Tuesday, March 05, 2013

For a speech writer, he's rather prosaic

At The Daily Beast, David Frum wants you to know that the invasion of Iraq was worth it.  He remembers rolling in Tikrit in March 2003 . . .

Oh, wait, he didn't.  No, he was just a cheesy ass speech writer for Bully Boy Bush.  He and his wife couldn't keep their mouths shut and kept claiming credit for "axis of evil" (some fools are proud of the most embarrassing things) which led the Bush administration to show Frum the door.  (Speech writers are not supposed to be glory hogs.)

Was Bully Boy Bush a huge idiot or was it his speech writers who made him sound that way?  I've always assumed it was the Bully himself but it takes a lot of stupid for Frum not only to write the following paragraph but also to allow it to be published:

 The war was expensive and badly managed. It did real damage to the international credibility of the United States—and cracked the conservative movement, maybe irreparably. It left 4,000 Americans dead and many thousands more seriously wounded. Had we known all this in advance, the war would not have been fought.

Excuse me?  4,000 dead.  If I was a former government employee, no less one that worked for the White House, I'd think it would be incumbent upon me to know the government statistics and where to find them.  I also think that if I whored for an illegal war, the least I could do was get the death toll correct. The number of US military personnel the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.  That's the Pentagon's number.  Does Frum have a reason not to reference that?  Does he have a reason not to trust it?  The number he uses if 488 short (actually more than that, hold on).

It's not like it just hit 4,000 either.  The 4,000 mark was hit March 23, 2008 -- see "4,000 dead and the war drags on . . ."

On the  "4,000 Americans dead" -- if you're saying American, you need to include Americans -- not just military and that would be a number higher than the Pentagon number -- it would include diplomatic staff, it would include Americans who were there as teachers, it would include people like Marla Ruzicka.

No one forced him to write about this topic.  He elected to.  So he needs to get the death toll correct.  The fact that he can do so with one click but doesn't go to his how little he cares. 

He also insists that war has been worth it and that Iran didn't benefit from it.  John Kampfner is only one among many who beg to differ.


The following community sites -- plus Cindy Sheehan, C-SPAN, Adam Kokesh, Susan's On the Edge, Antiwar.com, Pacifica Evening News, Black Agenda Report and Ms. magazine's blog  -- updated last night and this morning:




Lastly, Alien Ant Farm's has a new album due out this summer.




They took that Michael Jackson cover to number one on the Modern Rock chart in 2001.



Multi-Platinum Alt-Rockers ALIEN ANT FARM
Launch Pledge Campaign for New “Always And Forever” LP Due Out 
This Summer
Band’s First Album of Brand New Material in 5 Years!
Pledge to Pre-order & Unlock Exclusive Access to Videos, Tracks & More!

Multi-platinum alt rockers, Alien Ant Farm have just launched a PledgeMusic campaign in which fans can help 

be a part of their first album of new material in 5 years! In 

a message from the band to their fans, AAF states:

The stars have aligned and the mothership has landed. After nearly 5 years, we are headed back into the studio, and want  

you to be a part of the new album from start to finish!

We've teamed up with PledgeMusic to bring you into the 

colony, quite literally. There, your pledge not only 

pre-orders  the new album with tons of other goodies, it 

also unlocks exclusive videos, photos, unreleased tracks 

and more! 

You'll be helping 

us select designs, track listings, and a whole lot more…effectively, you'll be our record label.

This experience is 100% driven by us…. not a label, 

manager, or mysterious being behind a computer. It 

is our chance to give you everything you want and 

ask for!

We've endured and persevered through some incredible 

times, and without you….well, let's just say that your love, support, and dedication kept our heads above water.

Thank you, and we hope that you come join us in this 

new journey…

Music for the people, by the aliens….and we wouldn't have

 it any other way!

(Sign OFF)

Dryden, Terry, Tye , Mike

For all the details on the PledgeMusic campaign, visit: http://bit.ly/ZabfSS.



