U.S. National

50 Ways You Can Show George the Door in 2004
By Ben Cohen and Jason Salzman
Pages: 196; Price: $9.95
Publisher: Westview Press (Perseus Books Group)
ISBN: 0-8133-4282-1

Ice Cream man Ben Cohen has his own "Farenheit 9/11." It's a book, not a movie, and has no footage of George W. Bush reading "My Pet Goat" while the World Trace Center burns.

But as it joins the flood of anti-Bush books, it takes a uniquely funny, compelling must-read niche for the hordes of us desperate to see King George of the "Haves and Have mores" exit the presidency, and always looking for new ways to help.

Among the 50 ways the irascible icon of super-premium ice cream recommends are turning your dog into a political organizer. Giving your "pet for regime change" a name like Big Oil allows you to shout the slogan when you're calling for obedience. The animal can also be adorned with "Bite Bush" and other subtle slogans on buttons or bumper stickers.

While Greens participate in demonstrations against Kerry during the Democratic Convention in Boston, party members are organizing the August 28 event; Green presidential candidate David Cobb will be featured.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party members are organizing a major event to coincide with the Republican National Convention and anti-Bush protests in New York City.

Titled 'A Green World Is Possible: A Festival of Non-Violence, Ecology, Democracy, Social and Economic Justice,' the rally will take place in Washington Square on Saturday, August 28.

"We believe that holding our event separate from the myriad of other anti-Republican activities will enable us to keep our message positive and ensure the safety of our membership," said Charles Shaw, co-chair of the Peace Action Committee of the Green Party of the United States. "We're committed to providing a safe environment in which our members and allies can exercise their right to speak out on important issues."

A majority of Americans disapprove of the Republican and Democrat conventions

Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik completes his first national campaign poll. The survey indicates that 62% of Americans disapprove of public funding of the Democratic and Republican conventions. Badnarik polled at 3%, a large bump from polling earlier this month.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) July 27, 2004 -- Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik and his communications director Stephen Gordon appeared at a fundraiser in Columbia, MD, Thursday night. When asked about his campaign strategy by a guest at the function, Badnarik responded with his now familiar, “Television, television, and more television.”

Gordon also spoke at the event, spending his time providing details from the first national poll conducted by the campaign beginning by informing the enthusiastic crowd that Badnarik is now polling at 3%, a sharp increase from the 1% to 1.5% range reported earlier this month in surveys performed by pollsters John Zogby and Larry Jacobs.

The undisputed king of the 80’s indie scene is back, and he’s still pissed. It’s been seven years since we last heard from this one-time Smiths front man. If you thought age would mellow the old bloke, think again. The definition of the word Quarry in Old English means “the hunted.” Listening to You are the Quarry, it’s clear nobody is safe.

The opening track, “America is Not the World,” is a tirade that finds Moz blasting his adopted homeland. The first words Big Mouth unleashes are, “America /Your head’s to big /Because America /Your belly’s too big.” Before he’s done, Morrissey rips the land of opportunity for never electing a black, female or gay president, and tells us where to shove our hamburgers. Thanks to this track, America now knows that, “In Estonia they say/ hey you, you big fat pig.” This rant flows over infectious textbook pop.

Producer Jerry Finn, who also helped Blink-182 and Greenday find their sound, describes You are the Quarry as, “creamy and organic.” Whatever you call it, Finn provides the quintessential 80’s style backdrop for Morrissey’s musing.

Patti Smith is the high priestess of NY Punk. In a world where Avril Lavigne and Christina Aguilera are considered rebellious, thank god Patti can still come around and remind them they’re not. I would love to see these MTV darlings go on TRL and proclaim that, “Jesus died for someone’s sins, but not mine.” That was the opening line of Smith’s iconic 1974 release, Horses. Thirty years on, Patti is using Trampin’ as a sounding board for an American revolution of a different kind.

From the first guitar riff, you know the album is gonna rock. The opening track “Jubilee,” is a bit of a barnyard stomp with Patti in a two tone chant declaring, “We will never fade away /Doves shall multiply /Yet I see hawks circling the sky.” The band underscores Patti’s fading utopian dreams with a psychedelic jam of tight blues and swirling guitars.

