Yeah, we’re doomed.

A stencil promoting the International Day of Climate Justice. Apparently “climate justice” doesn’t include the use of aerosol cans in a street-level marketing effort.

Picked up on this today over at the Blame It On Steinski blog: He remixed the Reverend Lowdery’s post Obama inauguration benediction. The meat of the tune, aside from Lowery’s inspired oration, is a nicely syncopated drum track with some funky call-and-response gospel — and maybe some cheers from the crowd at the DC mall? — and some chopping of the benediction itself. Steinski says it’s “rough,” but I think the result is straight dope.

Peep game:

This is one of those things I wish I had the chops / opportunity / clarity of editorial vision to write: Matt Taibbi’s Rolling Stone National Affairs piece about why Sarah Palin is so scary. It’s not just that she’s a knuckle-dragging mouth-breathing anti-intellectual (as if that’s not bad enough), it’s what her candidacy says abut America and Americans. Check this excerpt:

“Here’s the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.

And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she’s a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed middle-American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant-size bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the Sizzlin’ Picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else’s, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning.

Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she’s a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power.

Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she’s the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.”

That very succinctly sums up exactly why I feel so exacerbated by American politics these days, and while I don’t put much stock in Rolling Stone, they knocked it outta the proverbial park with this one.

In case you missed the link above, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND READ THE REST OF THE PIECE HERE.

I’ve got some pretty strong opinions about politics in America, and there was a time when I had no problem letting fly with a thousand-word missive about the rampant arrogance, duplicitous nature and downright idiocy of our leaders. But because there seems to be an aggressively increasing intolerance for independent thinking these days, and especially because I’m so tired of all the hyperbole and bullshit associated with politicians and the lemmings that follow them like rock stars, I mostly avoid the subject in public forums.

When I was young, I was taught to avoid discussion of politics and religion in “polite” company, because some (most) people can’t debate those things without becoming so personally involved that they can’t separate the concept of rational debate from that of personal attack. Welcome to America in the New Millennium. Polarization due to the tactics of politicians and the (mostly television) media has made political ideology mutually exclusive and intolerant — you’re either with us or against us, no matter what. That’s lead to the slow death of logic and intellectualism, ignorance to the harsh realities of the world we live in, and the marginalization of the kind of centrist and moderate thinking that allows for the much needed variation of philosophy that makes up the core of one of the most American of ideals — diversity.

Hence no previous posts about the current election; I just haven’t wanted to deal with a glut of subject matter that all feels a lot like a lost cause. But here we go.

These days, I stand strong in my belief that most politicians on both sides of aisle are crooked enough to have to screw their pants on in the morning; that pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore are cut from the same cloth; and that the concept of a government By The People and For The People is a fading utopian idea. But I’ve never given up on the way the system is supposed to work. I’ve never not voted since I turned 18, I try to be aware of what’s happening in the world and across the nation and in my hometown and how it all effects me, and I would never tell someone that, while things certainly do look bleak, there’s no hope and that they should just give up.

Ice Cube said it best: “I’ll never tell you to get down / it’s all about comin’ up.”

And that’s why I like Barak Obama. Unike his opponents, he sticks to the issues, avoids as much boisterous hyperbole as possible, and addresses the problems that face America with plans for actual change, not just a fleeting marketing campaign based on the word.

So in the spirit of hope and action and restoring truth to everything I was taught about America in school as a youngster, I offer the following mix, put together by the homie King Most. He released it via his Facebook and MySpace pages, and I figured I’d share it with y’all here. It’s mostly soul and funk, a little rap, with the sociopolitical messages embodied by the Obama campaign — hope, unity, reality and change…all in one convenient mp3 stream.

King Most: The Obamix. Enjoy…

Click here to download it.

I e-mailed it to my baby mama’s older brother, a private investigator who works with several prominent defense attorneys in Oakland and San Francisco, and he responded that it’s something everyone should see. So here ya go, everyone…

Part 1:

Part 2:

Got a few extra dollars lying around — like, a lot of extra dollars? How about a buncha extra time to bid in an online auction, only to win the right to continue bidding over the phone in a live auction?

If you’re rich and have an empty schedule, check this out…

RARE ORIGINAL OBAMA “HOPE” ARTWORK DONATED BY SHEPARD FAIREY TO ART FOR LIFE CHARITY AUCTION

[Los Angeles- July 14, 2008] Shepard Fairey, the contemporary artist whose irreverent works have deconstructed the meaning and methods of propaganda, ironically became the creator of one of the most potent political images in recent history – the OBAMA “HOPE” poster. The image found such immediate resonance with Obama supporters that it became ubiquitous throughout the primary campaign and across the web.

Now, at the request of Russell Simmons, Shepard has donated one of three fine art versions of the poster to the charity auction, Art For Life, an annual event which benefits Simmons’ Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.

This piece is approximately 4 foot x 6 foot in size and is a mixed media stencil collage on cotton rag paper. This “HOPE” may be the only fine art piece of this image available to the public, and is one of only three in existence.

The Art For Life auction ends Tuesday, July 16 at noon. Then the online budding is closed and the highest bidders are invited to bid by phone during the live auction on July 19. Entering the online auction is the only way to enter the live auction. The online auction can be found here:

Click here…

So to recap… You motherfuckers out there with nothing but time and money on your hands — all you trustafarians — get ready to spend your parents’ money on the chance at winning the right to buy some cool art from the nation’s preeminent hipster artist… Oh, and a good cause (after Russell gets his cut, of course.)

(At the time of this post, the bid had reached $40K.)