Sunday, December 28, 2008

Just Saw the IMAX Grand Canyon River Adventure: River at Risk

Grand Canyon River Adventure: River at Risk This is a great movie, and perfect for the IMAX format. Narrated by Robert Redford, and with a soundtrack by Dave Matthews Band, it is full of the breath-taking views IMAX is famous for, but also full of good information as well. It features a Colorado River rafting trip by Robert Kennedy Jr and his daughter, among others. Author and antrhopoligist Wade Davis and his daughter, as well as native guide, Shana Watahomigie of the Havasupai tribe, indiginous to the Canyon area. The message of the film is simple, save the rivers, conserve the waters. Without going into major detail, just see the film. The Colorado river is changing and we need to reverse the damage. Check out this great IMAX film.
I have not been to the canyon since 1994, and need to go back. The stunning beauty and timelessness of the scenery will leave you changed forever. There is an ancient vibe to the area that gets into your blood.
Now playing at the Louisville Science Center, and other IMAX venues nationwide.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Senator Al? Looks like it's true


al_franken
Originally uploaded by wweek.media
From the latest news, it looks like Norm Coleman's hopes are fading. The State Supreme Court has struck down Coleman's request to throw out ballots in dispute, leaving Franken with a 46 vote lead. The Star Tribune says the recount will easily continue into 2009.
I have been keeping a close watch on this one, since Al seems like the real deal. I enjoyed listening to him on Air America, and Al does a great job of cutting through the neo-con BS and getting to the point. He is the kind of straight talker and clear thinker we need in the senate.

Merry Christmas, From the Dissident Times

In the spirit of the holiday, have a great Christmas. I thought about doing a nice write up on the 80's indie core band Christmas. I saw them in 1987 with Husker Du at Bogarts in Cincinnati. Maybe next year. Right now I am too tired and stuffed to think about it.
Merry X Mas
RT

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The Dirty Dozen Year End Round Up: The Twelve Most Popular Stories on The Dissident Times for '08

These are the most popular stories voted on by your little mouse-clicking fingers. A little schizo, but so is our blog, our readers and that's okay. Man does not live by punk and politics alone! In a world where Al Franken is a maverick, and John McCain is on Saturday Night Live, anything can happen. What a great year.
Drum Roll please:

  1. Henry Rollins Spoken Word Tour of 2008 There seemed to be mucho interest in what Henry has to say, as this was the top article of the year. Henry is a rennaissance man and all-round interesting character. Little did I know during his Black Flag days that he would go on to have a successful career as a talk show host and spoken word artist. I was lucky enough to meet Henry back in '86. He was "intelligent and intense". That is how I always describe him. He has a busy mind, a great sense of humor, and a vitality that is always refreshing.
  2. Ten Essential Punk Albums You Should Own. This article was one of my "Ten Essential" series that I like to write to help expose people to new music and artists. I tried to get 30 years of punk and boil it down to the 10 best albums. I could have made it the Top 100, as it was hard to narrow down the list. I tried to pay homage to as many styles of punk from different locales and eras as I could.
  3. Anti-Flag Playing a free show at the Republican National Convention. A lot of hits on this came from ground zero itself, Minneapolis. Don't be confused, they were not doing a gig at the RNC, but at a different venue. The concert also featured Rage Against the Machine and others, and was great by many accounts.
  4. Story of the Year Releases New Album. This seems like it should be number one, as "story of the year", but it managed a respectable #4 on the list. The St. Louis band turns out tasteful licks with just enough hard edge, good lyrics and hummable melodies to keep you tuning in. The new cd satisfies in several categories. Buy it.
  5. New Release of Eva Cassidy material. Who is Eva? She is a jazz/folk/pop singer from DC that died 10 years ago. She had such a powerful voice that it will haunt you. Why else would bloggers like me be talking about her 10 years after her death. She had a purity and natural talent that stands tall even after all these years. Celebrate her life and get some Eva. I know this is a punk blog mostly, but give in to your tender side, bro. I think I love her.
  6. Fender's New Joe Strummer Telecaster. Here is an amalgam of everything I love. Punk-The Clash-Fender guitars-Street art. The only way it could be more appealing to me is if it had a picture of my kids on it, got 50 miles per gallon and smelled like pizza.
  7. MXPX celebrates 16 years in-yer-face. This article was a nice little howdy do to a punk band that I have always liked. They are straightforward, melodic, classic punk and a nicer bunch of boys you will not find. Happy 16th, MXPX!
  8. Live CD: The Clash at Shea Stadium. The Clash at their best in a live concert cd at Shea Stadium. The band sounds tight, vibrant and as important as ever. Buy this disc too or ask Santa to get it for you. I love the Sandinista and London Calling era, and I love this too.
  9. Unknown Hinson's Live CD in the works. For the uninitiated, Unknown Hinson is half vampire, half pyschobilly master of the Telecaster. He comes to town a couple of times a year looking for fresh blood. Nice sparse tunes done full-blown rockabilly style, with Unknown's unique delivery. This is priceless stuff!
  10. Camper Van Beethoven retrospective Camper Van was there before indie had a name. Their stuff was quirky and different. This article was just a little roundup of a band that I remember fondly from the late 80s and early 90s. I think I accused an old roomy of stealing that CD, but I found it again in a cd folder since the article was written. What is the statute of limitations on libel?
  11. Ten Essential Reggae Artists to Know. I never claimed to be a reggae expert, but I do like the music. Here, I just wanted to pay respect to some Reggae artists I felt have had a big influence on the genre over the years. I always loved how bands like Black Uhuru could sound so hopeful and so sad at the same time. There are tons of great reggae bands out there, and this was my list of ones I found worth the listen.
  12. The Urges- Psych Ward New cd that merges the atonal and tuneful, the straight ahead with the psychedeilc. It is nice to see newer bands coming out with worthy takes on classic genres, and taking the music to new places in the process.

    So that, my friends, is it. Have a great new year, keep your ears open to new music, and contact us with your favorites and opinions on our favorites. May 2009 rock and rock hard!


Tuesday, December 23, 2008

There is currently much fanfare about topless photos of Obama


obama the cowboy
Originally uploaded by Mr. Wright
So Obama went to Hawaii, and took his shirt off, and people took pictures of it. Hey, I'm sure if it had been Sarah Palin doing the same, no one would have noticed...

Monday, December 22, 2008

Are you a DINOSAUR? Don't Be...


Dinosaurs
Originally uploaded by Joe_B

What am I talking about? What is a DINOSAUR?
Democrat
In
Name
Only
Sorry
Assed
Undercover
Republican
DINOSAUR!
I have had many people, upon saying the most neo-conned, knuckle-dragging, unenlightened crap, supporting the most back-assward position tell me sometheing to the tune of

"But I am a registered Democrat."

Like that makes everything ok. It's as if you were to support the holocaust and then say, "But I am registered with the JDF!"

I could register as a Freemason and vote for Jackie Mason. I could register as a Green Bay Packer and be a secret Bears fan. It is meaningless. It doesn't matter what some registration card says you are. You are what your voting record says you are. If you quack like a Republican, smell like a Republican, sound like a Republican, you are probably a Republican. Stop fooling yourself and go ahead and register as a Republican. At least then you won't be a fool AND a liar.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Drag The River - My New Bestest Favoritest Band, or one of them...


File "Drag the River" under the category of Bands I would Like to Hear More from in 2009. Drag the River features Chad Price, who's warm vocals and homey style connect with the listener in an intimate way. Their material seems well thought out and tuneful, and the melodies stay with you. The music is consitently great, even while the lineup has been inconsistent over the years. I caught on to them with the Suburban Home sampler cd series, that feature the label's alt country, indie and lo-fi artists.
Here is some info from their website to give it all a little background:
"During the early days of the Blasting Room there were many open hours for learning how to make records. Jon & Chad recorded around 20 some songs in late '96 ... Whoever was in the studio that day could play. They just basically had to learn the songs in the time it took to play them. Over the next couple years those recordings were bootlegged alot.So they finally released "Hobo's Demos" and did some touring around the turn of the millennium. In March 2002 the band released "Closed" which was also on Upland/O&O records. That label is owned & operated by the All-Descendents family & co run by Joe Carducci of the legendary SST label. They put out all your favorite 80's punk records like Black Flag, the Minutemen, DESCENDENTS, Meat Puppets, FIREHOSE, Husker Du.....all those and too many more to mention.At that time Karl Alvarez left & J.J. from the NOBODYS joined and they started traveling more seriously. Later that Oct. 2002 they put out "Live at the Starlight" on Mars Motors (Jon, Flash and Chris Irwin's label) & produced their live, vinyl only release. That was a bar room idea that had little chance but actually happened. The companion to "Live at the Starlight" is "At the GREEN DOOR O.K.C." a humbling & totally different show recorded five days later in front of a less than excited crowd. The "Chicken Demos" is the sister release of "Hobo's Demos" and came out May 2004, also on Upland/O&O."Hey Buddies" e.p. was released in Nov. '04. 6 songs co-released by the fine people at Red Sand. It was super limited to begin with and more limited when more than half of them were stolen at a show in Green Bay. Two months later a more widely available version with different art & packaging was released by Mars Motors & distro'd by suburban home records....beginning that relationship. At this point Zach went back to school and the band kept on as a four piece....but not without infrequent visits from Chad Rex who easily stepped in when available. Casey Prestwood picked up the steel & lead duties for a year and a half from Feb. 2005 thru Oct. 2006. In October 2005 Paul entered his silver years surfing in California. He was in the band a full decade. He later joined the Street Dogs Dogs from Boston & has sat in with DTR on several occasions since.
Dave Barker played drums for a year and a half from the end of 2005 to the beginning or 2007.
In Dec. '05 the band mixed songs for 3 different 7inches. Chris Peirce of ''technical ecstasy studio" in N.J. mixed & recorded two songs for a "THIRD WORLD INDUSTRIES" 7in.& the others were mixed at Jon's where they were recorded.the first release is from our friend Darick's label "wallride" in MD.

