Federally Funky Friday !

First, I guess we gotta congratulate the south side's White Sox for finally bringing home a title after 88 years of bad luck ...

Blues Brothers - Sweet Home Chicago



now on with the rest of our sad lil' show

Yo, you hear 'em sirens
I know you hear 'em
Don't get scared
It ain't five-o (naw)
That's the funk yo (yeah)
Don't act like you didn't know (hun)
It's just the way it goes (yeah)


Looks like the Federal Funk is indeed thick... even if the "Fitz-Mas" indictments provide little satisfaction for bloodthirtsy beltway bystanders to seethe about... there's plenty more troubling circumstances in the media slipstream and various spin zones...

While our boy W regroups in the wake of the Miers nomination withdrawl, note that despite his botched SCOTUS pick, various Republican figure indictments and investigations, and faltering Iraq situation which has lead to 2,000+ US deaths and over 7,000 critical duty ending G.I injuries, seems lil' Bush's energy industry buddies have nothing to complain about...

Today I turned on the tube hoping for indictment news and instead saw the financial news guys raving about Exxon-Mobil's massive $9.9 billion third quarter profit take, "the largest in U.S. corporate history", not mention previously announced 9 billion haul at Royal Dutch Shell , and competitor Conoco-Phillips profits soaring 89 percent.

This as we move towards sucking Alaska dry on their behalf, and Bush has literally no conservation measures afoot or even plans to seek alternative energy uses. An article New York Times today explores not new energy sources, but how The White House has hoped to kill the messenger and repeatedly gone out of its way to ignore the warning signs that the world is running out of excess oil capacity.

Perhaps it's time to consider this a truly criminal ignorance, as those in the know deny the facts, as we head rapidly toward global climate change, and push into ""peak oil", a.k.a use beyond our production capacity.


Meanwhile, a major Republican fundraiser for Bush in Ohio was indicted by a federal grand jury in what is reminescent of the illegal money laundering charges made at Tom Delay...

Is this a great country... or what?

whatever...


here grab some tunes... and we'll see ya next time...


Jawbreaker - Indictment ( Live in Ft. Worth 1994 )

The sincere sounds of Shwarzenbach of emo icon trio Jawbreaker ripping out a topical titled tune at The Mad Hatter from a pre-Geffen era live show... p.s drummer Adam Pfhaler is seeking Jawbreaker video footage for a possible documentary project, so if ya got some, get in touch and if it's something he's looking for, then send it on this way, and I'll get it to him for ya...

David Bowie & Trent Reznor - I'm Afraid of Americans

both of these guys might add a disclaimer subtitle "...but, I love their money". Bowie, became the first rock star to turn his future royalties into a private Wall St. Bond investment product so he could reap his anticipated $60 million trickle down in an upfront lump sum.

Eric Clapton - Before You Accuse Me

just another quasi-topical title for filler I s'pose, but hey maybe you like watered down white boy blues from the chinless Cream-y wunderkind who was once declared "god" by some confused hippies on drugs in the 60's...


Black Eyed Peas - The Boogie That Be

The indominable Will.I.Am keeps it funky with his money gobbling "let's get retarded" crew who've been working for corporate sponsors like MSN & Honda as well as on the road this year tearing it up for big stadium dollar with everyone from Dave Matthews to Gwen Stefani...

Zero 7 - In The Waiting Line

This track is available on The Garden State movie soundtrack, and is just one of several soothing electro-soul sides from the Simple Things CD by this British duo comprised of Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker.


Jawbreaker - Pretty Persuasion

Ah, shit who can resist more Jawbreaker? Here circa springtime 1992 they demolish an REM cover much to a Gilman Street crowd's chagrin. They also put a scrappy studio version of this song out on a 7" with an even worse B-side of a Joan Jett cover if I recall correctly. Note: Jawbreaker tracks courtesy of http://www.fifteenpaintcans.org/



now get lost y'all or maybe check out some stuff from the archives...

Lil Mike's Archives

• March 2005
• April 2005
• May 2005
• June 2005
• July 2005
• August 2005
• September 2005

Lil Mike's blog is potentially worth $10,726.26.
How much is your blog worth according to the formula?

@ White House Powell "cleaned all the dog poop off the carpet"

stuff for vous :


although Washington has no law against beastiality, the death of a man has lead to charges, (for trespasssing ?)

Finally, the some other Washington demon roosters are coming home with bad bird flu...

Blatant Bush supporters & party loyalists are having a hard time drinking the stale Kool-Aid... and with indictments and rumors of more trouble for leading Republican figures flying around... folks are literally chewing off their arms to get away from the scene of the crime. Take former State Department chief of staff, retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson's op-ed piece in the L.A Times printed Tuesday Oct 25th...

He actually claims Colin's duties to Bush included

"At least once a week, it seemed, Powell trooped over to the Oval Office and cleaned all the dog poop off the carpet."

Wilkerson is of course referring not to steaming brown turds...but to the exercise known as the "D.C" shuffle, or "Damage Control"...

He says of Powell's contribution to the country:

"He held a youthful, inexperienced president's hand. He told him everything would be all right because he, the secretary of State, would fix it."

Ya know it's bad when after 4 years of service to the Commander in Chief, a recently high ranking official calls the results of the whole sordid episode

"the ruinous foreign policy of George W. Bush."

. He first made waves with a speech he gave a recently in which he said

"We have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran,"

amongst other criticisms .

Even Bush mouthpiece Scott McLlellan is showing signs of falsehood fatigue, hinting that his credibility shouldn't be judged, as he and The White House weren't lying to reporters about the Plame case all along, but instead that he'd merely relayed "assurances that I had received on that."

It's sorta sad to see the wagons circling, and now the once loyal soldiers of the arrogant Dick & Karl's ill advised "war on terror" show realize this whole mess ain't going to look so great on their resumes, so they now act like they hated it all along...

