Bill-O made possible, but pretty cute anyway.



It seems God does listen to the prayers of the mean-spirited and arrogant after all.

"Bounce" folklore

NOTE from 9 Sept. -- apparently this post may have been wishful thinking on my part. A lot of the same factors that provoke strong feelings of disapproval for me are, of course, selling points to a large fraction of the U.S. electorate. Or at least that might be the lesson to draw from the latest polling data. At the same time, legendary "bounces" have a way of succumbing to gravity as people consider the details, especially when a candidate is as unknown to all but the right-wing fringe of that electorate. In the spirit of showing that I'm as human and fallible as Candidate Palin, I'm leaving this bit of hubris in place. Consider it a bow to my Puritan ancestors or something of that sort.

It seemed clear to me that there was none of the widely touted "bounce" for either candidate in the aftermath of either convention, so I did some looking.

Seems there hasn't been a "bounce" in many years, at least since party conventions learned to turn themselves into content-free, no news zones, something usually blamed on the '68 Democratic convention in Daley's Chicago, and the damage it was said to have done to the Democrats at that time, in a year when Nixon was already a widely reviled figure to many, at least many who would have (or did) vote Democrat.

It also led me to track down what many now tout as the best alternative to opinion polling as a predictor of the November result. There's more on market-based prediction in this MSNBC piece from Friday.

Here is the price history from the Iowa Electronic Markets for this election.



Check out the Iowa Electronic Markets site for more details and more stats.



If this one gets stolen you know the fix is in and the democratic process is no longer at work in the U.S.

Stop Asking Questions

I agree that the media should focus not on Palin's personal life but on her vast record of public service. Doing that alone should sink her (and McCain) faster than the Titanic. What I don't understand is how on the one hand McCain can ask the media to leave her alone on these sideshow personal embarrassments and signs of household and home-front failures, but on the other hand keep the woman under virtual house arrest from now until the debate, as seems to be the current strategy.

MSNBC put out this story a few days ago.

And last, here's Bill Maher's take on the Palin candidacy. Catch this while you can... I expect vimeo may remove it since it violates their TOS. If so, buzz me and I'll try to find another linkable version.


Real Time - Sarah Palin from brian on Vimeo.


Here's the YouTube backup.