In January '06 the band recorded a new record at the Hideaway in Sedalia Co. with Marc Benning. An all analog studio totally lost in the Colorado mountains.There is also a split with the DENTS from Boston where the bands cover each others songs.& Roger De Rok released ''gabba gabba HEY BUDDIES'' on vinyl w/ bonus songs. "It's Crazy" from Suburban Home Records came out June 6th 2006. 10 years of music for the band.January 2008 "you can't live this way." was released.Summer '08 more songs have been tracked & mixed in the garage and at the Blasting Room. Shows happened and continue to happen.
Some are Jon & Chad duo shows & as many are with J.J., Zach & Chris Pierce of N.J. on drums.....it never ends."
Check them out. You will be glad you did.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

2009 Warped Tour Bands - Still Ironing Out the Details

These bands have been mentioned as Warped Tour 09 participants. We have some good ones. There are the classics like Anti Flag, NOFX, Bad Religion, Bouncing Souls, Less than Jake... These are the MUST SEE's... There are a lot of others on the list that are more specialized, such as ska-meisters Big D and the Kids Table, and the celt punk Flogging Molly, the more metal-tinged acts like Underoath and Thrice. Alot of the other bands are up and comers you will be better off for having seen as well. The Tour looks to be a nice primer for the school of punk, with something for every taste. From the ska, the old school, the emo's, the metallic, and the celt/folk punks. Get there early and take notes. School's out.

The list:
3OH!3
A Day to Remember
A Skylit Drive
Alexisonfire
Anti-Flag
Bad Religion
Bayside
Big D and the Kids Table
Black Tide
Bouncing Souls
Breathe Carolina
Brokencyde
Cash Cash
Chiodos
Dance Gavin Dance
Dear and the Headlights
Dirty Heads
Escape the Fate
Every Avenue
Flogging Molly
Gallows
Hit the Lights
I Set My Friends on Fire
Jeffree Star
Less Than Jake
Lights
Meg & Dia
Millionaires
NOFX
Outernational
P.O.S.
Saosin
Scary Kids Scaring Kids
Senses Fail
Shad
Silverstein
Sing it Loud
Streetlight Manifesto
Tat
The A.K.A.s
The Architects
The Ataris
The Devil Wears Prada
The Maine
The White Tie Affair
There For Tomorrow
Therefore I Am
Thrice
TV/TV
Underoath
Valencia
Westbound Train

Friday, December 19, 2008

A Sincere "Thanks" to President Bush

Dear W,
I have been VERY hard on you over the years, but when you do something good, I feel obliged to commend you. Thanks for caring about the auto industry and the American workers by doing SOMETHING to throw them a line. Too little? Too late? I don't know, but thank you for the help.
To Mitch McConnell, you are still a weasle, a fake, and a loser. May your hate for the working man and the UAW take you to the lowest spot in hell.
Here are the details from the AP & Huffington Post:
"The bailout plan would, according to the Associated Press, make $13.4 billion available this month and January. Of that, $9.4 billion will go to General Motors Corp. and $4 billion to Chrysler LLC. Ford Motor Co., the other member of the Big Three, has said it does not need immediate help. Tucked in the provision are a host of reforms and concessions from both the companies and the United Auto Workers."

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Jello Biafra- An Open Letter to President Obama


Jello Biafra
Originally uploaded by mrdodgy
OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA

PREAMBLE GAMBLE

Dear Mr. Obama,

Congratulations on your recent victory, and for helping build such a strong mandate for change. In that spirit, please do not forget the other aisle you need to reach across. All the relief and publicity for the middle class won't do anything for the 40-100 million Americans who are starving, unemployed or just plain poor.
You have gone out of your way to build a bridge to those of us fed up with war, pollution, inequality, corporate lawlessness and business as usual. You have energized a whole new generation who is far ahead of their elders in knowing what urgently needs to be done. I have never seen such an outpouring of heartfelt emotion, hope and support for an American politician in my life, and I remember Kennedy well. You are the first president in my lifetime to have a bona fide grassroots movement behind you and ready to rock. I hope those crowds' hope and urgency has penetrated deeply enough that you won't let that bridge be washed away.

I remember another person who had the audacity to exploit and toss aside people's hope, and his name is Bill Clinton. Democrats fail time and again when they shirk responsibility and settle for being dealmakers instead of leaders. As important as it is to find common ground and build consensus for change, our situation is so dire we cannot afford any more dealmakers. The people voted for a leader. Anything less risks breaking the hearts of an entire galvanized generation who may then decide it is not worth it to get involved and participate any more.
Strong medicine is needed. Here are some ideas:

IRAQ - TRY THIS!
The closest thing to a solution I have heard was offered clear back in April 2004 by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (www.oic-ico.org). The OIC is comprised of 57 Islamic countries ranging from West Africa clear over to Southeast Asia. At their annual meeting they found six member nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen and Morocco) willing to pony up enough of their own troops (approx. 150,000) that our troops could have gone home! Who slammed the door on that one? Colin Powell, on the grounds that having the Islamic soldiers under UN command instead of Americans was out of the question.
WHY??!? Wouldn't a neutral force of Muslim peacekeepers make a lot more headway than the disaster we've made? Wouldn't they at least command a lot more respect, resulting in a huge drop in violence? Surely the non-stop carnage and Iracketeering we have spawned is Exhibit A that we need to get over this colonialist illusion that other countries' problems can only be solved by Americans. The OIC's proposal for US withdrawal and peace in Iraq must be revisited immediately, and also considered for Afghanistan.

We must end not just our military occupation of Iraq, but our economic occupation NOW. Iraq is not ours to sell, and neither is its oil. Your promise not to leave any permanent US military bases in Iraq is a good start. But you have also backed leaving US troops in Iraq to "protect American assets like the Green Zone." The Green Zone is not our "asset." We stole it and we have to give it back. I hope you don't seriously believe we can get away with that giant feudal fortress of an embassy we are building, ten times the size of any other in history. We cannot afford to waste any more money on this, or down the black hole of the Bush administration's crony backroom deals with corrupt, incompetent private contractors like Blackwater, KBR and Halliburton. We need to fire them and they need to leave--NOW.

We do owe the Iraqi people help, and we have an obligation to clean up the mess we have made. That goes double for Afghanistan. But I can't see this getting done unless someone other than the United States is in charge. Let us also not forget the 2 million-plus refugees stuck outside Iraq who are draining the economies of Iraq's neighbors, especially Jordan and Syria.

TERROR - STRATEGY AND DIPLOMACY, NOT WAR
Even if we kill off every insurgent and terrorist-sympathizer from sea to shining sea, what will their kids be like? And theirs? Wake up. The major cause of terrorism is not evil, it's poverty. Michael Moore said it best after 9/11: "Will we ever get to the point that we realize we will be more secure when the rest of the world isn't living in poverty so we can have nice running shoes?" What do we need an empire for anyway? Ever notice how much happier the British and Europeans are now that they don't have to worry about policing colonial empires anymore?
Many experts and heads of state, in the Middle East and beyond, agree that the best way by far to pull the rug out from under the terrorists and reduce their attacks dramatically is a just and humane resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel's right to exist is threatened most by the fact that hardcore zealots are running the show on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides. If we don't have the courage to stand up to them, who will? As painful as withdrawal to Israel's pre-1967 borders will be, our future depends on it. So does Israel's. As Reagan said to Gorbachev, "Tear down this wall!"
Threatening Iran made for great red meat on the campaign trail. But any attack on Iran--by us or using the Israelis as a proxy--will blow up in our face worse than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. It will wipe out any good will and benefit of a doubt we have left in the eyes of the rest of the world. Iran is three times the size of Iraq and much more mountainous. The people there already hate our guts, thanks to our overthrow of their democratically elected leader Mohammed Mossadegh in 1954, ushering in 25 years of torture under the Shah. Backing and aiding Saddam Hussein in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that cost a million lives did not help either.
So, alas, we will not be "greeted as liberators." But we could run straight into a worldwide "Day the Earth Stood Still" if Iran responds by blocking all oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf. Iran knows full well they wouldn't even have to blockade the narrow Strait of Hormuz. All they would have to do is sink a tanker or freighter or two and no other ships will move. Not from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, nothing. Surely we can do better than this. Even Robert Gates seems to think so. Reckless threats against Pakistan will not solve anything, either.

JUST SAY NO TO TORTURE
Closing Guantanamo Bay is not enough. All torture, detentions without trial, kidnappings ("renditions") and illegal and unnecessary spying must end--and end with transparency now. Otherwise we are no better than Saddam Hussein or the Nazis. The whole world knows this and the whole world is watching. What about the 20,000 people we still have locked up without charge in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan???
The USA PATRIOT Act is just about the worst mistake our government has made since FDR threw over 100,000 Japanese-American citizens into concentration camps during World War II. Even you panicked and voted to make the PATRIOT Act permanent. It should be repealed and flushed down the toilet immediately--all of it. Even worse is the Military Commissions Act, in which Senators who should know better, such as Robert Byrd, Sherrod Brown, Ken Salazar and even John McCain voted with the majority to legalize torture, kidnapping and secret trials with secret evidence, wiping out the centuries old human right to habeas corpus. Again, isn't this what our "greatest generation" fought so bravely in World War II to stop the Nazis from doing to us?
What galls me most is that all this iron-fisted trashing of our basic human rights has not caught and convicted one significant terrorist! Even the FBI admits that torture doesn't work.
Meanwhile, if we're serious about preventing another terror attack, why is only 10% of the cargo entering our ports on ships ever inspected? Sure, no airliners have been hijacked by a terrorist wielding the wrong-sized shampoo bottle. But those cargo containers are big enough to smuggle in a small arsenal of rocket launchers and shoulder-fired missiles that could actually bring down a plane; dirty bomb material; or even Bin Laden himself. I sometimes wonder if he's driving a cab in Manhattan right now.

RESTORE THE RULE OF LAW
This means investigating and prosecuting each and every Bush administration official and their cronies who may have committed crimes while in power. Otherwise the lesson learned is you can get away with anything you want because the next administration will be too spineless to take action. For crying out loud, DO NOT make the same mistake Bill Clinton did when he let the rampant corruption, perjury and even terrorist acts of the Reagan and Bush I regimes go unpunished in the interest of moving on from the past. The crime here is this: Not only does everyone involved assume they have license to break even more laws the next time they hold power, but those who should be in jail for the lying, arms smuggling, assassinations and drug dealing in the Contra-gate scandal (like Elliot Abrams, Colin Powell, Richard Armitage and Robert Gates among others) are instead handed even more powerful positions where they have done even worse damage. Can you imagine the havoc and hooliganism if we put our heads in the sand after Watergate, let bygones be bygones, and G. Gordon Liddy wound up as director of the FBI? Secretary of Defense Haldeman? Attorney General Ehrlichman? Karl Rove's chair occupied by Colson, Magruder or Segretti?
Watergate and even Contra-gate pale in comparison to the wholesale lawlessness this time around. From Jack Abramoff's bribes, to outing Valerie Plame; from lying about weapons of mass destruction and getting thousands of people killed; from wholesale fraud and attacks on the right to vote, to the gutting of the Justice Department, to torture and other possible war crimes--this can't be allowed to go on.
Cheney and Rumsfeld were bad enough. But it is equally critical that lower-echelon culprits lacking household names like John Yoo, David Addington (nicknamed "Cheney's Cheney"), and General Geoffrey Miller be held accountable for their alleged involvement in torture and other serious crimes. Otherwise, they could one day rise to Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, or even the Supreme Court and pick up right where they left off in their blood-soaked shredding of the Constitution.
Even a South African-style Truth Commission would be an important step in preventing this from ever happening again. Otherwise, why should I or anyone else obey the law when my own government does not even pretend to? Even if Bush pardons the most blatant war criminals, all we have to do is fulfill President Clinton's promise to join the rest of the world in the International Criminal Court and they might not get away with it after all. We must come clean and drain the swamp now or it is just going to get dirtier. A lot dirtier.
Rule of law must also be restored when it comes to the NSA, FISA and domestic spying. The Internet revolt by your own followers was right. Your vote for letting the NSA, and even the phone companies, off the hook for massive illegal spying on American citizens was a very bad mistake. These are the exact same crimes that got Nixon thrown out of office for Watergate. Now Watergate is legal too? I have to say it--this doesn't remind me of Nixon as much as Italy's ordeal under Silvio Berlusconi. In Italy I have heard the joke again and again that "Berlusconi has to stay in power or else he'll go to jail." Sure enough, every time Berlusconi gets indicted for yet another crime, his majority in Parliament simply changes the law and he goes free. There should be zero tolerance for Berlusconi disease.
Plus, does this much spying even make sense? What are we gaining here besides a bigger avalanche of useless data? If 9/11 was an inside job, it was not one of conspiracy but colossal, runaway incompetence. We were already spying on way too many people, collecting way too much data that no one had time to analyze. Thus finding the real terrorists before they struck was like looking for a needle in a football stadium.
I have a feeling you may sign an important bill or two right from the podium during your inauguration speech. It might be an economic stimulus package or lifting the ban on stem cell research. How about also signing your first executive order declaring all of Bush's presidential signing statements he added on to bills he signed to be null and void. These things will go a long way toward restoring the rule of law.

STAMP OUT ELECTION FRAUD - RESTORE THE RIGHT TO VOTE
I never thought that after all these years we would once again find ourselves fighting for our right to vote. In the United States of America? It is well-established now that every election at least since 2000, including the midterms, has been marred by widespread vote fraud, especially via the hacking and manipulations of electronic voting machines. But these widespread crimes have never been fully investigated, let alone prosecuted. Even the US Civil Rights Commission recommended prosecuting then-Governor Jeb Bush over all the fraud and voter intimidation in Florida during the 2002 election. But his brother's Justice Department declined.
It is obvious the Help America Vote Act has backfired and done the opposite. Optical scan machines are not the answer at all. They have now been proven to be just as hackable as the notorious paperless touch-screens. They should all be junked once and for all. Digital is not always better, and voting should not be privatized. Any system where the people's votes are counted in secret behind closed doors has no place in a democracy. Nor is there room for contracting out the verification of our registration forms to the same corrupt biased companies that manufacture the phony voting machines.
We can't just let this massive, widespread vote stealing go on and pretend it isn't happening. It may be too late to reverse the wreckage of all the stolen elections. But again, a Truth Commission to prove how it was done and who did it is essential to the survival of our democracy. Anyone in Congress with a spine for this? The people have a right to know.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM-THE EASY WAY
I am sure you would agree that this election campaign was way WAY too long. Other countries, including one just north of us, limit campaign time to between 30 and 60 days. Election fever is much more focused so voter participation is higher. Why can't we do this? Sure, these other countries use parliamentary systems (another change I hope for) where the party in power calls an election and it takes place a short time later. But think of what we could save--and what we would gain--if we limited campaign time to 90 days. There could be 30 days between announcements and the primaries, followed by a 30-day primary season, then a 30-day home stretch to Election Day. Anyone who jumps the gun by jockeying, soliciting contributions or electioneering too early is automatically disqualified.
I hope you would also agree that campaigns for high office have become obscenely expensive. We now have a full-blown Election Industrial Complex. Wouldn't it be great if you didn't need $750 million to run for President? The way our campaign contributions and lobbyists work today has another name in other countries. It's called bribery.
Another way to restore sanity is to go national with a law enacted by popular vote in Nevada. If you don't like any of the candidates for an office in Nevada, you are allowed to vote None of the Above. If N.O.T.A. wins, they have to re-run the election with all new candidates.
You say you want more people to get up and get involved? Lower the voting age! To get people's attention I have suggested lowering it clear down to age 5. But more realistically, I suggest showing people they have a stake in our democracy by allowing ages 14 and up to vote on school boards and school bond issues, 16 and up for local offices and ballot measures, and 18 and up for everything else. Overcoming voter apathy is hard, but when young people cast votes and see results, they'll stick with it long term.

RETHINK AND SHUT DOWN THE WAR ON DRUGS
Prohibition is as absurd and fruitless today as it was when Eliot Ness ran around shooting up Chicago trying to stamp out illegal beer. The world is laughing at us while real people are being robbed, jailed, assaulted and even killed. We have more people locked in prison than any country in the history of the world. But our drug use rate has barely dropped at all. The blood and violence from gangs and narco-traffickers that have left Colombia and Mexico on the verge of becoming failed states is spilling across our borders. This is no country for old men--or old laws.
Could we do worse than to at least try the Harm Reduction programs used most successfully in Holland and other parts of Europe? As unorthodox as this sounds, decriminalizing (not legalizing) even harder drugs, making them available on prescription from the government for free, along with a safe place to use them, has led to a much lower crime rate--and even addiction rate--than ours. Why? The free prescriptions mean the addict does not have to rob and kill people to pay the drug gangs' high prices, and the gangs are put out of business. Dealers are still treated harshly and rehab is strongly encouraged. This could also save up to $50 billion a year for rehab and education that is otherwise wasted by throwing people in prison.
This also frees up billions and billions of dollars to treat the addicts when they want to get off drugs--which will be sooner rather than later. Rehab costs 2/3 less than prison. Our mushrooming prison-industrial complex is draining our money so badly that state after state is slashing funds for education--education!--to pay for throwing more and more people in prison. In California, a prison guard now makes more money than a teacher. So much for family values.
What is wrong with this picture?!??? As president I suggest the commuting of federal prison sentences of all small-time non-violent drug offenders to time served and releasing them immediately. Then strongly urge governors to do the same at the state level. Again, think of all the wasted taxpayer dollars this will free up for more important things like education and rehabilitation. Estimates run as high as $50 billion nationwide.
This does not mean any of these drugs should be legalized, just decriminalized. That is, strictly regulated like alcohol and tobacco, with big-time dealers and gangs treated as harshly as ever. For another way to fight the drug lords, consider this. In 2005 the United States spent $780 million on drug eradication in Afghanistan. Where on earth did it all go? It worked so poorly that $600 million of poppies and heroin escaped into the market anyway.
Do the math: We could have saved a whopping $180 million if we had simply gone to the suppliers and bought the drugs, and then destroyed them so they won't keep making people sick and killing my friends. As sickening as it is to even think of doing business with drug cartels, can anyone think of a better way to cut off the supply? A counter-argument is that this will actually force the gangs to drive the street price way up. But with Harm Reduction programs already in place they will have nothing to sell, no place to sell it, and no suckers willing to buy.
And for crying out loud, isn't it time to finally get real and decriminalize marijuana? If current strains are more potent than the old days, so what? Study after study still proves that marijuana is less harmful--and less addictive--than alcohol or tobacco. Nowadays, going overboard against marijuana has not only flooded our prisons to the breaking point, it has driven the price of cannabis so high that young people are going straight into crack cocaine and methamphetamines. Is this wise?
On top of that, it is not just oil we are dangerously low on, we are running out of wood. If we ever hope to turn the tide on global warming and save what is left of our forests, we must remove all bans on the cultivation of cannabis for its many industrial uses--including the strain of hemp that has no THC in it to get anyone high but is still banned anyway. Recycling is not enough. Why chop down millions of trees to make paper when we can use hemp or kanaf and then grow another crop of paper a few months later? It does not get any greener than this. It will also help rescue a lot of family farms.
Finally, the Joe Biden-authored Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act (formerly known as the RAVE Act), passed as a rider to the Amber Alert Bill, is as big a disgrace as the PATRIOT Act. It has no place in a free society and should be repealed immediately. Long-term rescue of our social fabric and society, not to mention our southern neighbors, depends in major part on enacting humane drug laws.

RESTORE BALANCE TO THE SUPREME COURT
Even George Will complained that Bill Clinton's Supreme Court nominees were too moderate; that the court needs a good progressive or two for the full and thorough consideration of each issue. Balancing the court means choosing a justice or two with the passion and spirit of a Thurgood Marshall, John Marshall or William O. Douglas, even if you do not fully agree with them. You may only have a two-year window before a mid-term Congress cramps your style.

MEDIA REFORM
The Federal Communications Commission should get off their high horse about Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" or naughty words that everyone says anyway, and instead focus on the rampant hate speech and outright lies that are falsely broadcast as impartial news. Sure, celebrity bullies like Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, and Ann Coulter have a right to say what they want. But when no one--even the target of a personal attack--is allowed the right to reply, the very idea of an informed democracy goes out the window. Was that their goal in the first place?
Nowadays, mainstream corporate media deliberately dumbing down the news, omitting key facts and sides of the story, or neglecting to report the story altogether is the worst form of censorship going on in America today. Since the big mergers, most debate that gets aired at all is restricted to right wing versus ultra-right wing, while the rest of us are allowed to laugh along with Stewart and Colbert. What kind of democracy are we when freedom of speech--or the equally important right to communicate--belongs only to the oligarchs who control the airwaves?
There used to be a law called the Fairness Doctrine that guaranteed the right of reply, without Bill O'Reilly yelling at you to shut up every 15 seconds. It was allowed to expire late in the Reagan years, and urgently needs to be renewed. Your stated opposition to this puzzles me. What better tool is there for "opening up the airwaves and modern communications to as many diverse viewpoints as possible" than making sure they are allowed to be seen and heard in the first place? And how about some enforcement of the laws guaranteeing that the public, not corporations, owns the airwaves. Even the big corporate media barons should again be required to renew their FCC license to broadcast every five years, complete with public hearings.
I also do not think anyone should be allowed to graduate from high school until they pass a class on media literacy. Sadly, we do not yet have the curriculum. In the meantime we must all pitch in with the teaching--to both adults and children.

ECONOMIC STIMULUS - START WITH PEOPLE WHO NEED IT MOST
I'm glad there seems to be a sense up top that national security, the economy, climate collapse and the environment are all intertwined. Think about it. No rogue state or terrorist threatens our national security nearly as much as our collapsing economy. The growing gap between the rich and poor is what is tearing apart the lives of average Americans and their families.
National security means:
+ Everyone has a home.
+ Everyone has enough decent food to eat.
+ Everyone can drink the water without having to buy it in a bottle from Coke or Pepsi.
+ No one has to worry about getting their hand cut off at work or having their job outsourced overseas.
+ Everyone can be who they are without fear of being detained and tortured without trial.
+ Everyone can vote without fear, knowing their vote will be counted--accurately.
+ Every woman has the right to choose what to do with her own body.
+ Everyone has enough money for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
+ Everyone, even if they don't have money, has the right to see a doctor if they're sick or hurt. In so many other countries this is a guaranteed human right by law.
Stimulating and reviving the economy will only succeed from the ground up. This means getting a lot more money quickly to the people on the bottom who need it the most. When they finally have some cash in their pocket they will be more than eager to spend it. Stores perk up, jobs are saved, and the train is finally rolling out of the station. This is why leaders as diverse as Martin Luther King, Milton Friedman and even Richard Nixon have at different times proposed a guaranteed annual income so that everyone can participate and keep our economy humming. Raise the minimum wage to a living wage: $9.50 an hour helps, but $12 an hour is closer to a true living wage. Welfare should not be a dirty word, especially after PBS reported last month that if you count all the Americans who have given up looking for work because they can't find any and dropped off the radar screen, unemployment is actually around 12%! So please remove the time limits on unemployment compensation, welfare benefits and Aid to Families with Dependent Children that were slapped on the least fortunate during the Clinton years.
But where will the money come from when we burn it all up shoveling it down the mouths of the dragons on Wall Street? You are right to point out that trickle-down supply-side economics never trickled down. It wasn't supposed to. How will this be any different? To the average taxpayer this so-called bailout looks more like the last great looting of our treasury before Bush and his cronies get the hell out of dodge. There is also growing concern about the appearance of self-dealing by officials with connections to Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
So far your own economic team seems alarmingly slanted toward the robber barons who helped create this mess in the first place. Where is Joseph Stiglitz? Where is Robert Reich? Are we still all in this together? Your Economic Advisory Council is supposed to be a council, not a choir! You say you want a support staff that debate and give you diverse ideas. So even if you do not agree with them, how about adding William Greider or Doug Henwood or even Naomi Klein as well?

