Fuck Texas, Sing For Us...

Throughout my vast travels I have come to meet all sorts of incredibly interesting and talented people...

Justin Sullivan is one of them... In fact this blog is named after the nickname he gave me, "harbinger of doom"... because... well... I do doom rather harbingeringly...

I first met Justin in 1989 in Hollywood, California where we proceeded to boot a soccer ball around the Roxy parking lot while discussing the sad state of English football... And then again at Whisky a Go Go in 1993, where I interviewed him for some local LA rag I no longer even remember the name of... These were the halcyon days of grunge, and Justin's band, New Model Army, had just signed a deal with Epic Records, who were looking to market a successful English rock band with folk/punk roots as a "Seattle grunge" (this is my opinion) band...

It did not work.

The "problem" with New Model Army was integrity...
As in, they had too much of it...

When this "grunge" tactic failed to produce the results Epic desired, there was a mutual parting of ways shortly thereafter... Alas, New Model Army would not tour the States again for 10 years...

Integrity...

Tough word...

Attributed to many, earned by few...

Justin and I didn't actually become friends until many years later, when I began "volunteering" to "help" him out with his career... I have on many occasions, tried to get Justin to blog, market, promote, bamboozle, hoodwink, swindle and just plain sell-out... but to his credit, he hasn't... hell, despite all of my cajoling, prodding and whining, he still hasn't even updated his mid-nineties era looking website... he is who he is... a world traveller, a keen observer, a tolerant philosopher... a rock and roll pirate armed with a Gibson SG...

He and his obscenely talented merry band of madmen still play before rabid crowds that number in the thousands throughout Europe, as well as equally fervent hundreds here in North America and elsewhere...

He is successful on his terms, what you see is what you get, and above all, as a friend and fan, I deeply respect that...

New Model Army has a new record out this week, charmingly titled "Fuck Texas, Sing For Us", which was what a New Orleans audience was chanting after Justin explained that he needed to save his voice for the Austin, Texas show the next evening and that another encore wasn't perhaps in his best interest. Alas, the Cajuns did not concur with his sound reasoning...

"Fuck Texas, Sing For Us" is a live record, and New Model Army is above all a LIVE band... seeing them play is like spending a winter's week on the North Sea... beauty, intensity, power, fury, fragility...

integrity...

I am going to be championing friends of mine from time to time in this space... and I couldn't have begun with a better choice...

New Model Army's new CD is available here

Please check it out...

And here is the MySpace Site, which I had to do in a guerilla fashion until he finally surrendered to its existance... (Viva la MySpace!!!)

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Surgical Steal

In what will unquestionably turn out to be the ultimate game of hot potato, how will the rest of the world continue to prop up the ailing US dollar while simultaneously plotting its destruction?

This was the thousand quingentillion dollar question posed before the G20 as they dined upon fruitwood-smoked quail with quince qastrique, quinoa risotto, thyme-roasted rack of lamb, tomato, fennel and eggplant fondue, served with chanterelle jus (you gotta have dippin' sauce, folks...) in Washington DC over the weekend... (no Food 4 Less fare for these folks...)

You see, because their banks are stuffed with our funny money, the rest of the world can't just liquidate their Federal Reserve notes onto the open market, as that would crash the dollar and cause a global calamity...

And yet, at the same time, the other occupants of the globe are sick and tired of propping up and paying the tab of the mean, thirsty drunk at the end of the bar... (that drunk is the United States, in case there is any confusion)

Trust me, they are looking for ways to 86 us...

So, how is this going to work? Are we heading towards the introduction of a new world reserve currency... or at least a one world standard...? And who gets the final vote on that? Are we about to launch a Bretton Woods II...? (here is a good primer on Bretton Woods I)

Will it be a basket of European, Chinese, Russian, and the Middle Eastern currencies? (you know, people with resources... people who still MAKE things...)

Will we have one bank... to rule the world?
And if so, who takes the ring to Mordor? (sorry, I couldn't resist...)

Because, that is the end game... As all things moneyed continue to swirl down the toilet, the powers that be are likely going to print even more goofy paper... (Instead of freeing up the system, and basing it on something worthy... like say, a GOLD standard...?)

But trust them... they are going to control it this time... they PROMISE... And what what could possibly go wrong?

So here we go again... drain the swamp... devour everyone's savings... reset all calculators to zero... re-launch the ponzi scheme... (Cough cough... ahem, excuse me... What I meant to say was "rescue the global economy"...)

