Jesus was a Socialist; McCain is a Warmonger

Going beyond describing Democrats as "tax and spend," and liberals as Satan worshipers, the McCain camp has labeled Obama a Socialist, and Fox has trumpeted the news. So many of the people supporting the McCain/Palin ticket claim to be Christians. How can they ignore how the GOP has completely sold out to anti-Christian values? The current administration is up to their eyeballs in lies, greed and destruction.

There are a ton of videos online about McCain voters being terrified because Obama is an AMT (arab, muslim terrorist). What the fuck!

Where do they get that shit? OK, I know one place, in addition to GOP rallies, FOX (faux) News. I watched it regularly, because I liked to hear both sides of arguments, and, at first, O'Reilly seemed to be a crusty old independent, as I consider myself to be. Then I realized he's a lying sack of shit. Every time some one accuses Fox of being slanted to the right, the network claims to host more liberals than conservatives. That's just another falsehood, as the count goes four to one the other way. Fox employs the biggest liars in American media, except for Rush Limbaugh. That asshole is the biggest of all, but O'Really and Hannity are both in the top five.

How can intelligent people watch or listen to all that crap and believe it? I have to tell you it is blowing my mind. Have they been completely brain-washed, or are they brain dead?

I must confess I voted for McCain once. It was in the Arkansas primary of 2000. At that time, I still thought he lived up to the "maverick" label. He had won the New Hampshire primary and was looking good. Nobody liked that smug little prick from Texas, but then a funny thing happened in the South. Most people don't realize "THEY" swift-boated McCain, before they swift-boated Kerry. During the debate about flying the Confederate flag in public, a whisper campaign began about McCain fathering a black child. It was one of many lies used to make W the candidate, similar to those which helped him win re-election.

After W took office, and the "Maverick" began to kiss ass and comply to party wishes, I looked the other way. Now, he's trying to distance himself from this corrupt administration, after voting with them, as they trashed the constitution and lied their way around the world. He claims to be an economy saver, but he voted for the deregulation that caused the current mess and profited from it.

I was considering voting Nader (again), but then I chickened out, when McCain chose Palin. Some of you have seen me around town, with my "Worst President Ever" t-shirt, and there's a photo in a previous post on this blog. McCain could make that obsolete in no time, and Palin, as his successor, could drop W to third. It's a sobering thought.

McCain doesn't think we have enough war in the world. He's made it very plain he would be willing to start more. Suggesting we might bomb Iran was beyond stupid, and his bellicose stance towards Russia is alarming. Tortured as a POW, in Vietnam, he said he would never support torture and then reversed himself completely. Torture is only one of many crimes he has supported with his vote.

This asshole calls Obama elitist for being well-educated, well-read and well-informed, while he, himself, owns more property than he can count. He calls Obama a socialist for wanting to move some of the tax burden back to the rich. The Reagan revolution began the wholesale looting of the government to enrich corporations and their already rich owners and bosses. Tax cuts were among the shouted slogans (memes), but they only applied to the rich. Claiming they were going to shrink government, they began to systematically cut every public service they could, while increasing expenses for weapons and financing wars supplied by their corporate cronies.

The last good Republican president, Ike, warned about the military-industrial complex. Contemporary Republicans have completely sold out to it. They've developed one of the most effective propaganda campaigns in history. So many Christians think those crooks support Christian values.

Wake up! Smell the napalm!

Christians should read their Bibles without listening to a bunch of rich, greedy preachers telling them what the book means. They should start with the Sermon on the Mount, because it is the heart sutra of Christianity. Expand from there through all of Jesus' words, paying close attention to the parables. What a storyteller the man was, and his stories had deep, eternal meaning. He promoted peace, love and charity, not profit-making and war.

I personally don't believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing being who created everything, in six days, and told the Hebrews to kill every man, woman and child who blocked their migration to the promised land. If it was true, Jesus made it plain those days were over.

We are entering the season when Christians celebrate the birth of their savior and his life story. It is a story worth repeating with timeless meaning. Christ, he was born in a barn! He was apprenticed and raised a poor working man. When he began to speak publicly, he spoke to and for the poor. He offended the rich and powerful, by exposing their hypocrisy, and they had him put to death.

That's a different biography than W has, for example. Let's start with his silver-spoon birth, quickly move through his spoiled childhood and his cruelty to animals and humans, and emphasize his rich daddy and his rich daddy's friends. They gave him everything, got him into Yale, kept him out of Vietnam, helped him buy companies, bailed him out when those companies failed, put him in the Texas governor's mansion, made him their figure-head and bought him the White House. I must admit, I was prejudiced from the beginning against him because he belonged to so many peer groups I despised, including spoiled rich kids and drunken frat rats

Let us consider the government, which oversaw Jesus' execution. Occupying legions of the Roman Empire held power and Herod's puppet government followed their orders. Jesus could be born in similar circumstances today, in Iraq. We, of course, are the occupying force. Our W resembles, not only the king with no clothes, but the fiddling Roman emperor, Nero.

Voting their values has a host of people serving the rich as drones, workers and cannon fodder. Still they claim to follow the poor, compassionate man, whom the government executed, as a terrorist, 2000 years ago.

We are Empire! And, reading the Bible clearly shows empires always fall.

History does indeed repeat, and it is time to stop the merry-go-round.

Upstairs and Downstairs at the Labor Temple

Upstairs, in the Union Hall, Eddie was fronting Blessiddoom, while devoted fans leaped and knocked each other around the dance floor.




Downstairs, in the Union Club, Mudslide Charley was delivering a truck load of danceable blues.






