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"LAST POST"
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By Geordie Pleathur
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By Geordie Pleathur
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“It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself, when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.” (-Malcolm X)
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"This is a sad day not only for the torture victims whose attempt to seek justice has been extinguished, but for all Americans who care about the rule
of law and our nation's reputation in the world. To date, not a single victim of the Bush administration's torture program has had his day in court.
If today's decision is allowed to stand, the United States will have closed its courtroom doors to torture victims while providing complete immunity to
their torturers. The torture architects and their enablers may have escaped the judgment of this court, but they will not escape the judgment of
history." (-Ben Wizner, staff attorney with the ACLU, responding to dismissal of Jeppesen case in Ninth Circuit Court today )
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CULTURE WARS
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Man, I never could get along with people long enough for any of my bands to take off. I'm an outsider even among truly anti-social outsiders. I see pics
of all the smiling middle class joiners sucking up to richer kids online, and it makes me ever less inclined to tack-up still another "musicians wanted"
flyer to the guitar shop bulletin board. The people in the bands today...they're so UN-rock. Anti-punks. Total conformist rubes and eager beaver consumers,
belongers. Smartass, suburbanite fatties. Ugh. The smarmy fooks. I was watchin' old Youtube footage of the MC5 the other night, and my old lady finally
notices, "Wow, those guys were SERIOUS!" Yes, they were, yes, indeed. Rob Tyner was the white James Brown. With his megatop Afro and gaped toothed grin,
he maybe wasn't as conventionally good looking as Jim Morrison, but the man had so much born entertainer, show-biz personality, and revolutionary soul.
Brother Wayne was every bit as stylish and on fire as Brian Jones, or Jimi Hendrix at their respective zeniths. Dennis Machine Gun Thompson remains one
of the most untouchably brilliant drummers, ever. Mike Davis had that brooding dark cool and badass authenticity that drives the chicks wild....and
blue-collar Romeo, Fred Sonic was so bad, he charmed the rock stardom off a outlaw-poet, Patti Smith, and had her dancin' barefoot and pregnant, baking
him pies back in Michigan. There have been few bands as heavy as the Motor City Five, these past forty years. Hanoi Rocks as their best, had a similar
level of talent and character, and raw energy. The Ramones. The Deadboys. The Clash. Gen X. Motorhead...Maybe Guns N Roses, for five or six minutes.
Curtis Casella swears that S.S. Decontrol were more "physically intimidating" to watch from the front-row.
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Rob Tyner is the most under-rated front man in rock history. If you've seen how klutzy, hokey, weak, and lame, those crunchy-granola twin
noodles, Evan Dando AND Mark Arm(!!!) seem, trying to jointly, fill his shoes, while fronting the survivors of the MC5, on tour, a few years back,
you'll understand how much stark, pure charisma that cat actually had. I suppose he HAD to be an absolute hellion dynamo, standin' in between Brother
Wayne and Fred Sonic. Nowadays, you got one smirking rich prick, bossin' around his social climbing minions. There ain't any REAL BANDS of BROTHERS,
anymore. They're all careerist phonies, jockeying to play some festival. Make money, buy condos. No fun, mah baby, no fun. Out here in the fields,
there AREN'T ANY BANDS, beyond the kid who knows how to patch together beat tracks on his computer. Pro-Tools, or whatever. Damn shame, too.
My associates are all too busy scrounging for money ("the right to live") OR they've attained so much money, they get uptight, selfish, paranoid-they
don't want cha comin' over and lookin' at their boss shit. This mammoth collection is just for me to sit atop. There's this big gulf between people
who've known each other our whole lives. Partly politics, partly poverty. We all have different ways of seein' things-our perceptions are definitely
affected by our more recent experiences. The guy who hasn't been to a concert in a decade has less and less to say to the peeps who eat out everyday,
surrounded by doctors, and white collar criminals, and lawyers in love. Even the punks operate on this hierarchy of social tiers, based on fame, or
tattoos. In spite of all their self-congratulatory, self-importance, and souped-up cars, and vintage jukeboxes, I can say that a few of them still
seem somewhat less brainwashed than the TV watchers. It looks like we're already so divided and conquered, that it's just incredibly unlikely anybody's
gonna produce something of validity, of lasting truth or soul, in this late hour. Most people I know ain't even tryin'...Everybody's just lookin' for
a hustle, y'know? Or struggling to maintain their hustle, stay on the sugar daddy gravy train. It's ugly. From your oldest friend who won't return
your calls, to Bowie and Pearl Jam for Target. All roads lead to corruption, as insurance salesman, Fast Talkin', "Honest" Jim O. might tell ya.
