Saturday, July 07, 2007


Centro-Matic Tour Dates

Always looking to spread the word about this great band from Denton, Texas. Will Johnson splits duties between Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel, so look out for both.

NEW SHOWS/NEW TOUR:
Fri. July 13 – Dallas, TX/Granada Theater
Fri. July July 27 – Kansas City, MO w/The String and Return
Sat. July 28 – Chicago, IL/Wicker Park Festival w/ Man Man, et al
Thurs. Aug. 9 – Denver, CO/Larimer Lounge w/ Jason Isbell.
Fri. Aug. 10 – Lincoln, NE/Knickerbockers w/ Jason Isbell.
Sat. Aug. 11 – Lawrence, KS/Bottleneck w/ Jason Isbell.
Tues. Aug. 14 – Austin, TX/Mohawk w/ Jason Isbell.
Wed. Aug. 15 - Houston, TX/Walter’s on Wash. w/ Jason Isbell.
Thurs. Aug. 16 – Baton Rouge, LA/Chelsea’s w/ Jason Isbell.
Fri. Aug. 17 – Orlando, FL/The Social w/ Jason Isbell.
Sat. Aug 18 – Tampa, FL/The Crowbar w/ Jason Isbell.
Mon. Aug. 20 – Charlotte, NC/Amos’ Southend w/ Jason Isbell.
Wed. Aug. 22 – Asheville, NC/Grey Eagle w/ Jason Isbell.
Thurs. Aug. 23 – Louisville, KY/Phoenix Hill w/ Jason Isbell.
Fri. Aug. 24 – Nashville, TN/Mercy Lounge w/ Jason Isbell.
Sat. Aug 25 – Macon, GA/The Hummingbird

USA Beats Brazil, 2-1!

In a U20 tournament, America beat Brazil yesterday, read about it here, from New York Times. The young Americans controlled the match and outperformed their more illustrious opponents. Heads will be rolling in the Brazil camp, of that you can be sure. Standout performances from Freddy Adu (short guy on the left) and Jozy Altidore (big guy in the middle), the third player in frame is Sal Zizzo.

The U20 team fared better than their senior colleagues did in the Copa America, where the Men's National Team lost to Colombia, 1-0. We fielded a largely inexperienced team, with 6 players making their first-ever starts for the national side. From the US Soccer website:

After a 10-0-1 start under Bradley that included winning the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the USA’s home confederation’s tournament, the U.S. traveled to Venezuela with a youthful team and has lost three consecutive games for the first time since a trio of World Cup qualifiers between July 1 and Sept. 5, 2001. By winning the Gold Cup, the U.S. will be one of eight select teams taking part in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, along side the eventual winner of the Copa America.

Next up on the U.S. schedule are three friendlies in Europe, beginning on Aug. 22 vs. Sweden in Goteberg, Sweden at 2:30 p.m. ET live on Fox Soccer Channel and Galavision. The U.S. then takes advantage of a double FIFA date in October, first facing Catalonia on Oct. 14 at the Nou Camp in Barcelona, Spain, and then traveling to face Switzerland on Oct. 17. Both October matches will also be televised on Fox Soccer Channel and Galavision.

Thursday, July 05, 2007


Support The Dupes!

What does it mean to "support the troops"?

Do you support killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, including women and children (i.e., non-combatants)? Do you support Bush sending forces into Iraq even though Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks? Do you support abandoning the fight in Afghanistan against the Taliban - the people who really were behind the attacks? Do you support the resurgence of the Taliban, who are now in control of 3/4s of Afghanistan and have helped heroin production to reach an all-time high (no pun intended)? Do you support all of us in America spending our future to fund this war, to the tune of 2 and a half billion dollars per week? Do you support the wholesale destruction of our Constitution and the system of international laws that we struggled to create for the past 60 years?

Does supporting the troops mean giving consent to the abuses at Abu Ghraib? Remember that scandal? Seems like ancient history now. When you have pond-scum like Rush Limbaugh saying the torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib was "no different than fraternity pranks," and people believe it, it makes you wonder how stupid some people can possibly be. Don't forget that the abuses at Abu Ghraib, according the the general who investigated it, included things like anal rape of female detainees, sodomizing male detainees with brooms and whatever else was handy, waterboarding (a form of torture the US has prosecuted as a war crime for almost a hundred years), rendition (the act of kidnapping someone and handing them over to torture specialists in another country) and so on.

