Best Shirt: DC Crew 82

I just got this awesome shirt of Lyle Preslar, Wendel Blow, & Sab Grey circa 1982 ( photo by Rusty Moore) from Radio Silence.

Radio Silence is a great book that chronicles the visual history of hardcore punk.

Theo! Theo! Theo!

"Big Cities"

Kent McClard goes crazy and turns 42

Kent McClard is an awesome guy. He runs Ebullition and has given a lot to hardcore over the past 100 or so years.
Recently, when Lisa from Ebullition had her 2nd child (congrats Lisa & Brett!), Kent took on all daily tasks and documented his descent into madness in a diary.
Check it out. An interesting read to say the least.

Happy 42nd birthday, Kent!

Ben Edge, Casey Watson, & Kent

5 Things I Miss About 90s Hardcore

Well, you should already be reading Metal Inquisition. If you aren’t, you are missing, perhaps, the funniest thing on the world wide web. No matter how much my dear hesher friend likes to claim MI is not legit metalheads, it is still totally amazing.
Sergeant D from MI recently wrote a piece for (and, thus, introduced me to) xStuck In The Pastx. I might have laughed out loud (that’s LOL for anyone under 25) harder than ever for this one.

5 Things I Miss About 90s Hardcore

I <3 Skinbyrds

Our mates over at Skinbyrd Magazine have begun updating on a right regular basis.
Get sorted and take a look.

skins win.

The Firm remake

I <3 football, casuals, nice clobber, & Bronski Beat!

The Importance of the "Public Option"

or HOW THE DEMOCRATS SOLD US OUT

Glenn Greenwald wrote an EXCELLENT piece for Salon.com detailing just how the Democrats have set public healthcare (and themselves) up to fail in the interest of their masters in the insurance industry. Given the importance of the current war on healthcare, this is a crucial read.

The Dems have a filibuster-proof majority, a huge margin in the House and the White House, yet are still on the verge of jettisoning one of the most significant attractions for progressives to the Obama campaign.

When progressives refuse to toe the White House line, they get threatened. Contrast that with what the White House does with Blue Dogs and "centrists" who are allegedly uncooperative on health care -- they protect them

Republicans will reject reform no matter what's in the bill. . . . Negotiating health care reform with politicians who oppose health care reform doesn't make sense. Negotiating reform with politicians who've vowed to vote against reform under any circumstances is insane.

The attempt to attract GOP support was the pretext which Democrats used to compromise continuously and water down the bill. But -- given the impossibility of achieving that goal -- isn't it fairly obvious that a desire for GOP support wasn't really the reason the Democrats were constantly watering down their own bill?.. it seems rather clear that the bill has been watered down, and the "public option" jettisoned, because that's the bill they want -- this was the plan all along.

The Obama White House isn't sitting impotently by while Democratic Senators shove a bad bill down its throat. This is the bill because this is the bill which Democratic leaders are happy to have. It's the bill they believe in. As important, by giving the insurance and pharmaceutical industries most everything they want, it ensures that the GOP doesn't become the repository for the largesse of those industries (and, converesly, that the Democratic Party retains that status).

The industry interests which own and control our government always get their way... no matter which party controls the levers of government, the same set of narrow monied interests and right-wing values dictate outcomes, even if it means running roughshod over the interests of ordinary citizens (securing lower costs and expanding coverage) and/or what large majorities want.


______

77% of Americans support the choice of a "public option"
43% of Americans still support creating a public health care plan administered by the federal government

WSD Off The Air

World Soccer Daily is off the air! (We won!)

When I first discovered WSD (via Fox Soccer Channel), I was elated. I had just stated a new nightmarish job and listening to WSD on my lunchbreaks was the highlight of each day. Growing up in an environment lacking in any football news/information, WSD also helped me become A LOT more familiar with the beautiful game.
Steven Cohen, the co-host, was annoying at times but funny at others. The only things that really rubbed me the wrong way were his outright classist attacks on Liverpool FC and people from Liverpool.

When Kartik Krishnaiyer so eloquently called Cohen out on his misrepresentation of the Hillsborough disaster, Cohen was confronted by the misinformation and classist hatred he spewed. Instead of actually addressing facts, Cohen hired a PR firm and adopted some bullshit US patriotism as if he was allowed to lie all he wanted because he loved America. His attacks on Liverpool got worse and forced me to stop listening.
I wrote Cohen and informed him that I would not be listening to WSD until he was no longer co-host. He actually wrote me back saying that would never happen as it was his show.