"Hey, buddy, good to see ya! Let me put you behind the wheel of a slightly used Hummer, only driven on weekends, by an elderly security-contractor
from East Michigan!"
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Summa my upper middle class, Starbucks swillin' old muckers really had me believin' in Obama, a couple years back, but my apartment was infested with
bedbugs that bit me up all night, and I'm allergic to 'em, so I was covered in hideous welts, while working in food service, and the retail years
(Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target) had wiped out my knees from bending, and being on 'em all day, so I was ready for some false hope. I've since, concluded
that we were all utterly duped by Oprah, and Obama's immaculately choreographed, stadium events, and vaguely lyrical speeches, and clever marketing,
because it is more than evident now, that he's either being held hostage by the generals, and bankers, and our Presidents have no real power-or more
likely, that this junior Senator we elected President was always just a sock puppet for the C.I.A., a ruthless, rightwing, neo-con in sheep's
clothing, groomed by Kissinger and the global-elite conspirators to help depopulate/enslave the planet. Either way, Ralph Nader, and Cynthia
McKinney were both right about him, from the start. He's done nothing but expand the wars, and continue this methodical erosion of our most basic
liberties, and human rights, just like Bush/ Cheney. Everyone's a suspect, under Obama. Pay top dollar to fly, and find out, first-hand. Some people
still believe amateur pilots with next to no real experience flying planes did those impossible cork-screw turns before hitting those buildings in
NYC. Google: Building Number Seven. See the film, "Loose Change". The cable news infotainment industry exists predominately to exaggerate the
distinctions between the political parties. I love Rachel and Keith, but they don't really discuss the hard truths head on, do they? Mainly,
they ridicule and refute the right-wing bozo misinformation agents, like Beck and Palin. Who could blame 'em, anybody who knew bits and pieces
about what happened in '63, ended up dead. Over forty cadavers and counting...The conspiracies of modern-times are much bolder, brazen, bad for
all of human-kind, except for the short-term interests of the shadowy pharaohs. As Glen Ford says, the U.S. military and the mercenaries it
hires to do it's dirtiest work-Blackwater's shell companies-kill Muslim babies like they're flies. Your politicians are well aware of this,
even if you're distracted by Lady Gaga and the Glen Beck culture war nonsense. One million dead in Iraq, and there were no weapons of mass
destruction found. Or Muslims with box-cutters. Whom Hillary now claims have fled to Yemen. Or Pakistan. Or Iran. Or Mexico. We're the only
country in the world who doesn't seem to even realize we're UNDER OCCUPATION. There is no anti-war, opposition party, defending the least
among us-the poor, or working class. Just two wings of the same dirty bird: A Hawk. Those Republicans moan to their racist, classist base,
all day long, about deficits, but they never mind wiping their asses with Five Billion Dollars A Week For Illegal Wars Of Oil Company Occupation,
do they? You don't hear them asking about the trillions Ole Rummy "misplaced" off the back of trucks in Iraq, do ya? "Blue Dog" is Newspeak for
"Republican Infiltrator". Ever since the neo-cons hijacked the Tea Party Movement (courtesy of rightwing billionaire Astro-Turfers, the Koch
Brothers) the big narrative has shifted to Jan Brewer's racist Arizona legalized racial-profiling, and anti-immigration hysteria. They tell the
misguided white folk that all their taxes are going to provide health-care for Mexicans. What the tea-partiers aren't being told is that Brewer's
entire staff is funded by, and comprised of professional lobbyists (Chuck Coughlin, Paul Senseman) for CORRECTIONS CORPORATION OF AMERICA, a
for-profit prison operation. When they build more for-profit prisons, they're going to have to keep them full, aren't they? First they came for
the Muslims, then, they came for the Mexicans....The nervous Caucasians don't seem to realize that once the police state denies basic rights to
the most vulnerable group (like those who work for slave wages) it is only a matter of time, before they create legislature mandating micro-chip
I.D.'s and "Show Me Your Papers" becomes the norm for everyone, including nervous Caucasians. Gotta keep those for-profit prisons filled.
