“What is the state of the union? You certainly couldn’t tell from that platitudinous hogwash that the president dished out Tuesday evening. I had expected Barack Obama to be his eloquent self, appealing to our better nature, but instead he was mealy-mouthed in avoiding the tough choices that a leader should delineate in a time of trouble. He embraced clean air and a faster Internet while ignoring the depth of our economic pain and the Wall Street scoundrels who were responsible—understandably so, since they so prominently populate the highest reaches of his administration. He had the effrontery to condemn “a parade of lobbyists” for rigging government after he appointed the top Washington representative of JPMorgan Chase to be his new chief of staff. What nonsense to insist that low public school test scores hobbled our economy when it was the highest-achieving graduates of our elite colleges who designed and sold the financial gimmicks that created this crisis. Indeed, some of the folks who once designed the phony mathematical formulas underwriting subprime mortgage-based derivatives won Nobel prizes for their effort. A pioneer in the securitization of mortgage debt, as well as exporting jobs abroad, was one Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of GE, whom Obama recently appointed to head his new job creation panel. Why now? It is an absurd demarcation to freeze spending when so many remain unemployed just because corporate profits, and therefore stock market valuations, seem firm. Ours is a union divided between those who agree with Obama that “the worst of the recession is over” and the far larger number in deep pain that this president is bent on ignoring.”
(-Robert Scheer from Truthdig)

"The same people who were committing fraud and crimes at Bear Stearns, they are now committing fraud and crimes at Bank of America, at Goldman Sachs and other institutions, because it turns out that crime does pay. It turns out that if you steal a large amount of money that leads to the collapse of your institutions, there’s jobs for you somewhere else.
And the old saying is those who forget history is going to repeated; well those who don’t punish the wrongdoers are doomed to repeat it as well. And that is the real problem; the problem is not only that it offends your sense of justice or my sense of justice to see people who destroyed enormous amount of wealth, staggering amounts of wealth, 15% of our entire national net worth in 18 months. The people who did that — it annoys me and annoys you that these people get off the hook but worse than that it scares me and it probably scares you too because we know it can happen again."
(-Alan Grayson)

"The reach of the Convention Against Torture is wide - this case is prepared and will be waiting for him wherever he travels next. Torturers, even if they are former presidents of the United States, must be held to account and prosecuted. Impunity for Bush must end."
(-Katherine Gallagher, Center for Constitutional Rights)

"All the other stuff, the love, the democracy, the floundering into lust, is a sort of by-play. The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer."
(– D.H. Lawrence)

"Well I got my dark sunglasses, I got for luck, my black tooth...Don't ask me nothin' about nothin', I just might tell you the truth..."
(-Bob Dylan)

“What a strange and deeply sad relationship exists between many Black Americans and the brown-skinned corporate politician in the White House. After two years, there is no longer any expectation of reciprocity, only a muted hope and prayer that Obama would behave decently. In announcing a five-year freeze on domestic spending, Obama enters a new phase of aggressive – rather than furtive – collaboration with the GOP. To ensure that catastrophe cannot be avoided for the tens of millions battered and set adrift by the two (lesser and greater) recessions of the 21st century, Obama will join with Republicans to prevent the domestic arms of government from coming to the people’s aid, by freezing finances. With whole communities in a state of economic dislocation, Obama burns the rescue boats and poisons the water, all the while promising that the necessary budgetary savings will not be achieved “on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens” – as if Wall Street’s bankers will shield the helpless with their well-bonused bodies. By bringing down the corporate tax rate – a substantive promise from Obama that only the wealthy can truly appreciate – additional profits will accrue to companies that have already hoarded over two trillion dollars, but who were doubtless awaiting Obama’s coded signal, “Sputnik,” before investing in productive, job-producing enterprises. These investments might also be delayed until Obama has, as promised on Tuesday night, reorganized the federal government to the Republicans’ satisfaction, and purged offensive regulations from the public sphere. Funny, how Obama seems so much more in his element in the wake of the November defeat than when Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress. Half of Obama’s Blue Dog friends have been replaced by Republicans, but the president seems even happier among the new guys, as if he’s finally within reach of the grand, “bi-partisan consensus” that is the ideal state of being in a post-everything America.“
(-Glen Ford from the Black Agenda Report)

