No, you´re not wrong, this post is about love, yes man! And you know what? It´s more hateful than you think. Here we go, love can be something aggressive and full of hate when you show it to the world in certain moments like when you´re alone drunk wondering what´s going on with yourself, with your crappy job, with your non sense life and thinking about the girl who´s fucking with someone way better than you, ´cause love comes together with lonelyness, pain, loss, sorrow and misery, love is about waiting, and not chasing. And any manifestation of love and the authenticity of the action from it, will be real only if you worth the run.
Falling in love is wonderfull, and it depends on how you gonna face it, I prefer to say that misfits, geeks, real artists, losers in general are more able to feel this incredible feeling as described above, and I´m not saying that just because I´m one of these lovely creatures on earth, I just believe things work like this.
Ok, love is for everyone, but misfits don´t have other choice, they got to have love ´cause it´s the engine of the art they make, it leds to the road of their own life and at the same time destroy the hope which drives common lives.
You got to hate, hating is a process of thinking about something, if it´s good for you or not, be indifferent to mediocrity, you build yourself seeing things you don´t have to be alike, hate is a gift.
Say no more, I´ve made my point, if you go crazy on the road of love it´s clear you must go hateful.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Michel Frederico - Colinas Skate Park
At one of the most hostile places in the whole world - Colinas
Photo shot by Lenadro "Leco" Moura.
Photo shot by Lenadro "Leco" Moura.
Monday, October 25, 2010
A Tribute to Teen Idles
A tribute to Teen Idles, one of my great influences. Performed by our new friends The Pushmongos. http://www.myspace.com/thepushmongos
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Frankly Speaking
With Frank Gerwer
Frankly Speaking Episode 1 from dlxsf on Vimeo.
Frankly Speaking Episode 2 from dlxsf on Vimeo.
Frankly Speaking Episode 3 from dlxsf on Vimeo.
Frankly Speaking Episode 4 from dlxsf on Vimeo.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Borderland
Dick is right. "Every American should see this." It is real and it is striking. In some places it stands 18 feet tall and looks like the gates of Mordor. In other places, it is barely 10 feet tall and looks like it was put together with a stapler. It runs from the Colorado River directly into the Pacific. It is big, intense and intimidating. And it is unfinished. Gaping holes are everywhere. Physically it’s confusing. Politically it’s puzzling. Ideologically it’s complicated. But for Dick and Ron, who both live within a few miles of the border, defending it is simply a matter of protecting themselves and preserving their own beliefs. Drug smugglers don't come to the United States to make an honest living. As the recent killing of Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas shows, the border is more than a moral line in the sand. The fence is real. We recommend a visit.
A film by Drea Cooper & Zackary Canepari
A film by Drea Cooper & Zackary Canepari
Borderland from California is a place. on Vimeo.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Guidable - A Verdadeira História do Ratos de Porão
Um documentário de Fernando Rick e Marcelo Appezzato
Black Vomit Filmes, apresenta...
A história sem censura da banda brasileira Ratos de Porão, uma das mais antigas bandas de Hardcore do mundo. Quase três décadas de drogas, loucuras e muito barulho, contadas pelas pessoas que fizeram e ainda fazem parte desta instituição do rock pesado.
http://www.blackvomit.com.br
Black Vomit Filmes, apresenta...
A história sem censura da banda brasileira Ratos de Porão, uma das mais antigas bandas de Hardcore do mundo. Quase três décadas de drogas, loucuras e muito barulho, contadas pelas pessoas que fizeram e ainda fazem parte desta instituição do rock pesado.
http://www.blackvomit.com.br
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Honey Pie
Her lips are full and pink. Her teal green eyes are intense and inviting. Her black eyeliner accentuates her high cheekbones and her strawberry hair complements her light African skin. Her metallic halter dress holds her supple thighs and pushes on her round breast. She is the result of careful attention and workmanship. When you see her up close, you can’t help but stare. At $6000, she’s certainly not a cheap date. For creator, Matt McMullen, she's a work of art. For everyone else, she's a Real Doll.
A film by Drea Cooper & Zackary Canepari
A film by Drea Cooper & Zackary Canepari
Honey Pie from California is a place. on Vimeo.
Cannonball
Some of them are full of black water. Others have become graveyards for old lawn furniture and rodent carcasses. They are shaped like jelly beans and manufactured by companies named Sunny Side and Champagne. Once upon a time, Fresno was the California Dream. Own a car. Own a house. Own a pool. Everyone wanted it and the wonderful world of credit made it all possible. But now, with the foreclosure monster running wild, the dream is dry. Thousands of pools are festering in the hot Central Valley sun. For most people this is tragic. But for some, it’s an opportunity.
A film by Drea Cooper & Zackary Canepari
A film by Drea Cooper & Zackary Canepari
Cannonball from California is a place. on Vimeo.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Jello Biafra´s Letter to Obama
This was written by Jello Biafra. Exelent!
OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA
PREAMBLE GAMBLE
Dear Mr. Obama,
Congratulations on your recent victory, and for helping build such a strong mandate for change. In that spirit, please do not forget the other aisle you need to reach across. All the relief and publicity for the middle class won't do anything for the 40-100 million Americans who are starving, unemployed or just plain poor.
You have gone out of your way to build a bridge to those of us fed up with war, pollution, inequality, corporate lawlessness and business as usual. You have energized a whole new generation who is far ahead of their elders in knowing what urgently needs to be done. I have never seen such an outpouring of heartfelt emotion, hope and support for an American politician in my life, and I remember Kennedy well. You are the first president in my lifetime to have a bona fide grassroots movement behind you and ready to rock. I hope those crowds' hope and urgency has penetrated deeply enough that you won't let that bridge be washed away.
I remember another person who had the audacity to exploit and toss aside people's hope, and his name is Bill Clinton. Democrats fail time and again when they shirk responsibility and settle for being dealmakers instead of leaders. As important as it is to find common ground and build consensus for change, our situation is so dire we cannot afford any more dealmakers. The people voted for a leader. Anything less risks breaking the hearts of an entire galvanized generation who may then decide it is not worth it to get involved and participate any more.
Strong medicine is needed. Here are some ideas:
IRAQ – TRY THIS!
The closest thing to a solution I have heard was offered clear back in April 2004 by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (www.oic-ico.org). The OIC is comprised of 57 Islamic countries ranging from West Africa clear over to Southeast Asia. At their annual meeting they found six member nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen and Morocco) willing to pony up enough of their own troops (approx. 150,000) that our troops could have gone home! Who slammed the door on that one? Colin Powell, on the grounds that having the Islamic soldiers under UN command instead of Americans was out of the question.
WHY??!? Wouldn't a neutral force of Muslim peacekeepers make a lot more headway than the disaster we've made? Wouldn't they at least command a lot more respect, resulting in a huge drop in violence? Surely the non-stop carnage and Iracketeering we have spawned is Exhibit A that we need to get over this colonialist illusion that other countries' problems can only be solved by Americans. The OIC's proposal for US withdrawal and peace in Iraq must be revisited immediately, and also considered for Afghanistan.
We must end not just our military occupation of Iraq, but our economic occupation NOW. Iraq is not ours to sell, and neither is its oil. Your promise not to leave any permanent US military bases in Iraq is a good start. But you have also backed leaving US troops in Iraq to "protect American assets like the Green Zone." The Green Zone is not our "asset." We stole it and we have to give it back. I hope you don't seriously believe we can get away with that giant feudal fortress of an embassy we are building, ten times the size of any other in history. We cannot afford to waste any more money on this, or down the black hole of the Bush administration's crony backroom deals with corrupt, incompetent private contractors like Blackwater, KBR and Halliburton. We need to fire them and they need to leave—NOW.
We do owe the Iraqi people help, and we have an obligation to clean up the mess we have made. That goes double for Afghanistan. But I can't see this getting done unless someone other than the United States is in charge. Let us also not forget the 2 million-plus refugees stuck outside Iraq who are draining the economies of Iraq's neighbors, especially Jordan and Syria.
TERROR – STRATEGY AND DIPLOMACY, NOT WAR
Even if we kill off every insurgent and terrorist-sympathizer from sea to shining sea, what will their kids be like? And theirs? Wake up. The major cause of terrorism is not evil, it's poverty. Michael Moore said it best after 9/11: "Will we ever get to the point that we realize that we will be more secure when the rest of the world isn't living in poverty so we can have nice running shoes?" What do we need an empire for anyway? Ever notice how much happier the British and Europeans are now that they don't have to worry about policing colonial empires anymore?
Many experts and heads of state, in the Middle East and beyond, agree that the best way by far to pull the rug out from under the terrorists and reduce their attacks dramatically is a just and humane resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel's right to exist is threatened most by the fact that hardcore zealots are running the show on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides. If we don't have the courage to stand up to them, who will? As painful as withdrawal to Israel's pre-1967 borders will be, our future depends on it. So does Israel's. As Reagan said to Gorbachev, "Tear down this wall!"
Threatening Iran made for great red meat on the campaign trail. But any attack on Iran—by us or using the Israelis as a proxy—will blow up in our face worse than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. It will wipe out any good will and benefit of a doubt we have left in the eyes of the rest of the world. Iran is three times the size of Iraq and much more mountainous. The people there already hate our guts, thanks to our overthrow of their democratically elected leader Mohammed Mossadegh in 1954, ushering in 25 years of torture under the Shah. Backing and aiding Saddam Hussein in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that cost a million lives did not help either.
So, alas, we will not be "greeted as liberators." But we could run straight into a worldwide "Day the Earth Stood Still" if Iran responds by blocking all oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf. Iran knows full well they wouldn't even have to blockade the narrow Strait of Hormuz. All they would have to do is sink a tanker or freighter or two and no other ships will move. Not from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, nothing. Surely we can do better than this. Even Robert Gates seems to think so. Reckless threats against Pakistan will not solve anything, either.
JUST SAY NO TO TORTURE
Closing Guantanamo Bay is not enough. All torture, detentions without trial, kidnappings ("renditions") and illegal and unnecessary spying must end—and end with transparency now. Otherwise we are no better than Saddam Hussein or the Nazis. The whole world knows this and the whole world is watching. What about the 20,000 people we still have locked up without charge in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan???
The USA PATRIOT Act is just about the worst mistake our government has made since FDR threw over 100,000 Japanese-American citizens into concentration camps during World War II. Even you panicked and voted to make the PATRIOT Act permanent. It should be repealed and flushed down the toilet immediately—all of it. Even worse is the Military Commissions Act, in which Senators who should know better, such as Robert Byrd, Sherrod Brown, Ken Salazar and even John McCain voted with the majority to legalize torture, kidnapping and secret trials with secret evidence, wiping out the centuries old human right to habeas corpus. Again, isn't this what our "greatest generation" fought so bravely in World War II to stop the Nazis from doing to us?
What galls me most is that all this iron-fisted trashing of our basic human rights has not caught and convicted one significant terrorist! Even the FBI admits that torture doesn't work.
Meanwhile, if we're serious about preventing another terror attack, why is only 10% of the cargo entering our ports on ships ever inspected? Sure, no airliners have been hijacked by a terrorist wielding the wrong-sized shampoo bottle. But those cargo containers are big enough to smuggle in a small arsenal of rocket launchers and shoulder-fired missiles that could actually bring down a plane; dirty bomb material; or even Bin Laden himself. I sometimes wonder if he's driving a cab in Manhattan right now.
RESTORE THE RULE OF LAW
This means investigating and prosecuting each and every Bush administration official and their cronies who may have committed crimes while in power. Otherwise the lesson learned is you can get away with anything you want because the next administration will be too spineless to take action. For crying out loud, DO NOT make the same mistake Bill Clinton did when he let the rampant corruption, perjury and even terrorist acts of the Reagan and Bush I regimes go unpunished in the interest of moving on from the past. The crime here is this: Not only does everyone involved assume they have license to break even more laws the next time they hold power, but those who should be in jail for the lying, arms smuggling, assassinations and drug dealing in the Contra-gate scandal (like Elliot Abrams, Colin Powell, Richard Armitage and Robert Gates among others) are instead handed even more powerful positions where they have done even worse damage. Can you imagine the havoc and hooliganism if we put our heads in the sand after Watergate, let bygones be bygones, and G. Gordon Liddy wound up as director of the FBI? Secretary of Defense Haldeman? Attorney General Ehrlichman? Karl Rove's chair occupied by Colson, Magruder or Segretti?