GREEN JOBS THROUGH GREEN AID
Let's move even faster on climate collapse. The clock is ticking...
Your proposal to spend $150 billion on our crumbling infrastructure is a good beginning. But it is only 10% of the $1.5 trillion in urgent repairs the American Society of Civil Engineers says we need right now to avoid more disasters like the freeway bridge collapse in Minnesota. This does not even account for restocking the Bush-depleted Superfund to clean up toxic waste, or creating affordable housing for everyone. Your plan states, "We'll put people back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel efficient cars and the alternative energy technology that could free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead." Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to spend whatever it takes to weather-strip and winterize old homes and buildings now if the owners can't afford it. It will reduce our swollen carbon footprint dramatically and save tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years. How about aid for solar panels? Home windmills too? Not just tax breaks, aid. Most people just don't have the money for this. Time magazine reported in 2001 that an American farmer could get $50 for an acre of wheat and $2000 for an acre of wind power. We either pay to do this now or pay a lot more later. Europeans are already way ahead of us on this one.
Also, look for ways to accomplish two or three things at once with every renewal project. Replacing the water or sewer lines? Lay fiber optic cable! Our not-so-liberal mayor in San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, nixed that idea because there was not enough graft in it for telecom companies. His own silly plan for wi-fi towers fell on its face, so a smart opportunity was wasted.

AUTO AID - REQUIRE GREENER CARS
Ever seen a documentary film called Who Killed the Electric Car? They worked so well their owners did not want to give them back. But when their leases came up, Detroit snatched them away and destroyed them. Now Detroit wants a great big handout? Then another? Then another? There should be no bailout for carmakers if all they are willing to offer in return is more fuel-hogging clunkers like the Ford Flex. No aid until they bring back the electric cars! If the Chevy Volt is so great, why aren't they selling them now? For almost 30 years, people who go to design schools have told me that the car designers almost always pursue jobs overseas because Detroit is still unable to adapt as quickly to fresh ideas for the future.
So far "clean coal" seems to be about as clean as our mountains of "clean nuclear waste." Again, no aid to big coal companies unless they end their environmentally devastating "mountain top removal" plundering once and for all.

TRAINS MAKE SENSE - PEOPLE ARE READY
Another crucial way to fight global warming and reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to wake up and get serious about a nationwide high-speed rail system and better rapid transit in the cities. Again, Europe, Japan, and even China are way ahead of us. When I do my speaking tours in Europe it is so much easier and less expensive than traveling here: Just take my backpack and go. Even a normal train is often faster than flying. No traffic jams getting to the airport, no long security lines, no baggage claim wait, no traffic jams back into the next town. I just get on the train and get off the train, right downtown. The scenery is pretty cool too.
Amtrak has hemorrhaged money year after year. But ridership is finally going up, in spite of the decimated service. People have finally grown so fed up with traffic jams, fuel prices and the arrogance of our bumbling airline industry that a proper train system would now do very well. Just ask former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, another intriguing choice for a high position in your administration. Californians finally passed a bond issue to begin work on a long-overdue bullet train system between San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles. People I have talked to in random conversation are almost as excited about this as they are about your own election. A similar initiative passed in Florida in 2000, but Governor Jeb Bush impounded the funds.
Surely we can find the money by canceling a few aircraft carriers, tanks and planes we don't need, and by shutting off the faucet for the hundreds of billions wasted on Reagan's star wars fantasy--now known as "missile defense." Are those new installations in the Czech Republic and Poland really worth all the grief they're stirring up with the Russians? The Czech and Polish people don't even want them there!
Green energy technology should also be shared, even given, to the Chinese ASAP. Here on the West Coast I have to wipe a brown sooty film off my windshield every couple of days--and my car is in a garage! It is coal dust from Chinese factories. They open a new coal plant ever few days. According to Mother Jones, sustaining an American lifestyle for a Chinese middle class predicted to reach 600 million will require the resources of several more Earths!

COMPETE GLOBALLY - TAKE BETTER CARE OF OUR PEOPLE
Other countries prefer a healthy workforce and are willing to pay for it. Here we stick our workforce with fat, greedy insurance companies who serve no purpose but to act as a tollbooth or a gatekeeper and charge exorbitant fees before a person can even see a doctor. The result, of course, is the most expensive healthcare system with the least benefit for the buck of any in the industrialized world. You say the big insurance companies "should have a place at the table." Aren't these companies the problem?
Other counties want their workforce to be as well-educated as possible to better care for themselves and compete in the global economy. So they are willing to pay to make sure this happens, instead of kicking them in the face with back-breaking student loans and cutting school funding to the bone.
Other countries want their children to grow up well-nourished and loved instead of dysfunctional. They are happy to pay welfare for single parents to stay home with their little ones, and for 12-18 months maternity leave with 80-90% pay for either parent to make sure no child is left behind.
Traveling overseas it is not hard to notice that many European countries, and not just Scandinavia, have a higher standard of living than we do, and the gap is widening. The reason is they are willing to pay for it.

HUMANE TAX REFORM
Please do not break your promise to raise income taxes on the wealthy and close those Titanic-sized loopholes that allowed two-thirds of US and foreign corporations who do business here to pay no tax at all between 1998 and 2005. We used to have a tiny tax on security speculation and stock transactions. Britain still does. If the annual amount of wheeling and dealing in the stock market really amounts to the reported $500 trillion a year, a mere 1% tax could raise $5 trillion per year and Wall Street would not even feel it! Other ways to raise badly needed revenue without hurting Joe the Plumber would be to tax companies who pollute, divert funds overseas, and ship jobs out of the country, as well as taxing stock windfalls rewarded by Wall Street for balancing the bottom line with employee layoffs.
Last September the Bush administration quietly dynamited Section 382 of the tax code allowing big banks to run off with as much as $140 billion dollars in new tax breaks that many suspect are illegal. Was this illegal? Please enforce the law and stop the bleeding now.
We could also follow the lead of Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, and even the state of Maine and encourage cities to start their own municipal or community banks. Being a non-profit, these banks would provide low-cost loans for homes and small businesses. They would also save cities millions of dollars apiece that they now waste on private banking fees.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D - IL) proposes generous tax breaks and shareholder advantages to "patriotic corporations" who limit management salaries to 100 times the lowest-paid fulltime worker. I think 10 times is better. Shareholders need better legal tools to limit runaway CEO pay and looting by top executives.
Schakowsky would also give tax breaks to corporations that: produce at least 90% of their goods and services in the United States; spend at least 50% of the research and development budgets here at home; stay out of employee organizing drives; are clean with the EPA, OSHA and the NRLB; and provide their employees with generous and portable pension funds and health insurance. They must also agree not to price-gouge consumers.
So how do we convince Americans that it is in our best interest to help pay for all of this? It would help if you use your power to inspire and persuade, to get through to people in this country that not all taxes are automatically bad, especially when spent in a way that benefits them directly. Starting with the Boston Tea Party in kindergarten, it is drilled into us that taxes are this terrible violation of our freedom. As adults we have had 30 plus years of media sermons from both parties that we are no longer a community, but a marketplace, and that competitiveness is more important than caring about one another. Isn't it interesting that the people least interested in paying taxes are often the first to complain when a government service they take for granted doesn't work any more?
To wise people up and chip away at this I suggest pointing out what happened to California when voters passed Proposition 13 and gutted what was once the number one education system in the country, if not the world. It is now almost dead last. According to the ACLU, some schools in Los Angeles are not only short on books and desks, they don't even have toilet paper. Californians also voted down an initiative guaranteeing universal healthcare after the Disease Industry ran a blitz of TV ads claiming it would raise people's taxes. They banked on people failing to do the math and see how a slight tax increase would dramatically reduce their own medical bills.
Another example is the tale of two of the Quad Cities on the Mississippi River. In the 1990s, Rock Island, IL voters were willing to raise taxes to build a floodwall. Voters in Davenport, IA rejected a wall three times because it would raise taxes. Guess whose town was devastated the next time the Mississippi flooded? To raise local money for local and state projects voters have to be shown that it is worth raising taxes to pay for these things.
Taxes also wouldn't hurt so much if the people had more say in where their money went. How about placing 12-15 categories in US income tax forms so people can vote what percentage of their tax money they want spent where? I'll bet education, the environment, infrastructure, and services would go straight up and our bloated military cash cow would go straight down.