It is certain that WSD took a big hit from advertisers withdrawing support. Guests as well refused to come on (Steve Nicol formerly of LFC) and others voiced dissatisfaction with Cohen on-air.

Cohen was removed from his other hosting duty on Fox Football Fone-In and now World Soccer Daily has gone off the air.

WSD's final podcast is just Cohen ranting against Liverpool supporters. He claims that he is willingly ending the show only out of concern for his family. He says "Hate wins" and "Anti-Semitism wins!" As if the hatred he spewed over the air at Scousers was all good. I love how he brings up the anti-Semitism card as well as hiding behind USA patriotism and pro-business sentiment.

Cohen, you are a douchebag and you lost. Good riddance! US soccer supporters deserved better than you.
Luckily, unlike Cohen would have you believe, there are other terrific soccer podcasts... some are even based in US.

I recommend:
MLS Talk podcast
EPL Talk podcast
Guardian podcast

The Last Abortion Doctor

Esquire.com has published a very interesting piece about the brave Dr. Warren Hern. Warren Hern has been one of the few doctors in America to specialize in late abortions. George Tiller was another. And when Dr. Tiller was murdered that Sunday in church, Warren Hern became the only one left.

This is not a debate, it's a civil war. And the other people are using bullets and bombs.

It is my view that we are dealing with a fascist movement. It's a terrorist, violent terrorist movement, and they have a fascist ideology.

Having a delivery is not a benign procedure. When you are trying to keep the baby alive, that increases the risk for the woman. And Reagan put in a bunch of rules about requiring to keep babies alive no matter how hopeless it is. You have people going to Europe to get away from that.

People don't get it, he says. After eight murders, seventeen attempted murders, 406 death threats, 179 assaults, and four kidnappings, people are still in denial. They say, Well, this was just some wingnut guy who just decided to go blow up somebody. Wrong. This was a cold-blooded, brutal, political assassination that is the logical consequence of thirty-five years of hate speech and incitement to violence by people from the highest levels of American society

_____

It is absurd that illogical religious forces dictate medical laws in this country.
Free abortion on demand!

(thanx Pranjal)

Hollister Promotes Statutory Rape

Hollister's new t-shirts for 15yr olds

"LEGAL-ISH" & "The twins are quite a handful"

Contact them and tell them this shit is disgusting and dangerous.


(thanx Mel)

Joker Obama

Chances are good you have seen the above image around. Hell, I even saw it plastered around the Oakland/Berkeley border! It is quite popular among rightwingers and people with no understanding of socialism.

Where did it come from? Well, a 20yr old progressive named Firas Alkhateeb apparently created it... Well, he created the image below.


It was highjacked by the rightwing paranoids.

"To accuse him of being a socialist is really ... immature. First of all, who said being a socialist is evil?"
-Firas Alkhateeb

FFF sans Cohen

Fox Football Fone-In season debut was last week. The big surprise is that Steven Cohen didn't return with it!
As I had hoped they would do, FFF brought on Eric Wynalda to co-host with Nick Webster.

Everything I have read points to Cohen's growing unpopularity for his outageous claims about the Hillsborough disaster and frequent rants against all things Liverpool. Good riddance!
I hope Wynalda will keep up his reputation for talking shit. That will make for a good watch.

Email FFF and let then know how glad you are to see Cohen off the air!
fff@foxsoccer.com

District 9

I highly recommend the sci-fi social drama & action flick, District 9, directed by Neill Blomkamp.
The less you know about the film, the more you will probably enjoy it, so I will attempt to keep this vague and brief.

It is quite an intelligent film. It gives you the information you need (and no more) without hitting you over the head with it. The integration of CG and real life worked great and I don't think I have ever seen a film with CG characters that emoted this well and made the audience really feel for them. It is a sad sad sad film that, like the best sc-fi, uses the fiction to comment on contemporary social ills.

A very exciting movie.

Imported German Shepherds Protect Against Mexicans

This Harrison K-9 Security Systems ad reads:

Have you been informed?
The U.S. Border with Mexico is fast becoming the kidnapping capital of the world, with more incidents than any other cities in the WORLD next to Mexico City.
-ABCNEWS, Nightline

Did you know...
More Americans are killed by illegal aliens than the Iraq War.
-LA Times

Murder and Kidnapping of Americans has become routine all along the U.S. Mexican border, sometimes heavily armed attackers wear the uniforms of the Mexican police or Military.
-U.S. State Department

This fucked up ad appeared in the Hamptons Edition of Haute Living magazine. Apparently, the ultra rich need imported specially trained dogs to protect themselves and their White daughters from the Mexican hordes.

