Truth or Dare? The problem of right-wing militias - serious threat or weekend assholes?

Napalm Sunday - The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

"The authorities have arrested 9 members of a Looney-Tune Christian Milita Group in Michigan just in time for Holy Week. The group calling themselves "The Hutaree" which oddly reminds me of The Hekawi on the old televsion show F Troop, just without the competence (thank goodness)." More here



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More here: My chat with Rachel: Pondering the meaning of the rise of the militias By David Neiwert

Wow, Man - Mr. Fish Interviews Grahm Nash

Groovy!

Excerpt:

...I'll give you another example: We had my song, "Teach Your Children," in
the middle of 1970, bolting up the charts. It was like 18 or something and then
Kent State happened. We went down to Los Angeles and we recorded [Ohio], mixed
it, recorded Find the Cost of Freedom for the b-side and we said we want it out
right now.

"Well, you can't do that - you've got a hit moving up-" We want it out
right fucking now! We put that out in 12 days and the fucking cover for the 45
was a picture of the Constitution with 4 bullet holes in it. We killed our own
single. You don't do that - you're not supposed to do that.

We didn't give a shit. We thought the slaughter of these 4 kids, which the
government still hasn't apologized for, was more important. And that's what I'm
saying, that that simple understanding doesn't seem to be part of contemporary
culture anymore, particularly when it comes to the arts community and the
musicians who have historically been so effective in communicating that
message.

But they are there.

Are they?

What about the Beastie Boys? What about their Tibetan campaign?
How about Green Day?

Well, all right - Green Day is a good example.

Let me tell you something - I have never met them, right? And as I was
leaving the after party [for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony]
at the Bull and Bear, in this hotel, I see Billy Joe as I'm headed up the stairs
and I don't stop, you know, I just wave respectfully, and he parts the people
around him and comes up and he hugs me for 2 minutes, babbling about what a
great songwriter I am and how he wanted to be like me and write melodies that
are in people's hearts all the time and I said, "Wait a second - you have to
understand, I am really proud of you." Wait a minute, why's that? "Because
you're doing what we did - you're standing up there and fucking telling it like
it is! American Idiot was brilliant!" It kind of shocked him a little bit.

But there is this chain of musicians who really do give a shit. They are
there, maybe few and far between, but they are there. Tom Morello from Rage
Against the Machine is a fucking brilliant man. And we're trying to influence
those people - me, people like James Taylor, we're all trying to influence those
musicians who are coming up and following us because we're dropping off the
other end of this diving board, we can't help it. It's called old age and
eventually death. But we want to encourage people to stand up and to give a shit
and to have courage.

Yup - stand up, have courage, give a shit - I'm in.

Why Are We In Afghanistan? From the Center For Study of Working Class Life

Another Step in the March of Folly. Or, could it be the new pipeline from the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan to the Arabian Sea in Pakistan that just happens to run through Afghanistan that motivates our political will in that region?


I like that... Educate, Agitate and Organize.
h/t to Common Dreams

Are We Witnessing the Beginning of the End of Hate/Lie Politics?

Right-Wing Terrorism Stoked by Conservative Leaders Again

by Bob Cesca via HuffPo

"The more important discussion during this groundbreaking week in American history is whether or not legitimate Republican and conservative leaders are instigating and inciting violence against the president, against Democrats, against liberals and, in some cases, against children.

And they are.

It's inexcusable and it's unforgivably irresponsible how top-shelf conservative players like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and even some members of the congressional leadership are using coded and not-so-coded language that speaks directly to a small, but trigger-happy right-wing.

Unlike the policy-driven arguments made by mostly pacifistic liberals during the Bush years, this language is a direct and precise emboldening of right-wing extremism -- and terrorism. And the behavior from certain elements of the far-right can be defined as such. It's terrorism.

No gray area here. Right-wing terrorism.

Obviously, the far-right fringe is out of its mind about health care reform. And throughout the week, its behavior has gone from irresponsible, to racist, to unapologetically dangerous."

And here it is... the moment of truth. Right wing/corporate media control is truly at fault here but will they finally get the blame? It is painfully OBVIOUS that the vocal, teabagging right does not think this stuff up by themselves. Until we get a handle on hate/lie media this crap will continue.

Any ideas on how to corral these lying bastards?

Flawed Bill Passes - Improvements in the Wings?

It's Time to Address This

Bush speechwriter: Republicans ‘work for Fox’

"Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we're
discovering we work for Fox," Frum told
ABC's Terry Moran. "And this balance here has been completely reversed. The
thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong
Republican party."

