Today the Pentagon announced that it was dropping war crimes charges against five detainees at Guantanamo Bay after the prosecutor who was to try them resigned, and accused the military of withholding evidence that could clear the men. Of course, because our government is making up the rules for the war on terror as it goes along, with little regard for the human rights we supposedly esteem, new trial teams have been appointed for the men while, according to published reports, the military reassert their case. It is likely that the men will be charged later and forced to face the kangaroo court that the current administration refers to as a military tribunal.
Jose Padilla is an American citizen who was declared an enemy combatant after being arrested on U. S. soil. He was held without any charges being brought against him for over three years. After being convicted by a Florida jury he was given a seventeen year prison sentence. When he was eventually charged in a civilian court, none of the accusations leveled against him were related to the alleged, domestic dirty bomb plot he had initially been detained for.
When I visited Gitmo many years ago before the first Gulf War I looked beyond the wire fence that surrounds the U.S. Naval Air Station, and I saw a barren panorama spread out before me.Today there is prison where I stood and looked out through the wire, and the men held captive there are predetermined as enemies of the state. Like the naked land that stretches out beyond that fence, the future for those being held there is as bleak as the landscape.
In the directive issued March 28th, 2003, that details the Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, it specifies that captors should “not relate terrorism to Islam”, and that “it is inappropriate to equate any religion to such heinous activity”. After the Abu Ghraib abuses in Iraq that came after it, the directive has the appearance of being mere lip service despite the fact that Cuba is a long way from the Middle East.
At Republican rallies, back here in the United States; the Democratic rival is announced derisively as Barack Hussein Obama, his middle name making the implicit connection to TERROR. In television ads that are running infrequently due to the McCain campaign’s depleted war chest, republicans continue to infer a link between Senator Obama and domestic insecurity, sticking with dogged determinism to the strategy that got them into such a mess. I guess you dance with the one that brought you.
Believe it or not, all human’s are created equal and are entitled to a speedy and fair trial, and we are all still welcome to exist regardless of what we believe is God. These things aren’t solely an American birthright though, everyone who lives should share these entitlements, and more, simply because we are human. America cannot hold the World up to a standard that values human rights if we think that our citizens have more of a right than people in other countries. Either all men are created equal or not, and if we cannot match our actions with our words then maybe we should be saying something different.
Dark days are ahead if we do not get a handle on the systemic hypocrisy that plagues us after the last eight years of Bush. We could wind up with even more troubles than we already have. No one wants to live in a world where government employees eavesdrop on private phone conversations, and then joke about the strangers personal lives while on a coffee break.
Joe Biden said something I agree with, that growing up in his neighborhood; if you had a problem with someone you said it to their face. I would go the Vice Presidential nominee one further and say, don’t feed me a line of crap and glad hand me to my face, if you know that you are going to turn around and do the exact opposite. Because of America’s diminished standing and influence around the world after the last few years, I hope that everyone feels exactly like me on November 4th when they go out and vote.
During last night’s debate, John McCain continued to define his status as a maverick who stands apart, by sounding the alarm and warning us not a moment to soon, that the very fabric of democracy was in danger of being torn apart. Because of voter apathy, our democracy is not what it could be,surely though it is strong enough to resist the stress that tests. It is not in danger of being destroyed, least of all by a small band of rogues.
En route to becoming an overnight sensation and some sort of symbol, a guy called “Joe the Plumber” was mentioned by Mr. McCain more than twenty times. Today we found out that his name is actually Samuel Wurzelbacher and that, though he isn’t recognized as a plumber by the union or licensed as a plumber by the state, he does happen to work for a plumbing company. In the wake of Governor Palin’s nomination, no one accuses the McCain camapign overly vetting the people it chooses to represent them.
Things truly took a desperate turn when Senator McCain turned reports of outbursts at his own rallies around on the Democratic Presidential nominee, and damanded that Obama “repudiate“, recent “hurtful” comments, by Senator John Lewis. McCain went on to claim that both candidates need to “absolutely not stand the kinds of things that have been going on”, forgetting how things had gone on at his own events, while he just stood there and winced.
The Arizona Senator came across like curmudgeonly Grandpa Simpson in response to a question about Joe Biden. He praised Biden and condemned him, before the solidifying his own image as an angry old man by using the word “cockamamie“. Intrigued my McCain’s use of a term that sounds nothing but ironic when uttered by anyone under seventy, I discovered it’s origin is in the word word decalomania, which was an art form that was popular in the United States during the late 1800’s. Cockamamie, the slang term that derived, last saw wide usage in this country about forty years ago during the 1960’s.
