Brian Eno has written a piece concerning Lessons in How to Lie About Iraq. Naturally, it originally saw light of day in a British newspaper. Pay particular attention to the bit where he recounts talking to a Russian musician about dealing with propaganda. I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said he would choose a free press over a free government. We should be so lucky.

Which reminds me, I need to pick up a deck of Eno's Oblique Strategies cards. Alan Moore has a set don't you know.

Friendship

"What is friendship? It’s telephoning a friend at night to say, ‘Be a pal, get your gun and come over quickly’ – and hearing the reply, ‘O.K., be right there.’ " -- Jean-Pierre Melville

The French have an aspect of romantic fatalism to their culture that I find completely irresistible. You can see it in things as Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. It's unmistakable in Casablanca (which while not being French was hugely influenced by Julien Duvivier's 1936 film Pepe Le Moko. Bogart was a film icon in Paris years before he became one in the US.

Along these lines, the Criterion Collection is going to release Le Circle Rouge. It will make a nice companion to Bob Le Flambeur. The French understand something about film noir. They coined the term.

My mother died back in June. The day of her funeral (miserable in so many ways), I checked my e-mail and found this. It was an e-mail from Jeremy. He claims to have seen it in a dream. It cheered me immensely. I don't even have dreams about myself where I come off that cool, but I've started.

He's probably the kind of friend Melville was going on about.

Resume of the assshole in charge.

I found this somewhere. It speaks for itself really. Rather too eloquently, I might add.

Sigh.

GEORGE W. BUSH



Past work experience:

I ran for congress and lost.
I produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.
I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas; company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.
Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox.


Accomplishments:

With my father's help and nearly the same name, I was elected Governor of Texas.
I changed pollution laws for oil and power companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the nation.
I replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog-ridden city in America.
I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government in billions in borrowed money.
I set a record for most executions by any governor in American history.
I became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of Republican appointments to the Supreme Court.


Accomplishments as President:

Attacked and took over two countries.
Spent the country's surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
Shattered the record for biggest annual deficit in history.
Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
Set an all-time record for the biggest stock market drop in its history.


I am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.

I am the first president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record and in my year in office set the all-time record for most vacation days taken by any president.



After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips of any other president in U.S. history.
In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their jobs. I cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in U.S. history.
I set the all-time record for the most mortgage foreclosures in a 12-month period.
I set the record for the lowest number of press conferences than any president since the invention of television.


I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have done.



I cut healthcare benefits for war veterans and set the all-time record for the most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind. http://www.hyperreal.org/~dana/marches/

I dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.

My presidency is the most secretive and unaccountable of any in U.S. history.

Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history.

(The 'poorest' multimillionaire, Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her).



I am the first president in U.S. history to have all 50 states bankrupted at the same time.
I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.
I created the largest government bureaucracy in the history of the United States and set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history, while at the same time proposing tax cuts.
I am the first president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the elections monitoring board.
I withdrew from the World Court of Law.


I hold the record for most corporate campaign donations.

My biggest lifetime campaign contributor, one of my best friends, presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).

I am the first president in U.S. history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.

I am the first U.S. president to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.

I set all-time records for the number of administration appointees who violated U.S. law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.

I failed to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'.

I failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capitol building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.



Records and References:

I have at least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).

I was AWOL from National Guard.

Records from my tenure as governor of Texas are in my father's library, unavailable for public view.

All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed and unavailable for public view.

All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed and unavailable for public view.

Any records or minutes my VP or I attended regarding public energy policy are sealed and unavailable for public review.



For personal references please speak to my daddy or Uncle James Baker.

They can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.

I bought the new issue of Playboy yesterday. It's the "Women of Starbucks" issue, and if nude baristas are your thing you could do worse than pick it up. Actually, don't buy it. It's nothing but depressing.