I'm Back, Baby! I'm Back

It's been over a week since my last real posting. