Friday Face Time: Clinton and Obama are Conservative

I dunno, weird

There's transition going on in my environment. I feel strange.

But here's an article from the Guardian about the Army. Seems pretty cool.

Also, I've been reading about one of my favorite bands, Weezer. It makes me really, really, really really, really, really, really, really want to play music for a living.

Yet, I still just sit and read.

Spring Break Shark Attack [video]

I reviewed them the other day and here's the vid from the show I saw:

Clinton and Obama are conservative

In the true sense of the word, Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama are running conservative campaigns.

This quote is in large letters at the top of Obama's "Economy" page:

“I believe that America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. It's created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It's led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discovery…We are all in this together. From CEOs to shareholders, from financiers to factory workers, we all have a stake in each other's success because the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers.”

— Barack Obama, New York, NY, September 17, 2007

If you read down the page and look at his actual plans, it says he wants to promote fair trade by "fixing" NAFTA so that it benefits American workers. Sounds great, but how is it possible? I think to "fix NAFTA" to help workers, you just have to outright scrap it, and I don't think that's an unreasonable change to make in trade policy. Therefore I consider Obama's economic plan pretty conservative.

According to both candidates' websites, they want to lower the taxes of middle class families. Super. Neither of them plan to get rid of the breaks Bush gave to the wealthiest Americans, though Obama's site says the tax cuts for the rich are a problem.

It's one thing to criticize Bush's tax cuts, it's another to actually undo what he did. They're scared of saying they're going to raise taxes, so they don't. They just do half the job that needs to be done. That's literally a conservative approach, doing less because it's convenient, conserving time and effort.

Spring Break Shark Attack (a review)

Today I went to this big block party at the Big Top.

There were like 15 bands, most of them fantastic, but the one who stuck out the most to me was the one who played the second slot on the bill: Spring Break Shark Attack of Baton Rouge, LA.

This band transcends all expectations of what a local band can sound like, but first I'll just explain that they're an instrumental surf rock band. Right off the bat, that's something you don't often see, but something more rare is their ability to take an old style and modify it for a modern audience. This isn't a carbon copy of the Ventures we're talking about, this is a truly unique band who doesn't deserve my pigeon-holing them into the surf rock genre.

Most of their song titles have to do with shark attacks (like "Red Tide" and my personal favorite, "Army of Sharkness"), but these comical touches are just icing on top of the rich cake of pure talent that these guys possess. At times their songs transitioned to fast-beat punk sections, but without actually playing power chords (an impressive feat all it's own). At other times they had more metal sounding riffs, which made sense later when I saw one of SBSA's guitarists, Andy, playing with a down-tempo and severely down-tuned (drop F# to be exact) hardcore band called Thou (I tried to hate them but I just couldn't, I sincerely dug that band in spite of my general disgust with modern "hardcore").

SB Shark Attack also had something of a progressive quality. As a trained guitarist, I can say that both their guitarists rival and possibly excel the picking technique of their well known predecessor, Dick Dale. Their songs are well thought-out as well, and I suspect that these guys are former band nerds (takes one to know one, I guess).

Being a surf rock band, they could have easily written a bunch of songs that all sounded alike, but once again they impress in that area as well: each song really holds it's own, while sticking to the surf rock vibe. Not a task easily accomplished, hell the Ventures themselves could barely do it.

I truly cannot express how much this band's mere existence makes me hopeful of rock 'n roll's future in America.

Maybe we don't have to grow jet black bangs that cover one eye; maybe we can wear jeans that fit properly; maybe bands can actually not suck! Check out Spring Break Shark Attack today and see for yourself (myspace.com/sharkattacksurf).

A news story that doesn't focus on the sex side of McCain's trouble

Of course, it's from Democracy Now! A legitimate source of legitimate news.

I heard a little bit of it in my car earlier, I've heard NPR many times on many different stations but I was surprised to hear Democracy Now!, I think it was on WWNO, my school's station.

Anyway, here's a link.