The pariotism of John McCain remains unchallenged because he endured more than five years in a cell during the Vietnam War at the hands of merciless captors. For his service to this country we all owe Mr. McCain a debt of gratitude. The time he spent in that cell, though it could be used as an explanation for Mr. McCain’s unwillingness to adopt any viewpoint other the his own, even for perspective, is a testament to Mr. McCains immovable courage and sense of duty to his country. John McCain’s time as a POW is also one of the reasons that he does not have either the temperament or the decision making skills to be the President of the United States during a time when this country needs someone who comes across as steady, even handed and rational.
Here’s a bunch of New Wave videos from the late seventies through the eighties that caught my attention when I was putting together something else. Each one has something going on and I just had to point them out. I have also taken the time to sprinkle goodies throughout this thing so have fun unearthing the many gems.
Growing up in The Bay Area, The Tubes were one of my favorite bands, and long before I ever became one myself, their song White Punks On Dope was anthemic for me. Back in the day, it wasn’t their over the top stage show which included; gigantic pills with legs, soft core porno cheerleaders, platform boots so high that KISS wouldn’t go near them, and a maniacal ring master who called himself Quay Lude, that compelled my adoration.
Music starts working its magic at your ear hole and if it doesn’t happen there, then all of the fake blood, and laser lights, and satin spandex in the world isn’t going to turn things around. To this day, the bands that I really love make it happen with sound, and when they can add some wild theatrics to the mix, that’s just gravy.
By the time I returned to the West Coast in the early nineties my buddies from high school had discovered The Grateful Dead. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the traveling circus that the Dead had become by that point, it is difficult to convey with words what these shows were like. The best way I can describe it is that they took rock and roll as far as it can go each and every night, and that those of us who were lucky enough to have been there for the ride relished every damned minute of it.
At the Dead shows the audience wore the costumes and acted like fools, while onstage the boys in the band took the crowd on a ride that felt like sex on a roller coaster. Not only was everyone high at the shows, we were all high on the same batch of drugs. Jerry eventually died of a heart attack in a rehab center while trying to cure himself of his heroin addiction, but at those shows he played that music as though charged by God himself with the task.
Eventually I lost my mind and my innocence all in the same night at one of those shows. Knowledge is a tricky business, and I have spent the majority of my adult life yearning for the ignorance of my youth. Once something is known, it can never become unknown to you again and on one fateful night I learned that the old adage is true, you really cannot ever go back again.
Humans are stubborn, and as one, I have proved to be quite tenacious when desire wells up within me. It is not surprising that I continue to refer to the blissfully mindless days of my youth as good old ones. Thanks to you tube, nostalgic dalliance is right at our fingertips and wasting the day away remembering the moments that were has become an international pastime.
I suspect it would be a strange feeling to randomly encounter myself in a video of an event from my past that has long since been forgotten. I know that it was pretty wild when my brother’s face filled my computer screen unexpectedly not long ago, causing me to leap excitedly up from my chair like a maniac before I called everyone in my family to validate the reach of our brave new world.
It turns out that Grateful Dead Parking Lot was filmed by a couple of guys named Chris Corsello, and Mike Patterson who lived on the same floor in the dorms over at Cal State Sacramento as my brother. Bill isn’t even the same guy anymore as the one who appears at 4:54 in the video wearing a tye dyed “Space Your Face” tee shirt that I had bought just prior to melting down, and that he inherited from me.
He has kids, and is a business man, and he likes guns and expensive tequila, and he is not going to be stoked about this post. Back then it was all duuuuuude, and sweeeet, and totally maaan. Nowadays the guy is all business and that’s the way it has to be when you have three kids and a mortgage.
Somebody said something about the penalty for not recollecting the past is that you are forced to repeat it over again. Thanks to technology we are able to relive history on demand regardless of whether or not we can remember it, and sometimes those images from the past don’t jibe with what we have become. We have created a situation where our past can return unannounced and sometimes the version that returns to us is the one that we wanted to forget.
“When you feel you have had it up to here, cause you mad enough to scream, and you sad enough to tear.” -from the song Rock Bottom by Eminem
Who didn’t see it coming? John McCain, a cagey twenty-six year veteran of Washington D.C. , is not afraid to go low. Last night he proved that, like an old school brawler who senses the end if he cannot catch his breath, he is a win at all cost kind of guy.
