Sunday, February 27, 2011

That Damn Liberal Media...

100,000 in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin. (population 235,000) Protests in support around the nation. Wisconsin police join protesters occupying state house. The lead on CNN? Two year anniversary of the fucking fascist Tea Party Terrorist Brigades. Sure makes me wanna throw a fucking brick through a fucking window.

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

Syd Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006), born Roger Keith Barrett, was  a founding member of  band Pink Floyd. He left the group in 1968 amidst speculations of mental illness exacerbated by heavy drug use. Through late 1967 and early 1968, Barrett's behaviour became increasingly erratic and unpredictable, partly as a consequence of his reported heavy use of psychedelic drugs, notably LSD.
There are many stories about Barrett's bizarre and intermittently psychotic behavior, some known to be true. According to Roger Waters, Barrett came into what was to be their last practice session with a new song he had dubbed "Have You Got It, Yet?". The song seemed simple enough when he first presented it to his bandmates, but it soon became impossibly difficult to learn and they eventually realized that while they were practicing it, Barrett kept changing the arrangement. He would then play it again, with the arbitrary changes, and sing "Have you got it yet?". Eventually they realized they never would and that they were simply bearing the brunt of Barrett's idiosyncratic sense of humor.

 Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett) - See Emily Play


Saturday, February 26, 2011

The angry music hour presents...

It never occurred to me before I saw this clip, but Sweet was the original Hair Band. I hope Motley Crue paid them royalties.
Sweet - Fox On the Run


Required reading: We're broke, cry the rich. Make the poor pay!!

From the Fabulous Glen Ford Of Black Agenda Report:
If Wisconsin is broke, it is because the GOP has chosen that it be so in order that multinational corporations can remain rich.”

A Theory

President Punk Ass Bitch won't, no, make that can't make a simple statement of support for the right to collective bargaining because it might call attention to the sad fact that he froze the wages of federal workers in a cynical ploy to endear himself to people who loathe his very existence. What a sorry ass piece of shit.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The angry music hour presents...

Outside of society/
If you're lookin', that's where you'll find me..

The Patti Smith Group - Rock n Roll Nigger

Monday, February 21, 2011

The angry music hour presents...

On this day in 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated in Harlem N.Y. In his honor, The Angry Music Hour offers his famous speech "The Ballot or The Bullet" Yes, you are required to listen to the entire 53 minutes. No cheating.

Presenting Abraham Lincoln (Communist, IL)

From The Rude Pundit:
Abraham Lincoln Would Fuck Up Your Conservative Economic Ideology:
Just a quick one before taking a personal day: three quotes from the greatest great great president who's not Ronald Reagan (duh), since everyone's a-pondering what our forefathers and mothers might think of the Wisconsin uprising. These are from Abraham Lincoln, noted quorum-stopper and occasional Republican (whenever the GOP needs his corpse, they dig it up and make it dance, but otherwise, they just let him rot):

1. "I am glad to know that there is a system of labor where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would to God that such a system prevailed all over the world." - From a speech on March 5, 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, regarding a shoemaker's strike (which, believe it or not, involved 20,000 shoemakers who were not, apparently, elves).

2. "Inasmuch as most good things are produced by labor, it follows that all such things of right belong to those whose labor has produced them. But it has so happened, in all ages of the world, that some have labored, and others have without labor enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government." - From his notes about tariff policy, scribbled down on December 1, 1847.

3. "Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits." - From his 1861 State of the Union address, decrying "the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor in the structure of government."

Hey, patriots, on this Presidents' Day, suck on those stovepipe hats.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

More Required Reading

Robert Reich:

Last year, America’s top thirteen hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion each. One of them took home $5 billion. Much of their income is taxed as capital gains – at 15 percent – due to a tax loophole that Republican members of Congress have steadfastly guarded.
If the earnings of those thirteen hedge-fund managers were taxed as ordinary income, the revenues generated would pay the salaries and benefits of 300,000 teachers. Who is more valuable to our society – thirteen hedge-fund managers or 300,000 teachers? Let’s make the question even simpler. Who is more valuable: One hedge fund manager or one teacher?

Deep Thought

If people are in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, fighting for basic labor rights, shouldn't our allegedly socialist, Kenyan usurper be, like, I don't know, leading the charge or something? I mean, if he was a socialist or, heck, even a member of the Democratic party, he would.