** PLEASE NOTE: My research has yet to turn up anything from The LA Times stating that "More Americans are killed by illegal aliens than the Iraq War."
** PLEASE NOTE: I cannot find anything stating that the U.S. Mexico border is anywhere near becoming a kidnapping capital of the world. However, Mexico was in 2004.

"Velvet"

I just discovered this and think you might enjoy it.


You know I am busy and/or lazy when I start posting a bunch of videos.

Ballad Of G.I. Joe

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

Better casting and better costumes than the movie!

Alexis Bledel, Billy Crudup, Zach Galifiankais, Tony Hale, Vinnie Jones, Joey Kern, Chuck Liddell, Julianne Moore, Henry Rollins, Alan Tudyk, Olivia Wilde, Sgt. Slaughter, and others.

Hi-808

Ya, I got heat. 'Cause every time I speak, I keep burnin' like a haole on the beach.


Lovin' it.

They even name-check Haunani-Kay Trask!
...which reminds me of someone I used to know who pledged solidarity with Hawaiian sovereignty. We both did. We vowed never to go to Hawaii as tourists. I continue to keep my word.

APOC vs. CrimethInc.

A lot has been written about what went down when some APOCers "evicted" some White CrimethIncers.
HERE
or
HERE
HERE
HERE

I have not read/digested/analyzed all those links so I probably linked to articles I strongly disagree with. I also don't mean to give air to whining White kids slumming it up.

Elliott Liu & Harjit Singh Gill produced the best piece I have read that addresses the action/debate.
Their main point is: APOC movement can’t be about white people, and affecting the behavior of white radicals shouldn’t be the first thing on our to-do list. Instead, we think APOCistas should concentrate on building anarchist movement within oppressed communities of color as our primary task. The needs and desires of communities of color should be our main focus, and any attempt to change the white left should follow from there.

They suggest embedding themselves in communities of color, doing base-building work and growing organizations and networks there, and mobilizing from them. And that attacking the likes of CrimethInc or ANSWER divides anarchist movement with ineffective yelling matches while ignoring the bigger racist power structure that kills our people every day.

If APOC movement is to be anything more than a nagging conscience for white radicals, and if it is to build movement through which communities of color can liberate themselves.

We hope to see fewer actions in which a few isolated anarchists of color call out their fellow radicals for reflecting the machine of white supremacy, and more actions in which broad anarchist bases in communities of color strike the machine itself.

Let's face it: race/racism/privilege is a topic that most (White) anarchist circles actively/consciously reject dealing with (and thus continue to embrace).

California Prisons Must Cut Inmate Population

A panel of federal judges ordered the California prison system on Tuesday to reduce its inmate population of 150,000 by 40,000 — roughly 27 percent — within two years.

whoo hoo!

You mean the fuckin prison-industrial complex is costing us all too much and we need to find ways to reduce the totally manufactured prison population? Cool.

Cafe Gratitude is a Cult!

As much as I like the food at Cafe Gratitude, the forced hippy shit never sat well with me. "I Am Annoyed."

Café Gratitude is closely interwoven with a self-help philosophy of personal transformation called the Landmark Forum. The company requires managers to attend and pay for half of the $500 Landmark seminars. One former employee says she was fired for refusing to attend a Landmark seminar.

health care

fun stats
-uninsured Americans: 47million
-uninsured Californians: about 1 in 6 (6.7+ million)
-Whites w/o health insurance in CA: 12%
-Latinos w/o health insurance in CA: 31%
-Blacks w/o health insurance in CA: 19%
-rise in health-insurance premiums from 2000 to 2007 in CA: 96%
-projected rise in health care costs per family (w/o reform): $1,800 per year
-percentage of bankrupcies attributed to an individual's inability to pay medical bills: 62%

USA is ranked 19th out of 19 industrialized nations on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions.

Canadian health care system:
It’s less expensive: It’s well known that Canada spends less of its budget on health care than the U. S. does, but anti single-payer propaganda says that Canadians pay more taxes. What they leave out is the chunk of money Americans pay to their insurance companies. If you add that amount to taxes you would find that, in sum, Canadians pay less.