There's been a huge breach since Joe Strummer died, like streetcore lost it's conscience, common sense, and compassion. There's no moral compass. Punk rock splintered into a hundred little factions, you got the emos, the thrashers, the ska-kids, the Avenged Sevenfold fans, skate rats, the townie Irish pride pushers, the corny, corporate punk shills in the blinging hip-hop styles...everybody competing to make money at those big, outdoorsy sports festivals. Where's the integrity? Where's the loyalty to the underdog, and solidarity with the poor, and real working classes of the world? The Clash helped us make sense of the world, when we were being lied to. Can you imagine Joe sitting on his hands, while the TSA gropes travellers, nukes us with radiation, files nude images, bombs Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, etc.? Other shadowy government agencies, clearly, dump shit on the people, from airplanes in the sky, and spread endless war for the profit of a few oil barons, crime families, and weapons manufacturers. Would Joe be merely combing his hair and focusing on his energy drink endorsements, in a time like this??? FAKK NOOOO! He'd be out on the streets! Singing anthems, uniting the people. Agitating. Educating. Organizing. Introducing under educated people to other cultures, and helping them use music to unite against their common oppressors. As the Manic Street Peachers said, "Know Your Enemy". The so called punks of today are often just obedient consumers, fashionistas, television programmed war spores, playing video games, or posing as gangsta rappas, twenty years too late. Dumb jocks with nice shoes and thousand dollar tattoos. Gimee some truth. Some of these kids are so busy ironing their Warrior Harrington jacket, and polo shirts, or dry-cleaning their two hundred dollar Alpha NB3 Parkas, just to be seen by the older, shamrock tattooed, Guinness hoisters at the pub, they might as well be cast members of that "Jersey Shore" cable show. "Gym, tanning, laundry". Whatzzat got to do with punk, rockahhs? Shopping? Craven materialism is NOT punk. Feather dusting your Cocksparrer forty-fives, on careful display, in the jukebox room. Oi! Vey!

Since the late seventies/early eighties, punk's fiery, insurrectionist fury and defiant, rebellious energy has all-too-often, been simply co-opted by corporate marketing strategies, and rechanneled back into vacant acquisition, and/or bully machismo: locating and targeting the easiest scapegoats=the dominant culture. Imperialism. Sports team dumbfuckery. Big trucks. "We're Number One!" The mall. Fortunately, there has always been a hidden sub-culture of punk kept alive by die-hard old timers who can still remember the real junk, as well, as the new generation of youngblood guttersnipes who reject the authoritarian cop culture, who refuse to kill other poor people for money, who got no desire to squander their lives, chasing prestige, buying useless crap made in Chinese sweat shops, and sucking up to the corporate oligarchy. These are the voices I wanna hear. The rebels.