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

French Legend Jacques Dutronc has been making music as long as I have been alive. Of his music from the 60's, All Music Guide said, "Dutronc's early hits were rough but clever exercises in European garage rock, with Dutronc and his band laying out a simple, tough vamp as he sneered his witty, pointed lyrics about a life lived amidst the chaos of the '60s with all the sweet venom he could muster... like Dutronc's role models Bob Dylan and Ray Davies, he could write melodies strong enough to work even without their excellent lyrics, and his band had more than enough energy to make them fly (and the imagination to move with the musical times as psychedelia and hard rock entered the picture at the end of the decade)" He is also known in France for his long and varied acting career. Here he sings cuttingly about political opportunism in the 60's:
Je suis pour le communisme, 
je suis pour le socialisme
Et pour le capitalisme 
parce que je suis opportuniste.
Jacques Dutronc - L'Opportuniste

Some Light Reading

As the War On Working People heats up, it is essential one stays informed.
"First Amendment Remedies" sums up how working people are taking back their constitutional rights
"America the Baroque" examines similarities between modern America and 17th century Spain
"Bringing Home 150 Troops" puts Wisconsin's budget "crisis" in perspective vis a vis how much we waste daily in Afghanistan
"12 Things You Need To Know" lays out the lies surrounding Wisconsin's ginned up faux budget crisis.
"Egypt, Wisconsin and the Future of  Democracy" lays out the a global perspective.
Truthout has an article on the upcoming protests planned for February 26th
How to plan a "U.S. Uncut action on the 26th, from The Nation 
 Governor Scott's wingnut history is long and well documented

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The angry music hour presents...

Gil Scott-Heron: Home is Where the Hatred is.
Perhaps the most direct condemnation of heroin ever recorded.
home is where i live inside my white powder dreams
home was once an empty vacuum that's filled now with my silent screams
home is where the needle marks
try to heal my broken heart
and it might not be such a bad idea if i never, if i never went home again

Can we get some justice up in this bitch?

Not only has he "forgotten" to claim his wife's income for TWENTY STRAIGHT YEARS, (quite an omission for someone who supposedly is an expert on the law), he did not recuse himself from the Citizen United case even though they spent $100,000 campaigning for his nomination to the Supreme Court.
I-M-P-E-A-C-H the bastard already. Sheesh.

Socialist Job Creation

Imagine, if you can, for a moment, "your" government actually helping people start their own businesses. Now try to stop laughing.

To the unemployed, sick, disabled and poor:

A suicide letter from the American underclass.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Thoughts on Egypt

Remember when white folks in Eastern Europe took to the streets and the President was all like, "Tear this wall down!" ? Don't seem to hear the same sort of rhetoric when it's brown folks in the streets.
Jared Ball of Black Agenda Report sums up the hypocrisy nicely in this piece.

Perhaps all the silence relates back to Obama’s continued Reagan-like behavior and what this means for the Left in this country. If Obama is only slightly better than Reagan on foreign policy but just as bad as Reagan domestically then all of his supporters have a real river of hypocrisy to cross. His policies on education, taxes, war and the poor look a lot like the Ronnie Ray-Gun policies we once knew were no good. His extension of the Patriot Act, Today's Counter Intelligence Program, seems eerily familiar too. And until he does so Obama is like Reagan in having pardoned no political prisoner. Maybe that is the dilemma. Having to discuss the real Ronald Reagan might also mean having to discuss the real Barack Obama.

Monday, February 7, 2011

The angry music hour presents...

This has always been one of my favorite Iggy songs, and this is a great live performance from Manchester, circa 1977. Enjoy.
Iggy Pop - The Passenger

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Mubarak family stole 70 billion?

The Guardian reports that the Mubaraks may have up to $70, 000, 000, 000 squirreled away. Makes me wonder how much the Bush's managed to steal...

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

Formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975, after the breakup of Rocket From the Tombs, (Other members of RFTT went on to become The Dead Boys) Pere Ubu was at the forefront of the punk rock / new wave movement. Taking their name from a character in a French play, (Roi Ubu by Alfred Jarry), Pere Ubu created an eclectic, revolutionary sound they called "Avant-Garage". Lead singer David Thomas says the term was "a joke invented to have something to give journalists when they yelp for a neat soundbite or pidgeonhole."
Of their second single, "Final Solution" (backed with "Cloud 149"), one scribe wrote that Ubu's "call for a 'final solution' was the cry of teen angst run down in the decaying rust belt of America, and unlike the British punks who were looking around England the same year, seeing no future, and hating what they saw, Ubu reveled in it." (They would rarely perform this song after some listeners misinterpreted it as being associated with the Nazi final solution.)