No bureaucracy gets between you and your doctor: Despite propaganda from U.S. insurance companies, the Canadian system does not force patients to go through the government to get to their doctor. In fact, it’s pretty old-fashioned: you choose a doctor and make an appointment, show your health insurance card, and that’s it. If your doctor thinks you need to see a specialist or get further tests, he/she does not have to consult an insurance bureaucrat. If your specialist thinks you need an operation, you get it – without a stack of forms to fill out.

It’s user-friendly: Unlike the U.S. system, you don’t have to fear that an illness will strike you or a loved one and lead you into bankruptcy. You don’t have to master the minutiae of co-pays and all of the methods the insurance companies use to outsmart their clients. Just that lack of stress is a health benefit in itself.

Healthcare For America

Iraq's New Death Squads

The Iraq Special Operations Forces (ISOF) is probably the largest special forces outfit ever built by the United States, and it is free of many of the controls that most governments employ to rein in such lethal forces. The project started in the deserts of Jordan just after the Americans took Baghdad in April 2003. There, the US Army's Special Forces, or Green Berets, trained mostly 18-year-old Iraqis with no prior military experience. The resulting brigade was a Green Beret's dream come true: a deadly, elite, covert unit, fully fitted with American equipment, that would operate for years under US command and be unaccountable to Iraqi ministries and the normal political process.

"All these guys want to do is go out and kill bad guys... These guys are shit hot. They are just as good as we are. We trained 'em. They are just like us. They use the same weapons. They walk like Americans."

Buffy vs. Twilight

In this remixed narrative Edward Cullen from the Twilight Series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer at Sunnydale High. It’s an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy’s eyes, some of the more sexist gender roles and patriarchal Hollywood themes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed in hilarious ways. Ultimately this remix is about more than a decisive showdown between the slayer and the sparkly vampire. It also doubles as a metaphor for the ongoing battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21ist century.

nice!

No God No Master... the film

A film entitled No God No Master is currently being filmed in Wisconsin.

The official description of the film:

"'No God, No Master' is the story of U.S. Bureau of Investigation agent William Flynn who is swept into the world of homegrown terrorism during the Red Scare of the early 1900s. His journey into the culture of anarchism sets the stage for a timely drama with resounding parallels to the politics and issues of contemporary society. This action-driven feature film is the story of one man's odyssey into a universe of power, greed and corruption, forcing him to confront the very principles and values that make him an American."

Report On The Right

Fascist America: Are We There Yet?

I have said before that it probably is a waste of time to engage the Right and Liberal Left on their terms and that we must build our own bases. However, it is equally important to know what we are up against.

The rich and powerful have duped folks into fighting tooth and nail against a health care system that would serve them better and cost less. I know, crazy. And the Right is highly organized for this fight.
Why hasn't the Liberals and the Left defended with equal force? Do the Liberals think some moral high ground is going to win them this fight (even though it loses them every other fight)?
What if radicals, Liberals, and poor people rose up and caused a ruckus demanding universal healthcare while this debate wasn't even front page news?.. Well, chances are they have and it never got much attention.

There is a direct connection to this and to those arming themselves like crazy and to those preparing to fight for their rightwing corporate america.

Danger On The Right

Manufactured Protests

"Good Hair"

Chrissy Piper's 3 Records in SF

August 15th, 2009 -Needles & Pens' presents
Three Records
by Chrissy Piper

CNN wants you to die broke.

Not long ago, I spoke to a family member who is adamantly against any kind of socialized/universal/state run health care (aside from the already existing examples for the military and elderly, I presume). He didn't think people would want any change to the current setup. I told him with certainty that if a true referendum was held with no influence from businesses who could lose/gain profit, it would be a landslide victory for universal healthcare.

We already see elected officials telling elderly folks that universal health coverage somehow equals killing them.
Now CNN refuses to air an ad criticizing the for-profit insurance industry.

Note that I had qualified my original statement against such shit. I full well knew that those in positions of power would never aid in the destruction of the current shit machine.

This isn't about Obama's weak-ass "reform" plans. This is about survival.

The Road

I don't usually read fiction (aside from comic books). I don't know why. I guess I think my time could be better spent reading non-fiction as a means to learn about this world we live in (not that I ain't aware of fictions potential for just the same).