HELP PEOPLE RESIST FORECLOSURES
To fight the plague of foreclosures, I suggest following the lead of the Cook County Sheriff in Chicago by declaring a moratorium on foreclosure evictions. Debts to predatory lenders should be forgiven at once. Many families are fleeing their homes because they are so frightened of the cruel Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, they are willing to default on their mortgage just to keep up with their credit card debts. You voted against this law. Now let's get rid of it. I am inspired by City Life/Vida Urbana in Boston who have said "Yes We Can" to reviving the Depression-era practice of volunteer rolling brigades who show up to defend people's homes from eviction, and if need be take all the furniture and belongings back from the curb into the house. In addition, they alert the media to help shame the banks and predatory lenders from coming back. In many cases it has worked.
The most intriguing proposal flying around the Internet is for everyone who files an individual tax return to be given $1 million dollars on the condition that they use it to pay off their mortgage in full (thus bailing out the banks) and buy an American car within the next three years. Whatever is left over is theirs to keep and invest. Unfortunately the math does not add up. Even the staggering estimated total of $8 trillion thrown at our collapsing economy would only bring $57,971.01 for each of the 138 million individual tax returns filed each year. Too bad, it is an interesting idea.

"THIS MOVEMENT IS NOT JUST ABOUT ONE PERSON..."
I'm glad to hear you say that, but I keep waiting for you to expand and take it further. To point out how much it also matters who is in the Senate, who is in the House, the Governor, the State legislature, mayors, city councils, school boards, ballot initiatives, county commissioners, you name it. To say that if a person is not satisfied with what is going on in their community, they should get involved. If they are not satisfied with how they are being represented, they should consider running for office themselves. A lot of inspired people would. What else can we do in the meantime to make things better? What simple, easy steps can we take in our own lives? You have two more chances--Inauguration and the State of the Union. Before people return to the slumber of Soundbite McNews.
Bill Clinton could have won back Congress in 1996 if he had used his popularity, convention speech and pulpit for something besides his own shoo-in re-election. But he didn't. I was in the room for Al Gore's acceptance speech in 2000. He didn't bother either. It was just about one person.
I'll be amazed if Mr. Obama or anyone close actually reads this, so this last part is for you folks who have. To me, if there is an Obama movement, it is more like the Pope-mobile. You know, that cage of bulletproof glass on wheels that rolls around with the Pope inside, waving at his adoring flock, "Yo! I'm here! Look at me, I'm the Pope!" Then everybody goes home. But who is driving the Pope-mobile? Can a crowd organize to block the wrong turns and steer it in a better direction?
I did not vote for you, but I dearly want you to succeed at delivering the change you have promised. We have very little time and may not get another chance. Recent history shows we have eight years maximum before the pendulum swings back the other way--and hard. She may lose once or twice, but I fear the Pitbull with Lipstick will one day be bigger than Reagan.
In many ways, people seem to be looking to you as their new great-and-powerful Oprah as much as they look at you as their President. This can be useful too. To revive people's sense of community and what it entails. To persuade people that voting for small local tax increases brings much greater benefits for everyone down the road. To encourage people to not just recycle but look for ways to stop wasting so much. Those same European countries whose standard of living seems to be higher than ours use a fraction per capita of natural resources we do. How do they do it? Think of all the forests we could save just by showing people how much paper they can save just by writing on the other side before they throw it away? Imagine if lawyers figured this out.

HONOR AND RESPECT YOUR MOVEMENT
Please don't ever forget why so many people who had given up hope are investing so much of their hearts and hope in you. If that hope is shattered and they feel betrayed, a great deal more will collapse for good.
So to keep your movement alive--and help it grow beyond you--keep those texts and e-mail lists alive! Keep your Blackberry. Does it matter if it all becomes public record? How about a posting a daily log of what you did and who you and your staff met with, including lobbyists. Why not keep all those campaign offices you opened all over the country alive too? Convert them to branch offices. Senators and House members have branch offices all over their districts. You now represent the whole country. Keep the branches.
Above all, be a leader, not a dealmaker. There are times when cutting a deal is the same as cutting and running. To put it mildly, we can't afford that anymore. There are no sails left to trim.
And if this is a movement about change and not just about one person, it is up to the movement to drive the President, not the other way around. Please do not stand in the way.

Sincerely,
Jello Biafra

Deepak Chopra hits the Nail on it's ugly head- Bill O'Reilly

Bill O'Reilly- one of the reasons white people get on my nerves so much. (editor's note- author is in fact a white person of Scottish ancestry, so therefor, extremely white...) Peddling fear and misinformation in equal measure, he banks on the fact that the average citizen is pretty uninformed, and 50% of the population is WORSE THAN THAT.


Bill O'reilly
Originally uploaded by imthehouseofsmack
From the Huffington Post, Mr. Chopra describes the disingenuous TV host as follows:
"The bottom line about appearing on The O'Reilly Factor is that he doesn't really listen. His guests are cardboard props in an echo chamber filled with his voice alone. He said he even wants me back! I sent him a message that if he genuinely wants to discuss creative solutions for terrorism, then I would of course accept his invitation. On the other hand, if he only wants to continue this game of pretense dialogue, I'm not interested. I am waiting to hear back."

Tour Dates - Warped Tour 2009


While the venues have yet to be nailed down, the preliminary tour "route" has been mapped out. My favorite date is the one on my birthday July 30, in Milwaukee during the height of Summerfest. Sounds like a great time to me!

June 26, 2009 Pomona, CA
June 27, 2009 San Francisco, CA
June 28, 2009 Ventura, CA
June 30, 2009 Phoenix, AZ
July 1, 2009 Las Cruces, NM
July 2, 2009 San Antonio, TX
July 3, 2009 Houston, TX
July 5, 2009 Dallas, TX
July 7, 2009 Indianapolis, IN
July 8, 2009 Pittsburgh, PA
July 9, 2009 Cleveland, OH
July 10, 2009 Toronto, ON
July 11, 2009 Montreal, QC
July 12, 2009 Hartford, CT
July 14, 2009 Washington, DC
July 15, 2009 Buffalo, NY
July 16, 2009 Scranton, PA
July 17, 2009 Camden, NJ
July 18, 2009 Uniondale, NY
July 19, 2009 TBA, NJ
July 21, 2009 Boston, MA
July 22, 2009 Virginia Beach, VA
July 23, 2009 Charlotte, NC
July 24, 2009 Orlando, FL
July 25, 2009 Miami, FL
July 26, 2009 Tampa, FL
July 28, 2009 Atlanta, GA
July 29, 2009 Cincinnati, OH
July 30, 2009 Milwaukee, WI
July 31, 2009 Detroit, MI
August 1, 2009 Chicago, IL
August 2, 2009 Minneapolis, MN
August 3, 2009 St. Louis, MO
August 4, 2009 Kansas City, MO
August 7, 2009 Boise, ID
August 8, 2009 Salt Lake City, UT
August 9, 2009 Denver, CO
August 12, 2009 Calgary, AB
August 14, 2009 Vancouver, BC
August 15, 2009 Seattle, WA
August 16, 2009 Portland, OR
August 19, 2009 Fresno, CA
August 20, 2009 San Francisco, CA
August 21, 2009 Sacramento, CA
August 22, 2009 San Diego, CA
August 23, 2009 Los Angeles, CA

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

UK sees the light. Out of Iraq in '09


he is innocent too
Originally uploaded by peace flag
And so the coalition of the unwilling dwindles even further. Even UK conservatives abandoned Iraq as the wrong war, for the wrong reasons, at the wrong time, some years ago - as did the bulk of the British populace. Now Gordon Brown has flown to Bagdhad to announce a withdrawal of British forces by the end of July next year. Only 300 troops will remain to train Iraqi forces.

Brown had to spin it as completing a noble exercise in "the tasks of overthrowing a dictatorship, the task of building a democracy for the future and defending it against terrorism", of course, but I don't see him, his ministers or his senior officers heaving any kind of sigh except one of relief. Britain only stayed because of the "special relationship", not because anyone believed the narrative Bush and Blair concocted any more.

Oh, and the Iraqis tacked five other nations with a smaller troop presence, including Romania, El Salvador and Estonia, onto Britain's withdrawal agreement.

NOFX turns 25!


NOFX 073
Originally uploaded by Juan The Fly Factory
Geez am I getting old! NOFX, the band that I considered the new punk, is 25 years old. It is funny that the whole 1980's wave of SoCal punk bands that emerged after the original onslaught of bands like Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys, et al... are now the old guard. Bands like Lagwagon, NOFX, Rancid, Bracket, etc.
So NOFX are turning 25 years old. Lots of great music. Lots of great cds, lots of great shows. The band that will play a punk show ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, for ANYONE deserves our debt of grattitude for keeping the fire going. The last cd they put out was a live one that captures the fun that is a NOFX show and it is definitely worth the listen. NOFX has done everything but a Christmas cd. How about NOFXmas? Nice idea, huh.
I always like the sense of humor in their music, their prolific writing, their liberal politics and their sloppy great musicianship. Believe me, it takes a great musician to sound like you don't practice...
Fat Mike and the gang, Here is to another 25 years! I will be 70 years old at that time, but probably still a punk, after all...