David Frum, a staunch ultra-Republican and former White House speechwriter, is actively campaigning against confirmation of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court along with many other conservatives who see her as an insult to their movement. Bruce Bartlett, who worked for W's father, is putting out a book entitled "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy."

Brent Scowcroft, a man who served proudly and loyally under W's father has come out fiercely critical of the current administration's foreign policy in the October 25th issue of the New Yorker. The 80 year old is quoted as telling writer Jeffrey Goldberg .

"You encourage democracy over time, with assistance, and aid, the traditional way. Not how the neocons do it."

Scowcroft goes on to explain that American foreign policy should reflect the fact that there are far more Arabs than Israelis in the world. He tells of his last dinner with former protege' Condi Rice who failed to heed to his warnings on complex mid-east issues. Rice finally irritably lectured Scowcroft, "The world is a messy place, and someone has to clean it up."

"She says we're going to democratize Iraq, and I said, 'Condi, you're not going to democratize Iraq,' and she said, 'You know, you're just stuck in the old days,' and she comes back to this thing that we've tolerated an autocratic Middle East for fifty years and so on and so forth," he said. Then a barely perceptible note of satisfaction entered his voice, and he said, "But we've had fifty years of peace."

Former H.W Bush chief of staff John Sununu even opines in

"We always made sure the President was hearing all the possibilities," and "That's one of the differences between the first Bush Administration and this Bush Administration."

William Kristol, the conservative publisher of the Weekly Standard, was on the Daily Show last night and seemingly ate humble pie, while personally calling for Mier's to withdraw her Supreme Court nomination with dignity.

Looks like Scooter & Rove's asses may be doomed as early as Thursday, with indictment notification "letters" already sent. The Fitzgerald indictments will be sealed indictments and likely "filed" on Wednesday.

Rumors are a foot that insider's have even asked for McCain to step into Cheney's tainted vice presidential chair if needed for "health reasons"....

It's starting to feel a lil' like the siege of Bagdhad in the Beltway folks... and that's probably a good thing...


other related stuff:

White House Aides Brace For CIA Leak Charges

Now They Tell Us

The Cheney Factor !


Libby Kept Tabs on Wilson

The Top Nine Plamegate Lies

Bush's Past Inspire's His Damage Control

Bush Needs to Clean Cabinet

World Watch: Ex-State Official Blasts 'Cheney-Rumsfeld' Cabal

Cheney Cabal Hijacked U.S. Foreign Policy

Colonel Finally Saw Whites of Their Eyes

anyhow, howz about a tune or two por vous who made it through the mud?

Billy Joel - Honesty

Oasis - I Can See A Liar

The Tyrades - Incarcerated

The Decemberists - Billy Liar

My blog is supposedly worth $10,726.26.
How much is your blog worth?

Undertone Underdog Commission Mush Up

This Weekend in NYC On Oct 21st & 22nd the folks behind Not In Our Name have organized a 2005 International Commission of Inquiry to discuss perceived crimes of the Bush Administration. They are pulling together speakers & witnesses to investigate the full scope of what the Bush administration is doing to the people of the world.

This concerned group of citizens will be looking into various information and evidence whether the current U.S Presidential Administration is potentially guilty of impeachable offenses, war crimes, or other acts and crimes against humanity. They'll probe evidence and analysis that may show a pattern of concerted efforts that have jeopardized the general welfare of humanity on a global level.

When the possibility of far-reaching war crimes and crimes against humanity exists, people of conscience have a solemn responsibility to inquire into the nature and scope of these acts and to determine if they do in fact rise to the level of war crimes " from the Charter



We need as citizens in a so-called "participatory democracy" to be exposed to a wide array of discourse, and hear out various matters and opinion of governmental responsibility, cases of potential neglect and related matters that concern taxpayers. That's why I've written to C-Span about the need for them to broadcast this event.



I hope C-Span can find this matter of interest to it's viewership, and not unlike other important and informative events, speeches, seminars, and panels of varying viewpoints and sponsorships they've covered and shared in the past.

Among those participating include Denis Halliday,ex-UN Assistant Secretary-General, former head of UN Humanitarian Mission In Iraq; Marcus Raskin from the Institute for Policy Studies, Michael Ratner from the Center for Constitutional Rights, historian Howard Zinn, and Barbara Olshansky who is an attorney representing the detainees at Guantanamo and one of her professional lawyer colleagues, embattled defense attorney Lynn Stewart.

The Commission is sponsored by the Not In Our Name statement of conscience ( see NION.us )and is endorsed by many of the country's most prominent voices of conscience, including Sen. James Abourezk, Edward Asner, Russell Banks, Michael Eric Dyson, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rabbi Michael Lerner, The National Lawyers Guild, Gore Vidal, Cornel West, Saul Williams and many more.



The event in question is being held at

FRIDAY OCTOBER 21, 6PM, AND SATURDAY OCTOBER 22, 10AM

GRAND BALLROOM OF THE MANHATTAN CENTER, 311 W. 34TH STREET, NEW YORK CITY

(on 34th Street just west of 8th Ave, two blocks from Penn Station)



The issues to be discussed include:
1) Wars of Aggression, particularly Iraq and Afghanistan.
2) Policies of Torture and Indefinite Detention;
3) Destruction of the Global Environment, in particular systematic policies that
encourage waste & contribute to the catastrophic effects of global warming.
4) Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights , in particular the genocidal effects of forcing international agencies to promote "abstinence only" in the midst of a global AIDS epidemic.


In the Friday evening opening session you will hear the shocking details of how the military is currently force-feeding detainees on hunger strike in the U.S. concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay.

In addition, there will be a special Saturday afternoon session on Bush's response to hurricane Katrina, featuring both experts and survivors telling their own vivid stories.