Watergate and even Contra-gate pale in comparison to the wholesale lawlessness this time around. From Jack Abramoff's bribes, to outing Valerie Plame; from lying about weapons of mass destruction and getting thousands of people killed; from wholesale fraud and attacks on the right to vote, to the gutting of the Justice Department, to torture and other possible war crimes—this can't be allowed to go on.
Cheney and Rumsfeld were bad enough. But it is equally critical that lower-echelon culprits lacking household names like John Yoo, David Addington (nicknamed "Cheney's Cheney"), and General Geoffrey Miller be held accountable for their alleged involvement in torture and other serious crimes. Otherwise, they could one day rise to Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, or even the Supreme Court and pick up right where they left off in their blood-soaked shredding of the Constitution.
Even a South African-style Truth Commission would be an important step in preventing this from ever happening again. Otherwise, why should I or anyone else obey the law when my own government does not even pretend to? Even if Bush pardons the most blatant war criminals, all we have to do is fulfill President Clinton's promise to join the rest of the world in the International Criminal Court and they might not get away with it after all. We must come clean and drain the swamp now or it is just going to get dirtier. A lot dirtier.
Rule of law must also be restored when it comes to the NSA, FISA and domestic spying. The Internet revolt by your own followers was right. Your vote for letting the NSA, and even the phone companies, off the hook for massive illegal spying on American citizens was a very bad mistake. These are the exact same crimes that got Nixon thrown out of office for Watergate. Now Watergate is legal too? I have to say it—this doesn't remind me of Nixon as much as Italy's ordeal under Silvio Berlusconi. In Italy I have heard the joke again and again that "Berlusconi has to stay in power or else he'll go to jail." Sure enough, every time Berlusconi gets indicted for yet another crime, his majority in Parliament simply changes the law and he goes free. There should be zero tolerance for Berlusconi disease.
Plus, does this much spying even make sense? What are we gaining here besides a bigger avalanche of useless data? If 9/11 was an inside job, it was not one of conspiracy but colossal, runaway incompetence. We were already spying on way too many people, collecting way too much data that no one had time to analyze. Thus finding the real terrorists before they struck was like looking for a needle in a football stadium.
I have a feeling you may sign an important bill or two right from the podium during your inauguration speech. It might be an economic stimulus package or lifting the ban on stem cell research. How about also signing your first executive order declaring all of Bush's presidential signing statements he added on to bills he signed to be null and void. These things will go a long way toward restoring the rule of law.
STAMP OUT ELECTION FRAUD – RESTORE THE RIGHT TO VOTE
I never thought that after all these years we would once again find ourselves fighting for our right to vote. In the United States of America? It is well-established now that every election at least since 2000, including the midterms, has been marred by widespread vote fraud, especially via the hacking and manipulations of electronic voting machines. But these widespread crimes have never been fully investigated, let alone prosecuted. Even the US Civil Rights Commission recommended prosecuting then-Governor Jeb Bush over all the fraud and voter intimidation in Florida during the 2002 election. But his brother's Justice Department declined.
It is obvious the Help America Vote Act has backfired and done the opposite. Optical scan machines are not the answer at all. They have now been proven to be just as hackable as the notorious paperless touch-screens. They should all be junked once and for all. Digital is not always better, and voting should not be privatized. Any system where the people's votes are counted in secret behind closed doors has no place in a democracy. Nor is there room for contracting out the verification of our registration forms to the same corrupt biased companies that manufacture the phony voting machines.
We can't just let this massive, widespread vote stealing go on and pretend it isn't happening. It may be too late to reverse the wreckage of all the stolen elections. But again, a Truth Commission to prove how it was done and who did it is essential to the survival of our democracy. Anyone in Congress with a spine for this? The people have a right to know.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM – THE EASY WAY
I am sure you would agree that this election campaign was way WAY too long. Other countries, including one just north of us, limit campaign time to between 30 and 60 days. Election fever is much more focused so voter participation is higher. Why can't we do this? Sure, these other countries use parliamentary systems (another change I hope for) where the party in power calls an election and it takes place a short time later. But think of what we could save—and what we would gain—if we limited campaign time to 90 days. There could be 30 days between announcements and the primaries, followed by a 30-day primary season, then a 30-day home stretch to Election Day. Anyone who jumps the gun by jockeying, soliciting contributions or electioneering too early is automatically disqualified.
I hope you would also agree that campaigns for high office have become obscenely expensive. We now have a full-blown Election Industrial Complex. Wouldn't it be great if you didn't need $750 million to run for President? The way our campaign contributions and lobbyists work today has another name in other countries. It's called bribery.
Another way to restore sanity is to go national with a law enacted by popular vote in Nevada. If you don't like any of the candidates for an office in Nevada, you are allowed to vote None of the Above. If N.O.T.A. wins, they have to re-run the election with all new candidates.
You say you want more people to get up and get involved? Lower the voting age! To get people's attention I have suggested lowering it clear down to age 5. But more realistically, I suggest showing people they have a stake in our democracy by allowing ages 14 and up to vote on school boards and school bond issues, 16 and up for local offices and ballot measures, and 18 and up for everything else. Overcoming voter apathy is hard, but when young people cast votes and see results, they'll stick with it long term.
RETHINK AND SHUT DOWN THE WAR ON DRUGS
Prohibition is as absurd and fruitless today as it was when Eliot Ness ran around shooting up Chicago trying to stamp out illegal beer. The world is laughing at us while real people are being robbed, jailed, assaulted and even killed. We have more people locked in prison than any country in the history of the world. But our drug use rate has barely dropped at all. The blood and violence from gangs and narco-traffickers that have left Colombia and Mexico on the verge of becoming failed states is spilling across our borders. This is no country for old men—or old laws.
Could we do worse than to at least try the Harm Reduction programs used most successfully in Holland and other parts of Europe? As unorthodox as this sounds, decriminalizing (not legalizing) even harder drugs, making them available on prescription from the government for free, along with a safe place to use them, has led to a much lower crime rate—and even addiction rate—than ours. Why? The free prescriptions mean the addict does not have to rob and kill people to pay the drug gangs' high prices, and the gangs are put out of business. Dealers are still treated harshly and rehab is strongly encouraged. This could also save up to $50 billion a year for rehab and education that is otherwise wasted by throwing people in prison.
This also frees up billions and billions of dollars to treat the addicts when they want to get off drugs—which will be sooner rather than later. Rehab costs 2/3 less than prison. Our mushrooming prison-industrial complex is draining our money so badly that state after state is slashing funds for education—education!—to pay for throwing more and more people in prison. In California, a prison guard now makes more money than a teacher. So much for family values.
What is wrong with this picture?!??? As president I suggest the commuting of federal prison sentences of all small-time non-violent drug offenders to time served and releasing them immediately. Then strongly urge governors to do the same at the state level. Again, think of all the wasted taxpayer dollars this will free up for more important things like education and rehabilitation. Estimates run as high as $50 billion nationwide.
This does not mean any of these drugs should be legalized, just decriminalized. That is, strictly regulated like alcohol and tobacco, with big-time dealers and gangs treated as harshly as ever. For another way to fight the drug lords, consider this. In 2005 the United States spent $780 million on drug eradication in Afghanistan. Where on earth did it all go? It worked so poorly that $600 million of poppies and heroin escaped into the market anyway.
Do the math: We could have saved a whopping $180 million if we had simply gone to the suppliers and bought the drugs, and then destroyed them so they won't keep making people sick and killing my friends. As sickening as it is to even think of doing business with drug cartels, can anyone think of a better way to cut off the supply? A counter-argument is that this will actually force the gangs to drive the street price way up. But with Harm Reduction programs already in place they will have nothing to sell, no place to sell it, and no suckers willing to buy.
And for crying out loud, isn't it time to finally get real and decriminalize marijuana? If current strains are more potent than the old days, so what? Study after study still proves that marijuana is less harmful—and less addictive—than alcohol or tobacco. Nowadays, going overboard against marijuana has not only flooded our prisons to the breaking point, it has driven the price of cannabis so high that young people are going straight into crack cocaine and methamphetamines. Is this wise?
On top of that, it is not just oil we are dangerously low on, we are running out of wood. If we ever hope to turn the tide on global warming and save what is left of our forests, we must remove all bans on the cultivation of cannabis for its many industrial uses—including the strain of hemp that has no THC in it to get anyone high but is still banned anyway. Recycling is not enough. Why chop down millions of trees to make paper when we can use hemp or kanaf and then grow another crop of paper a few months later? It does not get any greener than this. It will also help rescue a lot of family farms.
Finally, the Joe Biden-authored Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act (formerly known as the RAVE Act), passed as a rider to the Amber Alert Bill, is as big a disgrace as the PATRIOT Act. It has no place in a free society and should be repealed immediately. Long-term rescue of our social fabric and society, not to mention our southern neighbors, depends in major part on enacting humane drug laws.
RESTORE BALANCE TO THE SUPREME COURT
Even George Will complained that Bill Clinton's Supreme Court nominees were too moderate; that the court needs a good progressive or two for the full and thorough consideration of each issue. Balancing the court means choosing a justice or two with the passion and spirit of a Thurgood Marshall, John Marshall or William O. Douglas, even if you do not fully agree with them. You may only have a two-year window before a mid-term Congress cramps your style.
MEDIA REFORM
The Federal Communications Commission should get off their high horse about Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" or naughty words that everyone says anyway, and instead focus on the rampant hate speech and outright lies that are falsely broadcast as impartial news. Sure, celebrity bullies like Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, and Ann Coulter have a right to say what they want. But when no one—even the target of a personal attack—is allowed the right to reply, the very idea of an informed democracy goes out the window. Was that their goal in the first place?
Nowadays, mainstream corporate media deliberately dumbing down the news, omitting key facts and sides of the story, or neglecting to report the story altogether is the worst form of censorship going on in America today. Since the big mergers, most debate that gets aired at all is restricted to right wing versus ultra-right wing, while the rest of us are allowed to laugh along with Stewart and Colbert. What kind of democracy are we when freedom of speech—or the equally important right to communicate—belongs only to the oligarchs who control the airwaves?
There used to be a law called the Fairness Doctrine that guaranteed the right of reply, without Bill O'Reilly yelling at you to shut up every 15 seconds. It was allowed to expire late in the Reagan years, and urgently needs to be renewed. Your stated opposition to this puzzles me. What better tool is there for "opening up the airwaves and modern communications to as many diverse viewpoints as possible" than making sure they are allowed to be seen and heard in the first place? And how about some enforcement of the laws guaranteeing that the public, not corporations, owns the airwaves. Even the big corporate media barons should again be required to renew their FCC license to broadcast every five years, complete with public hearings.
I also do not think anyone should be allowed to graduate from high school until they pass a class on media literacy. Sadly, we do not yet have the curriculum. In the meantime we must all pitch in with the teaching—to both adults and children.
ECONOMIC STIMULUS – START WITH PEOPLE WHO NEED IT MOST
I'm glad there seems to be a sense up top that national security, the economy, climate collapse and the environment are all intertwined. Think about it. No rogue state or terrorist threatens our national security nearly as much as our collapsing economy. The growing gap between the rich and poor is what is tearing apart the lives of average Americans and their families.
National security means:
• Everyone has a home.
• Everyone has enough decent food to eat.
• Everyone can drink the water without having to buy it in a bottle from Coke or Pepsi.
• No one has to worry about getting their hand cut off at work or having their job outsourced overseas.
• Everyone can be who they are without fear of being detained and tortured without trial.
• Everyone can vote without fear, knowing their vote will be counted—accurately.
• Every woman has the right to choose what to do with her own body.
• Everyone has enough money for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
• Everyone, even if they don't have money, has the right to see a doctor if they're sick or hurt. In so many other countries this is a guaranteed human right by law.
Stimulating and reviving the economy will only succeed from the ground up. This means getting a lot more money quickly to the people on the bottom who need it the most. When they finally have some cash in their pocket they will be more than eager to spend it. Stores perk up, jobs are saved, and the train is finally rolling out of the station. This is why leaders as diverse as Martin Luther King, Milton Friedman and even Richard Nixon have at different times proposed a guaranteed annual income so that everyone can participate and keep our economy humming. Raise the minimum wage to a living wage: $9.50 an hour helps, but $12 an hour is closer to a true living wage. Welfare should not be a dirty word, especially after PBS reported last month that if you count all the Americans who have given up looking for work because they can't find any and dropped off the radar screen, unemployment is actually around 12%! So please remove the time limits on unemployment compensation, welfare benefits and Aid to Families with Dependent Children that were slapped on the least fortunate during the Clinton years.