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Nerf Herder : greatest band ever?

Out with their latest and greatest, Nerf Herder IV, the nerfs are back at it with more of their wacky SoCal party punk. They have been described as nerd rock, garage punk and one of the signs of the apocalypse (by none other than Buffy the Vampire Slayer), you gotta love Nerf Herder. Their name is taken from an insult Princess Leia laid on Han Solo in Star Wars. I caught on to these guys a little late, with their American Cheese cd, and by the airplay they got on the defunct XM radio station Fungus. All of their albums are full of fun tongue-in-cheek punk pop that will infect your brain like a bad computer virus. For those older punk fans in the world, you can hear them channel the Descendents and other fun-loving punk bands of yore in their sounds... My favorite track of the band is called Welcome to My World, which goes into great detail about the author's post-breakup life, which sounds quite bleak... The best part is how he starts raving about how much he hates the show Cheers, including that "...Dumbass mailman..."
So anyway, if you like your punk fun, lively and full of hilarity, you can do no wrong with Nerf Herder, SoCal punk's answer to (I forgot the question...).

Monday, December 15, 2008

In defense of the shoe thrower

As of now we have all heard about the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at a bewildered George Bush. I'm not saying it is right. I am saying that I understand. I can certainly feel for the people of Iraq who have suffered great casualties, especially among the innocent men, women and children. Even the president himself has acknowledged that thousands of innocent people have been killed in our invasion and ongoing war, which has turned Iraqi society into anarchy and turmoil. My greatest hope is that with a new administration coming in January, we can finally do the right thing with regard to Iraq.Before another shoe has to drop

Friday, December 12, 2008

Kentucky's Two Republican Lapdog Senators Vote Against Auto Bailout

Here in Kentucky we have two Ford plants, one GM plant and a Toyota plant, as well as Toyota's North American Headquarters. Not only the assembly plants but countless suppliers, transporters, and logistics providers earn a living here as well. By voting against helping the industry, McConnell and Bunning once again show how they are partisan politics vs. the citizens of Kentucky. They want to kill the UAW and scapegoat them, and let the economy suffer to prove their point.
Did you know that both union and nonunion plants use a lot of the same suppliers? Same logistics companies? Same dealer networks? To let the UAW plants die will affect everyone, not just the Big Three. Are the two Kentucky senators ready to kill Ford, GM, and also severely wound vendors like Tower Automotive, Ryder, Penske, UPS? Did you know that GM pays $7 billion dollars a month to its vendors? I would hate to see that go away.
Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning need to get their heads out of their asses and look out for the best interests of the citizens of this state.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Canada's Pioneer Punkers: D.O.A.

From their myspace page:
Canada’s legendary Punk Kings,who helped spread punk rock counterculture around the world, approach a momentous milestone. For nearly 25 years D.O.A. has been happily slashing away at all manner of philosophical enemies. They’ve travelled the globe almost continuously since they formed in 1978; they released their first snarling piece of vinyl, the "Disco Sucks" EP in June of that year. That slab of plastic opened the door to international prominence, riots, rip-off record companies and three generations of fans.

In 1981, D.O.A. made the term "hardcore" their own and pushed it into the common vernacular with their legendary album "Hardcore 81" and subsequent tours. Consequently, D.O.A. has been cited as a major influence for tons of bands ranging from The Red Hot Chili Peppers to Green Day to Rancid to The Offspring. They followed that up with their ground breaking EP "War on 45" and "Bloodied But Unbowed."

The stuff the band’s worked on through the years; they’ve played benefits for Rape Relief, anti-racism, rock-for brains, anti-globalization, OXFAM, first nations rights, anti censorship and environmental causes amongst many others.

D.O.A.’s sound and philosophy has been held together by Canada’s Godfather of punk Joey Keithley’s songwriting, singing and guitar playing. D.O.A.’s sound, although always rooted in punk rock, has managed to create a fair bit of consternation for those who would like to choose musical boxes. It’s punk,but it incorporates rock n’ roll, reggae, metal,and ska. Whatever the hell their sound is, it’s pulled out a "Yeah,that’s the shit!" from the likes of Henry Rollins,The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sonic Youth, Jello Biafra, Bif Naked, John Doe, Randy Bachman, Dave Grohl, Pete Seeger, Yada,Yada,Yada, you get the picture.

D.O.A. will blast through live shows touring in Canada and around the world in 2009 and beyond. They are playing China in January, for gosh sakes...

D.O.A. has travelled a long, tough road that has taken them around the world and the raw energy continues. The band has never been more active, having recently released their second DVD, D.O.A.’s "Greatest Shits" and a split album with metal legend Thor entitled "Are U Ready". Recently Mayor Larry Campbell of Vancouver declared December 21st to be "D.O.A. Day" in Vancouver.The band has also been featured in punk and political books published around the world.

Come join in the power and non-compromise that is D.O.A.

Future Site of Illinois Governor's Mansion


A State Prison
Originally uploaded by tlate hiin
As a former resident of the Windy City, I am not naive to Illinois politics. The current developments are beyond the pale of anything I ever witnessed. It has become a tradition for the Illinois governor to go from the state house to the state pen, as four of the last eight governors have been embroiled in legal troubles. The blatant criminality of Blagojevich has shocked even long time insiders on the Chicago political scene. The cynical auctioning off of a senate seat is a first and a new low for the scene. I hope they throw Blagojevich under the jail for his crime spree. I am tired of politicians of either party playing the citizens for fools and trying to milk every last drop of cash they can get their hands on. Maybe he can be cellmates with former Governor Ryan. They deserve each other.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Louisville Sunset from my porch


Louisville Sunset
Originally uploaded by Tater X
Kind of an interesting sky. I just thought it was neat so here it is.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Guitars I love: 1989 Fender Stratocaster


1989 Fender Stratocaster
Originally uploaded by Tater X
I bought this guitar brand new in Chicago back in 1989. I always used heavier guitars and darker tones, but wanted to add the Strat to my aresenal. I kept the pickups all original, along with everything else on the guitar. It played great right out of the box. It has played many gigs in seedy clubs and smoky bars but still looks great. I removed the whammy bar and tightened the bridge all the way down to make it a hardtail. Great for garage rock, indie and screechy punk. The maple neck is my favorite feature. I also added Straplok to keep myself from dropping the guitar. Best song to play on it? Soup is Good Food by the Dead Kennedys or What's So Funny Bout Peace Love and Understanding by Elvis Costello.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Bela Fleck - Flecktones Saturday Dec 6 in Louisville!

If you have never seen or heard of Bela Fleck, shame on you. He will be appearing at the Kentucky Center for the Arts on Saturday, December 6th.
Bela Fleck and his band, the Flecktones morph all musical boundaries in their sound. Bela is a banjo virtuoso who plays classical, folk, jazz and bluegrass with equal ease. Bassist Victor Wooten is a virtuoso of the funk slap bass, and a very melodic player as well. Wooten's brother, known as "FutureMan" plays a drumitar. This is an instrument he invented that is shaped like a guitar, but features drum triggers that he plays with his fingers. The sound is amazing, and he can do things an accoustic drummer can not. Other musicians may or may not be part of the sound, but that is the core of the Flecktones lineup. One of my favorite cd's to chill out to is "Live at the Quick" which is a 2002 release. I cannot recommend this recording ENOUGH. I am not one to rave about artists or cd's, but I do this one...
If you are in Louisville and want some great entertainment, or if you are elsewhere, check out his tour schedule. It is worth the effort.