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TORTURE IS A CRIME
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We got our soothing, Manchurian Candidate, President Obama; his sidekick, Mossad Agent/Duel Citizen Rahm "Fuck the U.A.W./ Those Progressives Are
Fuckin' Retarded" Emanuel; friendly, hot-dog vending, Joe "Zionist" Biden; NAFTA For Wal-Mart Hillary, who now just seems like a ventriloquist dummy
of Robert Gates; John (billionaire) Skull N Bones Kerry; Joe "More Right-wing Than McCain" Lieberman; P.M.R.C. Al Gore-the
oil-baron/anti-rock/tobacco heir...THESE ARE, SUPPOSEDLY, OUR COMPASSIONATE DEMOCRAT LIBERALS? Who among these millionaires, and
billionaires, REPRESENTS YOU? NONE of these Republicrats opposed the perpetual wars, or Halliburton torture-camps, or warrantless
wire-taps, or full body airport screen's, or ever-consolidating media-monopolies, or tasers-deadly and undemocratic torture devices
used to silence dissent, intimidate, and electrocute tax-payers, for no good reason, each and everyday...ministers, children, pregnant
women, elderly people in their own homes....John Kerry stood idly by, while those thug-squads tasered that honor student for asking him
uncomfortable questions about the stolen elections, and his sworn alliance to Skull N Bones, on a college campus!!!! You can show me all
the pix of Kerry opposing Vietnam, with John Lennon in the 70's, all day long. Swift-boaters, or not, I'll never trust that guy again. The
Tea-Party Godfather, Ron Paul, does not think health-care or higher-education should be fundamental rights in a free and just society, but
he also grasps that the neo-cons are hardly conservatives-they tax and spend billions more than any mythological seventies bleeding heart
liberal politicians, only, it's on corporate welfare, the gargantuan surveillance apparatus, and perpetual war for empire. At least he
wants to audit the Fed, breakup the C.I.A., and stop the Obama endorsed endless wars on freedom and human rights. He even thinks pot should
be legal. "Saint" Dennis Kucinich dropped the ball on healthcare, after some severe Obama arm-twisting, on Air-Force One, and I have sympathy
for him, now. He was our progressive lion. Kucinich is the only one who stood there, trying to stop this fascistic overthrow. He TRIED to
impeach Bush/Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and all the other War Criminals. What? That sounds inflammatory? Lookup the definition of "War Criminals".
(www.codepink4peace.org) So now, the NSA spies on all our phone calls, and reads our e-mails, and keeps our Facebook transmissions on file.
You're a "suspect" if you oppose war, and torture, and the slaughter of innocents. Crazy world. There are NO DEMOCRATS...maybe Allen Grayson,
or Barbara Lee-the only voice who voted against the original phony "War On Terror"....but mostly, it looks like the "Democrats" are all just
closet Republicans, and we should have been sticking with our heroic third party candidates, voting our faith-not our fear, just like Ralph
Nader warned us. The upper middle-class, Democrat, party-faithful kept insisting RALPH NADER was a "Republican Tool"...WHO'S THE REPUBLICAN
TOOL, NOW, Hillary-Lovers? Looks like she was part of that Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, All Along. When the head of the DHS is also a major
stock-holder in the company that manufactures(!!!) these radiation-emitting, cancer inducing, mandatory, x-ray body-scanners, now being
installed in all our air-ports, one wonders how that could be legal, but of course, it's industry that writes the laws, now.