But where will the money come from when we burn it all up shoveling it down the mouths of the dragons on Wall Street? You are right to point out that trickle-down supply-side economics never trickled down. It wasn't supposed to. How will this be any different? To the average taxpayer this so-called bailout looks more like the last great looting of our treasury before Bush and his cronies get the hell out of dodge. There is also growing concern about the appearance of self-dealing by officials with connections to Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
So far your own economic team seems alarmingly slanted toward the robber barons who helped create this mess in the first place. Where is Joseph Stiglitz? Where is Robert Reich? Are we still all in this together? Your Economic Advisory Council is supposed to be a council, not a choir! You say you want a support staff that debate and give you diverse ideas. So even if you do not agree with them, how about adding William Greider or Doug Henwood or even Naomi Klein as well?
GREEN JOBS THROUGH GREEN AID
Let's move even faster on climate collapse. The clock is ticking…
Your proposal to spend $150 billion on our crumbling infrastructure is a good beginning. But it is only 10% of the $1.5 trillion in urgent repairs the American Society of Civil Engineers says we need right now to avoid more disasters like the freeway bridge collapse in Minnesota. This does not even account for restocking the Bush-depleted Superfund to clean up toxic waste, or creating affordable housing for everyone. Your plan states, "We'll put people back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel efficient cars and the alternative energy technology that could free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead." Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to spend whatever it takes to weather-strip and winterize old homes and buildings now if the owners can't afford it. It will reduce our swollen carbon footprint dramatically and save tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years. How about aid for solar panels? Home windmills too? Not just tax breaks, aid. Most people just don't have the money for this. Time magazine reported in 2001 that an American farmer could get $50 for an acre of wheat and $2000 for an acre of wind power. We either pay to do this now or pay a lot more later. Europeans are already way ahead of us on this one.
Also, look for ways to accomplish two or three things at once with every renewal project. Replacing the water or sewer lines? Lay fiber optic cable! Our not-so-liberal mayor in San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, nixed that idea because there was not enough graft in it for telecom companies. His own silly plan for wi-fi towers fell on its face, so a smart opportunity was wasted.
AUTO AID – REQUIRE GREENER CARS
Ever seen a documentary film called Who Killed the Electric Car? They worked so well their owners did not want to give them back. But when their leases came up, Detroit snatched them away and destroyed them. Now Detroit wants a great big handout? Then another? Then another? There should be no bailout for carmakers if all they are willing to offer in return is more fuel-hogging clunkers like the Ford Flex. No aid until they bring back the electric cars! If the Chevy Volt is so great, why aren't they selling them now? For almost 30 years, people who go to design schools have told me that the car designers almost always pursue jobs overseas because Detroit is still unable to adapt as quickly to fresh ideas for the future.
So far "clean coal" seems to be about as clean as our mountains of "clean nuclear waste." Again, no aid to big coal companies unless they end their environmentally devastating "mountain top removal" plundering once and for all.
TRAINS MAKE SENSE – PEOPLE ARE READY
Another crucial way to fight global warming and reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to wake up and get serious about a nationwide high-speed rail system and better rapid transit in the cities. Again, Europe, Japan, and even China are way ahead of us. When I do my speaking tours in Europe it is so much easier and less expensive than traveling here: Just take my backpack and go. Even a normal train is often faster than flying. No traffic jams getting to the airport, no long security lines, no baggage claim wait, no traffic jams back into the next town. I just get on the train and get off the train, right downtown. The scenery is pretty cool too.
Amtrak has hemorrhaged money year after year. But ridership is finally going up, in spite of the decimated service. People have finally grown so fed up with traffic jams, fuel prices and the arrogance of our bumbling airline industry that a proper train system would now do very well. Just ask former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, another intriguing choice for a high position in your administration. Californians finally passed a bond issue to begin work on a long-overdue bullet train system between San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles. People I have talked to in random conversation are almost as excited about this as they are about your own election. A similar initiative passed in Florida in 2000, but Governor Jeb Bush impounded the funds.
Surely we can find the money by canceling a few aircraft carriers, tanks and planes we don't need, and by shutting off the faucet for the hundreds of billions wasted on Reagan's star wars fantasy—now known as "missile defense." Are those new installations in the Czech Republic and Poland really worth all the grief they're stirring up with the Russians? The Czech and Polish people don't even want them there!
Green energy technology should also be shared, even given, to the Chinese ASAP. Here on the West Coast I have to wipe a brown sooty film off my windshield every couple of days—and my car is in a garage! It is coal dust from Chinese factories. They open a new coal plant ever few days. According to Mother Jones, sustaining an American lifestyle for a Chinese middle class predicted to reach 600 million will require the resources of several more Earths!
COMPETE GLOBALLY – TAKE BETTER CARE OF OUR PEOPLE
Other countries prefer a healthy workforce and are willing to pay for it. Here we stick our workforce with fat, greedy insurance companies who serve no purpose but to act as a tollbooth or a gatekeeper and charge exorbitant fees before a person can even see a doctor. The result, of course, is the most expensive healthcare system with the least benefit for the buck of any in the industrialized world. You say the big insurance companies "should have a place at the table." Aren't these companies the problem?
Other counties want their workforce to be as well-educated as possible to better care for themselves and compete in the global economy. So they are willing to pay to make sure this happens, instead of kicking them in the face with back-breaking student loans and cutting school funding to the bone.
Other countries want their children to grow up well-nourished and loved instead of dysfunctional. They are happy to pay welfare for single parents to stay home with their little ones, and for 12-18 months maternity leave with 80-90% pay for either parent to make sure no child is left behind.
Traveling overseas it is not hard to notice that many European countries, and not just Scandinavia, have a higher standard of living than we do, and the gap is widening. The reason is they are willing to pay for it.
HUMANE TAX REFORM
Please do not break your promise to raise income taxes on the wealthy and close those Titanic-sized loopholes that allowed two-thirds of US and foreign corporations who do business here to pay no tax at all between 1998 and 2005. We used to have a tiny tax on security speculation and stock transactions. Britain still does. If the annual amount of wheeling and dealing in the stock market really amounts to the reported $500 trillion a year, a mere 1% tax could raise $5 trillion per year and Wall Street would not even feel it! Other ways to raise badly needed revenue without hurting Joe the Plumber would be to tax companies who pollute, divert funds overseas, and ship jobs out of the country, as well as taxing stock windfalls rewarded by Wall Street for balancing the bottom line with employee layoffs.
Last September the Bush administration quietly dynamited Section 382 of the tax code allowing big banks to run off with as much as $140 billion dollars in new tax breaks that many suspect are illegal. Was this illegal? Please enforce the law and stop the bleeding now.
We could also follow the lead of Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, and even the state of Maine and encourage cities to start their own municipal or community banks. Being a non-profit, these banks would provide low-cost loans for homes and small businesses. They would also save cities millions of dollars apiece that they now waste on private banking fees.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D - IL) proposes generous tax breaks and shareholder advantages to "patriotic corporations" who limit management salaries to 100 times the lowest-paid fulltime worker. I think 10 times is better. Shareholders need better legal tools to limit runaway CEO pay and looting by top executives.
Schakowsky would also give tax breaks to corporations that: produce at least 90% of their goods and services in the United States; spend at least 50% of the research and development budgets here at home; stay out of employee organizing drives; are clean with the EPA, OSHA and the NRLB; and provide their employees with generous and portable pension funds and health insurance. They must also agree not to price-gouge consumers.
So how do we convince Americans that it is in our best interest to help pay for all of this? It would help if you use your power to inspire and persuade, to get through to people in this country that not all taxes are automatically bad, especially when spent in a way that benefits them directly. Starting with the Boston Tea Party in kindergarten, it is drilled into us that taxes are this terrible violation of our freedom. As adults we have had 30 plus years of media sermons from both parties that we are no longer a community, but a marketplace, and that competitiveness is more important than caring about one another. Isn't it interesting that the people least interested in paying taxes are often the first to complain when a government service they take for granted doesn't work any more?
To wise people up and chip away at this I suggest pointing out what happened to California when voters passed Proposition 13 and gutted what was once the number one education system in the country, if not the world. It is now almost dead last. According to the ACLU, some schools in Los Angeles are not only short on books and desks, they don't even have toilet paper. Californians also voted down an initiative guaranteeing universal healthcare after the Disease Industry ran a blitz of TV ads claiming it would raise people's taxes. They banked on people failing to do the math and see how a slight tax increase would dramatically reduce their own medical bills.
Another example is the tale of two of the Quad Cities on the Mississippi River. In the 1990s, Rock Island, IL voters were willing to raise taxes to build a floodwall. Voters in Davenport, IA rejected a wall three times because it would raise taxes. Guess whose town was devastated the next time the Mississippi flooded? To raise local money for local and state projects voters have to be shown that it is worth raising taxes to pay for these things.
Taxes also wouldn't hurt so much if the people had more say in where their money went. How about placing 12-15 categories in US income tax forms so people can vote what percentage of their tax money they want spent where? I'll bet education, the environment, infrastructure, and services would go straight up and our bloated military cash cow would go straight down.
HELP PEOPLE RESIST FORECLOSURES
To fight the plague of foreclosures, I suggest following the lead of the Cook County Sheriff in Chicago by declaring a moratorium on foreclosure evictions. Debts to predatory lenders should be forgiven at once. Many families are fleeing their homes because they are so frightened of the cruel Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, they are willing to default on their mortgage just to keep up with their credit card debts. You voted against this law. Now let's get rid of it. I am inspired by City Life/Vida Urbana in Boston who have said "Yes We Can" to reviving the Depression-era practice of volunteer rolling brigades who show up to defend people's homes from eviction, and if need be take all the furniture and belongings back from the curb into the house. In addition, they alert the media to help shame the banks and predatory lenders from coming back. In many cases it has worked.
The most intriguing proposal flying around the Internet is for everyone who files an individual tax return to be given $1 million dollars on the condition that they use it to pay off their mortgage in full (thus bailing out the banks) and buy an American car within the next three years. Whatever is left over is theirs to keep and invest. Unfortunately the math does not add up. Even the staggering estimated total of $8 trillion thrown at our collapsing economy would only bring $57,971.01 for each of the 138 million individual tax returns filed each year. Too bad, it is an interesting idea.
"THIS MOVEMENT IS NOT JUST ABOUT ONE PERSON…"
I'm glad to hear you say that, but I keep waiting for you to expand and take it further. To point out how much it also matters who is in the Senate, who is in the House, the Governor, the State legislature, mayors, city councils, school boards, ballot initiatives, county commissioners, you name it. To say that if a person is not satisfied with what is going on in their community, they should get involved. If they are not satisfied with how they are being represented, they should consider running for office themselves. A lot of inspired people would. What else can we do in the meantime to make things better? What simple, easy steps can we take in our own lives? You have two more chances—Inauguration and the State of the Union. Before people return to the slumber of Soundbite McNews.
Bill Clinton could have won back Congress in 1996 if he had used his popularity, convention speech and pulpit for something besides his own shoo-in re-election. But he didn't. I was in the room for Al Gore's acceptance speech in 2000. He didn't bother either. It was just about one person.
I'll be amazed if Mr. Obama or anyone close actually reads this, so this last part is for you folks who have. To me, if there is an Obama movement, it is more like the Pope-mobile. You know, that cage of bulletproof glass on wheels that rolls around with the Pope inside, waving at his adoring flock, "Yo! I'm here! Look at me, I'm the Pope!" Then everybody goes home. But who is driving the Pope-mobile? Can a crowd organize to block the wrong turns and steer it in a better direction?
I did not vote for you, but I dearly want you to succeed at delivering the change you have promised. We have very little time and may not get another chance. Recent history shows we have eight years maximum before the pendulum swings back the other way—and hard. She may lose once or twice, but I fear the Pitbull with Lipstick will one day be bigger than Reagan.
In many ways, people seem to be looking to you as their new great-and-powerful Oprah as much as they look at you as their President. This can be useful too. To revive people's sense of community and what it entails. To persuade people that voting for small local tax increases brings much greater benefits for everyone down the road. To encourage people to not just recycle but look for ways to stop wasting so much. Those same European countries whose standard of living seems to be higher than ours use a fraction per capita of natural resources we do. How do they do it? Think of all the forests we could save just by showing people how much paper they can save just by writing on the other side before they throw it away? Imagine if lawyers figured this out.
HONOR AND RESPECT YOUR MOVEMENT
Please don't ever forget why so many people who had given up hope are investing so much of their hearts and hope in you. If that hope is shattered and they feel betrayed, a great deal more will collapse for good.