Does it bother you that of all those thousands of people held at Abu Ghraib (somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 people), none of them were charged with crimes? That they were held for nearly two years and then released back into the wild? Another way to read this is, those people did nothing wrong and were falsely imprisoned, beaten, and tortured without any charges being brought. That does not sound like America to me.

But it is America. We did it. Not only has it been proved we did it, but those responsible have either gloated about it (Rumsfeld) or lied about it. Those who have expressed doubts have been removed from power. Ask Zinni.

Bush has laid it out: you support all this because America is in a fight to the death with terrorists, and you have to choose sides. Abu Ghraib is necessary because of 9/11. Air strikes on crowded housing developments is necessary because of 9/11. Children are blown to bits because they were stupid enough to play in a slum where "suspected terrorists" might be.

If you express doubts or worse, you don't support the troops. You don't support Bush's crusade or his vision. In Congress, those who question this war have been called traitors. There have been comments made that Democratic congress members are guilty of treason and should be locked up and/or executed - comments made by other representatives, on talk radio, and in books.

How did we get to the point where a phrase like "collateral damage" doesn't fill us with horror? Do you remember reading about wedding parties blown up because a "suspected terrorist" might have been in attendance (but wasn't)? Why are Iraqis not seen as people, as humans? We are there to help them, right? Aren't we? I mean, seriously, if we are not in Iraq to help them, what the fuck are we doing?

I will say that I don't want our troops/dupes to die, I don't want them kidnapped, and I certainly don't want them tortured. But I also don't want them to be doing those things themselves to other people. If our forces capture someone, try them in a court of law, the way we expected and demanded other nations treat suspects. If they are found guilty, execute them.

I certainly do not subscribe to the belief that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." I think a terrorist is a terrorist. I don't care if they're ETA, or IRA, or Chechens, or whatever. Terrorists kill civilians to gain headlines and support. Terrorists blow up pubs full of ordinary folks trying to have lunch, or explode airplanes over Scotland, or assassinate judges. Those people, regardless of their grievances, are no friend of mine. They are enemies of mankind. The IRA's supposed policy of targeting only "military" targets might have ameliorated things, but they never stuck to that policy, did they? And just because someone is in a uniform does not make them a legitimate "target."

I also feel deeply sorry that so many young people have so few options in life that joining the military seems like the only way to get to a better future for themselves. There are people who join, like Pat Tillman, who are not desperate, and are motivated by some sense of honor, but those people really are dupes. Those economically and educationally deprived folks who join the military - it's a shame on our nation. Many join so they can end up going to college. How sad is that?

What about those who join because they want to kill people? How can you support that? Is that fighting for our country? If you want to make the world a better place and to spread democracy and even help the image of America, what's wrong with the Peace Corps?

We have a volunteer army. No one is forced into service. And for everyone who joined after the truth has come out that Iraq had zero involvement with 9/11, Iraq did not possess WMD, and the Bush administration lied, manipulated intelligence, silenced critics, fabricated and planted stories in the press (hello, Judith Miller...), and used our national tragedy as an excuse to pursue a private vendetta and to enrich their friends --- they are dupes.

So, 4th of July. I spent it in Manhattan Beach. Bikinis everywhere, most of them too small (as if that were possible) and resembling the stars 'n' stripes of the American flag. Fireworks. Anthems. Somehow, wrapped up in all of this is the warning: support the troops... or else. But I don't support them being in Iraq. I don't support Bush's war or his policies. I don't support bankrupting our nation to pursue a war for oil. I don't support our soldiers getting killed. I don't support a nation that allows the economic disparities to rise to such a level that huge percentages of young people have no future outside of the armed forces. I don't support any action that kills or harms a civilian or a non-combatant. I don't support Bush's cultural imperialism, where his apocalyptic brand of Christianity is the raison d'etre for every loathsome and illegal action his minions make.

I am against this war and always have been. Why not finish the job in Afghanistan and wipe the Taliban out of existence? I support that! They admitted to helping, harboring, and endorsing Al Quaeda! The Taliban is back, they are in control! Please, someone go destroy them! But no. We have a volunteer army in a nation that didn't attack us, the commanders are out of touch and out of control (we have been fighting there longer than we were in WWII - and - we have all these reports of illegal interrogations, violations of the Geneva Conventions, torture, rape, murder and so on, does that sound like anyone is running this thing properly?), and we are spending all of our nation's wealth on rockets and bullets and bombs instead of things to make our country stronger, greater, and safer.