If you are in NYC, or just curious check it out on-line at www.bushcommission.org/

check out historian Howard Zinn on this historic - Bush Commission Hearing.mp3

-----------------------

Hey, Check Out ABC's AfterNote, on House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, out on bail today after turning himself in and is calling the warrant for his arrest "pure retaliation." Listen: Listen to the AfterNote Podcast (MP3

here's some more downloadable music & stuff for y'all...


One of my fave remix characters is Poj Masta, a technologically savvy teenage nerd / digital rapscallion from the UK who knows his way around a beat-matching session

For years now I have loved his quirky remix of my fave & ( the late John Peel's as well) Undertones tune - Teenage Kicks

Poj Masta - Undertones Teenage Kicks Remix

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Japanese freaky self proclaimed "mush up killer"

I toubengo-c - RunDMC - Mush Up
洋モノならここいらへん要チェキ。


What would Nick Cave be without his loyal atmospheric musical cohort Mick Harvey?
Thankfully the world hasn't had to worry about it much... Haravey has been present creating the sonic landfill for Cave to plow through since his days in the seminal Australian act Birthday Party

here's two tracks from Mr. Harvey circa 1995 ( sans Nick )


Here's stuff from Harvey's "Intoxicated Man" tribute take on the music of Serge Gainsbourg...

Lemon Incest is a tune that was originally recorded by Gainsbourg with with his pubescent daughter

Mick Harvey - Lemon Incest.mp3

p.s The female voice is Anita Lane , heard here as well:

Mick Harvey - the song of slurs.mp3

and just to finish in compleely different territory....

Macho NYC hardcore was never one of my main, or even peripheral loves...

However, I ended up being friends for a week with a particular NYC HC band called Underdog in the late 80's ...

Their UK based soundman was a friend of mine, who'd toured with my pals MDC across Europe...

Somehow he ended up on tour in SF in 1989 with Underdog, a combo that had it's roots in the particular clean cut NYC straight edge thing...The singer was Richie Birkenhead ( briefly w/ Youth of Today, and later of Into Another)
and they were putting out a new LP on Caroline.

Underdog had a gig at Gilman St and eventually I got em one opening for my grunge era band at The Chatterbox in SF...

Underdog didn't really fit in with the 21 and over Kiss pinball machine & "Glam, Slam Rock n Roll" vibe at The Chatterbox. They were troppers and didn't complain, but our band's Stooges/Jane's/Zep-tallica shtick wasn't from the same rockin' planet. Our gay guitarist & stubby bass player with his heroin chic complexion looked totally out of place with the healthy jock like presence of these vegan and straight edge guys....

The Chatterbox was a sleazy bar with Johnny Thunders drunken signature painted on the rafters, and Underdog didn't seem too impressed at the joint with their shiny equipment.

The place had a bug eyed speed freak soundman who lived in the basement,
and peeked down on ya from the rafters to do the sound... at the end of your set he'd bust out a used VHS tape and try to sell ya a security cam quality tape of your own set back at ya for $20.

I wish I'd just given the freak the dough in retrospect, but hey... $20 seemed like a lot of dough to pay to see your own band...

I remember hanging with Underdog for a bit longer, we rode around in their van looking for tattoo shops in North Beach and shit... and then I never saw em' again... I later saw that Richie joined Into Another, which moved from the Krishna-esque Revelation label onto Hollywood Records, but eventually had the typical corporate fall out realization in the later 90s and dissolved. Richie supposedly married & divorced a billionairess, put out a solo album not long ago, and did some Underdog reunion gigs as recently as this fall...
wonder what he up to today?



Underdog "Over The Edge" from their 1989 album Vanishing Point album, re-released via Go-Kart

Hey Thanx For Reading & If Ya'd Like , Don't Forget To Check Out Some Of The Previous Oct Posts & The Archives

• Hump Night Iraq News Blast Etc
• West Memphis 3 Update
• Do Not AS I Do
• Thank You Very Much For Everything, I Like You !
• Here Comes The Wannabe Judge
• LET ME DOWN EZ
• Ryan Adams, Buddy Guy, Tweedy etc set for NYC FREE NOV SHOWS
• Underwater City Boil Up
• BLACK ROCK - MEDIA BLITZ - ETC

More Monthly Archives

• March 2005
• April 2005
• May 2005
• June 2005
• July 2005
• August 2005
• September 2005

Hump Night Iraq News Blast Etc

I'm walking out the door here at work on hump nite, planning on catching the Black eyed peas here in SF this weekend... But here's some factoids i gleaned while reading the newspapers and scanning the web this afternoon, which once again makes me wonder why I even bother to read anymore...

Report: U.S. Troops Filmed Burning Taliban Bodies
Kids Dropped In SF Bay

They say justice is blind, but in Iraq, she is more likely blindfolded, on her knees, bound & gagged,sleep deprived and photographed while a laughing US soldier points at her genitalia.

That is the impression I got from reading the initial accounts of big bad Saddam's so called "trial". The kangaroo court proceeding that started this week with unidentified judges, an outraged "Not Guilty" pronouncement from the caged former dictator is now being held up until late Nov. Word is the postponment is because about 40 witnesses against Saddam and his buddies didn't show up, likely due to fear.

Fear sounds like to the dominant character in the proceedings thus far, with heavily armed security scrutinizing officials and journalists. All who wish to attend have their identities established by iris scan and all entrants are repeatedly searched. Arrival to the court in the heavily fortified Bagdhad "Green Zone" is via a bus with curtains drawn. Reporters were inexplicably not even allowed to bring a pencil and note book into their bulletproof glass observation area. Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants, all elderly men, sat in a series of white metal cages, that according to one UK newspaper reporter appeared to look" like gigantic play pens."