I just read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is a good book. It is even an Oprah's Book Club book. It is a post-civilization tale of a man struggling for the survival of his son as they trek down a road. I'm a sucker for "post-apocalyptic" stories (i.e. The Road Warrior).
The Road really got me thinking; from the actions the man took immediately to secure water to what I would do in such a brutal nightmarish world (and what we should do now to prepare for such a world).
(See, I don't buy into the common anti-civ primitivist idea that the collapse of civilization will bring about any sort of harmony.)
_____

The Road has been made into a film due out this coming fall. (It was my interest in this film that led me to the book... That and my girlfriend.)

_____

No sound but the wind. What will you say? A living man spoke these lines? He sharpened a quill with his small pen knife to scribe these things in sloe or lampblack? At some reckonable and entabled moment? He is coming to steal my eyes. To seal my mouth with dirt.

Blackwater: On A Crusade

First off, I encourage everyone to read Jeremy Scahill's book, Blackwater: The Rise Of The World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army or at least peep all that Scahill has to say.

Turns out Blackwater's founder is on a crusade to eliminate Muslims and Islam.

A former Blackwater employee alleges that founder Erik Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."
Men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq.

(thanx Mel)

Gather "Reunion"

I will refrain from bemoaning another reunion...

Gather is reuniting to play Seven Generation's final show on 24Oct.2009.

Beckham = Fake Heel

Over the past week, I have had more non-soccer fans ask me about Beckham than even when he first joined the LA Galaxy. Everyone seems to have heard about his rowdy interactions with fans.

When MLS Commissioner, Don Garber, publicly warned Becks that he might find angry US fans jeering him upon his crazily orchestrated loan at AC Milan, I smelled a rat. Why would Garber say this publicly except maybe to draw US fans to Galaxy games to boo Beckham. It could generate some ticket sales and create a competitive atmosphere. I, however, don't feel the need to pay $20 or whatever to tell Beckham to go home.

I recommend anyone remotely interested in MLS or David Beckham to read The Beckham Experiment.
Having read the book and seen Brand Beckham at work, I know nothing this tool does is unscripted or spontaneous. This led me to question why he seemed to be losing his temper at the LA Riot Squad or any other fan. It is certain that Golden Balls has run into far far far worse chants and personal attacks during matches in Europe.

Beckham’s image as a ‘bad guy’ may be more productive for MLSr. Rooting against him and then for him seems more appealing for fans than just rooting for him. He is more compelling as a ‘bad guy’ than he is as a ‘good guy’.

Don't buy into it.

Is making a corporate success of the MLS - and lining the pockets of the dubious executives who run it - the lone measure of the game's success? Is rooting for the Galaxy, and giving our dollars to the creepy monster that is AEG the only way to express one's loyalty?

The Failure of Capitalist Myth: "There is always more. Don't think, just take."

Naomi Klein has again written something worth reading:
Let's Put an End to Sarah Palin-Style Capitalism

a robbery in progress, the greatest heist in monetary history

DNA of capitalism: the idea that the world has no limits. She was saying that there is no such thing as consequences

This is the most comforting and dangerous lie that there is: the lie that perpetual, unending growth is possible on our finite planet.

There is just an absolute refusal to look at how bad it is. Washington would prefer to throw trillions of dollars into a black hole rather than find out how deep the hole actually is. That's how willful the desire is not to know.

It's appropriate that we call this a "bailout." Financial markets are being bailed out to keep the ship of finance capitalism from sinking, but what is being scooped out is not water. It's people. It's people who are being thrown overboard in the name of "stabilization." The result will be a vessel that is leaner and meaner. Much meaner. Because great inequality-the super rich living side by side with the economically desperate-requires a hardening of the hearts. We need to believe ourselves superior to those who are excluded in order to get through the day. So this is the system that is being saved: the same old one, only meaner.

(thanx Mel)

Obama Wants Terror Prison For Civilians

The Obama administration is looking at creating a courtroom-within-a-prison complex in the U.S. to house suspected terrorists, combining military and civilian detention facilities at a single maximum-security prison.
The facility would operate as a hybrid prison system jointly operated by the Justice Department, the military and the Department of Homeland Security.

Democrats are supporting this as the best among a series of bad options.
Republicans are opposing this as if indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay is the only other option.

Indefinite detention is, however, still in the cards. This proposed prison will include long-term holding cells for detainees who will not face trial because intelligence and counterterror officials conclude they are too dangerous to risk being freed.

Seven Generations Poster

I created a poster for Seven Generations' final Gilman show.


Unfortunately, the poster was rejected by the booker.

Read about my whole process/experience on my new art blog!
CREATE/DESTROY