Friday Face Time: My immediate response after the Scott Ritter lecture

Scott Ritter was right: Turkey invades Iraq

The other night I went to a lecture with Scott Ritter, a former Marine/intelligence officer/weapons inspector. He spoke about Kurdish Iraqis in the north of Iraq and how the PKK (essentially a terrorist group who the U.S. essentially supports) goes into Turkey and kills people (for whatever reasons, because they're terrorists). They use U.S. built weapons and U.S. training.

He said Turkey was about to retaliate. Well, check out this headline from the Associated Press:

Turkish Troops Enter Iraq Seeking Rebels

Holy moly perhaps this guy knows what he's talking about, unlike every pundit you'll find on TV and probably talk radio.

Find out if Scott Ritter is coming near you.

Castro

Wow, Castro finally had to take himself out of power, since no one else could.

I guess it's best to quit while you're ahead, or while you're old as fucking dirt, either way.

Hey remember when he fell down? Good times.

Holes in the Wall

From the Texas Observer:

"...a 1.63-mile proposed fence will cut through the backyard of several modest homes and stop at the edge of a resort and golf course."

click here for the article

Fucked up.

Another day, another recall

Schools and fast food chains were supplied beef from cattle that were "unable to stand at the time of slaughter."

The beef isn't necessarily contaminated but it's being recalled because the beef supplier broke the rules by slaughtering those sickly cows. But the meat has probably all been eaten already anyway.

Oh well, free trade still kicks ass, right?!

NIU Shooting: what's wrong with White culture?

Please excuse the title if it's a tad disrespectful.

The NIU shooting is definately as strange as it is tragic. If you read a little bit about the gunman, you'll find that those who knew him didn't find anything troubling about him. He studied criminal justice and according to the Associated Press he was interested in political violence and even social justice. There was also no suicide note.

So all we can really do is ask, "Why did he do it?" Because white people aren't violent, are they? Nice, hard working white guys don't do bad things. If Kazmierczak (the NIU gunman) were black, how many headlines would read "What's Wrong with Black Culture?" How many pundits would be asking the same thing?

I'm trying to balance out the universe in some way. I know that this guy was nice, had no criminal record and no history of mental illness, so the question of "Why on earth would he do this?" is certainly a valid one. It's just that I know a black man of the same reputation committing this crime would surely be villainized in the media. So, to keep everything equal, I'm just going to leave it at this: what's wrong with white people (like me) ?

"Which attack would they have hoped that we wouldn't have prevented?"

Not that we needed any further proof, but Geoge W. Bush is a raving lunatic in every sense.

In a BBC interview, he defended the use of waterboarding, and implied that everyone in Guantanamo Bay is guilty, despite the fact that many, many people there are completely innocent of every charge they have.

Friday Face Time

This is a video I made a week or so ago just to add a little something different to my YouTube content. I taped myself practicing my transcription because I knew I'd practice for a longer amount of time doing so. Recording yourself is a good way to practice music because it makes you try harder to perfect it.

Nader has a new article

He admits right off the bat that the subject is a little dry, but nonetheless important.

It's about

hundreds of billions each year of federal government contracts, grants, leaseholds and licenses given to corporations to run our government, exploit our taxpayer assets and lay waste to efficient, responsive public services.

It's from Nader.org, click here for the article.

They all support the death penalty

As if you didn't already know that.

But there's an extremely short article (if you can even call it that), over at the Houston Chronicle about how every single major presidential candidate in the '08 race supports the death penalty.

I'll concede that Obama's stance and practice with the death penalty is more reasonable but the fact remains that he supports it, and that's just ONE example of how he's actually conservative.

I think I'm going to end up making a video about how conservatives have nothing to fear from the current frontrunners.

"zero-carbon, zero-waste car-free city"

The article from the BBC is really short but it's got a few nuggets of pretty interesting information, though it glosses over supposed fears that the city will be a haven for the rich.

The city is Masdar City, and lies within Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emerites.

We'll see how it turns out, it's supposed to take only 8 years and 22 billion dollars.

Voter Disenfranchisment

It's happened in pretty much every election ever held in the US and it could get worse before it gets better.