In “My Blakean Year,” Patti pays homage to every Beat poet’s hero William Blake. The minimal guitar scratching and deliberate underproduction is brilliant. Patti fades out with the repeating lines, “Embrace all that you fear /For joy shall conquer all despair /In my Blakean year.”

Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypsies have written the funniest political satire album of the year. But don’t laugh at this glammed up six-piece from Chicago. The art is high; it’s just their scruples that are low. In the making of The Homeland, Bobby Conn effortlessly channels the essence of several of his heroes. It’s as if David Bowie and Freddie Mercury merged together and made the ideal anti-Bush album with Frank Zappa as the producer.

The Gypsies sophisticated Syncopation blasts the opening track, “We Come in Peace” wide open. This song mocks the right wing view of the war in Iraq. Bobby Conn playfully offers up the lines, "We are your friends, we come in peace /We brought our guns to set you free." With the band driving full force, Conn mocks the status quo with contemptuous lines like, “We have no fear of your disgust /You hate us ‘cause your jealous of success.”

There is no greater political imperative this year than to retire the Bush regime, one of the most dangerous and extremist in U.S. history. As people dedicated to peace, economic justice, equality, sustainability and constitutional freedoms, we are committed to defeating Bush.

The only candidate who can win instead of Bush in November is John Kerry. We want Kerry to replace Bush, because a Kerry administration would be less dangerous in many crucial areas, including militarism, civil liberties, civil rights, judicial appointments, reproductive rights and environmental protection.

But while helping Kerry-Edwards defeat Bush-Cheney, we don't want to endorse Kerry positions that are an insult to various causes we support, including movements for global justice and peace that have burgeoned in recent years. Indeed, we want to communicate to Kerry and the world that we oppose many of his policies, including some that are barely distinguishable from Bush policies.

Accordingly, we encourage progressives to organize and vote strategically this year.

In Fahrenheit 9/11 Michael Moore rather rudely sets out to show George W Bush to be an illegitimate president, a fool, and hopelessly compromised and corrupted by big oil and its business links to Saudi Arabia. Whatever your politics you'll have difficulty convincing yourself that he doesn't succeed in these aims. Plenty of reviewers other than Hitchens have admired the film but, partly because Hitchens would want to think that his review (like all his opinions) was being taken more seriously than anyone else's, let's look only at his. It may also be a fair way in which to make a case against the adventurism of the COW (Coalition Of the Willing) attack on Saddam, and against the neocon world vision thing more generally. Hitchens is able to argue their case for them more ably than can the neocons themselves, and his rants against Moore are ones that most of the neocon, chickenhawk, Bush/Cheney apologists and puppetmasters would be proud to call their own if they were as smart.

Bob Fitrakis is at his best when he writes about George Voinovich at his worst. Catching Voinovich at his worst was not that hard when the former "frugal" Cleveland mayor and future "moderate" U.S. senator held statehouse ethics hostage as Ohio's governor in the 1990s. So it's not surprising that The Fitrakis Files: The Brothers Voinovich and the Ohiogate Scandal -- the fourth compilation of the Columbus State Community College professor, lawyer, activist, and talk-radio firebrand's writings -- is probably his best.

That's not to say the first three Fitrakis Files -- Spooks, Nukes & Nazis, The Schoolhouse Divided and Free Byrd & Other Cries of Justice are not exemplary. How could I say otherwise when I co-wrote some of the entries in the Byrd book? But The Brothers Voinovich and the Ohiogate Scandal rises above the others because the Voinovich clan and the brownshirts who did their bidding made such easy targets as they turned statehouse sleaze into an art form.

SUPER SIZE ME, now playing at the Drexel East, is one of the very few films that can be called a "Must-See" for all Americans.  Whether you eat at McDonald's or not.  

It's rare a piece of reportage that can cut to the very heart---or stomach---of the American way of life.  But Morgan Spurlock's solid, brilliant and cunning documentary is one for the ages.

Spurlock builds his case carefully.  In great physical condition to start, he visits three physicians and a physical therapist to document his weight, cholesterol, heart functions and more.  He starts out at six-feet-two, 185 pounds, with vital statistics that could easily get him sent to Iraq (which McDonald's would probably like to see at this point).  .

Then he embarks on a solid month of eating at McDonald's.  Starting with what must be the most graphic barf in US film history (you might do well to turn your head during this scene), we follow the downward spiral of Spurlock's body to the brink of fast food death.