Silenced Majority Portal

Quote from Baghdad Jim/Lyrics from Dave Van Ronk

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.'

- Dwight David Eisenhower, April 16, 1953.

Luang Prabang
(Dave Van Ronk) c. 1968

When I got back from Luang Prabang
I didn't have a thing where my balls used to hang
But I got a fuckin' medal and a big harangue
And now I'm a fuckin' hero

Chorus :

Mourn your dead, land of the free
If you wanna be a hero, follow me
Mourn your dead, land of the free
If you wanna be a hero, follow me

And now the boys all envy me
I fought for Christian democracy
With nothing but air where my balls used to be
Now I'm a fuckin' hero

Chorus

One and twenty cannons thundered
Into the bloody pale blue yonder
For a patriotic ball-less wonder
Now I'm a fuckin' hero

Chorus

In Luang Prabang there is a spot
Where the corpses of your brothers rot
And every corpse is a patriot
And every corpse is a hero

Spiders on Drugs

Thanks to Monkey - I don't care if 7,000,000 plus have already seen it!

I'm in yer bafroom

(thanks, Nyc)

Where is the REAL Ground Zero?

(photo: Google Earth, September 11, 2005, New Orleans)

From Indy, who LIVES in NOLA...

"There's still obstacles, and there's still work to be done," the president said. "But there's been a lot of progress made, and that's what people have got to understand. And I have come to this site — what we call Ground Zero, this is where the worst of the worst of the storm hit — to be able to show the American people that through their generosity, this infrastructure has been rebuilt."

So Mr. Bush,

What is it we have GOT to understand?

*That our infrastructure is in shambles?
*That the water lines that service the city are no longer leaking 85 million gallons (no exaggeration) a DAY, but down to 40 million gallons a day?
*That the people who live here are being forced to PAY for these leaks on their monthly water bills?
*That the local governmental agency in charge has N O T FLUORIDATED THE WATER SINCE KATRINA?!?!?
*That the Federal Government will not assist in repairing the damage to the sewer and water systems that was caused directly from the FAILURE OF THE FEDERALLY FUNDED AND MAINTAINED LEVEES AND FLOOD WALLS?!?!?

And then there is Entergy Corporation.
Yes...just place a name and add "CORPORATION" behind it and the Federal Government will support them in whatever robbery, pilfering and price gouging one can imagine...so while we are imagining Mr. President...imagine getting an electric and gas bill for $900 FOR ONE MONTH?!?!?!?!

And while we are talking about every road leading to Rome...if we follow the $114 BILLION to the Gulf Coast, let's see in whose pockets MUCH of that money ended up...can you say HALLIBURTON?!?! Can you say Kellog Brown and Root...okay...that one gave you a little trouble...can you say KBR?!?!

Now...let's look to the lower 9th ward and New Orleans East Mr. President...where I work in the Central Business District I watched this morning as Marine One was escorted by two Black Hawk helicopters just so you could have your "Photo Op" at a school and talk about how everything is just peachy keen...

People in these and many areas are still without PHONE SERVICE, SEWER, WATER, ELECTRICITY in most cases and they sure as hell do not have decent roads, schools in which to educate their children, grocery stores in which to buy food and no...and I mean NO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION...so what does that spell Mr. Bush?

L A C K O F I N F R A S T R U C T U R E.

Not to mention a completely inadequate police force and lack of fire stations (hint, hint George...that is why the National Guard is still here TWO YEARS LATER!!!) not to mention the reason we are all in this mess to begin with...

THE LEVEES ARE STILL NOT REPAIRED!!!

And we here in New Orleans do not call it "Ground Zero"...that is what we call the empty space between your ears Mr. Bush...

What we who have returned to rebuild, renew and restore one of the greatest cities in the world because of the damage caused by the greatest man made disaster in our Nation's history call this place Mr. Bush...

Is HOME.

(reprinted from Democracy Cell Project blog)

Donors & Spectators

Police State

This is from Yahoo news service, & I was alerted to it by a friend in Louisiana.
This took place in Bellevue, WA, where the protest took place. The caption says the gun was pointed at protesters as the Presidential limo passed.

Today I read the media portrayals and they were completely misleading.

Bush in Seattle

Layne Staley Would Have Been 40

My son (also a musician) works at a bakery and they made a full-table-size cake for the Layne Staley Foundation. He said it was very sad and when I looked at "last played" on my iTunes, there were a number of Nirvana and Alice in Chains songs.

Such talent gone to waste, always sad reminders, all over town.

Know me broken by my master
teach thee on child of love hereafter

Into the flood again
same old trip it was back then
so i made a big mistake
try to see it once my way

Drifting body it's sole desertion
flying not yet quite the notion

Into the flood again
same old trip it was back then
so i made a big mistake
try to see it once my way

Into the flood again
same old trip it was back then
so i made a big mistake
try to see it once my way

Am i wrong?
have i run too far to get home

Have i gone?
and left you here alone

Am I wrong?
have i run too far to get home, yeah

Have I gone?
and left you here alone

If i would, could you?

(Would, by Alice in Chains)

Music is the Weapon of the Future

(hat tip to Monkey)

Homegrown Art: Populist Propaganda

This piece is up at Democracy Cell Project Blog today, but without the seed art pictures of Franken and Cheney that Kayakbiker photographed at the MN State Fair, as we have already published those. It would be nice to make one showing the resignation of Gonzales, but I don't think I've used that particular art form since vacation Bible School when I was a kid! Bush will be in town today, so may head out to greet him. Slugbug

As Marshall McLuhan prophetically wrote in the 1960s, "Art at its most significant is a Distant Early Warning System that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it. "

Political art comes in many varieties, from official government propaganda produced with a staggering budget to products of personal convictions of individuals working on a shoe string. YouTube and other video art are the latest phenomenon to emerge, but the pieces presented below are relatively low-tech and include car art, public space installation art, and personal marquee art.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Car art can be fancy or brutally honest. The best messages are quickly absorbed, often while moving. I have often been known to follow people quite a distance if I want to photograph the message. People respond with anything from failure to notice (scary), to thumbs up and honking to flipping off the drivers. These were both photographed in Seattle.

________________________________________________________________________________________
Sometimes people with climbing skills accomplish some impressive decoration, with political intent. The peace sign was painted on an old abandoned gasworks that sits in a public park on Lake Union, Seattle. The person who painted it had to scramble over a high barbed wire barrier. The peace message with letters was strung up behind a community center, also in Seattle, which was formerly a home for unwed mothers. It is unlikely that authorities or the public would ask to have these taken down, once mounted.

________________________________________________________________________________________
Other examples, liberal and conservative, can be seen on private property situated on busy thoroughfares.
The first example is on a busy suburban to urban route in Seattle, the second is alongside the freeway heading south to Portland. Both are changed frequently, in line with the owner's reaction to happenings.

________________________________________________________________________________________
Here is one more example of a person taking it upon themselves to make the personal (response) political (others see and interpret it). This was set up at a public event, not specifically related to the event, but no one made her remove it. This takes a certain amount of courage.

“If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.”
Noam Chomsky quotes. (American Linguist and Activist)

“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist”
Salman Rushdie (Indian born British Writer)