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The TSA and DHS continue to install these dangerous devices, recording and storing, detailed images of naked air-travellers,
and they're NOT, actually, offering fliers an alternative padding-down, as reported by the big-media. Religious coalitions, and anyone
who believes in any degree of modesty, privacy, and civil liberties, should organize, now, to vocally object to these back scatter x-ray
machines, but nobody asked the governed if they consented to having their DNA stored, being randomly tasered for no reason, being fed
G.M.O.'s with misleading packaging, having our vitamins "watered down", or having their homes, or automobiles secretly invaded, with
GPS tracking devices planted, so the government can legally track your movements, unbeknownest to you.Like you're some Mobster. Do your
own research. I'm way too lazy and self-absorbed to make any of this shit up. Don't get me started on fluoride, mercury, barium,
aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, or Frankenfoods. Figure it out. (www.aclu.org)
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After criticizing the outrageous human rights abuses commited by the Israeli government, on the people of Gaza, as well, as for murdering
American peace activists, like Rachel Corrie; the legendary White House press-pool reporter, Helen Thomas, was forced into retirement,
like many other anti-war journalists before her, including Phil Donahue, and Dan Rather (Yeah, I know Rather's not exactly a liberal,
but he was forced into retirement, after blurting-out the obvious--that the WTC looked like a controlled demolition, and for reporting
on W's military record) and her long-held seat in the front-row of the White House press room was given to Rove and Murdoch's rightwing
consensus-manufacturing, war-propaganda-spewing, FOX FRAUDCASTING---by Obama(!!!), a man whom we're expected to believe is a Democrat.
He has extended the Patriot Act, with no revisions, endorses indefinite detention, torture and rendition, openly authorizes the targeted
assassination of civilians, and American citizens, if someone in the Military/Intelligence apparatus arbitrarily determines they are
potentially, "terror suspects". He has deployed black op's and secret kill teams to 75 countries. Some of whom collect the fingers of
their victims, as souvenirs, according to Huffington Post. He has moved Blackwater (and Eric Prince's many shell companies that use
different names) and Halliburton into Yemen, and Pakistan, for more indefensible "drone attacks", that likable, smilin' Joe Biden
expects us all to eagerly get behind. He has created new rules inhibiting the media from covering the still gushing oil spill/ecocide,
and ongoing use of Corexit in the Gulf, where the animals are dead, the fish are poisoned, and locals are bleeding from their rectums.
(www.seizebp.org) He's kept Bush appointees in all the key military posts, and appointed Monsanto company men to our food and drug regulating
agencies. Look up in the sky...ain't no Superman comin' to save the day...just suspicious and mysterious, cris-crossing, chem trails,
and surveillance drones over Texas. We should have known when he refused to investigate, or prosecute anyone for the clandestine false
flag attacks that lead the world into these imperialist wars of aggression, that were only, ever, about re-drawing the map for the oil,
and opium barons, and never, because the poor people in the mountains, and deserts, hated us because of our freedom, and were coming to
get us with their box-cutters, Korans, and burkas. "Turn The Page", he said. We can't look back, or the United States Of Amnesia might remember
all the lies we've been told, ever since the stolen elections. All his broken campaign promises. Not only is Gitmo still open for business
(torturing Muslims), and at least one Canadian (!!), Heck, he's allowed Halliburton to continue building multiple Gitmos. The oil companies,
military, and private-militarise, are still occupying Iraq, in spite of his latest, cheap, marketing-hoax, re branding. "Mission Accomplished".
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Freedom? Look at how they use brute force to clamp-down on free-speech, in your own hometown. How safe do YOU feel,
expressing opinions not merely parroted from the corporate-media? These neo-cons and war-mongers, who now own and operate the
Democrat war-party sent your jobs to China. They spy on what books you read at the library. My less imaginative acquaintances, who
inherited tuition's, attended fancy schools, and own historic properties, and obey the rules, and bore you bragging about needing to
"update" their appliances...even THEY are starting to feel the pinch of the clampdown. They seemed so sure of their positions, just a
couple years back, when I saw it comin', but like I said, even us poor folk were in denial, so how can ya blame the haves for pretending
like they had enough to be in the club with the banking-looters and big-time murderers. Most of those suburbanites were only big-time,
next to homeless drifters, like yours. Reagan, Bush, and Clinton had already eradicated any hope the anti-war poor ever had for continuing
their educations, cut off all our safety nets, imprisoned all the non violent drug offenders, made elaborate background checks,
manipulative psychological profiles, and pissing in a cup, all mandatory for obtaining dead-end, part-time, minimum wage jobs, with no benefits,
busted up the unions for Wal-Mart share-holders, gave the airwaves over to a tiny elite, etc., now, they're coming after YOU...OF COURSE,
it was comforting for the mortgage-payers to pretend they belonged to some in-crowd, trickle-down, country-club, with the politicians,
blue bloods, West Point military-tools, and corporate media-whores. Sadly, even the ones who've become so familiar to us, who seem so
friendly and kindly and benevolent on the television....Tupac tried to tell ya...These are NOT our friends, in fact, many of them actually
want to kill off anyone who isn't a genocidal trillionaire, C.E.O., corporate share-holder, bully strong-arm, or techno-snitch. The question
to ask, is WHO are the men pulling the strings of all these public-figures, marketing creations, glorified morning zoo d.j.'s,, and cable news
Max Headrooms?