"I don't acknowledge the entity that authorises you, nor the aggression, because everything based on falsehood is falsehood."

Four times he was asked his name; four times he refused to give it, but he did complain about being asked to get in and out of his ill fitting suit, and having his penis photographed.

'I'm still the president of Iraq'
Video: Saddam Hussein on the first day of his trial. (1min 16s)
Watch the video using RealPlayer

Over here, in our country, where we not only do democracy, but chicken right...House Majority Leader on extended indictment leave Tom Delay had an arrest warrant issued for him. His perp walk & mug shot is expected Friday...

Howard Zinn was down in Santa Barbara last month, giving one of his cursory examinations of American foreign policy objectives and the lies our leaders rely on to get their way with the people who will pay for their folly and ferocious rhetoric. Zinn's popular book The People's History Of The United States is simply a must read for anyone who wishes to clarify & understand and erase the propaganda and lies of your high school text books.

Zinn was quoted as telling the assembled "No president has invoked God as his military advisor more than Bush to justify war with immunity,". The 79 year old professor also mentioned the idea of providence and manifest destiny as being an integral part of the American consciousness that leads the country to believe that its place in the world supersedes all other nations.

This egregiously sanctimonious behavior is no more apparent than in our current administration's hyped up tone of pseudo-religious babbling. A recent NY Times column by Thomas Freidman exemplifies the conflicts this is having in our foreign policy, particularly as we attempt to "sow democractic ideals" in Iraq. Freidman reports that Iraq has sent home representatives of it's constituitional study delegation after receiving contradictory examples of US ideals. Since you can't read the column online unless you have access to subscribers-only TimesSelect, here's a couple excerpts.

Some of the Iraqi's appeared shocked that Bush was saying his party should support Harriet Miers for the U.S. Supreme Court because of her religious beliefs. This after the U.S badgered Iraqi's about the need for separation of "mosque & state":

"Now let me get this straight," Judge Mithaqi said. "You are lecturing us about keeping religion out of politics, and then your own president and conservative legal scholars go and tell your public to endorse Miers as a Supreme Court justice because she is an evangelical Christian.

"How would you feel if you picked up your newspapers next week and read that the president of Iraq justified the appointment of an Iraqi Supreme Court justice by telling Iraqis: 'Don't pay attention to his lack of legal expertise. Pay attention to the fact that he is a Muslim fundamentalist and prays at a Saudi-funded Wahhabi mosque.' Is that the Iraq you sent your sons to build and to die for? I don't think so. We can't have our people exposed to such talk."

Here Friedman quotes a Shiite lawyer in the delegation:

"I survived eight years of torture under Saddam," Unfi said. "Virtually every extended family in Iraq has someone who was tortured or killed in a Baathist prison. Yet, already, more than 100 prisoners of war have died in U.S. custody. How is that possible from the greatest democracy in the world? There must be no place for torture in the future Iraq. We are going home now because I don't want our delegation corrupted by all this American right-to-torture talk."

Meanwhile in other brewing disasters of a non-diplomatic sort:

Hurricane Wilma is maintaining her strength as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane with winds are at an incredible 160 mph, as the storm sits about 285 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. It's apparently headed towards the Yucatan and may scrape Cuba , with South Florida expected to possibly get the remaining brunt of what's left towards the end of the weekend. The ironically titled Miami Hurricanes college football team, has already had their weekend game against Geogia Tech postponed. The Miami Dolphins pro team are scheduled to host the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday afternoon and haven't announced their plns as of Wednesday eve.

Proving that not all sports sex scandals happen in the U.S, 20 year old Manchester United Football star Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal voluntarily turned himself into U.K police for arrest & questioning regarding claims of a sexual assault/rape reported by a woman in a London penthouse hotel suite after a game on Oct 2nd.


span>

Last year two Premiership players were interviewed over an alleged gang rape at the Grosvenor House hotel in London but no charges arose. The independent UK newspaper reports of other alleged sexual assaults & rapesin which European football players were arrested, but most resulted in no longterm punishments ever materializing.


other news:

The Electronic Freedom Foundation decodes secret dot matrix tracking codes in common computer printers from Xerox, Dell and other manufacturers. Here's a list of printers known to print tracking dots on documents (http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/list.php

---------------

Is mega corp Procter & Gamble breaking the law by enlisting teens to coax friends to try teen-tailored products? The consumer advocacy group Commercial Alert has filed a complaint with the FTC that claims P&G's word-of-mouth "buzz marketing" unit, Tremor, targets teens with deceptive advertising.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2005-10-18-buzz-usat_x.htm






In San Francisco, striking health care workers face an uphill battle against Sutter / California Pacific Medical Center. Management at Sutter has refused to meet with a federally appointed mediator and the hospital has put in place a notorious private security firm known as the Steele Foundation. The Steele Foundation has done work protecting contractors from insurgents in Iraq, and now in the normally quiet Pacific Heights district is engaged against largely female groups of picketing nurses and other workers. An unarmed, and downed woman was recently pushed off a sidwalk and repeatedly kicked to the point of injury. Here's a photo of some of the military-trained thugs hired by Sutter CPMC to intimidate striking caregivers at a recent candle light vigil and picket line.

To watch the news coverage of CPMC's security guards attacking caregivers, click on http://www.ktvu.com/news/5094332/detail.html

Read more about the Steele Foundation

--------------------------

Gannett Smokers to Pay

Gannett's employees are receiving a notice that tells them to kick their nicotine habit or pay an extra $50 for their health insurance each month. The publisher of USA Today and 98 other newspapers is instituting the smoking disincentive in an effort to curb rising health care costs.
------------------------------

Newspaper Adds Click-to-Call to Classifieds

Embattled by online web ads, publishers seek new revenue and The Palm Beach Post says it will become the first newspaper to offer click-to-call service to all its online classified advertisers. By clicking a "Talk to Seller" link, interested buyers can request a phone call with whoever took out an ad. The service will be free to advertisers.