Do I support the troops? Not while they are in Iraq. Do I support the dupes? No, but I do feel sorry for them. They did, after all, volunteer to go kill people. I hate seeing those images of soldiers saying goodbye to their children and families, but if you love them so much, didn't it ever occur to you that having someone blow you up or shoot you into pieces might not be the best way to show them you care? How can anyone not know, at this point, that Iraq war was a mistake and that we were tricked into it? How can anyone not know that it's an unwinnable mess and that the longer we stay, the worse things will be and the more Americans and innocent civilians will get killed? How can anyone sign up for the military when they see their own military extending tours of duty and lying to their own troops? Don't you guys fucking get it?

I don't want kids signing up for the military because they believe "we" stand behind them and what they will be doing. What they are doing is wrong. I don't want them becoming soldiers out of some mistaken form of patriotism or love for their fellow countrymen. The war is wrong, sending them to Iraq is wrong. Don't enlist, don't go. When a soldier is killed and, assuming this is possible, their soul finds its way to heaven, do you think St. Peter (or whomever) will accept the rationale, "I killed those civilians because a superior officer ordered me to do it."? Someone in a uniform can make you go against your nature, can turn you into a monster, and possibly maim you for life or kill you, and that's going to be your reasoning? You're able to follow orders? You will be held accountable. Just like those idiots in Abu Ghraib, they tortured and raped and allowed at least 26 detainees to die in CIA custody (i.e., these people were tortured to death) - and all because they refused to disobey an order. That's not good enough for me.

Our soldiers, and even our CIA spooks, deserve better.

It's unfair that a bunch of young soldiers were under orders from a cunt like Rumsfeld who just laughs off the violations of the Geneva Accords. These same soldiers will be held and tortured by another nation, under this new system put in place by Rumsfeld's defense department. Our soldiers are now unsafe because we have done so many illegal things in this war, and we think we can weasel out of it by calling these people something other than enemy soldiers. It's bullshit of the first order to say it's okay to detain indefinitely, deny them access to the courts, and to even torture them because they are not really soldiers and this is not really a war, but instead some sort of police action.

How can the CIA do their jobs if they are forced to do things they know are questionable, of little value, and basically illegal? Who the fuck wants that?

And if it's not torture, what is it?

How many times can a soldier punch your girlfriend in the face, or rape your sister, or shove a broom up your friend's ass before you say "enough"? Do you have children? How long do they have to be held underwater, gasping for breath, on the edge of death, before you can come out and say, "Okay, that actually is torture"? My answer is, you fuckers had better never even get close to thinking about doing those things to me and mine. It's un-American, it's against our Constitution, and it's fucking illegal to boot!

How is all this still possible? Because we "support the troops." Because we are afraid to be branded "unpatriotic" and are afraid to be called nasty names for saying we need to get the fuck out of this war and put some motherfuckers at the top on trial. This shit has happened because people were too afraid to speak out.

So no, I don't support the troops, but I also know they're having a shitty time. Mostly, I feel sorry for the rest of us who have had to watch this assault on America made by the Bushies. Next year we will hopefully see a new regime in Washington and hopefully at that time we will begin to document how corrupt, evil and incompetent the Bush junta really was so that we teach our children they will have to remain vigilant against these cowardly acts in their lifetimes, and so a tragedy like the Iraq war will not happen again.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Happy 4th of July, and Fuck You

...so says President Bush to America. By commuting Scooter "Cunt" Libby's sentence today, Bush has reinforced the idea that the judiciary system is a joke and that the rule of law in America is deader than a phone machine (as Beck said). Read about this latest travesty here, from the LA Times.

Anyone who supports this is a dipshit. Remember to tell those who support Libby that he was not convicted of outing Valerie Plame, he was convicted of lying to prosecutors and obstructing justice. Libby, you escaped this time but you will forever be branded a liar, an enemy of justice, and an opponent of democracy. Most of all, you are a convicted felon. You will go on to get rich of speaking tours and handouts from all the fatcat shitbags you helped over the years. I hope you choke to death on that money.

We have a system in place to investigate malfeasance by high officials, and Scooter "Shitbag" Libby thwarted the legitimate efforts of Patrick Fitzgerald, who was operating on behalf of the American public. We, who so innocently cling to the beliefs that that Constitution is a worthwhile document, that truth and justice are prized morals, and that the law applies equally to all citizens.

We are deluded, and Bush has proved so, emphatically. Well, fuck you back, Bush. If the hell you believe in turns out to be real, Bush, you are going to be rotting down there for eternity, you and all your cabinet, advisors, appeasers, apologists, cronies, activists and enthralled mindless zombie trolls.