This week's headlines were all about Obama cutting funding for poor people's heat in the winter-time, while giving more money to the wars and torture prisons...and extending Bush Tax cuts for the rich...some "liberal Democrat", eh? 'Anyone else remember how outraged the status quo was, when Nader said Obama would be an Uncle Tom for the corporations? Also, Evil Dick Cheney was all over the corporate media, praising the Egyptian despots, and all the U.S. war criminals were having a grand ole party, bestowing themselves with the--get this--"Defending The Constitution Award", after completely neutering, and undermining the Constitution, on every level. Meanwhile, Leon Panetta announced his plans to concentrate his agencies efforts on "domestic extremists", in other words, you, me, them, all of us, except for the terror mongers and war makers, naturally. I picked up some mainstream magazines to flip through, at the laundromat. All I could relate to was Keith's auto-bio, which I still can't afford, and the Nick Kent book, which I still can't afford. It's sad, when the mighty Prince can play a concert, and all anyone reports is that some rich (un)reality-show bimbo heiress was allowed to briefly prance about, in the wings. No, I have not yet seen her porn video. The heroic in many ways, Dennis Kucinich, is still reeling, from having to cave on health care, after Obama and some general made him an offer he could not refuse, on Airforce One, but he's been calling for the fake, Democrat puppet-prez to face a primary challenger. Nader's good name has, unfortunately, become too soiled by the big money, baby boomer, establishment republicratic party, sell-out operatives, to successfully run again. I hope the brave Congressman Paul can drive some debate about our lost liberties and civil rights, and these evil wars, among the rightwingers. Middle-classers in the mid-west still blame Nader(!!!) for Al Gore's "loss" to the Supreme Court's appointment of Bush, back in the day. Don't any of you recall the theatrical Brooks Brothers "rent-a-mob", made for tv "riot"? "STOP COUNTING VOTES!" Pitiful. TV zombies will buy any compelling visual, and stick with any cheap slogan, won't they?

I suppose we better start peddling some new slogans of our own, in the marketplace of ideas, from the ground-up. The world rejoiced when Obama was elected, but the voters expected a change in the inhumane policies of the Bush administration, not just a change in the photo-op figurehead. That's the shame of what's happening in Egypt. The same puppet masters are installing another villain to do the evil bidding of the shadow elite. Totally undermining the people's uprising. Americans have lost their most basic human rights, their living wage jobs, many have had their homes stolen by the banks, but they're so conditioned, from birth, to worship the TV, and the war machine, and the grubby uniforms, they're all too busy discussing "Glee" and vampire shows, to take to the streets...just ignoring the war, torture, DHS genital fondlings, homelessness, corruption of the entire medical industry, the vanished trillions, the cover-ups, false flag attacks, psy-ops, the poisoning of the air, water, and soil, etc., etc. Egypt's state tv employs the exact same tactics as American tv. They simply ignore thousands, even hundreds of thousands, loudly protesting in the streets, and orchestrate completely choreographed events, like the Koch-funded, Glen Beck rallies. They won't show Al Jazeera in most parts of the U.S., because they don't want Americans to grasp the killing and violent, immoral repression being committed, in their name. "Glee" are doing "Thriller". Super Bowl Sunday. Video Game High Score. How 'bout that J-Lo, on "American Idol"? I like Kim Kardashian's ass better. Katy Perry, Hot Topic, emo-millionaires, trust fund weasels, ETC. ETC. As the courageous truth teller, Ron Paul says, the military industrial complex is always bipartisan. The only time you see or hear real rock music in the corporate media seems to be when they're promoting the military, or normalizing the "homeland" police state on all those disgusting jail, cop, and bounty hunter voyeur shows.

Obama's speech writers promised hope and change and vague, new agey, feel good, Oprah consumerism, under the starry flag of freedom and democracy. Instead, the intelligence regime and military industrial complex EXPANDED all the democracy-crushing, police states, all over the planet, while disinformation agents Beck and Limbaugh babbled incoherantly about "socialism" and "the commie threat of the Beatles". The Clintons, and Obama, pretend to be liberals, and all their rhetoric is always trumpeting equality and peace, but their actual policy is dictated by the same nefarious forces behind Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin. Propping up human rights annihilating dictatorships in Kuwait, Egypt, etc. Expanding the secret prisons. Hiding the Haliburton/B.P. eco-crimes in the Gulf. Expanding the bullshit drug laws, promoting back breaking, wage slave exploitation, the plutocracy's for profit jails, and privacy invading, sex-groping, cancer-inducing radiation machinery of the TSA thug spy apparatus in the States. Bombing civilians, openly torturing, while moronic sports fans chant, "USA".

