Punk Rock Hardcore From Day One

Baby's First Thought,
originally uploaded by CLASSYCLAWS.

Yeah, all these poseurs are going around telling everyone they were punk rock back in the day. So you were lippy in junior high, so what? I was punk rock before mama even put me on solid food.

In the Cloud Forests

The Forests of the Pacific Northwest are temperate rainforests, but that doesn't tell you anything. The Oregon Forests are giant sponges, made to absorb water until it's dripping off everything, wetter than straight liquid would be, poised between solid organic matter and dissolved mulch floating in a halflit world between the forest canopy and the slightly denser ground. Does that tell you something?

It is the shame of our species that we are, willfuly or not, destroying these forests; or at least changing them beyond all recognition. Already this process is centuries under way, the climax forest that once stretched from the arctic circle to the Tehachapi Mountains is naught but a memory and what we revere as ancient forests are in fact second growth tree plantations, mere shadows of the biome that predated the europeans on this continent.

Tinpot Banana Junta

Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war, but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people. Leaders in my administration and members of the United States Congress from both political parties looked at the same intelligence on Iraq, and reached the same conclusion: Saddam Hussein was a threat.

--George W. Bush

The leader of the nation gives a speech to a military audience at a military base, in it he denounces his political opponents and suggests that when they question his actions they are sullying the honor of the troops he is addressing. Though he refrains from outright accusations of treason, and cloaks the implications in language that has the appearance of civility, the meaning is clear.

And who is the man attempting to rally the military to his side in domestic political debate, is it some comic-opera generallissimo attempting a coup so that the shopkeepers and banana-harvesters don't get too uppity? No, it is the leader of the richest and most powerful nation the world has ever seen. This is pathetic, it shows the fearful and desperate nature of Bush Junta, as it watches it's power slip away.

As an american it pisses me off that our president is acting like a cheap thug, trying to threaten the legislature with the displeasure of the military; basically to avoid being held accountable for the way that he and his advisors wagged the dog from here to Baghdad.

Thanks to TPM for getting me started on this one.

In a just world, things would be different.

In a just world, Bill O'Reilly would right now be prepping himself for an interview, not with yet another blow-dried television personality, but with a pair of serious no nonsense FBI agents whose first question would be along the lines of "Mr. O'Reilly, would you agree that advocating terrorist acts against United States citizens on american soil is a crime?". And who would delve deeply into the questions of what actions he has taken that might constitute active support and encouragement of crimes against the public peace, and an extensive review of his contacts, including especially anyone with whom he might have discussed or planned acts of violence, such as for instance, blowing up Coit Tower in San Francisco.

In this world of course, such an interview is merely a fantasy, for Mr. O'Reilly has powerful friends and as a republican and commentator for Fox News, is not subject to the laws that apply to say Jose Padilla another american citizen who made reckless statements about blowing up parts of american cities.

Why is it that this government chooses to enforce the laws so unevenly that one man can spend years detained without charge, and another will never be questioned for what amount to the same actions...?