Continuing our romp through local talent, I ran across the Oohlas from a friend of mine in Spain. Makes perfect sense; you hear about a band located less than a half mile away from you from somebody who lives 5,000 miles away from you. The Oohlas are an L.A. band (proudly proclaiming the Miracle Mile district as home base) and have been around since 2004. Currently releasing material themselves, they have a great EP just out (Chinchilla) from which tonight's track Adventures comes from.

I really think we're past that point in time where the success or failure of a band is predicated on getting a label deal. Several months ago I played a track issued off an earlier ep of their which was issued via the Stolen Transmission label (who were affiliated with Def Jam/Island/Universal: loosely translated: lost in the shuffle) and frankly, their new stuff has better production going into it.

But the caveat with all this newly discovered DIY way of making records is it needs support. And that means going to the Oohlas MySpace page, looking around and seeing that Chinchilla is available via iTunes and popping for the tracks. It also means seeing them when they're playing around town or around your town. Following them on Twitter and basically supporting them any way you can.

It's really about the only way anything new is going to survive. The Oohlas have lucked out in that Small Parts (the track I played a few months ago) wound up in a movie. And for a band that's good news because that means a chunk of change in order to live, eat and record new material. As much as some people piss and moan about bands "selling out" and having their music in Volkswagen commercials - it means they get to eat. If you're going to take yourself seriously as a musician, you have to go where you get the support and doing what you can in order to feed your craft. The garret lifestyle is cute, quaint and romantic and the stuff of bad books and terrible movies - it bears no resemblance to reality.

All that said - here's another band from L.A.

Chris Matthews apparently thinks that no one is going to go back and look at the things he actually said when he had a chance to speak out about the United States invading Iraq after watching this bit of revisionist history in his "Let Me Finish" segment on Hardball.

Media Matters' Eric Boehlert wrote a piece for Salon back in 2006 which is an excerpt from his book Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush. I thought I'd share some of what he wrote about Chris Matthews in that article.

Lapdogs: Cowardly and clueless, the U.S. media abandoned its post as Bush led the country into a disastrous war. A look inside one of the great journalistic collapses of our time:

At one point while making his way through the press questioners, Bush awkwardly referred to a list of reporters whom he was instructed to call on. "This is scripted," he joked. The press laughed. But Bush meant it was scripted, literally. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer later admitted he compiled Bush's cheat sheet, which made sure he did not call on reporters from some prominent outlets like Time, Newsweek, USA Today, or the Washington Post. Yet even after Bush announced the event was "scripted," reporters, either embarrassed for Bush or embarrassed for themselves, continued to play the part of eager participants at a spontaneous news conference, shooting their hands up in the air in hopes of getting Bush's attention. For TV viewers it certainly looked like an actual press event.

That was not the night's only oddly scripted moment. Before the cameras went live, White House handlers, in a highly unusual move, marched veteran reporters to their seats in the East Room, two-by-two, like school children being led onto the stage for the annual holiday pageant. The White House was taking no chances with the choreography. Looking back on the night, New York Times White House correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller defended the press corps' timid behavior: "I think we were very deferential because ... it's live, it's very intense, it's frightening to stand up there. Think about it, you' re standing up on prime-time live TV asking the president of the United States a question when the country's about to go to war," she told students at Towson University in Maryland. "There was a very serious, somber tone that evening, and no one wanted to get into an argument with the president at this very serious time."

It's unlikely viewers expected "an argument" that night in the East Room. But what about simply asking pointed questions and firmly requesting a direct response? On March 6, even that was beyond the media's grasp. The entire press conference performance was a farce -- the staging, the seating, the questions, the order, and the answers. Nothing about it was real or truly informative. It was, nonetheless, unintentionally revealing. Not revealing about the war, Bush's rationale, or about the bloody, sustained conflict that was about to be unleashed inside Iraq. Reporters helped shed virtually no light on those key issues. Instead, the calculated kabuki press conference, stage-managed by the White House employing the nation's most elite reporters as high-profile extras, did reveal what viewers needed to know about the mind-set of the MSM on the eve of war.