Pere Ubu: Final Solution

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Angry Music Hour Presents...

For the people of Tahrir Square, Soobax by K'naan. Soobax translates as "come out". A translation of the chorus:
Dadkii waa dhibtee nagala soobax:

(Translation- you have exasperated the people so come out with it.)

Dhibkii waa batee nagla soobax:

(Translation - The troubles have increased so come out with it.)

Dhiigi waad qubtee nagala soobax:

(Translation- you've spilled the blood so that it drains on the Roads, so come out with it.)

Dhulkii waad gubtee nagala soobax:

(Translation-You've burnt the root of the earth, so come out with it.)


More Required Reading

The Arab World is On Fire - Noam Chomsky, via Truthout:

Observers compared the events to the toppling of Russian domains in 1989, but there are important differences.
Crucially, no Mikhail Gorbachev exists among the great powers that support the Arab dictators. Rather, Washington and its allies keep to the well-established principle that democracy is acceptable only insofar as it conforms to strategic and economic objectives: fine in enemy territory (up to a point), but not in our backyard, please, unless it is properly tamed.
One 1989 comparison has some validity: Romania, where Washington maintained its support for Nicolae Ceausescu, the most vicious of the East European dictators, until the allegiance became untenable. Then Washington hailed his overthrow while the past was erased.
 and this:

A common refrain among pundits is that fear of radical Islam requires (reluctant) opposition to democracy on pragmatic grounds. While not without some merit, the formulation is misleading. The general threat has always been independence. In the Arab world, the U.S. and its allies have regularly supported radical Islamists, sometimes to prevent the threat of secular nationalism.
A familiar example is Saudi Arabia, the ideological center of radical Islam (and of Islamic terror). Another in a long list is Zia ul-Haq, the most brutal of Pakistan’s dictators and President Reagan’s favorite, who carried out a program of radical Islamization (with Saudi funding).

Required reading

Why Mubarak is Out From the article:
Many international media commentators – and some academic and political analysts – are having a hard time understanding the complexity of forces driving and responding to these momentous events. This confusion is driven by the binary “good guys versus bad guys” lenses most use to view this uprising. Such perspectives obscure more than they illuminate. There are three prominent binary models out there and each one carries its own baggage:  (1) People versus Dictatorship: This perspective leads to liberal naïveté and confusion about the active role of military and elites in this uprising. (2) Seculars versus Islamists: This model leads to a 1980s-style call for “stability” and Islamophobic fears about the containment of the supposedly extremist “Arab street.” Or, (3) Old Guard versus Frustrated Youth: This lens imposes a 1960s-style romance on the protests but cannot begin to explain the structural and institutional dynamics driving the uprising, nor account for the key roles played by many 70-year-old Nasser-era figures.

The situation deteriorates in Egypt

The elation I felt last week as the masses took to the streets in Egypt has slowly turned to dread and apprehension as covert government forces brutally attack and murder people in the streets. Yesterday I watched as undercover police posing as counter-demonstrators charged into crowds on horseback and camelback, armed with clubs and machetes. Journalists were hunted down and beaten. Today, Journalists are being rounded up and arrested. Something is planned, and the security apparatus is trying to make sure we don't witness it. I just watched video of a police van plowing into a crowd of people - it is too disturbing to share.
There was no violence when the people took to the streets. None. The only violence is being perpetrated by the state. Until the violent acts of 'pro-government' thugs, what transpired was what always transpires when the masses reach the tipping point - They mass and become empowered by their numbers. Each one has a cathartic revelation - "I am not alone!" The state has a cathartic revelation as well, when it becomes apparent that the people have realized that they can organize and speak with a common voice.
What has been uncorked in the Middle East can not be contained. Indeed, it has already spread across the region. But these are brutal regimes, more brutal than the former Eastern Bloc, and they will most likely die a very violent death. I hope the forces of democracy will prevail over those of Theocracy and repression.
My fingers are crossed. There is not much else I can do.