Often, I have mentioned on this blog how much I love Missoula and the music scene here. Now, I want to stress how much I appreciate diversity. One might expect an old coot, such as I, to lean to the oldies, but I always want to hear something new and different. I also love bands, who never do the same song quite the same way. Long live improvisation! Praise innovators of all stripes!

Regular readers know some of the bands I love in Missoula. Mudslide Charley has appeared here often before, along with Zeppo and Black Velvet Elvis. The iNHUMANS have received a lot of coverage, lately. I will continue to follow these groups, whenever I can, but I want more. Hell, I want it all, but the universe doesn't work that way.

This was the first time I had seen Blessiddoom, since the PBR battle of the bands, back in March. They surprised me then, and I thoroughly enjoyed their performance. I want to see more of them. The other night I saw Walking Corpse Syndrome, playing down in the Palace. They had two drummers creating a complex rhythm foundation for a metal sound worthy of more attention. They are another band I hadn't seen since PBR in March. They made my ears bleed and convinced me of the need for ear plugs. Still I wanted more.

When the American empire has steamrolled the world, and everyone is wearing Levis and Nikes, eating McDonalds and KFC, and drinking Coke or Pepsi, I'm moving to another planet or dimension, because it will be too damn boring to live here.

Weekend Music in Zoo City

Down in front; let the boys in the back show their stuff. I wasn't willing to pay $11 to Pray for Snow with the iNHUMANS, but they played a second show that day at the Elks. Did you know about it? I don't remember seeing iNHUMANS at the Elks listed either in the Independent or on the Missoula Events site. If Kyle's brother hadn't told me about this gig, when I encountered him at the Badlander, I would have missed it. And I don't like missing this group, because they are truly original.






Saturday night, I was delighted to see another of my favorite groups, when Zeppo played the Union Club.
Chuck Lester was also celebrating his 69th birthday.

Ruthie was in red last night, with the iNHUMANS, and this night wears a black version of the same dress, with Zeppo.

Orwellian Pro-life and Torture

Doublespeak, newspeak, the meaning of words changes rapidly. Pro-life is such a positive sounding term, but so many who preach it are pro-death for people who disagree with them. So many support the war we were lied into, which has caused a million deaths in Iraq, and left four million homeless. Pro-life for fertilized eggs, but not for human beings. So self-righteous, so sure their god is the only god, worshiping mammon in a capitalist temple, while claiming to be so holy.

Lower gas prices are supposed to help incumbents in the election. That explains why they dropped so fast, and shows plainly how easily the price is manipulated. Think oligarchy and plutocracy, instead of democracy, because it is long gone. The republic is also dead, replaced by empire.

Back to the pro-lifers, who don't care how many people are killed in other countries by our military. They don't know, nor care that American corporations, around the world, hire militias to keep the farmers in line and execute serious opposition. Their attitude here is also pro-death.

Anyone, who reads, who hasn't read Orwell's 1984, must do so. Read a prophet as accurate as any who ever lived. Listen to our leaders spouting inane remarks, similar to "war is peace."

Pro-lifers and death go together like McCain and torture. He would never approve it he said, and our government would never do it. But our government did torture. It continues to torture, and McCain supports it. It's enough to make your head spin.

Our old allies are now our enemies, and former enemies are our best allies is a scenario from Orwell. The government propaganda machine always claims we are winning, but everything goes to the war, and the ruling class, leaving little for common folk. Look around...read 1984, or Animal Farm. That's another terrific ditty, more satirical, slightly less grim.

And Now For Something Completely Different

iNHUMANS at the Badlander to Benefit the Poverello Center
iNHUMANS have been one of my favorite groups, since I first saw them at the PBR battle of the bands. They advertised their sound as "absurdist hip-hop," and little of it could be considered family rated. Absurdist refers to a school of philosophy, which states humans live in a purposeless, chaotic universe. (Learn something new every day in the kitchen, on the stove.)

Since then, they've added a trio of back-up singers, calling themselves Heavy Flow.




On this night, the crew was feeling good, as was the crowd, and a good time was had by all.












iNHUMANS with Heavy Flow produce a unique sound, earning bonus points for originality and energy. Coming soon: a CD!

Crystal Theater Hosts All Ages

The neon numbers 5-1-5 are gone, replaced by Crystal, on the theater, where Chris La Tray produced an all-ages concert, on Friday, October 10. His Lazerwolfs headlined, after a line-up of three young bands. First up was Ellilpticus. I apologize, if I misspell someone or some band's name.

Ellipticus






The old kitchen poet has been getting stodgy, in the sense of repetitive and uninspired work. Now that I have a regular job, and my alarm is set for 6:30 at least five days a week, I don't get out to the music venues, during the work week as much. I missed several shows this week, which deserved coverage. This night, I encountered a fresh scene and felt like I did some above average work again. The Crystal had a good-sized stage, and Chris rented some lights. The seating was filled by show time with young fans and proud parents.

Celestial Chaos


There were some technical difficulties, the first being a blown drum head. Thus these guys played with Lazerwolfs' drum.
There was some excellent guitar playing, and some hard-driving drumming.





Helliana
The drummer of Tater Pig has left the family band to play with his peers in a group named Hellilana. Everything is the devil and death, in a heavy-metal style with these guys. I must mention that all of these bands showed some very accomplished licks for performers so young.


Lazerwolfs

And then, of course, we have the old pros, who also provided tech support, lighting and security all night. When they upped the volume over all who came before, the crowd gathered to pay them homage.