Musical Hair's Musings

I watched Sharpton's speech on C-Span. I watched a lot of the speechs live. I saw Obama's speech which was absolutely flawless. I missed Carter and Gore and Clinton(s) but you can catch up with what you missed at:

http://www.dems2004.org/site/apps/nl/content3 .asp?c=luI2LaPYG&b=125919& ct=158734" title="http://www.dems2004.org/site/apps/nl/content3 .asp?c=luI2LaPYG&b=125919& ct=158734" target="_blank"http://www.dems2004.org/site/...

I saw Carter's and Bill Clinton's speeches there.

Anyway I'm watching the Daily Show this evening where they're "covering" yesterday's events. The quotes are going to have to come off that word because in all honesty they do a better job of journalism than the networks or the cable news channels.

Apparently Sharpton's speech ruffled the feathers of Chris Mathews so much they bailed out on it and let Howard Fineman-- apparently speaking for african-americans everywhere-- declare that such a speech would alienate black voters. The whole lot of them, Adrea Kramer, Matthews, Fineman, Brian Williams showed such contempt for the content and the delivery and the audacity of Sharpton that I can't believe they actually listened to it. They sounded like they were all auditioning for Fox.

Sharpton was funny and eloquent. He has been for a long time actually. Around New York he angered a lot of white people during the "Twanna Brawley Incident", and while the real story about that will never see the light of day, people-- white people that is-- would rather dismiss him still to this day that even listen to him.

For me, I changed my mind about listening to him one day-- I think it was a Saturday-- while I was in a Geochemistry lab in college turning igneous rocks into dust to feed into an "XRF" machine and listening to the debate between democratic canidates for Senator of New York many years ago. I don't even remember who was debating with him but the two serious candiates said nothing but meaningless catch phrases while Sharpton spoke about the New York that I walk around and saw.

Sharpton understands the plight of the average person. His perspective, sharpened in the black community, is broad enough to embrace and define for public discourse all working class economic and justice issues. I don't care how he gets his money-- at least right now I don't-- and I don't care what he thinks about the whole "incident" so long ago-- but to my shock I learned that African-American journalists for African-American New York newspapers have very different conclusions about the nature of that injustice-- and I don't care if he don't really know the way the government pays for itself-- he ain't getting elected to high office where it would matter anyway and he won't be the biggest dummy elected (George W, and Chuck Schummer, I'm lookin' at you two big dummies, Sharpton's got to brighter than either of you). I can listen to Sharpton every time he speaks and feel vindicated in my own beliefs and comforted that we may still acheive community on our nation.

But, you may not feel that way if your racist. If your a white racist then you can't hear Sharpton without reacting with anger and even pulling the plug on him. If your a racist you might even spew out lies about the content or effectiveness of his speech. Too bad such anachronistic racism is still around, and too bad it is all over Chris Matthews Hardball, or what ever their calling their bullshit convention coverage.

Take a look at this:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=6 94&ncid=716&e=3&u=/ap/200 40723/ap_on_el_pr/bush" title="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=6 94&ncid=716&e=3&u=/ap/200 40723/ap_on_el_pr/bush" target="_blank"http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...

It is really really funny. I actually agree with Bush that people should take a look at his agenda, but it ain't nothing he should be proud of.

The 9/11 commission issues a report but don't talk about who funded the attack, don't seek to blame anyone (even though there is plenty of blame to go around) blames Bush and Clinton equally-- Bush was president WTF!?!?!?-- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHH!

What a complete waste of tax payers dollars. Ten years from now when the real facts start coming out, the "center" will point to this document-- inspite of all the fighting the administration did to hinder it's work and limit it's scope and restrain it's budget (compare Ken Starr's budget to the this things budget, compare the time frames, compare the use of subpenas)-- as proof that everyone still digging into this matter are conspiracy freaks. This will be our "Warren Commission", what a waste. I lost all respect for former Gov Kean, and what little I had for Lee Hamilton. If it was going to be this white-washed they should have issued two reports, majority and minority like I said long ago in a blog titled "The "Need" for a Unaminous Report from the 9/11 Commission" found towards the bottom of this link:
http://www.tblog.com/templates/index.php?bid=musicalhair&godat e=06/18/04&limit" title="http://www.tblog.com/templates/index.php?bid=musicalhair&godat e=06/18/04&limit" target="_blank"http://www.tblog.com/template...