It is going to take one heckuva skilled surgeon to extricate themselves from the cancer we infected them with... they are going to attempt to keep this rotting, festering corpse on life support, and bleed it slowly... remove its organs one by one while keeping it on life support... but in doing that, its fetid stench and decay will continue to infect the purchasing power and earning potential of every man, woman and child on the planet...

The ruling class of United States wants anything but a one world bank, but not for reasons of justice and morality, but of greed... you see, as long as the United States has the world's reserve currency, we get to print as much money as we'd like and the rest of the world has to send us goods and services in return, regardless of its "worth"...

To oversimplify, with the end of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency, comes also the end of our ability to steal from the rest of the globe with impunity...

And since our entire lifestyle and economic well-being is based upon this rampant theft... well, I'm sure you can see what a rosy future we all have before us once we can no longer engage in our comfortable life of crime... Better stock up on rice and beans, and guns and ammo... for we are in for one helluva rough patch...

Every American will enjoy increasingly higher prices for consumer goods and services... along with wages that won't go anywhere but down... And pay no attention to the government's inflation and unemployment statistics... for they are as rigged as a 2004 Ohio voting machine...

The ever brilliant Dr. Paul (we have a love/hate thing) discusses the dilemma facing the global economy in further detail and with much more credibility than I'll ever have... watch and learn...

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A Solution

For those of you outside of California, Proposition 8 was a recently passed state ballot proposition that amended the state constitution to restrict what should define marriage.

It was a bitterly contested fight between the secular progressives (Democrats) and Christian conservatives (Republicans) (no worries... I understand that I just made a broad generalization there)...

Despite staunch opposition from Republican Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, State Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the mayors of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego as well as every meaningful editorial board in the state, Prop 8 defeated the previously passed May 15th, 2008 California Supreme Court decision that had recognized same-sex marriage as a fundamental right.

The official ballot title language for Proposition 8 is "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry." The entirety of the text to be added to the constitution was: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

In essence: Prop 8 proponents sought to deny "same-sex couples all state-level rights and obligations of marriage — in areas such as inheritance, income tax, insurance and hospital visitation"...

In the run up to this latest election, we Californians were subjected to an endless scare campaign of epic proportions... The pro Proposition 8 junta put forth the hysterical right wing talking point that the "Gays" were going to teach homosexuality to your children in schools, and that you'd have no say in the matter... These nutters describe homosexuality as if it were some type of human parvo-virus... spread on contact...

Ironically, it has been (incorrectly) stated that perhaps it was the influx of first time black voters, brought into the fold by the Obama campaign that turned Prop 8 into law...

However, based upon the map below one can clearly see that this is not the case... as the areas where black voters predominantly live all voted against the proposition...



And take a look at this research from Nate Silver at his fabulous site:

fivethirtyeight

Prop 8 Myths

Now, it's true that if new voters had voted against Prop 8 at the same rates that they voted for Obama, the measure probably would have failed. But that does not mean that the new voters were harmful on balance -- they were helpful on balance. If California's electorate had been the same as it was in 2004, Prop 8 would have passed by a wider margin.

At the end of the day, Prop 8's passage was more a generational matter than a racial one. If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point or two. It appears that the generational splits may be larger within minority communities than among whites, although the data on this is sketchy.

The good news for supporters of marriage equity is that -- and there's no polite way to put this -- the older voters aren't going to be around for all that much longer, and they'll gradually be cycled out and replaced by younger voters who grew up in a more tolerant era. Everyone knew going in that Prop 8 was going to be a photo finish -- California might be just progressive enough and 2008 might be just soon enough for the voters to affirm marriage equity. Or, it might fall just short, which is what happened. But two or four or six or eight years from now, it will get across the finish line.

It was the typical agents of intolerance within red state California that voted to strip gay couples of their civil rights, the elderly, the Republicans, the Catholic church, the religious right, stadium church evangelical Christians (you know... all the organizations typically rife with closeted gays)...

In fact almost half of the $35 million used to promote the measure came from Utah... the Mormon Church to be specific...

Oh the irony... the religion that pretends to abhor polygamy (but has sects within it that still practice it) wants to "protect marriage"... Sorry if I've offended anyone, but any religion that gets its start from a self-appointed prophet named Joseph Smith who had a vision of an angel named Moroni who gave him some golden tablets, a sword, and a breastplate (items which only he had ever seen) in 1823 has got to be a little off center... as well as insular... but hey, supposedly we are a free country... and we all have our legends... believe what ever you want to believe... just don't force your dogma and morality upon another's civil rights... (I imagine I've just landed myself on an enemies list somewhere in Temple Square, Salt Lake City... oh well, take a number and get it line...)