So to keep your movement alive—and help it grow beyond you—keep those texts and e-mail lists alive! Keep your Blackberry. Does it matter if it all becomes public record? How about a posting a daily log of what you did and who you and your staff met with, including lobbyists. Why not keep all those campaign offices you opened all over the country alive too? Convert them to branch offices. Senators and House members have branch offices all over their districts. You now represent the whole country. Keep the branches.
Above all, be a leader, not a dealmaker. There are times when cutting a deal is the same as cutting and running. To put it mildly, we can't afford that anymore. There are no sails left to trim.
And if this is a movement about change and not just about one person, it is up to the movement to drive the President, not the other way around. Please do not stand in the way.
Sincerely,
Jello Biafra
OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA
PREAMBLE GAMBLE
Dear Mr. Obama,
Congratulations on your recent victory, and for helping build such a strong mandate for change. In that spirit, please do not forget the other aisle you need to reach across. All the relief and publicity for the middle class won't do anything for the 40-100 million Americans who are starving, unemployed or just plain poor.
You have gone out of your way to build a bridge to those of us fed up with war, pollution, inequality, corporate lawlessness and business as usual. You have energized a whole new generation who is far ahead of their elders in knowing what urgently needs to be done. I have never seen such an outpouring of heartfelt emotion, hope and support for an American politician in my life, and I remember Kennedy well. You are the first president in my lifetime to have a bona fide grassroots movement behind you and ready to rock. I hope those crowds' hope and urgency has penetrated deeply enough that you won't let that bridge be washed away.
I remember another person who had the audacity to exploit and toss aside people's hope, and his name is Bill Clinton. Democrats fail time and again when they shirk responsibility and settle for being dealmakers instead of leaders. As important as it is to find common ground and build consensus for change, our situation is so dire we cannot afford any more dealmakers. The people voted for a leader. Anything less risks breaking the hearts of an entire galvanized generation who may then decide it is not worth it to get involved and participate any more.
Strong medicine is needed. Here are some ideas:
IRAQ – TRY THIS!
The closest thing to a solution I have heard was offered clear back in April 2004 by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (www.oic-ico.org). The OIC is comprised of 57 Islamic countries ranging from West Africa clear over to Southeast Asia. At their annual meeting they found six member nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen and Morocco) willing to pony up enough of their own troops (approx. 150,000) that our troops could have gone home! Who slammed the door on that one? Colin Powell, on the grounds that having the Islamic soldiers under UN command instead of Americans was out of the question.
WHY??!? Wouldn't a neutral force of Muslim peacekeepers make a lot more headway than the disaster we've made? Wouldn't they at least command a lot more respect, resulting in a huge drop in violence? Surely the non-stop carnage and Iracketeering we have spawned is Exhibit A that we need to get over this colonialist illusion that other countries' problems can only be solved by Americans. The OIC's proposal for US withdrawal and peace in Iraq must be revisited immediately, and also considered for Afghanistan.
We must end not just our military occupation of Iraq, but our economic occupation NOW. Iraq is not ours to sell, and neither is its oil. Your promise not to leave any permanent US military bases in Iraq is a good start. But you have also backed leaving US troops in Iraq to "protect American assets like the Green Zone." The Green Zone is not our "asset." We stole it and we have to give it back. I hope you don't seriously believe we can get away with that giant feudal fortress of an embassy we are building, ten times the size of any other in history. We cannot afford to waste any more money on this, or down the black hole of the Bush administration's crony backroom deals with corrupt, incompetent private contractors like Blackwater, KBR and Halliburton. We need to fire them and they need to leave—NOW.
We do owe the Iraqi people help, and we have an obligation to clean up the mess we have made. That goes double for Afghanistan. But I can't see this getting done unless someone other than the United States is in charge. Let us also not forget the 2 million-plus refugees stuck outside Iraq who are draining the economies of Iraq's neighbors, especially Jordan and Syria.
TERROR – STRATEGY AND DIPLOMACY, NOT WAR
Even if we kill off every insurgent and terrorist-sympathizer from sea to shining sea, what will their kids be like? And theirs? Wake up. The major cause of terrorism is not evil, it's poverty. Michael Moore said it best after 9/11: "Will we ever get to the point that we realize that we will be more secure when the rest of the world isn't living in poverty so we can have nice running shoes?" What do we need an empire for anyway? Ever notice how much happier the British and Europeans are now that they don't have to worry about policing colonial empires anymore?
Many experts and heads of state, in the Middle East and beyond, agree that the best way by far to pull the rug out from under the terrorists and reduce their attacks dramatically is a just and humane resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel's right to exist is threatened most by the fact that hardcore zealots are running the show on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides. If we don't have the courage to stand up to them, who will? As painful as withdrawal to Israel's pre-1967 borders will be, our future depends on it. So does Israel's. As Reagan said to Gorbachev, "Tear down this wall!"
Threatening Iran made for great red meat on the campaign trail. But any attack on Iran—by us or using the Israelis as a proxy—will blow up in our face worse than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. It will wipe out any good will and benefit of a doubt we have left in the eyes of the rest of the world. Iran is three times the size of Iraq and much more mountainous. The people there already hate our guts, thanks to our overthrow of their democratically elected leader Mohammed Mossadegh in 1954, ushering in 25 years of torture under the Shah. Backing and aiding Saddam Hussein in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that cost a million lives did not help either.
So, alas, we will not be "greeted as liberators." But we could run straight into a worldwide "Day the Earth Stood Still" if Iran responds by blocking all oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf. Iran knows full well they wouldn't even have to blockade the narrow Strait of Hormuz. All they would have to do is sink a tanker or freighter or two and no other ships will move. Not from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, nothing. Surely we can do better than this. Even Robert Gates seems to think so. Reckless threats against Pakistan will not solve anything, either.
JUST SAY NO TO TORTURE
Closing Guantanamo Bay is not enough. All torture, detentions without trial, kidnappings ("renditions") and illegal and unnecessary spying must end—and end with transparency now. Otherwise we are no better than Saddam Hussein or the Nazis. The whole world knows this and the whole world is watching. What about the 20,000 people we still have locked up without charge in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan???
The USA PATRIOT Act is just about the worst mistake our government has made since FDR threw over 100,000 Japanese-American citizens into concentration camps during World War II. Even you panicked and voted to make the PATRIOT Act permanent. It should be repealed and flushed down the toilet immediately—all of it. Even worse is the Military Commissions Act, in which Senators who should know better, such as Robert Byrd, Sherrod Brown, Ken Salazar and even John McCain voted with the majority to legalize torture, kidnapping and secret trials with secret evidence, wiping out the centuries old human right to habeas corpus. Again, isn't this what our "greatest generation" fought so bravely in World War II to stop the Nazis from doing to us?
What galls me most is that all this iron-fisted trashing of our basic human rights has not caught and convicted one significant terrorist! Even the FBI admits that torture doesn't work.
Meanwhile, if we're serious about preventing another terror attack, why is only 10% of the cargo entering our ports on ships ever inspected? Sure, no airliners have been hijacked by a terrorist wielding the wrong-sized shampoo bottle. But those cargo containers are big enough to smuggle in a small arsenal of rocket launchers and shoulder-fired missiles that could actually bring down a plane; dirty bomb material; or even Bin Laden himself. I sometimes wonder if he's driving a cab in Manhattan right now.
RESTORE THE RULE OF LAW
This means investigating and prosecuting each and every Bush administration official and their cronies who may have committed crimes while in power. Otherwise the lesson learned is you can get away with anything you want because the next administration will be too spineless to take action. For crying out loud, DO NOT make the same mistake Bill Clinton did when he let the rampant corruption, perjury and even terrorist acts of the Reagan and Bush I regimes go unpunished in the interest of moving on from the past. The crime here is this: Not only does everyone involved assume they have license to break even more laws the next time they hold power, but those who should be in jail for the lying, arms smuggling, assassinations and drug dealing in the Contra-gate scandal (like Elliot Abrams, Colin Powell, Richard Armitage and Robert Gates among others) are instead handed even more powerful positions where they have done even worse damage. Can you imagine the havoc and hooliganism if we put our heads in the sand after Watergate, let bygones be bygones, and G. Gordon Liddy wound up as director of the FBI? Secretary of Defense Haldeman? Attorney General Ehrlichman? Karl Rove's chair occupied by Colson, Magruder or Segretti?
Watergate and even Contra-gate pale in comparison to the wholesale lawlessness this time around. From Jack Abramoff's bribes, to outing Valerie Plame; from lying about weapons of mass destruction and getting thousands of people killed; from wholesale fraud and attacks on the right to vote, to the gutting of the Justice Department, to torture and other possible war crimes—this can't be allowed to go on.
Cheney and Rumsfeld were bad enough. But it is equally critical that lower-echelon culprits lacking household names like John Yoo, David Addington (nicknamed "Cheney's Cheney"), and General Geoffrey Miller be held accountable for their alleged involvement in torture and other serious crimes. Otherwise, they could one day rise to Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, or even the Supreme Court and pick up right where they left off in their blood-soaked shredding of the Constitution.
Even a South African-style Truth Commission would be an important step in preventing this from ever happening again. Otherwise, why should I or anyone else obey the law when my own government does not even pretend to? Even if Bush pardons the most blatant war criminals, all we have to do is fulfill President Clinton's promise to join the rest of the world in the International Criminal Court and they might not get away with it after all. We must come clean and drain the swamp now or it is just going to get dirtier. A lot dirtier.
Rule of law must also be restored when it comes to the NSA, FISA and domestic spying. The Internet revolt by your own followers was right. Your vote for letting the NSA, and even the phone companies, off the hook for massive illegal spying on American citizens was a very bad mistake. These are the exact same crimes that got Nixon thrown out of office for Watergate. Now Watergate is legal too? I have to say it—this doesn't remind me of Nixon as much as Italy's ordeal under Silvio Berlusconi. In Italy I have heard the joke again and again that "Berlusconi has to stay in power or else he'll go to jail." Sure enough, every time Berlusconi gets indicted for yet another crime, his majority in Parliament simply changes the law and he goes free. There should be zero tolerance for Berlusconi disease.
Plus, does this much spying even make sense? What are we gaining here besides a bigger avalanche of useless data? If 9/11 was an inside job, it was not one of conspiracy but colossal, runaway incompetence. We were already spying on way too many people, collecting way too much data that no one had time to analyze. Thus finding the real terrorists before they struck was like looking for a needle in a football stadium.
I have a feeling you may sign an important bill or two right from the podium during your inauguration speech. It might be an economic stimulus package or lifting the ban on stem cell research. How about also signing your first executive order declaring all of Bush's presidential signing statements he added on to bills he signed to be null and void. These things will go a long way toward restoring the rule of law.
STAMP OUT ELECTION FRAUD – RESTORE THE RIGHT TO VOTE
I never thought that after all these years we would once again find ourselves fighting for our right to vote. In the United States of America? It is well-established now that every election at least since 2000, including the midterms, has been marred by widespread vote fraud, especially via the hacking and manipulations of electronic voting machines. But these widespread crimes have never been fully investigated, let alone prosecuted. Even the US Civil Rights Commission recommended prosecuting then-Governor Jeb Bush over all the fraud and voter intimidation in Florida during the 2002 election. But his brother's Justice Department declined.
It is obvious the Help America Vote Act has backfired and done the opposite. Optical scan machines are not the answer at all. They have now been proven to be just as hackable as the notorious paperless touch-screens. They should all be junked once and for all. Digital is not always better, and voting should not be privatized. Any system where the people's votes are counted in secret behind closed doors has no place in a democracy. Nor is there room for contracting out the verification of our registration forms to the same corrupt biased companies that manufacture the phony voting machines.
We can't just let this massive, widespread vote stealing go on and pretend it isn't happening. It may be too late to reverse the wreckage of all the stolen elections. But again, a Truth Commission to prove how it was done and who did it is essential to the survival of our democracy. Anyone in Congress with a spine for this? The people have a right to know.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM – THE EASY WAY
I am sure you would agree that this election campaign was way WAY too long. Other countries, including one just north of us, limit campaign time to between 30 and 60 days. Election fever is much more focused so voter participation is higher. Why can't we do this? Sure, these other countries use parliamentary systems (another change I hope for) where the party in power calls an election and it takes place a short time later. But think of what we could save—and what we would gain—if we limited campaign time to 90 days. There could be 30 days between announcements and the primaries, followed by a 30-day primary season, then a 30-day home stretch to Election Day. Anyone who jumps the gun by jockeying, soliciting contributions or electioneering too early is automatically disqualified.