----------------------------------
Saturday Night on TV is Dead ?

The state of network television on Saturday nights has become so dire that CNN reports ABC has essentially put a prime-time slot up for auction to any Hollywood producer who can make a program for no more than $500,000 an episode. Since 2000, Saturday night network TV viewership has dropped 39%.

Anyhow... I don't watch much TV and really could give a shit I suppose ...

here's some tunes to reward all you Bay City Scrollers...

Here's those Canadian dinosaurs rocking some Robert Johnson via Cream, remarkably quick for some prog veterans at only 3:26 minute. If only Clapton could put a clamp on it as easily...

RUSH - Crossroads

for my dinosaur loving visitors... how about a 20 minute 25 meg Pink Floyd remix ?

Pink Floyd - RemixHey there's some modern hip hop hippie stuff for all you 21st Century Bratniks Below...

Kanye West - Peace

Spearhead - Bomb The World

Erase Errata - California Viewing

West Memphis 3 Update

In May 1993, three eight-year old boys, one sexually mutilated, were found murdered in a wooded area near West Memphis, Arkansas. A year later, a jury convicted three local teenagers on the theory that they committed the murders as part of a Satanic ritual. The oldest defendant, Damien Echols -- who was 18-years-old at the time of the crime -- was sentenced to death.


Since that time, two acclaimed HBO documentaries ("Paradise Lost I" and "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations") and a book ("The Devil's Knot") have detailed the media frenzy surrounding the case and the lack of credible evidence against the three defendants.

The case has been called a modern-day Salem witch hunt, in which young, long-haired outcasts were wrongly condemned to quell a community's fear and anger. Many artists and musicians have felt a tinge of solidarity with these perennial poor white trash losers, and have signed on in support of the boys and their legal defense.

Comedian Margaret Cho has become interested and is helping distribute Damien Echol's new autobiography for which she wrote the forward, available on her website

Margeret Cho - wm3Interview
Listen (MP3 ) of Lorri Davis (Damien's wife), and Mara Leveritt, author of Devil's Knot, The True Story of the West Memphis Three,


also : click pic for Margeret Cho's Video Interview with wm3.org creators
video clipMargaret interviews Grove Pashley, Kathy Bakken, and Burk Sauls from www.wm3.org, about the West Memphis Three.


Among the other notable people who've got behind their case are Henry Rollins who put together a benefit album that featured covers of his old Black Flag unit from folks like Ryan Adams, Rancid and Iggy Pop.


Chuck D & Henry Rollins - Rise Above.mp3

Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam got together with the Supersuckers to do a cover of X's "Poor Girl" that was released on a different benefit complilation for the West Memphis Three. Also on that disc was the Long Beach Dub All Stars with Joe Strummer and Tippa Irie doing a cover of Jimmy Cliff's "Harder They Come".

Eddie Vedder & The Supersuckers - Poor Girl ( X cover )

Joe Strummer and Tippa Irie w/ Long Beach Dub Allstars - The Harder They Come (Jimmy Cliff Cover)

Chuck Prophet's - West Memphis Moon




This is a song from Prophet's latest album, inspired by the trial of the West Memphis Three. Chuck recently helped organize a benefit in SF for their defense fund, that with the help of folks like Jello Biafra, Jonathan Richman, Mark Kozelek and others raised $6000. Chuck is planning to be at the UC Hastings downtown campus at 198 McCallister on October 18th at 3:30 pm for a special presentation on the case.

Lawyers Dennis Riordan and Donald Horgan, now Mr. Echols' present counsel, will discuss new developments in the case, the constitutional issues, the procedural hurdles to obtaining a new trial in federal habeas corpus proceedings, and the DNA testing that may help establish Mr. Echols' innocence. The program will feature excerpts from the HBO documentaries.

I'll post whatever I learn at this event in the coming days...

meanwhile here's a notice about an upcoming Cowpunk themed San Francisco benefit for the 3 at Thee Parkside on Nov 12th




---------- meanwhile, drowning in a sea of polls ------------------

For some reason, I've been enamored with polls lately. Maybe it's the voyeuristic aspect of knowing what other people think, of being "in the know" with little or no effort on my part. All I have to do is pull up the data, and I don't have to get into any long winded partisan arguments or uncomfortable conversations with starngers. I just let The Pew Research Center, Zogby, Gallup and other organizations go out an do all the dirty research work for me.

One of the latest polls of our polarized nation I read about was sponsored by CBS news. It showed that 70 percent of Republicans surveyed think the money spent and loss of life in Iraq was worth it for removing Saddam Hussein and whatever "goals" have been accomplished thus far...While only 30 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats say the same.

Another interesting survey is one of 150,000 US government workers, which show important trends in employee job satisfaction and where opportunities for boosting productivity and better practices and communication lie.

Not surprisingly the group of tax payer funded workers that think the most of themselves and their mission are those spaced out dreamer characters at NASA. Sadly the newly created Department of Homeland security with a much more earth bound mission has the lowest job satisfaction rating of any government agency. Only 20% of DHS workers rate their department as a good place to work and see their workplace as a successfully performing agency. The DHS workers answered questions in the multi agency survey that finished in the bottom 10% of employee rankings a startling 96% of the time. For example only 3% of Homeland Security Dept employees thought that personnel advancement decisions "were based on merit". When asked if "creativity and innovation" were rewarded, nearly half "disagreed or strongly disagreed".

An Analysis of Employee Attitudes at Federal Departments & Agencies

first a couple tunes dedicated to the most "unsatisfying" federal deaprtment and it's haggard minions...

