On this day in 1845, Henry David Thoreau begins his 2 year term as the original hermit, In 1884, the Statue of Liberty was presented to the Unites States in Paris, and of course it was on this day in 1776, when the brave warriors of the American colonies, with a deep respect to the opinions of mankind, declared the causes which impelled them to seek separation from England.
THIS DAY IN THE USA: One day at a time. 365 Days. 365 videos. Day one: July 4, 2009.
This July 4th, Independence day, I am launching my most ambitious project to date: I will be re-telling the history of the United States of America. Grab a rocking chair, some lemonade and a note pad. There will be an exam.
THIS DAY IN THE USA: One day at a time. 365 Days. 365 videos. Day one: July 4, 2009.
Davis Fleetwood is also on FACEBOOK YOUTUBE & TWITTER
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Transcript Iranian ambassador claiming that the CIA is responsible for the murder of NEDA, below the break.
Davis Fleetwood is also on FACEBOOK YOUTUBE & TWITTER
This is viewer supported, thank you for your donations.
A special report for TheUmpteenthtimes.com • Hermit History Lesson #4
According to MTV
the couple in happier times
“It’s the biggest pop-culture blowout of the summer: the alleged assault of Perez Hilton by Black Eyed Peas manager Liborio “Polo” Molina in Toronto on Monday morning, and the resulting war of words that has erupted between the celebrity blogger and BEP rapper Will.I.Am.
It began with some frantic, early-morning tweets and has grown to encompass multiple response videos, grainy camera-phone footage, the Toronto Police Service, GLAAD, TMZ, “Access Hollywood,” every celebrity’s Twitter page and finally, some litigious threats from personal attorneys.”
Why do we care? Interestingly enough the historical events of June 24 offer some clues.
Neda Soltan: Some describe the hijab as "liberating"
Last week I made, as I often do, some jokes and exhortations, including my suggestion that women in Iran burn their Burka’s.
I’m sorry I mistook a burka for a hijab.
Since then, many in Iran have been killed, including a woman identified as Neda Agha Soltan. Her death was captured on amateur videos and spread around the world on YouTube, Facebook, blogs and Twitter.
Now Neda is an icon of the “green wave” movement. It seems appropriate to clarify my remarks. I attempt to do so in this video below.
Would I do anything to hold back or criticize the struggle for change in Iran?
No- just the opposite: I suggest that the world would be a better place if violently or non violently Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were to be removed from power and the religions of ISLAM and CHRISTIANITY were dumped in the ashbin of superstitions gone by.
Davis Fleetwood is also on FACEBOOK YOUTUBE & TWITTER
This is viewer supported, thank you for your donations.
As Americans, we empathize, of course, with the protesters in IRAN. It was just nine years ago, all reasonable people now agree, that an election was stolen in this country. And the young, the educated, middle class of America were alienated in similar way to the young green progressives in Iran are today: their country hijacked, they too left their homes in droves, in record numbers and…. and… what did we do?
MADE IN AMERICA: WAR
by Davis Fleetwood
Jeremy Scahill has an illuminating piece today on The ‘Anti-War’ Democrats Who Sold Out and voted to authorize another $100 billion for more war. Scahill writes:
In a vote that should go down in recent histories as a day of shame for the Democrats, on Tuesday the House voted to approve another $106 billion dollars for the bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and increasingly Pakistan). To put a fine point on the interconnection of the iron fist of U.S. militarism and the hidden hand of free market neoliberal economics, the bill included a massive initiative to give the International Monetary Fund billions more in U.S. taxpayer funds.
Of the IMF, one of the 30 democrats who did not support the vote, my former employer Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) must feel as though he is shouting fire in a theater full of arsonists when he said:
Billions for the IMF so they can force low and middle income nations to cut jobs, wages, health care and retirement security, just like corporate America does to our constituents. And there is money to incentivize the purchase of more cars, not necessarily from U.S. manufacturers…Another $106 billion dollars and all we get is a lousy war…Pretty soon that is going to be about the only thing made in America war.
Some, like Cindy Sheehan, are calling on Dennis Kucinich to leave the Democratic party.
reject the Left Wing of the War-Bird. We have long known that the Right Wing of that evil Bird supported war/torture. Now it is becoming crystal clear to so many that the Democrats do the same. Not only do Democrats support war, but they also support bailing out the International Monetary Fund with our money that should be going towards providing jobs and housing assistance here to shore up our economy and not propping up foreign banks, so our tenuous dollar can remain artificially propped up.
While leaving the Democratic party would be a noble action that I would applaud, Congressman Kucinich would be rewarded by such an action with a swift kick in the ass out the door of Washington and be doomed to live out his days in the dismal confines of his home town. With Lebron James a free agent after next season, reasons to live in Cleveland will have dwindled to a number less than 1.
True progressive action is what I am calling for.