Check out this story from PBS NOW. The page has a link to a video on the subject of "voter restrictions," or new and up-coming laws that are likely designed to keep certain voters out of the booths. What's really interesting is that the same lawmakers who claim to be fighting "voter fraud" also try to make it easier to vote absentee, which is supposedly an easier way to commit voter fraud and just happens to be more widely used by whites.

“I didn’t volunteer to support corrupt, money grubbing contractors ...”

From the Texas Observer, Col. Ted Westhusing's supposed suicide is reconsidered.

Either way, it's pretty obvious there's something dreadfully wrong in the way we're "saving Iraq."

Shitt Bomb-ney is out

The Stormin' Mormon is out of the race.

Now all we need is both McCain, Huckabee, Obama, and Clinton to step aside and let Nader/Kucinich lead us to a better future.

Shyeah right.

Need another reason to hate the Coca Cola company?

Well, they deplete the resources of 3rd world people.

They also take municipal tap water, add salt to it and call it Dasani.

Coke sucks. I wish they didn't make Delaware Punch, one of the greatest beverages known to man.

John McCain is Dr. Strangelove

But seriously, don't let this guy be president.

A short convo about Super Bowl commercials

[my girlfriend]: i wonder what kind of commercials there will be
bebop is better: expensive ones
[gf]: indeed
bebop is better: crazy ones you'll never see again
[gf]: a lot of beer commercials im sure
bebop is better: of McCourse
bebop is better: but dont drink and drive
[gf]: haha
bebop is better: just drink
bebop is better: but buy a car

Anyways, enjoy the game you SHEEP! I'm just messin with ya.

Amnesty Day...

So I just read about Blog Amnesty Day for the first time...

Where people share blogs with others.

Well the only actual blog I read is Real Art (more so than Atrios I'm proud to say) and I highly recommend it.

That's all I got. That's my contribution. I'm sure I'll stay very, very unknown.

No Debate

By Ralph Nader:

It was billed as the great debate that, in the words of moderator Wolf Blitzer, “could change the course of this presidential race and the nation.”

Situated at the packed historic Kodak Theatre—site of the Hollywood Oscar awards, thousands of people, including anti-war protesters, were outside, where tickets were being scalped for $1,000.

The burgeoning excitement swept up Mr. Blitzer into an introduction reminiscent of a heavyweight boxing title fight. Referring to the “glamour on this stage…one of the great stages of all time,” he declared that “this will be the first time that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be debating face to face, just the two of them, one-on-one.” The crowd ROARED!

[...]

The two candidates were unperturbed by any questions from the reporters that they had not answered before or they were soft balls they could hit out of the ball park.

As in all debates involving presidential candidates, the reporters were unwilling or incapable of asking the unconventional questions reflecting situations and conditions widely reported or investigated by their own colleagues.

This phenomenon of invincible reluctance should be studied by anthropologists or psychologists.

clickhereforallofit

"Gee, why ask tough questions when we could simply have a black or woman president?!" seems to be the sentiment Ralph is talking about.

Everyone wants superficial change of the White House, few seem to be pushing for fundamental change of our false democracy. Having a black or woman president is not enough, the particular candidates do not own up to progressive ideas and I fear they never will. The fact of the matter is that they're corporate Democrats who just want the office. Both of them have done a minimal amount of fighting on behalf of We the People.

I'm not voting for either of them.

I'm not being pessimistic, Clinton and Obama are conservatives. They use the most vague language possible about "change," and don't take strong stances on the tough issues like getting the fuck out of Iraq. They don't want to say they're going to end the war immediately, even thougt that's what most Americans want. They don't want to push for straight up universal health care. They pretend to have their own brand new health care plans that will benefit everyone but it's really the same old junk.

Face Time Friday

I'm starting up a new feature here at SSB called Face Time Friday, where I'll post one of my videos about various topics.

This one technically doesn't have any actual face time with me but it's my voice in the background. This is just a funny late night scenario I've run in to a few times before (this video may get deleted eventually) :



This video is technically a violation of the YouTube user policy. I deleted it immediately after it finished uploading last night but it was there when I logged in today so here it is until they delete it.