Bjork & PJ Harvey - I Can't Get No Satisfaction

Devo - I Can't Get No Satisfaction

The New York Observer has a great story by Ben Smith & Lizzy Ratner detailing
The Trouble With Harriet
How Intellectuals Resent Bush's Lawyer; and even Judge Bork calls her a: ‘Slap in Face to Conservative Movement’


hey if you have joined the podcast nation, check out archives from Mother Jones Radio, also heard Sundays on Air America, like last weeks program in mp3 right here


now

howz about some mucho hyped melodic death metal to balance things out for those of you who need a little more darkness with your breakfast cereal

The Darkest Hour - With A Thousand Words To Say But One

try a track from their Victory Records release Undoing Ruin
( and if ya like that...there's plenty more here.)


anyhow

stay gold pony boys and girls

I gotta go and shut down the bars...

Do Not AS I Do

hey if yer near LA next week, ya wanna check out this wild musical Katrina benefit event put together by my pals at Silverback involving members of Sublime, Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, Mars Volta and many more...




On October 24, 2005, the Music Box @ Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles will play host to a Sublime Tribute and Benefit show, inspired by the June '05 CD release of "Look at all the Love We Found: A Tribute To Sublime" 100% of the proceeds will benefit MusiCares Musicians Assistance Project Fund and Hurricane Relief 2005. Even the evil overlords at Ticketmaster are getting behind this event and dropping their service fee, so tix are a fllat rate of $35 !!!

That's a better deal thna a bag o weed these daze kids and gets ya an up close and personal look at some top notch talent...

Performances by Ozomatli, Blackalicious, Fishbone, AWOL One & Abstract Rude, Bargain Music, and The Ziggens and some other major artists (many of whom cannot be announced) will round out the night. Closing the evening will be an all-star jam featuring members of Sublime and many surprises along the way. The night will be co-hosted by KROQ's Jed the Fish.

The Unofficial Jam LThe Unofficial Jam Lineup Looks Something Like This:ineup Looks Something Like This:

Drums-Bud (Sublime)
Percussion-Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction)
Bass-Eric Wilson (Sublime)
Bass-Tony Kanal (No Doubt)
Guitar-Bob Forrest (Thelonious Monster)
Guitar-John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Guitar-David Hidalgo (Los Lobos)
Sax-Angelo Moore (Fishbone)
Trumpet-Flea (Chili Peppers)
Turntables-Marshall Goodman (Sublime/LBDA)
Melodica/Vox-Josh Fischel (Bargain Music)
Ikey Owens-keyboards (Mars Volta)


Both the benefit show and the CD release are a humanitarian effort between long time members of the immediate Sublime family: Cornerstone R.A.S., Martian Church and Silverback Management. As a result of the unprecedented 75cents per record being donated to charity, the project naturally opened up opportunities for this and further philanthropic endeavors."Look at all the Love We've found..." a Sublime tribute CD has soundscanned over 50,000 units to date since mid summer and boasts a collection of artists who either inspired Sublime and/or were fans of the band performing Sublime classics. They've donated tens of thousands of dollars to charity through the sales of this Cd, and this concert is just one more activity that gives back

Here's a sample of the type of jams you are likely to hear at this gig:

Long Beach Dub All Stars - Take Warning ( Live Sound Board Tape of Op Ivy Cover @ 2000 Warped Tour)


other factoids:

Survey shows 2% approval of Bush from African Americans, this is the same guy that they had given a 51% approval rating of just a couple years back.

Hey did ya know that yer 10x more likely to get life without parole if your an African American youth offender, than if you are white. Maybe they should teach a variation on the ol' saying "Don't do the crime, if you can't ...change your skin color before the trial date."


p.s here's some hip hop film scene news for those paying attention:


The Bronx Museum of The Arts will host the Hip Hop Association's third annual Hip Hop Education Summit this year. Parents, teachers, and social workers will gather to discuss the use of hip hop as a serious teaching tool.

Roxanne Shante, who got her masters degree by taking advantage of a contract clause years ago, will be among the speakers at H2ED. In addition a festival called "Hip Hop Odyssey" will showcase over seventy five films including "Beef 3", "House Party", and "Bling :Consequences and Repercussions."

The Hip Hop association will also honor The Last Poets among others. The event, promoting Peace, Love, Unity & Having Fun, lasts from November 6th to the 12th.

For more information, visit http://www.hiphopassociation.org

For those not in the know, here's the Last Poets

Last Poets - Jones Comin' Down


anyhow, let's skip out the US ghetto & go euro casual ...

our first Euro artist with downloads for today is

Hanne Hukkelberg...

She's a Norwegian singing sensation, trained at the Oslo's National Academy of Music , she's the kind of gal that can do it all, from dark metal to Beth Orton-esque drone pop... here's a a three song sampler of tracks from her recent "Little Things" album. Listen for picturesque touches of glockenspiel, banjos, glass bottles, and bicycle spokes amidst the sonic tapestry and syrupy sweet vocal histronics...

Hanne Hukkelbeg- Searching.mp3
Hanne Hukkelberg- Do Not As I Do.mp3
Hanne Hukkelberg - Words & A Piece Of Paper



Some German metallers, looking to release their 4th album next year, have posted a preview track while they look for a new label...

JESTER'S FUNERAL - "Miss Singularity"

more info at http://www.jestersfuneral.de

we'll head back over stateside and finish this post with some ol' fashioned college rock...

Next, here's a collegiate indie act that got it's start at Louisiana State U in Baton Rouge in 2002 that is named after some famous furniture makin' bros.

Eames Era - Year Of The Waitress

Eames Era - Could Be Anything

and college rock just wouldn't be college rock without a visit to 80's dropout kings ... The Replacements...

here's a cut from their last decent album, a 1989 release that is still sorta sweet, even though it shows Grandaboy is already attempting to melt into MTV ready mediocrity...