I would like to take this opportunity to call on Dennis Kucinich and Cindy Sheehan to think of progress in post – American terms.
I invite you Cindy Sheehan, and you Dennis Kucinich, to voice your support for the 9/10 project.
What is the 9/10 project?
The 9/10 project acknowledges that the United States of America is now an EMPIRE. Empires fall. So it goes. Rather than wage endless war to remain king of the hill, the 9/10 project favors the peaceful break-up of the United States of America into four smaller countries.
The 9/10 project is for citizens of the world who have born witness to the growing imperial reach of the United States in the post 9/11 era and have reached the only logical conclusion one came come to:
the long-term survival of the human species requires the United States of America to dismantle peacefully and immediately.
I acknowledge that the founding fathers were certainly “on to something” but it is time to hit the reset button.
Small is the new big.
The 9/10 project asserts that The United States America is a great experiment whose time has come to an end. In fact, it has been over for some time. Face it: since they killed Kennedy and Malcom, and Martin and Kennedy again, the America you want to exist was dealt a series of blows it can never recover from. She is stumbling down the denouement of her glorious story, kept alive on life support in the run down hospice of history. The undeniable fate and statistical certainty of linear narrative is such a bitch.
The 9/10 project asserts that if we American citizens continue to pursue the “rags to riches” myth of the American Dream we do so at our own peril. We do so willfully ignoring the dark underbelly of said dream that lurks like a storm cloud in the form of a sense of entitlement bloated to the point of bursting as if on steroids. A sense of entitlement that we can, literally and figuratively, no longer afford. A sense of entitlement that has us clawing and scratching our way through our pathetic little existence (how is it that so few of you seem to be gripped in any sort of existential crisis? Ignorance must indeed be bliss) in a culture of competition that has backed us into a corner the only escape from which seems to be more competition, more violence; or borrowing from another Peter to pay off another Paul.
For what?
So we Americans can remain blithely ignorant between the direct connections that links the blood soaked desserts of the Middle East and our beloved S.U.V.’s and McMansions with newly remodeled kitchens ready for a photo spread in Martha Stewart Living?
Really?
Is that where we are on the evolutionary scale?
Operation Itch in partnership with The UMPTEENTH TIMES brings you – A HERMIT HISTORY LESSON
Because, those who cannot earn from history are doomed to be defeated.
BLOOMSDAY: ” A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
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for more on the 9/1o project, go here.
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It’s a common tale of post-hardcore life: Four young, angry men form a band. They write songs, break strings, and pop blisters playing the deafening music of youthful discontent, traveling the country one dank, cat-hair-filled basement at a time. Then they break up and get real jobs. Years later, some Europeans e-mail them looking for leftover T-shirts and the spark is reignited. This isn’t exactly what happened to 1.6 Band, but it’s pretty representative. And now, thank god, the New York quartet has hit the reunion stage of their careers. Back when Long Island was still raging against George Bush Sr., 1.6 Band was the East Coast’s answer to the Minutemen–using head-spinning rhythms, shouted vocals, and flinty guitar to bring politics down to street level. -[DC City Paper]
1.6 Band have lined up a few appearances to test out those reunion waters. After a June 17th show in DC, the band will head back north to play WFMU’s The Pat Duncan Show on the 18th before playing a final show at Cake Shop the next day withMemories From The Space Age and Tournament.
1.6 Band came up in the early 90s NYC hardcore scene, formed by Kevin Egan in the wake of the collapse of Beyond (a band whose other members included Tom Capone & Alan Cage of Quicksand, and Vic DiCara of 108, Burn, & Inside Out). Beyondreunited in 2006.
In 1.6 Band’s short lifespan (1991 – 1993), the band released a few 7″s (including a split with the mighty Rorschach), appeared on some compilations (with the likes ofNation of Ulysses), and released an LP, all of which was compiled for a 1995 compilation on Gern Blandsten entitled Broke Up.
Tour dates below…
1.6 BAND – 2009 TOUR DATES
June 17 Velvet Lounge Washington, DC
June 18 WFMU Jersey City, NJ
June 19 Cake Shop NYC, NY
by Davis Fleetwood
This day in history is done in partnership with THE UMPTEENTH TIMES
- visit the umpteenth times today, tell them I sent ya.
In the spring of 1954, McCarthy picked a fight with the U.S. Army, charging lax security at a top-secret army facility. The sound bite that emerged forever changed the course of history.
Really.
by Davis Fleetwood
A few months ago, Glenn Beck of FOX NEWS launched his 9/12 Project. Beck, with faux tears, claimed that “we surround them” and that “you are not alone” he launched the project he says is designed to bring us back to a place we were on September 12, 2001.
Oh, really. In the months and years after 9/11/01 the coordinated terror tactics of the U.S. Federal government have had the intended effect of turning the populace of the United States into a herd of servile, submissive, stooges
Glenn Beck is charlatan.