I don't know how to just link to the individual essay (am I being pretentious in calling it an essay? should just call these rants? stammerings? drunken mumblings? I'm not drunk... call them drunken mumblings anyway. OK) err, that is individual drunken mumbling so your stuck with three, but the Byzantium one at the top is still just about my favorite that I've writ---- err--- mumbled.

If our government has become so partisan and our people become so sheepish then we're already doomed and 9/11 did more to show our collective stupidity that to either effectively attack us or "wake a sleeping giant". We really do seem like we're being lead by the the drunken fools stomping through their own vomit in the Book of Isaiah (I heard a Jesuit named Father Berigan (forgive my spelling) speak on that book and it was amazing.

This report is a joke, their hands were tied and they sought not to even question the knots that bound them nor those that tied them. They didn't bother to look for any tough questions instead blame a lack of imagination. Do you know how many reports specifically mentioned using air craft as weapons? Do you know how many old guys I met that saw Kamikazee's fly into other ships? Holy fuck I'm pissed. You can't defend a country that don't want to know who attacked us. Oh, Evil do-ers-- thats right: Evil Do-Errrrs. Evil Do-Errrs that are near oil rigs that Bush don't control-- yet.



At this point it is so obvious that the Oligarchy can't even get together and be even a little patriotic and find out what went wrong and fix it for the good of the country. These bastards choose 9/11 to go after oil fields. They through the tiniest of bones going after Afganistan, breifly-- did anyone see the report of a 2,000 man Marine force getting pulled out of Afganistan?-- because their less useful to the oligarchy than Pakistan that harbored as mush Al Qaida as Afganistan then started sewing the seed to get Iraqi oil. Thank God FDR didn't attack Lichtenstien on D Day.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAA!

I'm not political today-- too tired.

My new house has a lot of property, almost all grass. The last owner used one of those "riding mowers" not the "zero turn" types that real lawn care contractors use but the cushy mini-tractor kind. I tried mowing the grass with my old fasioned "reel" mower. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. The sun set, it started raining, and I was only about 2/3 finished. Now, for my current home (we're not moving for a couple more weeks) I have a gas powered (when they make the solar one, let me know) mower that lets me get my current home done in about an hour (used to take about 3 hours with the reel mower).

I'm predicting it will take me about 3 hours to do the new home with the gas-powered mower at the new house. Then if I bring the reel mower back to the old house that will also take me about three hours to cut that grass. That is 6 hours a week cutting grass. This is a lot, but it will be good exercise.

So, I'm looking at these riding mowers at the home-super-store while the wife takes the kids to the bathroom. It was pretty funny. They all had cup holders-- isn't there enough dust and grass clippings flying around? Another thing they all had was head lights! Are people out riding these things at night? They have canopies so you don't get hit with the sun's rays. They have all kinds of stuff, and the cushiest seats. I saw a guy one one of these things cutting the grass as I drove to the new house. His property is like this really steep hill all contoured and huge with a fenced off pond in the middle-- and that just the part I can see from the road! As I saw him I realized that he cut all that grass today.

Before that I thought it was the town's property. Just yesterday it was so overgrown and wild looking that I thought the town or county gets out and does it like twice over the summer or something. This property is so steep and the hill is rounded and all that I was quite amazed he could do this and he didn't tip over on it.

Anyway the way I see it, one pass with the big Cub Cadet riding mower equals about three passes with the gas powered push mower (50 inches vs about 22, but you have to overlap your passes) so I may get the job done in about 1 1/2 hours maybe less.

So, the sell out in underway isn't it? I'll be whinning about tax breaks for the rich and cutting property taxes and just being all sub-urban ( let me try a spelling experiment: sub-hurban sub-human... hmmmm). Well, maybe not. I've read where the spread of people from the urban areas moving out into the suburbs will push the politics to the left. I don't actually buy it. The same people the benefitted most from free college education in New York City through the City University are all for increasing fees and costs so that kids today in NYC can't get the same break the older (greatest??? most-selfish maybe) generation got.

I fear most people moving to places like where I'm moving to actually think they "earned it" and that people stuck in tougher more run down areas "deserve it". I'd bet not too many finish the thought about being thankful and humble for what they've got in life, you know where the realize that there but for the grace of God go I, and then wish everyone else the same luck and actually seek to extend the same good fortune to others.