I hope you would also agree that campaigns for high office have become obscenely expensive. We now have a full-blown Election Industrial Complex. Wouldn't it be great if you didn't need $750 million to run for President? The way our campaign contributions and lobbyists work today has another name in other countries. It's called bribery.
Another way to restore sanity is to go national with a law enacted by popular vote in Nevada. If you don't like any of the candidates for an office in Nevada, you are allowed to vote None of the Above. If N.O.T.A. wins, they have to re-run the election with all new candidates.
You say you want more people to get up and get involved? Lower the voting age! To get people's attention I have suggested lowering it clear down to age 5. But more realistically, I suggest showing people they have a stake in our democracy by allowing ages 14 and up to vote on school boards and school bond issues, 16 and up for local offices and ballot measures, and 18 and up for everything else. Overcoming voter apathy is hard, but when young people cast votes and see results, they'll stick with it long term.
RETHINK AND SHUT DOWN THE WAR ON DRUGS
Prohibition is as absurd and fruitless today as it was when Eliot Ness ran around shooting up Chicago trying to stamp out illegal beer. The world is laughing at us while real people are being robbed, jailed, assaulted and even killed. We have more people locked in prison than any country in the history of the world. But our drug use rate has barely dropped at all. The blood and violence from gangs and narco-traffickers that have left Colombia and Mexico on the verge of becoming failed states is spilling across our borders. This is no country for old men—or old laws.
Could we do worse than to at least try the Harm Reduction programs used most successfully in Holland and other parts of Europe? As unorthodox as this sounds, decriminalizing (not legalizing) even harder drugs, making them available on prescription from the government for free, along with a safe place to use them, has led to a much lower crime rate—and even addiction rate—than ours. Why? The free prescriptions mean the addict does not have to rob and kill people to pay the drug gangs' high prices, and the gangs are put out of business. Dealers are still treated harshly and rehab is strongly encouraged. This could also save up to $50 billion a year for rehab and education that is otherwise wasted by throwing people in prison.
This also frees up billions and billions of dollars to treat the addicts when they want to get off drugs—which will be sooner rather than later. Rehab costs 2/3 less than prison. Our mushrooming prison-industrial complex is draining our money so badly that state after state is slashing funds for education—education!—to pay for throwing more and more people in prison. In California, a prison guard now makes more money than a teacher. So much for family values.
What is wrong with this picture?!??? As president I suggest the commuting of federal prison sentences of all small-time non-violent drug offenders to time served and releasing them immediately. Then strongly urge governors to do the same at the state level. Again, think of all the wasted taxpayer dollars this will free up for more important things like education and rehabilitation. Estimates run as high as $50 billion nationwide.
This does not mean any of these drugs should be legalized, just decriminalized. That is, strictly regulated like alcohol and tobacco, with big-time dealers and gangs treated as harshly as ever. For another way to fight the drug lords, consider this. In 2005 the United States spent $780 million on drug eradication in Afghanistan. Where on earth did it all go? It worked so poorly that $600 million of poppies and heroin escaped into the market anyway.
Do the math: We could have saved a whopping $180 million if we had simply gone to the suppliers and bought the drugs, and then destroyed them so they won't keep making people sick and killing my friends. As sickening as it is to even think of doing business with drug cartels, can anyone think of a better way to cut off the supply? A counter-argument is that this will actually force the gangs to drive the street price way up. But with Harm Reduction programs already in place they will have nothing to sell, no place to sell it, and no suckers willing to buy.
And for crying out loud, isn't it time to finally get real and decriminalize marijuana? If current strains are more potent than the old days, so what? Study after study still proves that marijuana is less harmful—and less addictive—than alcohol or tobacco. Nowadays, going overboard against marijuana has not only flooded our prisons to the breaking point, it has driven the price of cannabis so high that young people are going straight into crack cocaine and methamphetamines. Is this wise?
On top of that, it is not just oil we are dangerously low on, we are running out of wood. If we ever hope to turn the tide on global warming and save what is left of our forests, we must remove all bans on the cultivation of cannabis for its many industrial uses—including the strain of hemp that has no THC in it to get anyone high but is still banned anyway. Recycling is not enough. Why chop down millions of trees to make paper when we can use hemp or kanaf and then grow another crop of paper a few months later? It does not get any greener than this. It will also help rescue a lot of family farms.
Finally, the Joe Biden-authored Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act (formerly known as the RAVE Act), passed as a rider to the Amber Alert Bill, is as big a disgrace as the PATRIOT Act. It has no place in a free society and should be repealed immediately. Long-term rescue of our social fabric and society, not to mention our southern neighbors, depends in major part on enacting humane drug laws.
RESTORE BALANCE TO THE SUPREME COURT
Even George Will complained that Bill Clinton's Supreme Court nominees were too moderate; that the court needs a good progressive or two for the full and thorough consideration of each issue. Balancing the court means choosing a justice or two with the passion and spirit of a Thurgood Marshall, John Marshall or William O. Douglas, even if you do not fully agree with them. You may only have a two-year window before a mid-term Congress cramps your style.
MEDIA REFORM
The Federal Communications Commission should get off their high horse about Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" or naughty words that everyone says anyway, and instead focus on the rampant hate speech and outright lies that are falsely broadcast as impartial news. Sure, celebrity bullies like Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, and Ann Coulter have a right to say what they want. But when no one—even the target of a personal attack—is allowed the right to reply, the very idea of an informed democracy goes out the window. Was that their goal in the first place?
Nowadays, mainstream corporate media deliberately dumbing down the news, omitting key facts and sides of the story, or neglecting to report the story altogether is the worst form of censorship going on in America today. Since the big mergers, most debate that gets aired at all is restricted to right wing versus ultra-right wing, while the rest of us are allowed to laugh along with Stewart and Colbert. What kind of democracy are we when freedom of speech—or the equally important right to communicate—belongs only to the oligarchs who control the airwaves?
There used to be a law called the Fairness Doctrine that guaranteed the right of reply, without Bill O'Reilly yelling at you to shut up every 15 seconds. It was allowed to expire late in the Reagan years, and urgently needs to be renewed. Your stated opposition to this puzzles me. What better tool is there for "opening up the airwaves and modern communications to as many diverse viewpoints as possible" than making sure they are allowed to be seen and heard in the first place? And how about some enforcement of the laws guaranteeing that the public, not corporations, owns the airwaves. Even the big corporate media barons should again be required to renew their FCC license to broadcast every five years, complete with public hearings.
I also do not think anyone should be allowed to graduate from high school until they pass a class on media literacy. Sadly, we do not yet have the curriculum. In the meantime we must all pitch in with the teaching—to both adults and children.
ECONOMIC STIMULUS – START WITH PEOPLE WHO NEED IT MOST
I'm glad there seems to be a sense up top that national security, the economy, climate collapse and the environment are all intertwined. Think about it. No rogue state or terrorist threatens our national security nearly as much as our collapsing economy. The growing gap between the rich and poor is what is tearing apart the lives of average Americans and their families.
National security means:
• Everyone has a home.
• Everyone has enough decent food to eat.
• Everyone can drink the water without having to buy it in a bottle from Coke or Pepsi.
• No one has to worry about getting their hand cut off at work or having their job outsourced overseas.
• Everyone can be who they are without fear of being detained and tortured without trial.
• Everyone can vote without fear, knowing their vote will be counted—accurately.
• Every woman has the right to choose what to do with her own body.
• Everyone has enough money for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
• Everyone, even if they don't have money, has the right to see a doctor if they're sick or hurt. In so many other countries this is a guaranteed human right by law.
Stimulating and reviving the economy will only succeed from the ground up. This means getting a lot more money quickly to the people on the bottom who need it the most. When they finally have some cash in their pocket they will be more than eager to spend it. Stores perk up, jobs are saved, and the train is finally rolling out of the station. This is why leaders as diverse as Martin Luther King, Milton Friedman and even Richard Nixon have at different times proposed a guaranteed annual income so that everyone can participate and keep our economy humming. Raise the minimum wage to a living wage: $9.50 an hour helps, but $12 an hour is closer to a true living wage. Welfare should not be a dirty word, especially after PBS reported last month that if you count all the Americans who have given up looking for work because they can't find any and dropped off the radar screen, unemployment is actually around 12%! So please remove the time limits on unemployment compensation, welfare benefits and Aid to Families with Dependent Children that were slapped on the least fortunate during the Clinton years.
But where will the money come from when we burn it all up shoveling it down the mouths of the dragons on Wall Street? You are right to point out that trickle-down supply-side economics never trickled down. It wasn't supposed to. How will this be any different? To the average taxpayer this so-called bailout looks more like the last great looting of our treasury before Bush and his cronies get the hell out of dodge. There is also growing concern about the appearance of self-dealing by officials with connections to Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
So far your own economic team seems alarmingly slanted toward the robber barons who helped create this mess in the first place. Where is Joseph Stiglitz? Where is Robert Reich? Are we still all in this together? Your Economic Advisory Council is supposed to be a council, not a choir! You say you want a support staff that debate and give you diverse ideas. So even if you do not agree with them, how about adding William Greider or Doug Henwood or even Naomi Klein as well?
GREEN JOBS THROUGH GREEN AID
Let's move even faster on climate collapse. The clock is ticking…
Your proposal to spend $150 billion on our crumbling infrastructure is a good beginning. But it is only 10% of the $1.5 trillion in urgent repairs the American Society of Civil Engineers says we need right now to avoid more disasters like the freeway bridge collapse in Minnesota. This does not even account for restocking the Bush-depleted Superfund to clean up toxic waste, or creating affordable housing for everyone. Your plan states, "We'll put people back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel efficient cars and the alternative energy technology that could free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead." Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to spend whatever it takes to weather-strip and winterize old homes and buildings now if the owners can't afford it. It will reduce our swollen carbon footprint dramatically and save tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years. How about aid for solar panels? Home windmills too? Not just tax breaks, aid. Most people just don't have the money for this. Time magazine reported in 2001 that an American farmer could get $50 for an acre of wheat and $2000 for an acre of wind power. We either pay to do this now or pay a lot more later. Europeans are already way ahead of us on this one.
Also, look for ways to accomplish two or three things at once with every renewal project. Replacing the water or sewer lines? Lay fiber optic cable! Our not-so-liberal mayor in San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, nixed that idea because there was not enough graft in it for telecom companies. His own silly plan for wi-fi towers fell on its face, so a smart opportunity was wasted.
AUTO AID – REQUIRE GREENER CARS
Ever seen a documentary film called Who Killed the Electric Car? They worked so well their owners did not want to give them back. But when their leases came up, Detroit snatched them away and destroyed them. Now Detroit wants a great big handout? Then another? Then another? There should be no bailout for carmakers if all they are willing to offer in return is more fuel-hogging clunkers like the Ford Flex. No aid until they bring back the electric cars! If the Chevy Volt is so great, why aren't they selling them now? For almost 30 years, people who go to design schools have told me that the car designers almost always pursue jobs overseas because Detroit is still unable to adapt as quickly to fresh ideas for the future.
So far "clean coal" seems to be about as clean as our mountains of "clean nuclear waste." Again, no aid to big coal companies unless they end their environmentally devastating "mountain top removal" plundering once and for all.
TRAINS MAKE SENSE – PEOPLE ARE READY
Another crucial way to fight global warming and reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to wake up and get serious about a nationwide high-speed rail system and better rapid transit in the cities. Again, Europe, Japan, and even China are way ahead of us. When I do my speaking tours in Europe it is so much easier and less expensive than traveling here: Just take my backpack and go. Even a normal train is often faster than flying. No traffic jams getting to the airport, no long security lines, no baggage claim wait, no traffic jams back into the next town. I just get on the train and get off the train, right downtown. The scenery is pretty cool too.
Amtrak has hemorrhaged money year after year. But ridership is finally going up, in spite of the decimated service. People have finally grown so fed up with traffic jams, fuel prices and the arrogance of our bumbling airline industry that a proper train system would now do very well. Just ask former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, another intriguing choice for a high position in your administration. Californians finally passed a bond issue to begin work on a long-overdue bullet train system between San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles. People I have talked to in random conversation are almost as excited about this as they are about your own election. A similar initiative passed in Florida in 2000, but Governor Jeb Bush impounded the funds.