And for viewers that night who didn't get a strong enough sense of just how obediently in-step the press corps was with the White House, there was the televised post-press conference analysis. On MSNBC, for instance, "Hardball's" Chris Matthews hosted a full hour of discussion. In order to get a wide array of opinion, he invited a pro-war Republican senator (Saxby Chambliss, from Georgia), a pro-war former Secretary of State (Lawrence Eagleburger), a pro-war retired Army general (Montgomery Meigs), pro-war retired Air Force general (Buster Glosson), a pro-war Republican pollster (Frank Luntz), as well as, for the sake of balance, somebody who, twenty-five years earlier, once worked in Jimmy Carter's White House (Pat Caddell).

And then there's this with his interview with Jim Lehrer.

Continue reading »

We don't link Red State here, but Wonkette has the details of their lovely photoshop contest fail.

Open thread below....

(QUICK SITE NOTE - We will be moving our video servers tonight at 9pm pacific. The site will be down for approximately 5 minutes at this time.)

Loretta Lynn will kick your ass! She tells you all about it in her Number 1 from 1968.

Ironically, the storm clouds passed and New Orleans was bathed in sunlight and blue skies by August 31st. Ironic because the true devastation was becoming painfully apparent on the ground at every turn. The roads were still clogged with refugees trying to find some shelter. The ones left stranded in the city were trapped, some still in their houses, hanging on roofs, waving to passing helicopters for rescue. The death toll was rising and it was feared it would rise to not just hundreds, but thousands.

Typical of the reports flooding the airwaves on August 31st were these via CBS News and CBS Radio Affiliate KCBS in San Francisco, trying with words to convey the destruction and desperation surrounding the people of New Orleans.

And of course, there was that parade of pious slime creeping up.

Here's the text.

Right-wingers were demanding he give George W. Bush a big shout-out. The closest he got to that was this:

As we do, I am mindful that the Iraq War has been a contentious issue at home. Here, too, it is time to turn the page. This afternoon, I spoke to former President George W. Bush.

It's well known that he and I disagreed about the war from its outset. Yet no one could doubt President Bush's support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security. As I have said, there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it. And all of us are united in appreciation for our servicemen and women, and our hope for Iraq's future.

Share your thoughts with us. We're still cogitating.

Just two days after his Beckapalooza, or the #doucheBeck rally, as we're calling it on Twitter, Glenn Beck rears his ugly head yet again, this time with a brand new "news" website, edited by former Breitbart denizen Scott Baker.

We talked to Baker today about what readers can expect from the new site, the team behind it and more. “It’ll be news and information,” he told Mediaite. “Some commentary and opinion stories we’re interested in that are being under-covered or not covered.”

People will inevitably make the comparison to Arianna Huffington – whether Beck’s role as figurehead behind the site will make The Blaze into a conservative Huffington Post. “The one thing pretty clear around Mercury [Beck's company] is that Glenn is not short on ideas or hesitant on input,” Baker said. “His input is already evident in how the site looks, and that’s what will continue. It will be a continual flow of tips and suggestions and encouragement.”

There's another corner of the Internet to avoid...is "TheBlaze.com" some kind of dog whistle? Also, the Huffington thing? Not so much.

While we're breathing a cautious sigh of relief that our "excursion" in Iraq has come to a close, I'm also reminded that the war continues for thousands of Vets returning, and will no doubt continue for many years to come. Not the stuff of headlines or news reports, but those day to day battles brought on by too many tours of service, not enough support, the wounds of the mind as well as body - those things that don't go away when someone says it's over and time to go home.

And Harry Truman was well aware of that, when he addressed the students at Fordham University on May 11, 1946. In the ranks of the student body were the faces of returning Vets, there as the result of benefits received from a grateful country.

Pres. Truman: “Veterans must not be penalized for their war service. Programs of this nature, though less comprehensive, were established for veterans of past wars. But today we find the beginning of a new and important concept. One which has given concrete evidence by the presence of veterans here today. That concept is that the nation must provide for its veterans something more than pensions. Something more than insurance, loans and rehabilitation. For those who wish it, the nation must also provide education.”