About Alien Ant Farm:
Since the formation of Alien Ant Farm in 1995, the quartet has enjoyed worldwide success. Over the course of their four studio albums, cumulative sales surpass five million units a Grammy nomination and 4 top 10 singles. The band built a massive following on the road early in their career via high profile 2001 runs with Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Warped, and as the headliner on an MTV presented Fall Tour. In 2002, fame spread across the world, bringing Alien Ant Farm to the major European festivals, Australia's Big Day Out and a headline run in Japan. The following year they returned to Europe with Metallica, and to this day the band has steadily delivered audiences in territories across the globe.
From the beginning, the clever humor of vocalist Dryden Mitchell and guitarist Terry Corso has delivered visual imagery that made the band vanguards in the realm of music video. All of the singles released received heavy rotation on MTV and MTV2, with "Smooth Criminal" was voted the #2 video of 2001 on MTV's countdown. They appeared on the channel's programs Celebrity Dismissed, MTV Cribs, and hosted House of Style. Alongside the massive support from cable, Alien Ant Farm were darlings of broadcast television with multiple appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and support from Carson Daly, Extra, CNN, Access Hollywood and Mad-TV amongst many more. With all the notoriety also came a 2001 Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2001.
The early history of the band began when the name came from a daydream Terry Corso had while employed at a day job. The concept revolves around the human species being cultivated by alien intelligence, and the colony forming much like it does in a traditional children's toy. In 1999, Alien Ant Farm self-released their debut titled Greatest Hits, which went on to win Best Independent Album at the L.A. Music Awards. In 2000, they signed to DreamWorks SKG, and went on to release Anthology. The following year, a cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" became a massive hit overseas, rising to #1 in Australia and New Zealand, and on the U.S. Modern Rock charts. It also rose to #3 in the U.K. To set the record straight on the inspiration behind choosing this song amongst the millions of copyrights, Corso shares, "When we were a young local band in SoCal, we'd play a different cover song by a different artist every show we would do. Wild unexpected stuff and sometimes not even songs we were that into. Just whatever was going on around us on the radio or whatever fit in with our inside jokes at that minute, from Ileah to Gary Glitter to The Police, we had a lot of fun with it. One week we had been throwing the idea of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" around the jam room, I believe someone had just watched Moonwalker again. The very next show we played, we hadn't learned the whole song yet but decided to klunk the main riff out for fun, the crowd loved it and went a little crazy. After that we learned the entire song and super charged it. The rest is pretty much history." To this day, the cover is a crowd pleaser. This past October 8th, the band was asked to appear alongside Cee Lo Green, Smokey Robinson and The Jackson Family at the Michael Jackson Forever Tribute Concert in Cardiff, Wales.
In 2003, the Alien Ant Farm entered the studio with Stone Temple Pilots' Robert and Dean DeLeo and cut Truant. Unfortunately, they ran in to unforeseen adversity with the closure of their record label, offering an insurmountable obstacle to continue building on the band's successes. Still under contract to Universal, Geffen green-lit the opportunity for Alien Ant Farm to return to the studio. In 2005, they recorded with Jim Wirt, but that album was not released as scheduled. Alien Ant Farm chose to share it with with fans via a bootlegged version, which has affectionately been re-named 3rd Draft by the public. Looking back on the adversity the band went through, alongside the massive fame Mitchell reflects, "This Alien Ant Farm 'Wave' is a bigger, longer wave than I could have hoped for. All these years later, we are still intact. From friends to foes to friends again, this band is something special, and nothing short of tight and explosive."
The next year in 2006 Up In The Attic was issued, and for the next several years the members went their separate ways reconvening in 2009 for performances in Kansas City, the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth, UK and at the WARPED Tour in memory of Michael Jackson. They were back, and come 2010 began to rebuild a legacy that grows with each passing month. The band staged a very successful tour over the Summer and Fall, where they road tested new material in front of the live audience. In the New Year, they'll release the new recordings. Mitchell shares, "The First batch of these new songs are pretty to the point and pissed. Angry, but not negative. That is possible in this non tangible, musical and lyrical world. Unfortunately not possible in the real world, and that's why I love music. I can get this all out without hurting anyone."
Come 2013 Alien Ant Farm will return, and the path for the future will unfold one day at a time. The band is hard at work on their new record "Always And Forever" (AAF) which will be release in the summer of 2013, guitarist Corso shares, "We are pretty excited for the year to come. We just came off of a three-month tour in the U.S. that made us realize that with the original line-up back together, we have fire and hunger again. With a fresh new collection, we hope to get our core fans excited, as well as turn some brand new listeners on to the ALIEN ANT FARM sound and show the world we have a lot more to offer than the average rock band.” Having the original members back in the line-up will give the fans what they have been waiting for." In summation, bassist Zamora offers, "Although we spent a couple of years apart and wrote our last record with only three original members, there is no denying the chemistry of the original four piece. The band, the show, and the songs are just better with all of the original members doing what they were born to do, being Alien Ant Farm." Drummer Cosgrove echoes, "It's good to have the original core back together." With strong repertoire, great attitudes, and a fan base that has been there every step of the way, the future is lining up nicely for Alien Ant Farm.
www.alienantfarm.com
www.facebook.com/alienantfarm
https://twitter.com/alienantfarm
www.youtube.com/user/AlienAntFarmVEVO
www.myspace.com/alienantfarm
www.last.fm/music/Alien+Ant+Farm



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