So - the truth is slowly being revealed, Fox and Rush run the Republicans... and, truth be told, scare the Dems too. Massive winger media control by corporations will bring the Repubs down and if we let it, the Country too. Count on it.

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Update: but wait, there's more:

'Scary’ Harris poll: 24% of Republicans think Obama ‘may be the Antichrist’

The Daily Beast's John Avlon writes, "On the heels of health care, a new Harris
poll reveals Republican attitudes about Obama: Two-thirds think he's a
socialist, 57 percent a Muslim—and 24 percent say 'he may be the
Antichrist.'"

Now where would anyone get that idea?

One More From Jimi Hendrix

Ball and Chain

John Lennon and Yoko Ono with Dick Cavett

Blood Pressure 197/94

Time to step away from the outrage.

If a d-list blogger stops blogging and it falls down in the woods, does it make a noise?

I have had this little blog running for a year now. My life has be enriched by the people who stop by and also by my having to research for articles on subjects that I wanted to post. Sometimes I just needed to listen to a little music but there was always plenty of the outrage to go around the next day.

My old ticker is acting up and this passionate dirty fucking hippie needs a rest so I can be ready for the revolution that is surely coming. That's Liberal, tree hugging, dirt worshipping DFH to you.

See what I mean? I've become defensive and combative. A simple Garden Party can go awry when my old, rock-and-roll blasted, non-hearing ears mis-hear a little comment after a couple cocktails.


I need to visit the land of sparkle pony and rainbows for a while until I can grow some thicker skin and get my blood pressure out of the ionosphere.

Problem is that this media is addicting. I always liked to write, although I was not formally trained. The opportunity to post and be read is a siren song tempation for the thinking person. Is there a 'blogger's anonymous'?
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Why I am the greendayman - I became a single dad in 2004. My (at the time) 10 year old daughter was listening to the new Greenday hit - American Idiot and she wanted to go to the GD American Idiot concert in Portland. I was an old time rock and roller (as you can see by my music posts) and did not know much about Green Day. Being the conscientious parent that I am, I had to do a little homework on the band before I would commit to take her.

I went to their site and saw that they were involved in feeding the poor and numerous other causes that I believe in and tentatively agreed. We tried to get tickets... sold out. My daughter had me listen to the local pop station, who was running a promo giving away tickets, all day long while she was in school so I could score tickets - I was the wrong caller every time. Finally, the time came for the concert and we had no tickets. Back in the 70's when we didn't have enough cash for tickets, me and my buds used to drive down to the Civic Center, sit outside on the steps and just listen to the music through the walls. I told my heartbroken daughter that we would do just that.

So, after stopping for an ice cream - we all (including her brother who was 12 at the time) showed up at the concert just in time for GD to take the stage after the intro band and took up a post outside the doors where the sound was very clear. We were happy, dancing, singing and just feeling good about being this close to such a great band. After about two songs a member of the band's security approached us. I didn't know what was going to happen, things change and maybe you can't hang around outside the show anymore.

He looked at us, asked us what was up and I told him the story of not being able to get any tickets. He only hesitated for a second and then he said come with me. He led us in the side door, we got seats close to the band and we were the happiest people in Portland at that instant in time. I had my daughter on my shoulders and tears running down my face as we rocked the rest of the concert. It was a peak moment in my life. The music was outstanding and the band seemed like real people instead of phony staged showmen. Billy Joe Armstrong really cares about the music and the people who listen. We were close enough to see him look at us with understanding. The music was some of the best that I had ever heard.

With the American Idiot album release, oh- listen to me... I meant CD release, I saw a beginning to someone finally, fearlessly standing up to the liars and thieves of the Bush administration. This took more than a little guts because of the Dixie Chicks fiasco and the black-listing of Linda Rondstat after her Vegas comment , and it was like a breath of fresh, uncensored air to hear the American idiots being called out in the age of media control.

How things change when you get a black democrat in office. _________________________________________________________________

A coupla wishes and one or two regrets and most of all (no shit) I hope Ornery gets some new boots.

Oh, and suzan - I always loved you best

FSM bless and I hope I live long enough to see the middle class rise again.

Sincerely,

greendayman (who loves you)

Late-Nite Rolling Stones - A Message for the CEOs Who Make 300 Times What their Employees Make

More on the Mythical Center

Help me with this bipartisan, centrist thing again, please:

Progressives and Populists Need to Redefine the Mythical Political "Center"
By Mark Karlin at BuzzFlash

Excerpt:

The concept of a fixed "center" in American politics is one of those myths
perpetuated by a combination of the GOP, DLC Democrats such as Rahm Emanuel, and the media. America is a nation of evolutionary change. We began as a nation that allowed slavery and didn't allow women to vote, as two giant examples of epoch change that eventually occurred as a result of social movements: abolitionist and suffrage.