While I truly feel for Andrew Sullivan's opinion on gay marriage... I think I may have a solution to the problem...

End marriage as a state or federally sanctioned institution.

Period.

It is my opinion that marriage is largely a socially mandated institution, and all who wish to engage in it should be allowed to do so in their own house of worship or in ANY ceremony the couple in question deems fit as a way to publicly express their affection and commitment to each other... the state should have no influence or bearing on who, where, how and why we should marry... This is an issue of FREEDOM... of separation of CHURCH and STATE...

All couples who wish to do so, should enter into CIVIL UNIONS as a public statement of responsible commitment... For the purpose of child support, inheritance, income tax, insurance and hospital visitation only...

No dogma, no bigotry, no sexism, no racism, no homophobia...

I vote "NO" on state sanctioned marriage...

"YES" on civil unions for EVERYONE...

And "YES" on private marriage... to whomever you should wish to betroth...

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Coming Clean

Wired magazine has an interesting story regarding January 20th, 2009... You know... the date of Barack Obama's inauguration as this nations 44th president...?

But that date is important for another very significant reason... Apparently, according to "Wired" and esteemed journalist Seymour Hersh, January 20th is when the truth will come out regarding the Bush Administration's nasty little habit of domestic warrantless wiretapping... you know, the "Terrorist Surveillance Program"... where just about any of us could be deemed as an enemy of the state...

Some highlights:

"I'd bet there are a lot of career employees in the intelligence agencies who'll be glad to see Obama take the oath so they can finally speak out against all this illegal spying and get back to their real mission," says Caroline Fredrickson, the ACLU's Washington D.C. legislative director.

New Yorker investigative reporter Seymour Hersh already has a slew of sources waiting to spill the Bush administration's darkest secrets, he said in an interview last month. "You cannot believe how many people have told me to call them on January 20. [They say,] 'You wanna know about abuses and violations? Call me then.'"

Any attempts at public oversight have been met with a slew of Bush Administration lawyers, who've proceeded to kick sand into the eyes of investigators while bullying inquiring journalists... Clearly, the level of surveillance was so over the top that career spooks aren't willing to spill the beans while Herr Bush is still at the helm... Lord knows any potential whistleblowers understand that a Justice Department with Bush at the helm could charge them with anything from a 17th Century treason statute to having them declared guilty of witchcraft... Hell, I bet there is still a dusty old sedition law somewhere that no one has used in a while...

To the gallows!!!

Makes one wonder what else will come out in the wash... Makes one wonder about one way plane tickets, foreign bank accounts, dual citizenships, and extradition treaties... Makes one wonder if that late night booty call you made was enjoyed by more than you and the booty... Makes one wonder if they are reading this blog post right now...

Remember kids, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching you...

Anyone wanna take bets on some very suspicious pardons on January 19th?

Begs the question... Can a president pardon himself?

And then there's this... Bush may be able to block subpoenas even after leaving office

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The Bitter Consequence Of Ridicule

This morning I awoke to the news that a woman had committed suicide in front of Paula Abdul's house... turns out she was a "fan" as well as a ex-American Idol contestant...

LOS ANGELES — A fan of Paula Abdul whose failed audition for "American Idol" aired in season five was found dead in a car near the home of the pop star and judge she admired, authorities said Wednesday.

Police indicated that Paula Goodspeed, whose rendition of "Proud Mary" was roundly criticized by Simon Cowell and rejected by Abdul and Randy Jackson, had possibly committed suicide, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. An official cause of death had not been determined.

Authorities found Goodspeed's body Tuesday evening in a car that photos show bearing the vanity license plate "ABL LV" in a Los Angeles Lakers frame. Her parents had reported her missing hours earlier and expressed concern that she might hurt herself.

"I am deeply shocked and saddened at what transpired yesterday," Abdul said in a statement released by her publicist, Jeff Ballard. "My heart and prayers go out to her family."

Goodspeed's audition was aired during the season that began in January 2006. She told the show's host, Ryan Seacrest, how she was a huge fan of Abdul and created life-size paintings of the singer and former Laker Girl; she also called Abdul "beautiful" after Cowell said he noticed a resemblance between Goodspeed and Abdul. But Cowell also made light of Goodspeed's braces and bloggers trashed her appearance, which she noted in a MySpace posting months after the show aired.

So Abdul is "shocked"???

Really?

I must say that I'm not surprised... I'd love to see a "where are they now" type investigation on some of these former American Idol contestants... especially the ones who were ridiculed and humiliated...