The Replacements - I'll Be You


anyhow

I've just put in a 10 1/2 hour work day on three hours of sleep...

I gotta go and get to to the Comp USA to buy printer cartridges before it closes... talk to ya laters...

Thank You Very Much For Everything, I Like You !

Why Read About Botched Wars, Mass Disasters, The Truth Behind 9/11 etc

When You Can Look At Bon Jovi's Butt

That picture appeared recently when I clicked on an ad for a concert ticket website, and I thought for some reason you might want that experience as well...

Well, it looks like a candid shot, just a random glimpse at the life Mr. Bon Jovi leads. Sorta like Bush's down home style, impromptu teleconference with US soldiers in Iraq. Y'know the one where the one invited Iraqi soldier said "Good morning, Mr President, thank you for everything. Thank you very much for everything. I like you."

Apparently he is Sergeant Major Akeel Shaker Nassir, who is charge of Iraqi troop training in Tikrit.


AP pic of Bush waving to his fans in Tikrit

There have currently been been 2,166 coalition troop deaths in Iraq,
1,970 Americans, 96 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, two Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 26 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of October 12, 2005.

Word has it that a similar impromptu miracle is occuring right here in my own beloved Bay Area.

The powers that be at mass transit provider Bay Area Rapid Transit ( misnomer if their ever was one) have decided to experiment with an absolutely outlandish concept. BART's going to be offering 24-hour service this weekend, from the evenings of Friday October 14 through Sunday October 16.

No they aren't being exactly generous, it's only because the morons at Cal Trans decided to close all the eastbound lanes on the Bay Bridge on those nights. Why the flag waving orange vested overtime suction cups need to glom up every lane on the bridge on the weeknd is beyond my comprehension. The the fact that NYC for example has 24 hour subway service year round, only emphasizes why SF is just a sleepy little fishing village and not really "The City".

I have to get to a wedding in Oakland and back to San Francisco for work via public transit, and I hope this all works out ok. At least as good as The Bush presidency has so far, which according to a new Pew Research poll, has so impressed people, more people surveyed said his administration will regard the whole period as one of failure. In fact, half of Republicans surveyed said Bush's policies have made the deficit worse and just 12 percent say he has improved the situation. That is the same 12 percent of people who believe women were created out of spare ribs, life begins at ejaculation, and that the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are the likely cause of global warming, at least on Sundays in Dallas.

Am I rambling...

yes I am...

are you still reading?

yes you are...


hmmmm...

anyhow,

below there's some tunes to get ya through the weekend...

but first up, let's get jiggy with yer fave 911 conspiracy theories...

One batch of factoids here comes from the always entertaining Mad Cow Prod, who've written a book called "Welcome To Terrorland" on the deeply twisted 911 ties to the Florida Aviation School Scene, the sordid ties with shady finaciers, CIA endorsed drug smugglers, terrorist pilots, numerous federal investigations and subsequent coverups...

Oct 9th Podcast - Show One

as a bonus, a 34 minute audio excerpt from

"THE HISTORY CHANNEL - Inside the 1979 October Surprise and the Bridge to 9/11."

both are audio records that helps explain some of the fine conspiracy theories and coincidences you'll come across:

like

George HW Bush and Shafig bin Laden, Osama's brother, spent the morning of September 11 together at a board meeting of the Carlyle Group

George Bush's brother Marvin sat on the board of the Kuwaiti-owned company which provided electronic security to the World Trade Centre

Uncle Jonathan Bush’s Riggs Bank has been found guilty of laundering terrorist funds and was fined a US-record $25 million

George W. Bush found success as a businessman only after the investment of Osama’s brother Salem and reputed al Qaeda financier Khalid bin Mahfouz.

Jeb Bush was with agents when records of Mohammed Atta's former flight school were seized on 9/12 , a school whose owner has ties to the CIA and drug smuggling

The owner of the airschool,Wallace J. Hilliard, had his Lear jet seized by the DEA when it was found to contain 40+ pounds of Heroin in it on a runway in Orlando.

----------------------

A UK based Mash Up DJ works in cuts from José Feliciano, DJ Kool , Marvin Gaye and some others...

DJ Alex H - California Throat

here he drops some Beatles, U2, Chili Peppers, Bob Marley and The Police amongst others into a furiously mixed up cramming session

DJ Alex H - Let it Be Under the Bridge (U2 Mix)

--------------------------------------

how about this one fro UK retro-pop meister

Paul Weller & Style Council- Sunflower


and here's just few more classic tunes for y'all... this time from the way back machine and Paul Weller's first & most beloved band The Jam, these two from their 1977 album In The City (trax posted courtesy the University Finalist with a fine Jam-tastic essay as well)

The Jam - Non Stop Dancing

The Jam - I Got By In Time

anyhow
if ya can,
get lost
have
fun

Here Comes The Wannabe Judge

I can only wonder what Bush was thinking when he proposed his personal lawyer and White House Deputy be a Supreme Court justice. Is this guy really such an idiot that he'd just imagine this was gonna fly? Or is this some deeper darker far more evolved plot machinated by the handlers of the nation's all powerful village idiot.

??????

Harriett Miers White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy

Maybe God just told him it was the "right thing" to do. Apparently Bush gets a lot of help from the heavens according to those in the prez' privy.

Recently the New York Times was able to get ahold of documents created by Harriett Miers and some of them are pretty darn neat. One of her letters from 1997 goes as far as to say of Bush:

"You are the best governor ever — deserving of great respect,"

She goes on to refer to him as "cool" and that W and wife Laura, were "the greatest!"

The whole accolade laden romance doesn't end there, with gleefully grinning Bush on the Today show this morning talking about his personal lawyer as "She is brilliant...she won't change." While the newly recruited Laura chimes in: "She really is wonderful." Liberated Laura has also been quoted saying that the reason people have opposed Miers as a Justice is "sexism".