In contrast, the stories of neglect, mistreatment and careless disregard for our Vets today is something to consider a national disgrace. That our supposed "war heroes" in the Senate have voted against legislation ever since the Iraq War began to aid returning Veterans, for whatever reason but surely a political one, is shameful.

So while we're closing a chapter of misguided history - we can't forget the ones who were trapped in the confusion, stuck in the hard place and wrecked from the inside as well as out.

Remember there was a time it all mattered.

This is disturbing news, via Florida Oil Spill Law. If toxic levels of Corexit are making people sick in Florida, that's not good:

“Our heads are still swimming,” stated Barbara Schebler of Homosassa, Florida, who received word last Friday that test results on the water from her family’s swimming pool showed 50.3 ppm of 2-butoxyethanol, a marker for

the dispersant Corexit 9527A used to break up and sink BP’s oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

The problems began for the Scheblers a few weeks after the April 20 blow-out. “Our first clue were rashes we both got early in May. Both my husband and I couldn’t get rid of the rashes and had to get cream from our doctor,” Schebler noted, “I never had a rash in my life.”Then, on “July [23], my husband Warren mowed the lawn. It was hot so he got in the pool to cool off afterward. That afternoon he had severe diarrhea and very dark urine. This lasted about 2 days,” she revealed.

Initially, they reasoned this was caused by the heat. The following week Mr. Schebler again mowed the lawn and went in the pool, and again he was sickened with the same severe symptoms.Suspicious that the pool may be a problem, the family set out to get the water tested. “We have a 15 year old and felt we owed it to him to live in a clean, healthy environment,” said Mrs. Schebler.

The Scheblers found Robert Naman, a Mobile, Alabama chemist who’s performed multiple tests (1, 2, 3) for WKRG Channel 5, also out of Mobile.“Warren collected a water sample from the pool filter on August 17th… packed the sample according to Mr. Naman’s instructions, and overnighted it to his Mobile, Ala. lab that same day,” she noted.

The results were delivered by Naman over the phone on August 27 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. A copy of the findings were then e-mailed to the Scheblers. To view the document, click here.“Naman [said] our pool water sample we sent him contained 50.3 ppm [parts per million] 2-butoxyethanol marker for Corexit,” according to Mrs. Schebler. Tests for arsenic came back at less than .02 ppm.

A July letter from four top scientists noted, “Corexit 9527A contains 2-BTE (2-butoxyethanol), a toxic solvent that ruptures red blood cells, causing hemolysis (bleeding) and liver and kidney damage (Johanson and Bowman, 1991, Nalco, 2010).”The safety data sheet provided by Nalco, the manufacturer of Corexit 9527A, warns, “Harmful if absorbed through skin. May be harmful if swallowed. May cause liver and kidney effects and/or damage. There may be irritation to the gastro-intestinal tract.

”Mr. Schebler’s “severe diarrhea and very dark urine” appear to indicate gastro-intestinal tract irritation.BP Press Officer Daren Beaudo released a statement on August 28 that reads, “Unified Command records indicate that the last date of use of the Corexit 9527 was May 22,” almost three months before the samples were taken from the pool.

Yet, the Schebler’s report is the second time in the last 10 days that the 2-butoxyethanol marker for Corexit 9527A has been discovered near the Gulf. It has also been found near the Florida border in Cotton Bayou, AL, at about 1/4 the level as in Homosassa, FL. A WKRG segment from August 19 featured an inland water sample that tested for 13.3 ppm of the Corexit dispersant.The question remains, how did this chemical find its way into the Schebler’s pool in such a high concentration?

“At night we would hear very low aircraft, including helicopters. We figured they were just heading to help out in the Gulf,” and Mrs. Schebler added that she was told, “The prevailing winds from the Gulf are easterly — and when they spray, it is airborne — and that we are right in the path of those winds.” It was also noted that, “We had a lot of rain here before my husband got sick, and wondered what was going on… We had been having daily downpours in July.”

Oh good grief. The cognitive dissonance here is just astounding. Here's some of the footage Sam Seder was talking about yesterday with Cenk Uygur on Ratigan's show from Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally. Head spinning, truly.