Surely we can find the money by canceling a few aircraft carriers, tanks and planes we don't need, and by shutting off the faucet for the hundreds of billions wasted on Reagan's star wars fantasy—now known as "missile defense." Are those new installations in the Czech Republic and Poland really worth all the grief they're stirring up with the Russians? The Czech and Polish people don't even want them there!
Green energy technology should also be shared, even given, to the Chinese ASAP. Here on the West Coast I have to wipe a brown sooty film off my windshield every couple of days—and my car is in a garage! It is coal dust from Chinese factories. They open a new coal plant ever few days. According to Mother Jones, sustaining an American lifestyle for a Chinese middle class predicted to reach 600 million will require the resources of several more Earths!
COMPETE GLOBALLY – TAKE BETTER CARE OF OUR PEOPLE
Other countries prefer a healthy workforce and are willing to pay for it. Here we stick our workforce with fat, greedy insurance companies who serve no purpose but to act as a tollbooth or a gatekeeper and charge exorbitant fees before a person can even see a doctor. The result, of course, is the most expensive healthcare system with the least benefit for the buck of any in the industrialized world. You say the big insurance companies "should have a place at the table." Aren't these companies the problem?
Other counties want their workforce to be as well-educated as possible to better care for themselves and compete in the global economy. So they are willing to pay to make sure this happens, instead of kicking them in the face with back-breaking student loans and cutting school funding to the bone.
Other countries want their children to grow up well-nourished and loved instead of dysfunctional. They are happy to pay welfare for single parents to stay home with their little ones, and for 12-18 months maternity leave with 80-90% pay for either parent to make sure no child is left behind.
Traveling overseas it is not hard to notice that many European countries, and not just Scandinavia, have a higher standard of living than we do, and the gap is widening. The reason is they are willing to pay for it.
HUMANE TAX REFORM
Please do not break your promise to raise income taxes on the wealthy and close those Titanic-sized loopholes that allowed two-thirds of US and foreign corporations who do business here to pay no tax at all between 1998 and 2005. We used to have a tiny tax on security speculation and stock transactions. Britain still does. If the annual amount of wheeling and dealing in the stock market really amounts to the reported $500 trillion a year, a mere 1% tax could raise $5 trillion per year and Wall Street would not even feel it! Other ways to raise badly needed revenue without hurting Joe the Plumber would be to tax companies who pollute, divert funds overseas, and ship jobs out of the country, as well as taxing stock windfalls rewarded by Wall Street for balancing the bottom line with employee layoffs.
Last September the Bush administration quietly dynamited Section 382 of the tax code allowing big banks to run off with as much as $140 billion dollars in new tax breaks that many suspect are illegal. Was this illegal? Please enforce the law and stop the bleeding now.
We could also follow the lead of Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, and even the state of Maine and encourage cities to start their own municipal or community banks. Being a non-profit, these banks would provide low-cost loans for homes and small businesses. They would also save cities millions of dollars apiece that they now waste on private banking fees.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D - IL) proposes generous tax breaks and shareholder advantages to "patriotic corporations" who limit management salaries to 100 times the lowest-paid fulltime worker. I think 10 times is better. Shareholders need better legal tools to limit runaway CEO pay and looting by top executives.
Schakowsky would also give tax breaks to corporations that: produce at least 90% of their goods and services in the United States; spend at least 50% of the research and development budgets here at home; stay out of employee organizing drives; are clean with the EPA, OSHA and the NRLB; and provide their employees with generous and portable pension funds and health insurance. They must also agree not to price-gouge consumers.
So how do we convince Americans that it is in our best interest to help pay for all of this? It would help if you use your power to inspire and persuade, to get through to people in this country that not all taxes are automatically bad, especially when spent in a way that benefits them directly. Starting with the Boston Tea Party in kindergarten, it is drilled into us that taxes are this terrible violation of our freedom. As adults we have had 30 plus years of media sermons from both parties that we are no longer a community, but a marketplace, and that competitiveness is more important than caring about one another. Isn't it interesting that the people least interested in paying taxes are often the first to complain when a government service they take for granted doesn't work any more?
To wise people up and chip away at this I suggest pointing out what happened to California when voters passed Proposition 13 and gutted what was once the number one education system in the country, if not the world. It is now almost dead last. According to the ACLU, some schools in Los Angeles are not only short on books and desks, they don't even have toilet paper. Californians also voted down an initiative guaranteeing universal healthcare after the Disease Industry ran a blitz of TV ads claiming it would raise people's taxes. They banked on people failing to do the math and see how a slight tax increase would dramatically reduce their own medical bills.
Another example is the tale of two of the Quad Cities on the Mississippi River. In the 1990s, Rock Island, IL voters were willing to raise taxes to build a floodwall. Voters in Davenport, IA rejected a wall three times because it would raise taxes. Guess whose town was devastated the next time the Mississippi flooded? To raise local money for local and state projects voters have to be shown that it is worth raising taxes to pay for these things.
Taxes also wouldn't hurt so much if the people had more say in where their money went. How about placing 12-15 categories in US income tax forms so people can vote what percentage of their tax money they want spent where? I'll bet education, the environment, infrastructure, and services would go straight up and our bloated military cash cow would go straight down.
HELP PEOPLE RESIST FORECLOSURES
To fight the plague of foreclosures, I suggest following the lead of the Cook County Sheriff in Chicago by declaring a moratorium on foreclosure evictions. Debts to predatory lenders should be forgiven at once. Many families are fleeing their homes because they are so frightened of the cruel Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, they are willing to default on their mortgage just to keep up with their credit card debts. You voted against this law. Now let's get rid of it. I am inspired by City Life/Vida Urbana in Boston who have said "Yes We Can" to reviving the Depression-era practice of volunteer rolling brigades who show up to defend people's homes from eviction, and if need be take all the furniture and belongings back from the curb into the house. In addition, they alert the media to help shame the banks and predatory lenders from coming back. In many cases it has worked.
The most intriguing proposal flying around the Internet is for everyone who files an individual tax return to be given $1 million dollars on the condition that they use it to pay off their mortgage in full (thus bailing out the banks) and buy an American car within the next three years. Whatever is left over is theirs to keep and invest. Unfortunately the math does not add up. Even the staggering estimated total of $8 trillion thrown at our collapsing economy would only bring $57,971.01 for each of the 138 million individual tax returns filed each year. Too bad, it is an interesting idea.
"THIS MOVEMENT IS NOT JUST ABOUT ONE PERSON…"
I'm glad to hear you say that, but I keep waiting for you to expand and take it further. To point out how much it also matters who is in the Senate, who is in the House, the Governor, the State legislature, mayors, city councils, school boards, ballot initiatives, county commissioners, you name it. To say that if a person is not satisfied with what is going on in their community, they should get involved. If they are not satisfied with how they are being represented, they should consider running for office themselves. A lot of inspired people would. What else can we do in the meantime to make things better? What simple, easy steps can we take in our own lives? You have two more chances—Inauguration and the State of the Union. Before people return to the slumber of Soundbite McNews.
Bill Clinton could have won back Congress in 1996 if he had used his popularity, convention speech and pulpit for something besides his own shoo-in re-election. But he didn't. I was in the room for Al Gore's acceptance speech in 2000. He didn't bother either. It was just about one person.
I'll be amazed if Mr. Obama or anyone close actually reads this, so this last part is for you folks who have. To me, if there is an Obama movement, it is more like the Pope-mobile. You know, that cage of bulletproof glass on wheels that rolls around with the Pope inside, waving at his adoring flock, "Yo! I'm here! Look at me, I'm the Pope!" Then everybody goes home. But who is driving the Pope-mobile? Can a crowd organize to block the wrong turns and steer it in a better direction?
I did not vote for you, but I dearly want you to succeed at delivering the change you have promised. We have very little time and may not get another chance. Recent history shows we have eight years maximum before the pendulum swings back the other way—and hard. She may lose once or twice, but I fear the Pitbull with Lipstick will one day be bigger than Reagan.
In many ways, people seem to be looking to you as their new great-and-powerful Oprah as much as they look at you as their President. This can be useful too. To revive people's sense of community and what it entails. To persuade people that voting for small local tax increases brings much greater benefits for everyone down the road. To encourage people to not just recycle but look for ways to stop wasting so much. Those same European countries whose standard of living seems to be higher than ours use a fraction per capita of natural resources we do. How do they do it? Think of all the forests we could save just by showing people how much paper they can save just by writing on the other side before they throw it away? Imagine if lawyers figured this out.
HONOR AND RESPECT YOUR MOVEMENT
Please don't ever forget why so many people who had given up hope are investing so much of their hearts and hope in you. If that hope is shattered and they feel betrayed, a great deal more will collapse for good.
So to keep your movement alive—and help it grow beyond you—keep those texts and e-mail lists alive! Keep your Blackberry. Does it matter if it all becomes public record? How about a posting a daily log of what you did and who you and your staff met with, including lobbyists. Why not keep all those campaign offices you opened all over the country alive too? Convert them to branch offices. Senators and House members have branch offices all over their districts. You now represent the whole country. Keep the branches.
Above all, be a leader, not a dealmaker. There are times when cutting a deal is the same as cutting and running. To put it mildly, we can't afford that anymore. There are no sails left to trim.
And if this is a movement about change and not just about one person, it is up to the movement to drive the President, not the other way around. Please do not stand in the way.
Sincerely,
Jello Biafra
Rumble in Ramona Yardsale
Find out what the skaters' favorite tricks on vert are and check out some more ripping from the rumble last weekend.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Surfing The Wedge from the surf movie Longboard Habit
by Rich Lehrer and Paul Katz of Burnt Toast and Katz Eye Prods, The wedge on 2 of the best days of the year from the DVD Longboard Habit, yeah theres no longboards out but that would have been insanity as well as expensive...the DVD has 3 hours and 20 minutes of lots of longboarding and other educational and sexy
stuff too, well I find waves a turn on, and great music like Rick Holmstrom.
stuff too, well I find waves a turn on, and great music like Rick Holmstrom.
Escape from LA - The Best Scene
One of the best scene ever, you better watch it, and realize what surf is all about.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Cavalera Conspiracy - WarLord - SWU 2010, Brazil
The Cavalera brothers are back to Brazil after many years, their band rules, as ever!
The new song by Cavalera Conspiracy is a blast, enjoi it!
The new song by Cavalera Conspiracy is a blast, enjoi it!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The scene I´m not in
If i were a good looking guy, if I had some money in my pocket, live in another(Better) place and no stress in mind, I really could be this guy, or better to say, Í´m still a miserable loser.
Alright, this show is silly but what can I do?
Alright, this show is silly but what can I do?
Tankcrimes Brainsqueeze
Tankcrimes flew a bunch of the bands on their roster out to Oakland for a weekend of thrashing and stagediving. Here are some photos from the show.
Brandon and the waste crew
Municipal Waste
Vitamin X
Toxic Holocaust
Ghoul
Direct Control
Cannabis Corpse
Brandon and the waste crew
Municipal Waste
Vitamin X
Toxic Holocaust
Ghoul
Direct Control
Cannabis Corpse
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
A.N.S. "I'm from Texas but I am not a Redneck"
Listen, all you guys must watch this video, a band that has total understanding about politics, economics and social issues. Not that ignorant attitude of "Fuck everything"
A.N.S. Interview HARDTIMES.CA
HARDTIMES.CA | Myspace Video
Thanks Hartimes.ca
A.N.S. Interview HARDTIMES.CA
HARDTIMES.CA | Myspace Video
Thanks Hartimes.ca
Thursday, October 7, 2010
TEASER DO FILME PÓLVORA NEGRA.
Kapel Furman, our buddy, made this entire movie,direction,production, especially make up, very good stuff, check this out.
Why Everybody Hates Surfers?
Source: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com
Everybody hates surfers. It's true. A recent study found that 99% of people hate surfers. [1] Groups noted for their particular hatred of surfers include chavs, metalheads, punks, old bastards, the Coast Guard, politicians, the Irish, alcoholics, the Royal Navy, petty criminals, single parents, Oxford alumni, badgers, skaters, fish (particularly sharks), the homeless, Democrat voters, Republican voters, taxi drivers, and you. Also, most surfers hate themselves, and each other.
Spotting a surfer
Surfers are generally quite easy spot. They could be carrying a surfboard, talking about catching awesome breakers, or, in rare circumstances, actually surfing. However, sometimes it is possible for surfers to go unrecognised, although they are still subject to intense hatred. In fact, you may hate one or more surfers without even realising it. Here's a simple test for determining whether somebody is a surfer.
1-Do you hate them?