Green Day at Work on New Album


Green Day
Originally uploaded by Verlage Photo
After the Punk Pop Opera of "American Idiot", Green Day has set the bar high for their new album.  In a recent interview, Billy Joe gives us the lowdown on a variety of topics regarding the new disc.This recording is being produced by Butch Vig. Butch has been behind the board on many of the fabulous cd's of our times. Billy Joe describes Butch this way:
" I think he's just got a lot of integrity and a lot of class, and one of the things I really respect about Butch is that he doesn't just go for things that are going to be million-sellers, or something that's gonna be massive for the sake of being massive, or is gonna look flashy on his resume or something. He works with a lot of different kinds of bands, and it could be a platinum band, or it could be more of a garage band... he's got a long history of that. He's just a very hard-working, straightforward guy. So it's good. I just had a lot of respect for him going into this record, and I knew his history, and so it wasn't really a matter of having to prepare him with any specific ideas. We talked a lot, and it was more just a thing where I was like, "I want to make something that's the best thing we've ever done, and the bar is really high for us this time." And he was like, "Wow, this could be really daunting, but it's really exciting at the same time." Because he wants to make the record of his dreams, also, so I think it was just sort of a good fit all around. He wasn't trying to change our style or anything; he just was really getting into the process, and everyone was kind of just coming together and bouncing ideas off each other and just getting really in-depth with the arrangements and the lyrics and stuff like that."
"I'm pushing myself to be progressive in songwriting and being a songwriter. I come from a culture where I'm into great albums, and I still believe in that. I'm not saying I can go for it this hard every time--there might be times when I want to have something that's a little bit more spontaneous and off the cuff--but with this record, the feeling's been that you've got to just go for it." "I'm trying to allow more time for things to incubate. I think any time you make a record, you look back and say, "God, this is what I would've done differently," you know? If was to look back at like the songs that were on the Slappy EP, I probably would've wanted for those songs to be on Kerplunk, or if I was to look at the records that came after Dookie, I would've probably allowed myself more time with Insomniac and Nimrod. So I'm learning those lessons, but at the same time, that doesn't mean that's the only way I'm ever gonna do anything. The Foxboro Hot Tubs record we did this year was, like, fly by the seat of your pants and just go. But I am allowing time, allowing for the process to happen naturally without having to force it. And that is a painstaking process, let me tell you. It's miserable." 
Green Day is one band I have not seen on tour, but look forward to the new album and touring. American Idiot will be a tough act to follow, but it seems like the guys have their heads and hearts in the right place. As they grow older and wiser, and have more life experiences, their music has, and will continue to grow. Punk is not about age, it is about point of view.

Ten Essential Grunge Artists You Should Know


Grunge
Originally uploaded by thedrio

In the minds of many, grunge is dead and gone. Though the heyday has long past, the genre did produce some very good and interesting bands. I like to compile lists of artists and albums that I call the "Ten Essential". In no particular order, I group up ten artists that I consider essential if you were to start a record collection of that genre. So break out the old jeans with the knees torn out and your best (torn) flannel shirt... without fanfare, here is my list of ten essential grunge artists you should know.

Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains, alongside Metallica, was the definitive metal band of the early '90s. The band featured a bleak, minimalistic sound that balanced grinding hard rock and subtle acoustic tracks. They straddled a line between metal, punk and garage that placed them among the front ranks of the Seattle-based grunge bands.

Green River
One of the first, if not THE first grunge band, and named for the Green River in the Seattle area, members went on to form other notable grunge bands such as Mother Love Bone, Mudhoney and Pearl Jam. Their tone has been described as dirty, sludgy and gleefully ugly... I can't disagree.

Mudhoney
Here is what allmusic.com says about the band. Mudhoney were the first real success story for Sub Pop Records; their indie-scene success laid the groundwork for the movement that would (briefly) make Seattle, WA, the new capital of the rock & roll universe; and they took the sweat-soaked and beer-fueled mixture of heavy metal muscle, punk attitude, and garage rock primitivism that would become known as "grunge" to the hipster audience for the first time, who would in turn sell it to a mass audience ready for something new. Well said...

Nirvana
The breakout artist of the grunge movement. They were not the first, but they were at the onset of grunge's popularity, with their gazillion seller "Nevermind". In the minds of many, they created grunge. We know this to be incorrect, but in terms of influence, Nirvana topped the scene. After Kurt Cobaine's death, a great post-grunge band Foo Fighters emerged from the ashes.

Pearl Jam
Back in '90, my roommate wore out the cd "Ten". I think it was my cd, but he wore it out. Rising from the ashes of Mother Love Bone, they went on to become one of the most popular bands of the '90s. According to allmusic.com: "After vocalist Andrew Wood overdosed on heroin in 1990, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament assembled a new band, bringing in Mike McCready on lead guitar and recording a demo with Soundgarden's Matt Cameron on drums. Thanks to future Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons, the demo found its way to a 25-year-old San Diego surfer named Eddie Vedder, who overdubbed vocals and original lyrics and was subsequently invited to join the band." the rest is history, as they say.

Soundgarden
This was actually the first grunge band I caught on to. I heard their first outing, and it seemed to be a refreshing hard rock (read: non-hair band) take in the late 80s.A guy I know from A&M gave me a demo copy of their first record, and I enjoyed the fresh sounds. Zeppelinesque, I thought at the time. These guys brought a metal tone to alt rock.

L7
More than just the obligatory "all girl" band of the genre, L7 brought a punk sensibility and ethos to grunge. They hailed from LA, but were often lumped in with the "Seattle Movement" of the early '90s. Founded in 1985 by a pair of guitarists/singers, Suzi Gardner and Donita Sparks, they forged a sound that was in the right place at the right time for success. Suzi has punk street cred, as she was featured on Black Flag's "Slip it In".

Melvins
The Melvins revelled in the slow, sludgy sounds of Black Sabbath meets Black Flag. Slow and heavy and barren of indulgent guitar solos — it's dark and plodding. The Melvins' first record was released in 1987 and in 1993 they went to a major label, thanks to Kurt Cobain. The band formed in Aberdeen, WA, the same town that produced Nirvana's Cobain and Krist Novoselic.

Mother Love Bone
On the grunge family tree, this band gave birth to Pearl Jam. One of the original grunge acts, they were harkening back to a sound from the early 70's glam and metal scene. The untimely death of lead singer Andrew Wood brought about the early demise of MLB and the birth of Pearl Jam.

Screaming Trees
The Trees melded punk, psychedelia and metal into an awesome sound. Never quite the darlings of the MTV grunge explosion, they had a sound that seperated them from the run of the mill acts of the time. These guys were cut from their own cloth, and not easy to pidgeonhole alongside other acts and therefore never attained the towering heights of other Seattle area bands.

Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots turned grunge into stadium rock, to the delight of fans and scorn of critics, who saw them as derrivative of arena rock and other Seattle acts of their era. Less like the dark lyrics and droning of many other bands, they had a tight, radio-friendly sound that holds up pretty well.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Ford to Sell Corporate Jets, Replace them with GT's?


ford gt_0202_3_4.jpg
Originally uploaded by antiundersteer
Who would want a corporate jet when you could get around in a Ford GT?
Ford and General Motors will sell their fleet of corporate luxury jets, the two struggling auto companies announced today.
The move comes two weeks after ABC News revealed Ford CEO Alan Mulally, GM CEO Rick Wagoner and Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli traveled to Washington in private jets to plead poverty and ask Congress for $25 billion in taxpayer money.
In a statement, GM said, "Due to significant cutbacks over the past months, GM travel volume no longer justified a dedicated corporate aircraft operation."
Here is my take. No corporate jets. The GM guy has the Corvette and Cadillac XLR at his service, Ford has the GT and Chrysler has the Dodge Viper. Let's give the CEOs exemption on speeding fines and parking tickets, and they can still travel in style, AND FAST!
Just a thought...

Monday, December 1, 2008

Lou Reed- an American Original


Lou Reed at the Stone, NYC
Originally uploaded by wallyg
Look for Lou Reed's collected lyrics in book form, coming out next week on December 8th. "Pass Thru Fire" will include Lou's lyrics, collected like the poetry they are. Lou Reed has always been an original thinker, and not one to shrink away from any project. His lyrics read like a dime store mystery, his ability to set the scene and tone like a playwright. For those wanting a good glimpse of Lou's great lyrics, I suggest "New York", which was like a CNN documentary of NYC in the late 80s. I also recommend "Songs for Drella", which was an intimate warts- and- all portrait of Andy Warhol. These two are among my favorites.
Lou will also be appearing on the Sundance Channel with Elvis Costello next week. As they say, check your listings.

Black Friday or Killing in the Name of Killer Deals


Black Friday 01
Originally uploaded by Evans.M
With news that there was a Wal-Mart worker killed by shoppers in NY, I see it as materialism and consumerism taken to its absurd degree. For days, the media whips people into a frenzy. Instead of spending time with family, people line up, camp out, etc. for so-called "door buster" deals. Now we hear today is "Cyber Monday", another hoax hoisted on us by the media.
I wonder how the shoppers who killed the man in NY feel? Proud they got a bargain? I was in Chicago for "Black Friday" and the local media featured all the same tired stories of people lining up, camping out, etc. Maybe if we would ignore this phony post-holiday holiday, it will go away. ...And lives (and maybe the soul of our country) will be saved. Just a thought.

D I Y

Start where you are...
Use what you have...
Become the change that you want to see in the world.

Enough for Everyone's Need, Not for Everyone's Greed...

Live simply so that others may simply live.

Become the Media

Don't listen to the one-sided corporate-owned media. They are not in the business of finding the truth. They are only concerned about making money for themselves and their stock holders. If they do report the truth, it is only because it suits their business plan. A happy accident...
Become the media! Blog it, film it, record it...
You still have credibility... They don't.