Now, those on of us left with any reason have a rejoinder to the 9/12 project:
THE DAVIS FLEETWOOD 9/10 PROJECT
See also: the 9 PRINCIPLES & 10 VALUES
Links to all of the shorter segments will be available by Wednesday evening.
More on the 9.10 project.
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Operation Itch is coming out of a winter hibernation period and is gearing up to launch THE HERMIT 3.0 on Tuesday, June 2nd.
I want to thank all of the writes & video creators who contributed content to this site while Op Itch was part aggregator, part creator. Going forward I will focus solely on content creation. I will no longer serve in an editorial role nor will I aggregate content from other sources. From this moment forward, everything on this site will be of my own creation. The Operation Itch NING is the place where anyone can post videos, stories, pics, blogs, etc. I invite one and all to join that open platform.
read more…
On Tuesday, June 2nd, THE HERMIT 3.0 launches right here. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies.
See also: THE HERMIT/season 1 and THE HERMIT/season 2
IN 1997, Davis was the star of a one-person reality TV show that was being shot to air on MTV called THE HERMIT.
Really.
He was 27 years old, and imagined himself poised for greatness. The concept of the show was simple and revolutionary: Davis was to be locked in a studio apartment with hidden cameras all over the place. But the show never aired.
Those outside of the cloistered world of MTV who have seen the early episodes have remarked on the enormous potential of THE HERMIT. The artist Francesco Clemente purchased all of the original footage from MTV with the legal caveat that they could not be shown publicly until the year 2012. Clemente will premiere the 1997 Fleetwood footage at world premier event entitled I STAY IN SO YOU CAN GO OUT at a specially constructed drive in movie theatre festival on the site of The Burning Man Project in Black Rock, Nevada on December 12, 2012.
Clemente: An unlikely champion of Davis Fleetwood
Clemente described his passion for bringing THE HERMIT to a wider audience: “boredom is the origin of any good idea. In this respect, THE HERMIT proves to be both the source and the execution of a brilliant artistic idea.” While being interviewed on the Charlie Rose program in 2000, Clemente, confounded Rose as he waxed poetic about the unknown artist ‘Davis Fleetwood’.” When Charlie Rose suggested it odd that a renowned surrealist and expressionist painter would labor for years on the unedited video footage from a never before seen MTV reality show, Clemente replied:
“Fleetwood will be known for “his ransacking of every literature. For the precision with which he knows the homely and workday details of culture as well as the big abstraction, the ease with which he moves about in history from neolithic times to the report of the latest congressional committee. There is his wish to be, and the acceptance that it will never com to pass, Ian Svenonius circa 1991. And there only the slightest of winks as he simultaneously slings shit at the world, suffers your silly slings and arrows, and then, true to his Irish background- genetically predisposed to pugilism, he punches you in the gut with the truth.”
read more…
note: This website is undergoing a re-organization and will be idle
for a week or so. In the meantime, please visit the OPERATION ITCH Social network
Alex W 
see all posts from Alex W
The Republicans are suddenly worried about spending our grandchildren into inherited poverty, but why the sudden change of rhetoric? Are they getting back to their small government roots, or are they just in a position to complain now that they’re in the minority? The Republicans have taken the role of the opposition minority party and so far, it seems like they’re much better at it than the Democrats.
See the latest in: NEWS & ANALYSIS • HUMOR • ARTS & CULTURE • SEX & RELATIONSHIPS
by Kevin Egan • Operation Itch Contributing Writer
more in HUMOR read all posts by Kevin Egan
At the end of Che, Part One, viewers were left with quite a cliffhanger. After Castro (Demian Bichir) fell to his death in a field of vines and every enemy of Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Benecio Del Toro) had been eliminated through violent means, our protagonist had been dubbed heir to the thrown, while simultaneously shutting out his wife from his affairs. It was an unsettling moment as the door was closed so forcefully in her face. Still, we loved the Guevaras and desperately desired to see more of them. With Che, Part Two, director Steven Sodenbergh pulls no punches, giving us viewers the family epic we had been waiting for. Saturated with plot twists, celebrity cameos (Adam Sandler as Batista) and endings upon endings upon endings, this sequel supercedes the possibilities already established by other films, taking us into unexplored territories.
enecio Del Toro as Ernesto "Che" Guevara in the comedic romp, Che, Part Two.
Part Two begins exactly where Part One left off, except this time around, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) returns to the present time to warn Che about his troubling children and the havoc they are wreaking in the future. This catapults Che on another wacky adventure, outsmarting his old nemesis, Biff (Thomas F.Wilson), and rescuing his family from danger. Then, once Che believes he is clear of all hijinks, an apparition of his mentor, Ben (performed elegantly by the late Alec Guinness) appears, instructing him to go to the Degoba system, to study with an old Jedi master named “Yoda.” While Che follows this path outlined for him by his old friend, his children find themselves in trouble once more, except this time it comes in the form of a shark. Luckily for them, a desperate-for-any-kind-of-work Michael Caine (as himself) shows up to help them in their struggle.