2-Does everybody else hate them?
3-Are they Californian?
4-Are they topless, or wearing a wetsuit, despite being nowhere near the beach?
5-Do they have long, golden hair?
6-Do they overuse the phrases "dude", "awesome", "radical" or "tubular"?
7-As a matter of fact, do they use any of the above phrases at all?
8-Do they think they're cool, but nobody else does?
9-Are they, like, totally eco and down with Mother Earth, but in a way that doesn't require them to change their lifestyle in any way?
10-Are they unaware that it is no longer the 1970s?
11-Do they go on about surfing the whole time?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, they are probably a surfer. However, the following test is simpler: do they surf? If so, they're probably not a surfer, as actual surfers spend almost none of their time actually surfing
Things to do with surfers, but that you don't have to hate
Surf rock
Groovy instrumentals that were popular in the pre-Beatles 60s, and later among hipsters; you don't have to hate surf rock, as most of the original bands hated their surfing audience, and played the music cynically for the money. Quentin Tarantino is a good example of a massive douchebag who likes surf rock but nonetheless doesn't actually surf. Actually, forget surfing entirely. Quentin Tarantino is just a good example of a massive douchebag.
The word "dude"...
...when it is used ironically.
The sea
It's actually quite cool, actually - which is all the more reason to hate surfers for ruining it.
Everybody hates surfers in popular culture
The original premise of the hit film Jaws was that it would contain nothing but shots of surfers being torn apart by sharks. Once Steven Spielberg became attached as director, however, he demanded a rewrite focusing on Jaws' relationship with his estranged father. However, the public's general hatred of surfers was still enough to carry the film to box-office success.
Point Break also achieved box office success; it is the story of one FBI agent who becomes deranged due to his hatred of surfers, and vows to hunt down and kill each and every one of them. This mission is given the green light by the FBI, as they too hate surfers. The film included a number of most enjoyable sequences in which surfers are killed horribly, and audiences also got to laugh at the surfers' pathetic attempts at philosophy.
Also, the popular television show Everybody Loves Raymond was originally to be titled Everybody Hates Surfers, but Ray Romano found the idea of playing a surfer so abhorrent that he, too, demanded a rewrite.
Footnotes
It should be noted that this study has a 1% margin of error.
Lovely! Best post.
Everybody hates surfers. It's true. A recent study found that 99% of people hate surfers. [1] Groups noted for their particular hatred of surfers include chavs, metalheads, punks, old bastards, the Coast Guard, politicians, the Irish, alcoholics, the Royal Navy, petty criminals, single parents, Oxford alumni, badgers, skaters, fish (particularly sharks), the homeless, Democrat voters, Republican voters, taxi drivers, and you. Also, most surfers hate themselves, and each other.
Spotting a surfer
Surfers are generally quite easy spot. They could be carrying a surfboard, talking about catching awesome breakers, or, in rare circumstances, actually surfing. However, sometimes it is possible for surfers to go unrecognised, although they are still subject to intense hatred. In fact, you may hate one or more surfers without even realising it. Here's a simple test for determining whether somebody is a surfer.
1-Do you hate them?
2-Does everybody else hate them?
3-Are they Californian?
4-Are they topless, or wearing a wetsuit, despite being nowhere near the beach?
5-Do they have long, golden hair?
6-Do they overuse the phrases "dude", "awesome", "radical" or "tubular"?
7-As a matter of fact, do they use any of the above phrases at all?
8-Do they think they're cool, but nobody else does?
9-Are they, like, totally eco and down with Mother Earth, but in a way that doesn't require them to change their lifestyle in any way?
10-Are they unaware that it is no longer the 1970s?
11-Do they go on about surfing the whole time?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, they are probably a surfer. However, the following test is simpler: do they surf? If so, they're probably not a surfer, as actual surfers spend almost none of their time actually surfing
Things to do with surfers, but that you don't have to hate
Surf rock
Groovy instrumentals that were popular in the pre-Beatles 60s, and later among hipsters; you don't have to hate surf rock, as most of the original bands hated their surfing audience, and played the music cynically for the money. Quentin Tarantino is a good example of a massive douchebag who likes surf rock but nonetheless doesn't actually surf. Actually, forget surfing entirely. Quentin Tarantino is just a good example of a massive douchebag.
The word "dude"...
...when it is used ironically.
The sea
It's actually quite cool, actually - which is all the more reason to hate surfers for ruining it.
Everybody hates surfers in popular culture
The original premise of the hit film Jaws was that it would contain nothing but shots of surfers being torn apart by sharks. Once Steven Spielberg became attached as director, however, he demanded a rewrite focusing on Jaws' relationship with his estranged father. However, the public's general hatred of surfers was still enough to carry the film to box-office success.
Point Break also achieved box office success; it is the story of one FBI agent who becomes deranged due to his hatred of surfers, and vows to hunt down and kill each and every one of them. This mission is given the green light by the FBI, as they too hate surfers. The film included a number of most enjoyable sequences in which surfers are killed horribly, and audiences also got to laugh at the surfers' pathetic attempts at philosophy.
Also, the popular television show Everybody Loves Raymond was originally to be titled Everybody Hates Surfers, but Ray Romano found the idea of playing a surfer so abhorrent that he, too, demanded a rewrite.
Footnotes
It should be noted that this study has a 1% margin of error.
Lovely! Best post.
Rumble in Ramona: The Final Stand
The third and final Rumble in Ramona is going down this weekend. Check out this re-edit from last year's session, and get ready.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Thiago Lo-Fi - Corpse Killer
Here´s a sequence of photos, Thiago Lo-Fi is the only surfer around Sanja Streets, the others whom called themselves surfers do something else we don´t know what is.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
I Hate Magazine
Turns out to be that Hate Magazine is a name already used by others publishers. No problem, now I´ve just add a letter to my blog´s name and it was the best thing to do.
I Hate Magazine is heading for a obscure future with dark goals to achieve the worst kind of publishing ever known on the internet. We have a lot of work here.
Still posting what you hate the most about misfits, read me please, undercover misfits.
In Portuguese:
Esta revista é um tipo de leitura de psicologia para fracassados? Não! Eu não diria isso, este conjunto de obras expõe tudo que um alienado miserável produz e se identifica, através de um ponto vista individual de quem cresceu a margem dos padrões estabelecidos pela sociedade. Agora se você achou alguma coisa estranha é porque eu continuo um fracasso.
By: NicolasDelavy - http://nicolasdelavy.tumblr.com/
I Hate Magazine is heading for a obscure future with dark goals to achieve the worst kind of publishing ever known on the internet. We have a lot of work here.
Still posting what you hate the most about misfits, read me please, undercover misfits.
In Portuguese:
Esta revista é um tipo de leitura de psicologia para fracassados? Não! Eu não diria isso, este conjunto de obras expõe tudo que um alienado miserável produz e se identifica, através de um ponto vista individual de quem cresceu a margem dos padrões estabelecidos pela sociedade. Agora se você achou alguma coisa estranha é porque eu continuo um fracasso.
By: NicolasDelavy - http://nicolasdelavy.tumblr.com/
KOTR Memories: Tony Trujillo
Trujillo sits down in front of the ballpark and talks about his King of the Road memories right before the Giants win the NL West!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Jason Adams Really Knows!
More Jason Adams.
An Interview with The Kid
Look, I’m not an art collector by any means. It’s just not my deal, but some of my most prized possessions are works of art created by skateboarders. Pieces by Mark Gonzales, Lance Mountain, Steve Olson, Morford, Reda, TG, Natas, Ken Nagahara and most recently Jason Adams hang proudly in my house. To me, art created by skateboarders has an added depth to it that ‘regular art’ lacks. I’m sorry ‘regular art guys’, but you know it’s true. Knowing that the same minds and bodies that destroyed spots across the world created beautiful pieces of art is deep as fuck. That said, I also think what guys like Jason Adams are doing with their art could easily hang in any museum in the world…so ‘regular art guys’ be warned…I think Jason’s coming for your spot with out him even meaning to.
I was blown away when I first saw Jason’s art. Using layers of spray paint, stencils and other techniques he is able to create images that are bold and powerful at first glance but have rich depth with carefully crafted details when you look into them. Subject matters close to his heart jump out of his work and become close to ours.
I truly believe its only a short matter of time before the rest of the world recognizes what a true artistic talent Jason is and his paintings will hang in museums and become far too expensive for us little people. For now though, I’m going to keep snatching up his prints, fill up my house with his work and brave explaining to my wife why I ‘just had to have one more.’
-by Jim Thiebaud
Now get in here and watch JA´s video and read the whole interview
http://www.thundertrucks.com/jason-adams-knows/
An Interview with The Kid
Look, I’m not an art collector by any means. It’s just not my deal, but some of my most prized possessions are works of art created by skateboarders. Pieces by Mark Gonzales, Lance Mountain, Steve Olson, Morford, Reda, TG, Natas, Ken Nagahara and most recently Jason Adams hang proudly in my house. To me, art created by skateboarders has an added depth to it that ‘regular art’ lacks. I’m sorry ‘regular art guys’, but you know it’s true. Knowing that the same minds and bodies that destroyed spots across the world created beautiful pieces of art is deep as fuck. That said, I also think what guys like Jason Adams are doing with their art could easily hang in any museum in the world…so ‘regular art guys’ be warned…I think Jason’s coming for your spot with out him even meaning to.
I was blown away when I first saw Jason’s art. Using layers of spray paint, stencils and other techniques he is able to create images that are bold and powerful at first glance but have rich depth with carefully crafted details when you look into them. Subject matters close to his heart jump out of his work and become close to ours.
I truly believe its only a short matter of time before the rest of the world recognizes what a true artistic talent Jason is and his paintings will hang in museums and become far too expensive for us little people. For now though, I’m going to keep snatching up his prints, fill up my house with his work and brave explaining to my wife why I ‘just had to have one more.’
-by Jim Thiebaud
Now get in here and watch JA´s video and read the whole interview
http://www.thundertrucks.com/jason-adams-knows/
Studio - Jason Adams
Take a look around and think about your miserable day job routine
More on: http://losthighway66.com/blog/studio
Studio
More on: http://losthighway66.com/blog/studio
Studio
Sunday, October 3, 2010
SURFING’s Lost Sections Dept: Christian Muller
The reality of Taylor Steele’s Innersection is that most segments won’t make the movie; the latest round alone saw 54 entries. SURFING would like to pay our respects to some of our favorite, under-appreciated entries that you can no longer see on Innersection. These surfers are just supporting actors now, but by next year, any one could have a leading role.Here’s an interesting one: Brazilian filmmaker Loic Wirth qualified 4th with his poetical section on Uruguayan surfista Marco Giorgi. But he also shot this other section with a 17-year-old Brazilian aerialist named Cristian Muller. “He doesn’t see himself as a pro surfer,” said Loic. “He’s a student. But he’s really natural in the water, very creative and always looks to evolve aerial surfing.” The section is a nice mix of Loic’s filmmaking talents and Cristian’s above the lip explorations. Not a round winner…but certainly worth enjoying again. Get your spinny-thang on.
More on:
http://blogs.surfingmagazine.com/news/surfing%e2%80%99s-lost-sections-dept-christian-muller/
More on:
http://blogs.surfingmagazine.com/news/surfing%e2%80%99s-lost-sections-dept-christian-muller/
Cristian Muller - Innersection Entry from Loïc Wirth on Vimeo.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Rockin´ The Fillmore
A little portuguese for my brazilian friends
Rocking´the Fillmore - Humble Pie
Sabe o que é a definição de Les Paul no joelho? Pra mim é o seguinte, tocar com a correia da guitarra esticada, babando, descendo a mão, o maior rock pauleira, se liga, o Humble Pie foi uma das maiores bandas de rock que o mundo já ouviu e assistiu, no inico da década de 70 eram um dos atos ao vivo e mais celebrados pelos amantes de rock pauleira, nesse disco é totalmente possível sentir o que eu estou dizendo, neste trabalho a banda era composta por Stevie Marriott, uma das maiores vozes da época, um Frontman que todo mundo queria pra sua banda, extremamente talentoso, fedia em todos os instrumentos que se atrevia tocar, era um dos caras mais agressivos que eu já ouvi, ao lado do Marriott, estavam Jerry Shirley, batera habilidoso que entrou na banda com 17 anos, Greg Ridley, baixista experiente, vindo de outras bandas boas, vocal muito bom que deixou sua marca em todos os discos que participou da banda, e por fim, Peter Frampton, virtuoso na guitarra, preciso nos seus solos e gentil nos vocais, dividiu até este disco todas as atenções da banda, sempre acrescentou na banda algo que os outros integrantes não conseguiam.