She seems a bit like Dana Carvey's "church lady" character on Saturday Night Live, but maybe with a lil more of a ghoulish eye-liner heavy appearance and a Texas sized ego.

Here read some of her trite pre 2004 election cheerleading for the Prez in a bizarre and folksy Dear White House Q&A from the official White House website. She concludes here happy go lucky spiels in homespun ways with things like"May God bless you and yours, may he protect our servicemen and women, and may God continue to bless this great country of ours." and the closer "Hearing from Americans across the country is inspiring and interesting. I hope everyone has a great weekend.....and don't forget to reset your clocks Saturday night - Harriett"

You know it's bad when even conservative icon Judge Bork, The prez' dad's fabulously failed past nominee, refers to Miers nomination a "disaster on every level." Even typical administration apologists are backing away from Bush & Miers, with media centric conservative movement mouthpiece Ann Coulter saying Bush displays "stunning arrogance" with his suggestion lil' 'ol Harriett is ready to serve on the nation's highest constituitional interpretitive body.

Several media outlets & websites are at least beginning to peel her the onion layers of loyal service to Bush's campaigns over the years which includes helping to deflect criticism of his AWOL time in the National Guard , and her cozy appointment to the scandal-plagued Texas Lottery Commission. Apparently her first duty to Bush that helped him "know her heart" was her fixing of a lawsuit filed by a disgruntled & dismissed elderly care taker of GW & pals East Texas "Rainbo Club" fishing cabins in 1994.

eeeek...enough nominee golly gee & juicy judiciary blather, maybe working at a law school is starting to rub off on me...

so now party with ol Harriett now , right click and grab some music y'all...

_________ The Tunes _________

Shorty Long was signed to Motown in 1963 after a stint at Harvey Fuqua's Tri-Phi/Harvey label, he wrote Devil With The Blue Dress, Function at the Junction but was lost in the Hitsville USA shuffle. He eventually released his biggest hit "Here Comes The Judge" which hit #4 on the R&B charts in 1968. Shorty's career was cut short in 1969, at just age 29, due to a fatal boating accident.

Shorty Long - "Here Comes The Judge"

some of the lyrics:

Hear ye, hear ye
The court's in session
The court's in session, now
Here comes the judge

Stop eatin' that fudge
Cause here comes the judge
Don't nobody buzz
Cause here comes the judge
Judge Shorty is presidin' today
And he don't take no stuff from nobody
No kind of way Hey boy, take off that hat
Where do you think you're at
I know where you gon' be
If you don't heed my plea
I'm here to tell you
Court's in session
Order in the court now
Court's in session
Can't nobody smoke now
Here comes the judge

Y'all here comes the judge
Order, order
What's the first case on the docket
Judge I got a boy here who can't dance
Can't dance? Ah
Ninety days, thirty days for boogaloo
Thirty days to learn how to shing-a-ling
And thirty more for the Afro twist
Can't dance, what is this
Court's in session everybody quiet now
Court's in session, here comes the judge
Here comes the judge

Is that the man?
No, your honor
Does he look like the man?
No, your Honor
Well, I'm sorry you got to go now
Ah ha you can't recognize the man
You got to stand guilty
Here comes the judge
Here comes the judge
Here comes the judge
Ah yes, here comes the judge
They caught him stompin' down the aisle
Yes here comes the judge
I'd rather be lost in the jungle of Brazil
Than to face the judge
This morning the way he feels
Here comes the judge
Here comes the judge boy

Of course if we're gonna ride the judgement train, how about visiting our dead friend...

From his 1996 'All Eyez On Me" album, the most prolific and successful deceased rapper of all time...

Tupac Shakur - "Only God Can Judge Me Now"

sample lyrics:

(Heart monitor flatlines... beeps )
Only God baby, nobody else, nobody else
All you other motherfuckers get out my business

Perhaps I was blind to the facts, stabbed in the back
I couldn't trust my own homies just a bunch a dirty rats
Will I, succeed, paranoid from the weed
And hocus pocus try to focus but I can't see
And in my mind I'ma blind man doin time
Look to my future cause my past, is all behind me
Is it a crime, to fight, for what is mine?
Everybody's dyin tell me what's the use of tryin
I've been Trapped since birth, cautious, cause I'm cursed
And fantasies of my family, in a hearse
And they say it's the white man I should fear
But, it's my own kind doin all the killin here
I can't lie, ain't no love for the other side
Jealousy inside, make em wish I died
Oh my Lord, tell me what I'm livin for
Everybody's droppin got me knockin on heaven's door
And all my memories, of seein brothers bleed
And everybody grieves, but still nobody sees
Recollect your thoughts don't get caught up in the mix
Cause the media is full of dirty tricks
Only God can judge me

[Chorus: 2Pac]

[synth voice] Only God can judge me
That's right baby, yeah baby
[synth voice] Only God
Hahahahahahahaha





Play' Boy is a rapper out of Nashville Tn, who is not content to lie low while his town holds onto it's "HQ of Country Music USA" reputation. The city's burgeoning underground rap scene thrives and this spiteful spittin' track is from a 2004 release ...

Play' Boy - Wanna Judge Me


Gordy Boy was one of the better Mash Up DJ's to emerge over the past three years in the U.K. He's recently announced his retirement from that scene but here's one of his audio workouts that's still posted through December when his web hosting will likely end.

10 cc vs Beastie Boys - Mash Up by Gordy Boy - "Good Morning Judge Beastie "


and just because we can , we'll scrape the sonic barrels and throw in a few more completely unrelated tunes ...

Rasputina - Transylvanian Concubine ( Manson Mix )

Beach Boys - Feel Flows

Bob Marley - One Love