I can say with pride that I have never actually watched an entire episode of American Idol, and yet, if you watch television or surf the web there is little you can do to escape it's fetid existence... I can actually name the winners and runners-up... It pains me to know that the few valuable intact brain cells I have left are being occupied with this garbage... but I digress...

What pains me even more is that I live in a culture that has deemed it appropriate to laugh and humiliate others on prime time nationwide television... And spare me the "they asked for it" speech... some of the contestants are obviously untalented, deluded, or just plain mentally challenged... and I know for a fact that contestants go through multiple auditions before they even reach Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul... So just why do some of the obviously untalented contestants make it in front of the big three?

Ratings...

Because the American public enjoys snickering at those less fortunate... those who do not exactly fit the accepted standards of beauty, or decorum... we like to make fun of the socially awkward, the homosexual, the obese, the unattractive, the "losers"... And once they bomb on the show, the internet takes over, bloggers peel away what little dignity the failed contestant had left... it becomes a feeding frenzy of hate and ridicule...

This is how low we've sunk as a society... this poor woman, sitting dead in her car is a direct result of this culture of crassness... and trust me, there will be more like her...

So I have an idea... a big ratings booster...

Mr. Cowell, why not cut to the chase and just put cameras inside a mental hospital and do American Idol there?

It certainly would be a lot safer for the contestants...

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Order Arms

It is Veteran's Day for a couple more hours... and being a Vet, I've long ago expressed a desire that we not be celebrated with a "day" in our honor... but with a foreign policy that does not waste our blood and honor... that said, here are some random thoughts...

The other day while standing in line at the grocery store, I noticed a gentleman in full Vietnam Vet regalia...

Hat, vest, pins, unit insignia, hell, he was even wearing his jungle boots...

Intrigued, I struck up a conversation with him... He told me he was 101st, I was in the 82nd, so naturally there was kinship as well as rivalry...

He did two years... 1967-69... arguably the worst time to be in Nam... 101st were the guys who mounted the legendary and brutal assault upon Hamburger Hill...
I was in from 1983-89... the Reagan years... much posturing, overthrows and imperialism, a few skirmishes here and there, but not 1/1,000,000th of the violence and hell this gentleman had witnessed...

As I was speaking to him, what struck me was how different our military service had affected us...

Most people would never guess that I was ex-military... it isn't something I speak about freely, and quite frankly, some of the events that I witnessed and contributed to make me quite uncomfortable... Despite my love of the United States Army, I don't wear it on my sleeve...

And yet, the Vietnam War so profoundly affected this gentleman that it came to personify him... it is as if he went into a time capsule and never left... it is still 1968 to him... he wears all the trappings of that war with dismay over the buddies he'd lost... dismay over a country that betrayed him by sending him into a war they had no interest in winning... a country that rejected him when he returned... He is equally proud and in perpetual pain... He went there a boy and came home a caricature... so affected by what he'd seen that it became his very being... Can you imagine two years of your life forever defining who you are? Most of us cannot... It is more than tragic... go to any VA hospital and you'll see guys like that stacked up like chord wood...

I understand brotherhood, I get camaraderie... you don't really get the same feeling from being on a football team, or in a frat... you don't share the same level of love and sacrifice... I've been watching the miniseries "Generation Kill" on HBO lately... and while it may offend some of the liberal sensibilities I've developed in my later years, the series accurately portrayed what it is to be a soldier... at least how I remembered it... I highly recommend you check it out...

Generation Kill

Its all there... ill timed humor, endless boredom, epic exhaustion, fervent homophobia, latent racism, gross discomfort, disgusting food, stunning immaturity, public drunkenness... warrior poets, violent hicks, dangerously incompetant junior officers, blindly ambitious senior officers... all of these things... occasionally interrupted by bouts sheer terror combined with absolute chaos...

War isn't political when your boots are on the ground... war is about surviving day to day... staying alive, watching your ass, and your buddy's ass as well... it is about all the things they write about... duty, honor, love, sacrifice... And sadly, most of the time these wonderful and virtuous qualities are abused by the powers that be...

Back to the Vietnam Vet... After we parted it struck me that someday, maybe when I'm 60... I'll run into a 40-year-old in full Iraq War regalia... and he'll have that same thousand mile stare in his eyes...

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Welcome all GOOD Canadians...

As many of you may know, I contributed to the dumbing down of Matt Good's site for a couple of years... and with great pleasure I might add...

www.matthewgood.org

Matt is an amazing musician, progressive thinker, armchair historian, as well as a close friend... I thank him for sending you all south of the border and am looking forward to locking horns with some of you in the future...