Anyway, I kinda think it would be quite a goof to be driving around on this kind of lawn mower, with the cup holder (what do I put in it? a Mint Julip (what is that anyway), and the canopy (I should find one that takes a parasol) and even humungous grass clippings catching bag. I just wish it had a CD player. The theme song-- all my vehicles have theme songs-- would be Cruising by Jefferson Starship off the Red Octopus CD. I'd visit the neighbors on it.

OK, this blog don't make the hall of fame but I do always turn these things a little political, don't I?

Oh, and don't get me started on the outdoor kitchens like by Jenn-Air or Coleman-- good God, it had a Deep Fryer on it! Deep frying on the gas-BBQ in the back yard!

Let's see, there are all kinds of deer running around the neighborhood. I've got a family of bunnies in the backyard. As I was cutting the grass I saw a frog hopping away. I've got two grape vines that climb up out of the ground that fill up a long trellis-- I think the word is-- that are like over run by Japanese Beetles. I've got a pear three and an apple tree. It is kind of nice. Nice Jacuzzi too. As I strip paint and get ready to move in I find myself thanking God over and over and over .... I've got two huge bee hives to deal with, the Japanese Beetles (not the English Beatles) that I guess I need to deal with, and I guess Deer Ticks to worry about. There are two or three big state parks with swimming in the lake or resevouir and even an astronomical observatory on one of them (you know the big telescopes, I don't think the ones on the east coast see as well as the ones out west but for the kids-- for me too-- this will be cool.

Check this out:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=5 14&e=9&u=/ap/20040718/ap_ on_el_pr/fahrenheit_for_r epublicans_19" title="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=5 14&e=9&u=/ap/20040718/ap_ on_el_pr/fahrenheit_for_r epublicans_19" target="_blank"http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...

What struck me is that in the middle of it one of these mindless clowns says it isn't a documentary! When will a reporter or editor correct this mistatment. This isn't open to discussion or debate, it is a documentary. This nonsense of "both sides" both represents the myth that there are "two sides" and not one for each peson that lives, and amd betrays a misconception these partisan hacks want to perpetuate about the nature of documentarys and any art work.

A film is a work of art, all performances are, from the O'Reily (lie) Factor(y) to Moby Dick, from Malcolm X the movie to the Alex Haley bio. All documentaries from the most mundan anthropological film to "I, Robot" present the filmaker's viewpoint. This includes his politics. Every work of art is a political statment.

Michael Moore saw what was wrong with the politicians and what was wrong with the media. He presented that. What both sides should he have represented? Both Bush's are all over it speaking in their own words, as a are all sorts of politicians and businessmen. There is even a woman that says a scene is staged. These lies that it isn't a documentary and that "both sides" aren't presented is aimed at people that are too dumb to understand the movie or the people that haven't seen it yet.

Both sides are presented and the screaming lies that are both sides (democrats and republicans) are what the movie is about in a sense. Both sides are running us to extinction through a long road of poverty and pollution. "Both sides" suck. We need our side for once to win and kick both sides to the curb, politically speaking. We need more Greens and more Libertarians to expose the lies that have become democrat and republican.

I think I'm going to reorganize my blog, especially the links part. I'm going to cut down on the length of text I use as titles of the links. For example, we all agree almost 100% of the time with Dr Forbush-- I don't need to say it. Plus it don't display right in Firefox browser.

Then I want to ad links to my favorite essays both of my own and others-- mostly my own because I'm narcissistic like that. I'm really "proud" of the Byzantium thing (did you guys read the WHOLE thing??) and the abortion thing and a few others and I don't want them disappeared into an unnavigable history archive.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

Hey everyone. I've been so busy with the new home that I've not posted.

Did anyone check out Smedley Butler?

There is a report out from the NEA on the problems facing jazz musicians, but to me the most striking difference in it is between union and non-union musicians. I've struggle by with non-union gigs, and I've been hesitant about joining because as much as I'd like to get better and better gigs I fear I'd lose during the transition, and probably because I'm a little insecure and worry about what it would mean to be a union musician. I should set a date and some goals to like make myself do it, like how people quit smoking.

I was surfing the web and I stumbled into a rock band's website, a cover band in upstate New York. On their front page they-- or one of them-- mention me and some other guy I've never heard of as two of the best musicians they (or the guy saying it) ever heard. On the page of the guitarist he lists me right in the middle of his influences! I really was somewhat stunned by the surprise. I've got a little sly smiile that hasn't gone away since then.

