As you can see, the new-look Empire Burlesque has now gone live. It’s a significant upgrade to the latest open-source Joomla platform, and moving a site as extensive this one to new digs has been an enormous technical undertaking, shouldered entirely by our webmaster and co-founder, Rich Kastelein.
As Rich noted earlier, the reason for the upgrade is simple: to improve your experience in using the site. The new set-up should run smoother and cleaner — although if you hit any glitches left over in the aftemath of the change, let us know and we’ll iron it out.
You might also notice that we have taken the opportunity to effect a slight name change in the subtitle of the site, which now reads: “High Crimes and Low Comedy in the American Imperium,” replacing the former titular focus on the Bush Regime. This more aptly reflects the long-running, bipartisan nature of the militarist-corporate machine that has chewed out the guts of the Republic.
It is also an acknowledgement of the obvious fact that no matter wins the presidency in November, there will be no rolling back of the America’s militarist empire of bases, no turning away from the quest for “unipolar dominance” over geopolitical affairs, but instead, as both candidates have promised, an expansion of the war-profiteering complex and an extension of the War on Terror to new lands: more pits of hell opening in a world already pockmarked with mass murder and human ruin dispensed in the name of the American people. Whatever happens, we seem unfortunately assured of a lot more high crime and low comedy to come.
So we hope you’ll stick around, and enjoy the newly retooled site as we move into that great turbulent unknown waiting up ahead. And if you feel moved to throw a bit of coinage into the hat as you’re passing by, we’d be much beholden to you.
Now, let’s inaugurate this revamped burlesque with a number from the man who gave the site its title: a magnificently ramshackle performance of eloquence, anarchy, turbulence, and beauty. Not a bad model to aspire to, when you think about it.