Gravado durante a turnê do album “Rock on” no Fillmore East, casa de shows mais do que lendária que ficava no East Village em NYC, promovida e dirigida pelo não menos lendário Bill Graham, “Performance - Rockin´ The Fillmore” é um dos maiores discos ao vivo já lançados por uma banda de rock´n roll, tem muita energia, dá pra sentir a brutalidade exalando das guitarras, os vocais são perfeitos, todos cantam em todas as músicas, como em “4 day creep”, faixa destruidora, tradicional música para abertura de shows até a saída de Frampton da banda, “Hallelujah (I love her so)”, predileta do álbum, a sincronia dos vocais e os solos do Frampton feitos em casa fazem com que ela seja uma das mais ouvidas do disco, logicamente, é um clássico absoluto de Ray Charles(Perguntaram certa vez para o Marriott se trancassem ele em um quarto com apenas um disco pra escutar, qual ele escolheria, sem pensar duas vezes respondeu que ele escolheria qualquer um do Ray Charles), a banda é tão fã dele que na trajetória inteira sempre ouvimos pelo menos duas músicas do cara, e aqui nós conferimos também “I Don´t Need No Doctor”, que tem muito peso e swing, alto grau de integração com a platéia, memorável canção.
Além de serem muito bons roqueiros, eram muito virtuosos em seus instrumentos, “I Walk on Gilded Splinters”, cover do Dr. John, eles debulham em mais de vinte minutos de som, improviso de vocal e instrumentos na hora certa, a quem diga que é muito extensa, mas pra mim é apenas questão e ponto de vista, rock é isso ai, tocar pra caralho. A pegada de blues é o elemento fino, o arranjo pra “I´m Ready” de Willie Dixon é sensacional, o começinho dela é arrepiante com o Marriott no vocal, outro blusão fudido do disco é “Rolling Stone”, Muddy Waters na veia, versão estendida do album “Rock On”, nela a banda separa a musica em duas partes, sendo que a segunda tem uma letra pra lá de caliente. Outra faixa do disco citado acima é “Stone Cold Fever”, pesadíssima. Preciso dizer que é pra compra logo essa porra?
Rocking´the Fillmore - Humble Pie
Sabe o que é a definição de Les Paul no joelho? Pra mim é o seguinte, tocar com a correia da guitarra esticada, babando, descendo a mão, o maior rock pauleira, se liga, o Humble Pie foi uma das maiores bandas de rock que o mundo já ouviu e assistiu, no inico da década de 70 eram um dos atos ao vivo e mais celebrados pelos amantes de rock pauleira, nesse disco é totalmente possível sentir o que eu estou dizendo, neste trabalho a banda era composta por Stevie Marriott, uma das maiores vozes da época, um Frontman que todo mundo queria pra sua banda, extremamente talentoso, fedia em todos os instrumentos que se atrevia tocar, era um dos caras mais agressivos que eu já ouvi, ao lado do Marriott, estavam Jerry Shirley, batera habilidoso que entrou na banda com 17 anos, Greg Ridley, baixista experiente, vindo de outras bandas boas, vocal muito bom que deixou sua marca em todos os discos que participou da banda, e por fim, Peter Frampton, virtuoso na guitarra, preciso nos seus solos e gentil nos vocais, dividiu até este disco todas as atenções da banda, sempre acrescentou na banda algo que os outros integrantes não conseguiam.
Gravado durante a turnê do album “Rock on” no Fillmore East, casa de shows mais do que lendária que ficava no East Village em NYC, promovida e dirigida pelo não menos lendário Bill Graham, “Performance - Rockin´ The Fillmore” é um dos maiores discos ao vivo já lançados por uma banda de rock´n roll, tem muita energia, dá pra sentir a brutalidade exalando das guitarras, os vocais são perfeitos, todos cantam em todas as músicas, como em “4 day creep”, faixa destruidora, tradicional música para abertura de shows até a saída de Frampton da banda, “Hallelujah (I love her so)”, predileta do álbum, a sincronia dos vocais e os solos do Frampton feitos em casa fazem com que ela seja uma das mais ouvidas do disco, logicamente, é um clássico absoluto de Ray Charles(Perguntaram certa vez para o Marriott se trancassem ele em um quarto com apenas um disco pra escutar, qual ele escolheria, sem pensar duas vezes respondeu que ele escolheria qualquer um do Ray Charles), a banda é tão fã dele que na trajetória inteira sempre ouvimos pelo menos duas músicas do cara, e aqui nós conferimos também “I Don´t Need No Doctor”, que tem muito peso e swing, alto grau de integração com a platéia, memorável canção.
Além de serem muito bons roqueiros, eram muito virtuosos em seus instrumentos, “I Walk on Gilded Splinters”, cover do Dr. John, eles debulham em mais de vinte minutos de som, improviso de vocal e instrumentos na hora certa, a quem diga que é muito extensa, mas pra mim é apenas questão e ponto de vista, rock é isso ai, tocar pra caralho. A pegada de blues é o elemento fino, o arranjo pra “I´m Ready” de Willie Dixon é sensacional, o começinho dela é arrepiante com o Marriott no vocal, outro blusão fudido do disco é “Rolling Stone”, Muddy Waters na veia, versão estendida do album “Rock On”, nela a banda separa a musica em duas partes, sendo que a segunda tem uma letra pra lá de caliente. Outra faixa do disco citado acima é “Stone Cold Fever”, pesadíssima. Preciso dizer que é pra compra logo essa porra?
Exile on Main Street
A little portuguese for my braqzilian friends.
Exile on main street - The Rolling Stones
Os Rolling Stones são a maior banda de rock que existiu, nasceram ao lado dos Beatles com quem foram comparados a vida toda, mas os Beatles eram uns almofadinhas metidos a intelectuais que usavam drogas, já os Stones não, eram o rock encarnado em 5 caras que destruiam tudo, não só fisicamente mas também afetavam psicologicamente as mentes dos mais afixionados por guitarra, usavam drogas em cima do palco, atraiam as melhores vadias e repeliam as piores “moças”, ou melhor, instigavam sexo, drogas e rock´n roll, quer mais o que?
Considero a discografia completa dos Stones como essencial para a vida de um apaixonado por bons sons, todos eles te ensinam algo, tem a sequencia dos seis discos que são obrigátorios, desde o “Their satanic majestic request”(1967) até o “Exile on main street”(1972), e este último é o motivo de eu estar aqui agora, é o mais fudido, um album duplo, foi lançado em 1972, pra mim o melhor ano da banda, onde eles conseguiram reunir tudo o que eles aprenderam de melhor naqueles dez anos iniciais de carreira, ano que as apresentações ao vivo eram incomparáveis, Mick Jagger arregaçava as calças em cima do palco, estilo stripper, Keith Richards guitarrava com sua telecaster cintura abaixo como se estivesse injetando heroína na platéia, Mick Taylor, um dos mais precisos guitarristas ingleses, Bill Wyman e Charlie Watts, imprecindíveis.
Mas vamos lá, o album foi gravado na França, pois eles fugiram dos altos impostos da Inglaterra na época, ai o nome “Exile on main street”, mas isso é só estória, o que interessa é o som, o disco contêm 18 faixas, começa com “Rocks Off” e “Rip Ths Joint” muito rock dançante envolvido, abre o disco furiosamente, não da pra ficar parado nem a pau, neste trabalho podemos observar uma maior influência de música americana bem rural indo além das suas influências tradicionais, Chuck Berry e o Blues elétrico de Chicago(Muddy Water e Elmore James), como em “Sweet Virginia”, “Ventilator Blues” e “Sweet Black Angel”, que é um puta lamento de arrepiar; contaram com a particiação de duas das meninas do trio de backing vocals, The BlackBerries(Venetta Fields e Clydie King), nas músicas “Tumbling dice”, maior hit do disco, “Just to Want to See his Face”, “Let it Loose” e “Shine a Light”, coisa mais linda.
Album produzido por Jimmy Miller, aka Mr. Jimmy, que sempre trabalhou com os Stones, sabia tudo de mixagem, tinha técnicas únicas, era percussionista, participou de muitos trabalhos e neste disco tocou na maioria das músicas, incluindo a batera de “Happy”. Dead.
Os temas das letras são únicos, novamente, muita influência rural e gospel americana, amor em vão, drogas como válvula de escape de algum sentimento não correspondido, dor e muito rock´n roll, “Let it Loose” é sensacional, “...In the bar you're getting drunk, I ain't in love, I ain't in luck. Hide the switch and shut the light, let it all come down tonight”. Foda.
Nas músicas finais temos “Stop Breaking Down” , arranjo próprio da musica de Robert Johnson, Mick Taylor arregaça no slide guitar, o que ele sabe fazer melhor, Mick Jagger manda uma gaita que encaixa perfeitamente no ar da canção, possui partes instrumetais com muito peso, é um dos pontos altos do disco, merece ser ouvida com toda a atenção devida. Compre logo esse disco.
Exile on main street - The Rolling Stones
Os Rolling Stones são a maior banda de rock que existiu, nasceram ao lado dos Beatles com quem foram comparados a vida toda, mas os Beatles eram uns almofadinhas metidos a intelectuais que usavam drogas, já os Stones não, eram o rock encarnado em 5 caras que destruiam tudo, não só fisicamente mas também afetavam psicologicamente as mentes dos mais afixionados por guitarra, usavam drogas em cima do palco, atraiam as melhores vadias e repeliam as piores “moças”, ou melhor, instigavam sexo, drogas e rock´n roll, quer mais o que?
Considero a discografia completa dos Stones como essencial para a vida de um apaixonado por bons sons, todos eles te ensinam algo, tem a sequencia dos seis discos que são obrigátorios, desde o “Their satanic majestic request”(1967) até o “Exile on main street”(1972), e este último é o motivo de eu estar aqui agora, é o mais fudido, um album duplo, foi lançado em 1972, pra mim o melhor ano da banda, onde eles conseguiram reunir tudo o que eles aprenderam de melhor naqueles dez anos iniciais de carreira, ano que as apresentações ao vivo eram incomparáveis, Mick Jagger arregaçava as calças em cima do palco, estilo stripper, Keith Richards guitarrava com sua telecaster cintura abaixo como se estivesse injetando heroína na platéia, Mick Taylor, um dos mais precisos guitarristas ingleses, Bill Wyman e Charlie Watts, imprecindíveis.
Mas vamos lá, o album foi gravado na França, pois eles fugiram dos altos impostos da Inglaterra na época, ai o nome “Exile on main street”, mas isso é só estória, o que interessa é o som, o disco contêm 18 faixas, começa com “Rocks Off” e “Rip Ths Joint” muito rock dançante envolvido, abre o disco furiosamente, não da pra ficar parado nem a pau, neste trabalho podemos observar uma maior influência de música americana bem rural indo além das suas influências tradicionais, Chuck Berry e o Blues elétrico de Chicago(Muddy Water e Elmore James), como em “Sweet Virginia”, “Ventilator Blues” e “Sweet Black Angel”, que é um puta lamento de arrepiar; contaram com a particiação de duas das meninas do trio de backing vocals, The BlackBerries(Venetta Fields e Clydie King), nas músicas “Tumbling dice”, maior hit do disco, “Just to Want to See his Face”, “Let it Loose” e “Shine a Light”, coisa mais linda.
Album produzido por Jimmy Miller, aka Mr. Jimmy, que sempre trabalhou com os Stones, sabia tudo de mixagem, tinha técnicas únicas, era percussionista, participou de muitos trabalhos e neste disco tocou na maioria das músicas, incluindo a batera de “Happy”. Dead.
Os temas das letras são únicos, novamente, muita influência rural e gospel americana, amor em vão, drogas como válvula de escape de algum sentimento não correspondido, dor e muito rock´n roll, “Let it Loose” é sensacional, “...In the bar you're getting drunk, I ain't in love, I ain't in luck. Hide the switch and shut the light, let it all come down tonight”. Foda.
Nas músicas finais temos “Stop Breaking Down” , arranjo próprio da musica de Robert Johnson, Mick Taylor arregaça no slide guitar, o que ele sabe fazer melhor, Mick Jagger manda uma gaita que encaixa perfeitamente no ar da canção, possui partes instrumetais com muito peso, é um dos pontos altos do disco, merece ser ouvida com toda a atenção devida. Compre logo esse disco.
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