Take a look at this link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1 521&e=5&u=/afp/20040707/p l_afp/imf_iraq" title="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1 521&e=5&u=/afp/20040707/p l_afp/imf_iraq" target="_blank"http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...

So, the IMF "recognizes" the new Iraq? Is that a good thing? Let's see. Did the old Baathist Iraq owe the IMF money (really, I want to know)? Will this new Iraqi government borrow money to hire western contractors (Bectel, Haliburton, Unical, Raytheon etc etc) before they have even secured their postion as the legit goverment?

Wouldn't it be a hoot-- down in Crawford, or Riyadh, or Geneva, or London certainly, maybe not so much in Koror (Capital of the "Republic" of Palau, member of the Coalition of the Willing), Kigali (Rwanda's capital and another member of the Coersion into Willing), and probably not in Baghdad-- if this new government executes Sadaam, borrows butt-loads of money from the IMF, hands contracts and privatizes the Iraqi oil where Bush's buds buy up the mineral rights to it, and then once the business is done and the US troops are home or fighting the next "good" fight, topples like any puppet when the hand is pulled out of the back.

The place is still in a state of insurrection, with enemies around and within, wouldn't a "prudent" IMF wait till the smoke clears to see who is still standing at the end of all this? Not if they were legit. If instead they want to be loansharks and prey on the weak then this is the perfect time-- perhaps the only time depending on how stable this puppet government is-- to "recognize" the new government. Let's see where this goes.

I read where someone was doubting if Smedley T. Butler's analysis, so bluntly put as "War is a Racket"-- and by racket he means Al Capone type racketeers like the ones he broke up in Philadelphia--, was still relevant. Of coarse it always remained relevant, if one is willing to see the use of our millitary for what it is. Let's not pretend it is anything else, and this war may prove to be the text book example that validates his analysis.

BTW, this is not my "big" Smedley Butler blog, I just saw this new article and though I close on a house today (busy busy busy) I couldn't let this pass. Smedley Butler is one of he greatest Americans that ever lived by almost any standard.

I've not posted in a while-- been very busy getting ready to close on a new house-- but I wanted to just say have a happy fourth o' July weekend. This celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independance, and thus is a celebration of revolution.

Last presidential election I felt that, on the very surface of it, something was wrong as we had the son of a former Senator running against the son of a former President (and former CIA chief, etc), both with ties (one stronger than the other, but ties just the same) to oil. The question of "are we really run by an oligarchy" seemed answered in as plain language as possible. This time round we have two more "top 1%" running. So much for "work hard and you can grow up to be president".

The French Revolution and the American Revolution are closely tied in the philosophies that stood behind them. I'm sure the differences are as well studied as the similarities, but I'm not well studied in that. Some look at the American revolution as a revolution of the petite bourgeois, and not the masses. I think it is important to see it as that, but I also think we need to embrace the positive aspects of that and continue our history of finishing the job and bring true equality and liberty to all our own people and to begin promoting true sovereignty to every people around the world that desire it-- not faux-sovereignty, proping up dictator after dictator and chopping them down when we're finished with them.

We need a longer view of history than the mass media allows us to have. We need to ask, if Sadaam is tried for crimes against humanity, then what of Pinochet, Kissenger, "baby" Doc, Suharto and so many others-- including the House of Saud? If one of Sadaam's crimes against humanity is invading Kuwait, then can people in our own government suffer the same fate for invading Iraq? Right wingers, relax: I'm merely pointing out the fact that two wrongs don't make a right, and that those that live by the sword die by the sword.

Honestly, why haven't the similarities been brought up between the 7th charge agianst Sadaam and our current war. Further, will Sadaam's trial be completed and sentence carried out say a week or two before the puppet government that is charging him falls? What legitimacy is there in that?

When I was in the millitary, we had to be convinced that Sadaam was our ally. These same people--- exactly the same people-- then had to both admit he was evil and conceed to us that he was not an ally. Why aren't "we" collectively learning that this funding various side of fights around the world bloodies our hands more than anyone elses-- because in so many places these conflicts would end, like in Isreal, Saudi Arabia, Columbia, Chiapas and else where.

Now, I hate that ex-dictator as much as anyone. If you haven't seen "Uncle Sadaam" yet by all means rent it right away. This guy is a bastard, there is no denying it. That documentary is really a great movie, and should teach us a lot both about Iraq and why authoritarian government is sooooo wrong in all it's forms.

Happy Forth everybody.