These bullshit Republicrats are presently expanding tax cuts for the rich, and deregulation of Monsanto, energy companies, and Wall Street shell-gaming. Hillary Clinton pretends to be some "feminist", but not only did she support NAFTA, but she proudly served on the board of Wal-Mart. I would love this union-killing, war monger, to work one shift, facing product, and bending up and down on her knees, all night long, for Wal-Mart on the floor, just a common, eight hour shift, and then, explain to me, how she would endeavor to support a family, on Wal-Mart wages. Thousands of families could live, for years, on what she spent on her daughter's vulgar wedding. She used to moan about the "vast rightwing conspiracy", and now, she's irrefutably invested in it. Wise up, cable viewers. American tax dollars don't actually support poor folks at home, or abroad. American foreign policy is dictated by oil companies, and the military. Your sweat goes to build jails, bomb children, and kill people's uprisings. America trains the secret police, encourages torture, spies on peace activists, and props up all these tyrants, and torturers, all over the globe, while, simaultaneously talking their insincere shit about freedom fries and a free press, blah, blah, blah. Hillary is just another phoney on the take, same as Obama, and McCain and Palin. Vote Nader. Vote Paul. They don't count the votes anyway. Google "Diebold". Or "Bradblog". ALL of these folks are mere actors, teleprompter-readers. Lying to you for millions, and billions. Cancel your cable bill. Fire those bastids. Get beyond the false left versus right paradigm. It's just a shell-game. Get some heirloom seeds, grow yo own food. Invite old friends over. Talk, make art together. Fanzine. Broadcast. Flier. Collaborate. Share art in public spaces. Film. Stencil. Communicate. Disobey. Make real music. Accept no rent. Cultivate community. Share your expertise. Stick it to the man. Educate, uplift, forgive. Protect the meek and elderly. Assist your neighbors. Help promote truth. Empower less fortunate people. Show kids how to record and publish, on the cheap. Let little bands open for you. Play all ages shows. Organize. Advance and convey the messages of The Clash, Mescaleros, Veterans For Peace, Grandmas For Peace, and Code Pink. Defend Liberty!!!! Peace Punks Unite! YEAH! Cancel Your Cable Subscription! Take Back Your Life!

While this whole country's going to the dawgs, with the Fourth Amendment destroying Patriot Act, warrantless wire-taps, ruthlessly monopolized and consolidated big-media, the wholesale sellout of our most basic civil rights, under these fake Republicrats...The Agnostic Front dude, Roger Miret's doing a really boss, singalong street punk thing here, that's sure to appeal to fans of U.S. Bombs, Lower Class Brats, Sham 69, Demolition Twenty Three, and the Clash. The Disasters will also appeal to macho, Irish, Boston skins, and brace-sporting brawlers. The upper middle class, vintage car collecting, fedora wearers DO get on my nerves, sometimes. You know-the fat bourgeois middle aged bowling shirts, and tattoo shop owners, who comb their hair all day, and compulsively, show their cars off, outside of N.A. meetings, and still start fights with people, even though some of 'em are almost fifty. Yeah, lotsa dem will probably dig Miret and company's heavy ass hardcore fightin' and drinkin' songs, but there's an English rock'n'roll sensibility to this album that makes it also accessible to rock punks, like us. It's got real heart, crunchy chords, catchy melodies. Very NYC, like D-Generation on steroids. Think Social Distortion and Rancid. So if yer sick of all that corporate-pop vomit, and miss hearing real punk, you might like these cats. I do, and I was never a Sunday matinee Cro Mags tough guy. Believe me. I was a glammy new wave kid. If you dig bands like the Casualties, or Dropkick Murphys, you'll like this. If you liked NYHC in the eighties, you'll like this, if you like spiky haired British hardcore, and Oi, these dudes will satiate your desire to hear sincere punk rock. On the Revolvers label, People Like You...out of Germany. "Antisocial 'til the day I die..." Good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m30eysVZ3U0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ib32m1awU&feature=related
http://www.thedisasters.com/


R.i.p. Giovanni Vitanza, Tura Santana and Gary Moore~