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They've criminalized dissent, and spy on peace activists like you, and Medea Benjamin from Code Pink Women For Peace. They roughed-up
and arrested Amy Goodman, and her producer, from Democracy Now, brutally ripping off her press credentials, just for reporting on police brutality
outside the Republican Convention....AND they want you to believe you live in a free country. I saw some graffiti that said, "Stop believing In
Authority-Start Believing In Each Other!" Haven't I been sayin' that for years?
(www.organicconsumers.org)
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In all the bios, the old English punks simply quit art school, got on the Dole, started practicing with their friends, and liberal, well-to-do
entrepreneurs like Bernie and Malcolm showed up to help 'em pay for rehearsal spaces, flash leathers, and studio time. It ain't like that, no
more. Sure, all your millionaires, and fortunate son's will have you believe that it's easier, than ever, to record, and release music-provided
you have access to computer know-how, Internet, computers, etc., and yeah, I know Mick Jones discovered the Babyshambles kid, producing the
Libertines, and God Bless Him, I only wish there was still some Greg Shaw/Long Gone John style idol-maker left to discover unknown clever and
rebellious lyricist/songwriting personalities in the States. Like many of you, I grew up immersed in Generation X, the Clash, Sisters Of Mercy,
Big Audio Dynamite, and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. I think the Babyshambles kid is really over-rated, and I think Big Audio Dynamite was catchier
than Carbon/Silicon. I give Tony James a lot of credit. "Russian Roulette" is one of my all-time favorite songs. "Valley Of The Dolls" IS
my all-time favorite record. I love that guy. What a talent. And he's never made a secret of his desire to make loads of money. Funny,
but for twenty five years, I was flailin' recklessly around this country, asking all the cool punks to produce me. Talk about a "DISCONNECT".
In MY shaggy head, "produce" meant record me, so I could get a record deal...and to the established money-havers, "produce" means, give them
money to record me. I never had no money. I really, really like the song, "Culture War" by CARBON/SILICON. NONE of the wanker American punks
write anything that savvy, or soulful, anymore. 'Last song, that good, I heard by an American "punk" band was eight or nine years ago-either
"Leave L.A. Alone", by the Favors, from Columbus, Ohio, OR "Calling All Destroyers" by L.A. popsters TSAR, or okay, maybe,
"Down In the Basement" by Lazy Cowgirls, but most times, nobody even BOTHERS to write a real song, anymore. It's an afterthought. They get
their money and their tattoos and Manic Panic and Bondage gear and Creepers, and Songwriting, you know, well, "1,2,3,4" formulaic RAMONES
never fails, s'long as everyone is young n skinny. Both Tony James, and Mick Jones have been committed to staying thin, all their lives,
and if they're bald, who cares, they're still rock'n'roll super heroes, and always will be. I only recently got frequent access to a home
computer, so I spend untold hours watching old Clash, Generation X, Sisters Of Mercy, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, and Sisters Of Mercy videos,
like the rest of yous have this whole past decade, or two....I love all that shit...I turned out a punk, because of it. I only wish there
was an American equivalent to Carbon Silicon. They're cool, probably great, in many ways, just not as good as Big Audio Dynamite. I hear
Duff's quit Jane's Addiction to join Manic Street Preachers. Nice. Like Richie and Duff, and Sid Vicious and Yaffa and Tregunna, Tony James
is one of the great bass-players, but as a guitarist, he's no Bob Derwood Andrews...or Neal X, for that matter. Whatever. I love these guys,
it's Mick N Tony! I even love Tony's blogs on their website, just cranky he never "produced" me!!!! Har!
http://www.carbonsiliconinc.com/
www.rethinkafghanistan.com
www.defundwar.org
http://www.carbonsiliconinc.com/video.aspx
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/opinion/09thurs2.html?_r=2&ref=opinion
http://bravenewconversations.com/index.php/episodes/video/alan_grayson/?akid=1233.1014889.aKLpXg&rd=1&t=2
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