In reality, leadership, think tanks, the media, social evolution, and technology are among what redefines, on an evolutionary basis, "the center." America's strength is not its fixed, inadaptable structure; that is what the American Revolution broke away from. It is our ability to be innovative, and to be innovative, you have to evolve, change, grow.

If ever there were proof of how the political "center" can be created, it is how the hundreds of billions of dollars and grooming of Ronald Reagan created a perceived and indoctrinated "center" that allowed for the fleecing of the working and middle class that allowed the engorging of the already filthy rich.

Read the rest here: Progressives and Populists Need to Redefine the Mythical Political "Center"

Michael Moore Steps Up

I'm all for this: President Obama Replace Rham with Me... An Open Letter from Michael Moore.

And in my ongoing quest to find the mythical Center... I found a pretty good benchmark:

"How do you feel about Michael Moore"?

Find me the centrist view on the answers to that statement.

Where Exactly is the "Center"?

Where is this elusive non-partisan solution to governing in America? I keep hearing about how nobody wants to listen to liberals and conservatives fight, they just want to find solutions to our problems. There is a lot of gray in this world but there is also a lot of black and white and right or wrong without a lot of wiggle room. For example - these days it seems that multi-national corporations make most of the decisions that affect this country working through lobbying and buying access. Now, where is the center on this issue? How much do we want corporations running our processes - just a little? Maybe half the time? That's the center, right?

Jackie and Dunlap are as confused as I am.

Further on Up the Road

Phony Independents Like to Group ALL Politicans Into The Narrow-minded Narrative that All Politicians are the Same.

Well.. here are a few that are not:

"You Might Remember Bush Took Office With A 200 Billion Dollar Surplus!" Senator Al Franken


Alan Grayson, "Is Anyone Minding the Store at the Federal Reserve?"


Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) Remarks on House Floor on the Iraq war


And here is the expanded, (but not exhaustive by any means) list of Reps/Sens that make a difference (below). They may be pissing into the wind on many bills but they occasionally win one and are slowly but surely being integrated and accepted into the mainstream process. As we work toward electing more progressives we diminish the influences of corporate control on our economy and improve the health of our democratic system as a whole.

Al Franken, Anthony Weiner, Alan Grayson, Dennis Kucinich, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Peter DeFazio, Marcy Kaptur, Henry Waxman, Robert Wexler, Mel Watt, Louise Slaughter, Pete Stark, Barbara Lee, John Lewis, Ed Markey, George Miller, Jerrold Nadler, Eleanor Holmes-Norton, Maxine Waters, Jim McDermott, Pete Stark, Elijah Cummings, Carolyn Maloney, Sherrod Brown, Maria Cantwell, Elijah Cummings, Jeff Merkley, and Bernie Sanders.

Thanks to all who helped me with this list.

Fox News is STILL the Enemy of Ordinary Americans

Fox News, partially owned by a Saudi Prince and totally pwned by the reality based community.


Fox News gets the Gold for misinformation and manipilation of an easily angered population that is a mile wide and an inch deep. The most entertained and least informed in the World.

This is a HUGE problem. 40 million people watch Fox News (are most of them without health insurance?). I'd like to see polls on ANY agenda from Health Care to Climate Change to Finacial Reform that includes a box for: "Where do you get your news? Fox News? ... Rush Limbaugh?" And then re-adjust the data to reflect the bias inherant in these media.

I get E-mail from an otherwise rational person who all-of-a-sudden watches something on Glenn Beck and has to react with irrational, unknown threats from the Obama administration that are going to kill/enslave "real" Americans and destroy our country and way of life. Amazing. Oh, and there are lots of laws being broken. I have asked for specifics but as yet have not received a reply.

I thought the Republicans already acheived their goals of crushing the middle class and creating a slave wage economy in the last 30 years.. but no, the last three decades do not exist in their memory and now the results of these policies are the fault of Dems? WTF?

I tell him, "Isn't this what you wanted? Cheap labor, a weakened middle class, and no regulation on multi-national corporations and Wall Street? You worked so hard for this over the last 30 years."

Well... there is no rational discussion that can cut through a good Fox News misinformation binge:

Rep. Weiner calls out Fox & Friends for misinforming on health care
From the March 2 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends (and Media Matters):