Just like in Part One, Del Toro is again magnificent in the triple roles of Guevara, his wife and his ornery grandfather. And although the “fat suit” he wears through the second half of the film will most likely earn the make-up team an Oscar nomination, it is what Del Toro does with the suit that one finds most appealing. His ability to conjure up deep and funny voices for all three of the characters, as well as contort his face to provide the most comic expressions, is a skill unrivalled in the cinema today. Robert DeNiro himself could do no better.
Without giving too much away in regards to the ending, Che, Part Twoborrows from the classic comedy, Clue, offering multiple endings, each shown separately, depending on which theatre you attend. If you’re like me, you’ll see it more than once, hitting every theatre in town, for no other reason than to ensure you catch all the unbelievable ways in which Che’s fate hangs in the balance. This one’s a keeper!
4 out of 5 stars. Bring the kids!!!
See the latest in: NEWS & ANALYSIS • HUMOR • ARTS & CULTURE • SEX & RELATIONSHIPS
In the ordinary course of things in Washington, D.C., and on television, there are two separate conversations. In one conversation, everything that the government spends money on (schools, transportation, police, etc.) must be trimmed back to save money. In the other conversation, the expenses of wars and the military must be unquestioned. After what he said this week on ABC, it will be interesting to see whether Congressman Barney Frank is permitted on television anymore. He combined the two conversations.
After a right-winger proposed more tax cuts to “stimulate” the economy and denounced any spending programs as not being “stimulus,” Frank pointed out that the largest spending program we’ve seen is the war on Iraq. Host George Stephanopoulos clearly felt the force of some galactic wind about to suck him into a different dimension in which the two conversations are permitted to overlap. He jumped in and said “That is a whole ‘nother show.” But Frank faced the taboo head-on, saying:
“No it isn’t. That’s the problem. The problem is that we look at spending and say oh don’t spend on highways, don’t spend on healthcare, but let’s build cold war weapons to defeat the Soviet Union when we don’t need them, let’s have hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars going to the military without a check. Unless everything is on the table then you’re going to have a disproportionate hit in some places.”
Late last year, Frank proposed cutting the military by 25 percent. When I spoke with his chief of staff, he told me that he thought 10 percent could come from ending the occupation of Iraq. So, Frank is apparently thinking of the military and war budgets as a whole and proposing to cut a quarter, with 15 percent coming out of the standard military budget. “If we are going to get the deficit under control without slashing every domestic program, this is a necessity,” Frank said. Now, I’ll be the first to point out that 25 percent is grotesquely insufficient, and that there is a perverse sort of unstated public apology here, in that Frank led the charge to throw $700 billion at Wall Street tycoons and has sat by as trillions more has flown out that golden door without any pretense of oversight. But when someone in power gets something right, our focus should be on moving it forward, not analyzing the purity of heart of a politician.
The Independent
Two years ago, Iceland was top of the UN living index. Now it is in the frontline of the global economic crisis after the failure of its banks, reports Sophie Morris in Reykjavik.
Just a few short years ago, Iceland had much to be proud of. The good times were rolling so fast that one expected the country’s almost round-the-clock summer daylight to last all year. Business was booming, society overfed, and the capital, Reykjavik, was in vogue as a travel destination for rich revellers, gastronomes and culture lovers.
Iceland is a country of dramatic natural beauty: lunar landscapes, spouting geysers, sheer glaciers and craggy volcanic rock formations; an impressive but inhospitable isle floating in mid-Atlantic isolation. When, in 2007, it topped the UN’s Human Development Index for its high standard of living, literacy and life expectancy, the tiny community of 310,000 felt they had proved their educated, hard-working and resilient character on an international scale.
The previous year, America had abandoned its long-standing naval air station at Keflavik. Symbolically, the move set Icelanders free from more than seven centuries of foreign domination, first as a Norwegian and then a Danish colony, and for the past 65 years, less formally, under the wing of the US.
“The Vikings” had risen again, and this is the admiring title the country bestowed upon the small group of aggressive businessmen whose high-risk investing bloated the island’s economy to 10 times its GDP, buying up chunks of the British and Continental European high streets in the process. French Connection, Debenhams, Karen Millen, Oasis, Warehouse, Mappin & Webb, Hamleys and many more fell into Icelandic ownership. So did West Ham United football club. When Icelanders visited Copenhagen, they would strut into its smartest department store to buy expensive fashions from “their” shop. Like many British chains, it too was owned by the “Viking” Jon Asgeir Johannesson’s Baugur group: one in the eye for the mother country.