Never be afraid to call me on my bullshit...
As I am most certainly not afraid to call you on your bullshit...

xo

Roy El Saghir

Welcome To The House Of Pain

Yes indeed, crime pays...

You wont believe this...
You really need to read this... the whole thing... Slowly... Twice even...
Understand what it is...

Do not just excuse yourself by saying you don't understand... or that it is too complicated... It isn't... take the time to COMPREHEND IT.
This is of the utmost IMPORTANCE to you...

http://www.truthout.org/111008A

It is an incredible tale of outright theft... of sleight of hand... A head fake followed by a jaw crushing uppercut...

I originally (and stupidly) predicted they'd surround the sinking economy with inner tubes, float it until after the election, and then drown it on Obama's watch, but no...

They did one better...
They robbed the store and left Obama with NOTHING to work with...
This is the Bush Administration's farewell "Fuck You" to the American taxpayer...
This was a smash and grab of epic proportions...
You really have to stand back and admire that level of criminality...
It is a sight to behold...

My friends, there was no actual "crisis"...
It was completely manipulated and manufactured...
If you read this article carefully you will see that they were having talks about rescinding section 382 of the tax code LAST YEAR... The Republicans have been trying to do away with it for YEARS... and in the September we were all to believe that we were on the verge of a collapse that no one saw coming?

Really?

REALLY?!?!?

Funny that... because I saw it coming... And I'm an IDIOT.

As I was saying all along...
Just as in 1929, this "collapse" was planned...

These people are very, very intelligent criminals with the "law" on their side... They created a crisis, and then found a way to get YOU to pay for it...

Our elected leaders have sold us down the river...

And in the same breathe they will proudly extoll the virtues of the free market while damning socialism... well, folks, we have socialism... for the bankers, for the ruling class... and you and I, well, we get to play the part of the serfs... the landless peasants... the hungry proletariat... the perpetual debt-slaves... In comparison, at least the old Soviets were somewhat honest about their graft...

You see, in actual free market capitalism as it is commonly defined... if the bank goes tits up, they go out of business... whereas in banker's version of free market capitalism, if the bank go tits up, YOU go out of business...

Utterly brilliant...
Privatize the profit, socialize the losses...

But mention universal health care, social security, and free education and you risk being shouted down as communist by some McCain/Palin bible thumper with three teeth in their head...

And now, in case your head hasn't already exploded, read this...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aOngFPgq7r3M&refer=home

They refuse to divulge where they've "donated" the $2 trillion WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR...
Ladies and gentlemen, we've just been financially RAPED...
It is of the utmost importance that you understand what has just happened here...
They printed $2 trillion dollars out of thin air and threw it like lighter fluid onto the coals of an already inflationary barbecue...
Wait until all that funny money trickles down into the economy...
Say hello to $7 gallon of milk... and $8 gas... and those predictions might be on the LOW END...
And say hello to a forest fire of hyperinflation that they will find a way to pin on Obama...
Say hello to Carter Administration Part II... Say Hello to Palin 2012...

Yeah... we'll get "Change" alright...
It'll be all that is left in our pockets...
And I say this as one who voted for the man, purely because the alternative was so beyond horrific...
It is going to get much much worse, and it gives me no pleasure to say that...
And meanwhile, the mainstream media will play along... pay no attention... nothing to see here... move along... Hey look, Angelina is preggers again...

But in truth, Obama is also somewhat responsible (as are the whole lot of them) as he voted FOR the bailout plan, more than likely for political reasons...
I imagine it went down something like this... We'll give you the Oval Office if you play along with the money men... if you don't, well, you can still be a senator from the great state of Illinois...
I'll be amazed if Obama finds his way out of this morass with his wits intact... much less his cranium... because as things get worse economically, they mentally challenged among us are going to pin this on the "nigger, communist, socialist, terrorist"... And egged on by the ravenous right wing kooks on the radio, this non-Mensa candidate will take it upon himself to attempt the heroic deed of ridding the "Real America" of the Obama menace...

People rarely recall how much JFK was hated... that this kind of hate manifests itself in visceral ways...

It is common knowledge that Obama wants to do a New Deal II, a massive public works project... and I support that, if for no other reason than it will keep the great unwashed rabble from attacking each other with pitchforks and torches... I also believe that every young man and woman should be required do two years of national service... be it military, social welfare, housing, parks and recreation, etc...
Now as how to pay for this?
well now... can't we just print even more money?

Aye, now there's the rub...