Short gasps audible through the microphone punctuated what Senator McCain had to say throughout the night, including when he tersely dismissed Senator Obama as “that one”. Mr. Obama’s expression was a combination of offense, forgiveness, and a complete lack of surprise, exactly the way I imagine Jesus would look in the same situation.
Down talking to someone is a tricky business, but when an old white man is codescending toward a bright, young black man, while being nationally televised on all three networks and the cable news channels, the going can prove especially perilous. A million years ago when McCain started his Washington career, it may have been the norm to polarize people along racial divides, but these days it does not fly in most places.
A girl that I knew back in California posted an video of some dudes who call themselves The Obama Youth on her facebook page, and declared that it was one of the most frightening things she had ever seen online. In it some young black fellows, dressed in camoflage pants and matching navy blue tee shirts stomp/march into the room chanting “Alpha/Omega” before arranging themselves into an orderly line. One after another they declare that because of Obama they are inspired to be the next “doctor, lawyer, automotive technician, chef, architect, engineer,” etc., you get the jist. At the end they all do a little yes we can cheer, combined with some synchronized movement, then a little cheer about health care, then it’s over.
Out on the campaign trail right now the GOP candidate and his running mate are whipping their conservative supporters up into a frenzy accusing Senator Obama of being a socialist who, “doesn’t see America”, as you and I do. Over on Wall Street the market is sinking like a zeppelin made of lead and Republican champions of small government cannot print the money, to prop the economy up, fast enough.
Fear is a sublime motivator, but fear can also be misplaced and exploited, so that reality becomes less important than the preconceived notions that create our frame of reference. When we deny our fears it creates a mindset where hope can begin to take root and grow. Though fear has the ability to make people jump suddenly, hope can provide the motivation to endure the unspeakable.
Never in my lifetime has the choice been so clearly defined as we head into the polls. On the one hand I can vote because I am afraid of what will happen. On the other hand I can vote because of what I hope will happen.
This is something that I found that is too cool. More people need to check it out. Cliche action movie dialog is layered with killer classic rock in a way that creates a compelling narrative. This one is a wicked bit of agitprop that is possibly in violation of a multiplicity of copyrights. Attorney / lobbyist / character actor / United States Senator, Fred Thompson features prominently all over this thing.
Bush’s eight years as President really kicked into high gear after 9/11’s big boom and this little dillio does the same. Bullshit braggdocio promises of vengence like the kind that comprise Mr. Bush’s legacy assure us that the bad guys are going down and then…..it’s on! I was all wtf as I sat there for two and half well spent minutes, and then again to make sure. It is true! This joint is rawkin’!
“And it don’t know who’s problem it is, but somebody needs to get their ass on the plane and figure this out!” -Some dude interviewed in New Orleans during the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina.
Let’s not forget that when FEMA finally began figuring the situation out it was three days later, and all hell had broken loose throughout The Big Easy. Michael Brown, the head of FEMA at the time, betrayed his own ignorance of the situation’s gravity, live on CNN. Of course maybe those complainers down at the convention center who chanted, “we need help”, wouldn’t have been so quick to bitch, if they knew the kind help they were going to get.
Trailers eventually provided by FEMA for the families displaced by Katrina’s in discriminant wrath actually turn out to be toxic. It’s true, the plywood in the trailers gives off toxic levels of formaldehyde gas and that is no good for the people who are trying to live inside. It makes them sick. I digress.
“This kind of government knows how to help business to encourage it.” -Indicted. Enron CEO Ken Lay
Royals and the Uber rich know about the the pill and, how at the last minute you can take it to prevent your world from being snatched away. Officially the death certificate says that Ken Lay died from a heart attack, but it is likely that he took his own life, the one he grown accustomed to, to prevent a hostile takeover.
I imagine Ken popping a tiny latch on the locket contained in his signet ring to reveal the pill inside, before he throws his head back and tosses it down his gullet. There would be no more long weekends in Aspen, and no more expense account lunches, but it was on his terms and not theirs.
“This will not be an age of tyranny.” -GWB
Why anyone would want to be President I am not sure. In GW’s case his motivation most likely involved a choice between resistance and a lack there of. In three weeks someone else is going to get the job that makes a President age rapidly in increments proportionate with the perils they are forced to contend with. Regardless of who wins, I hope that the future, former President is right, and that it will not be an “age of tyranny”, the last eight years of that kind of crap was enough.
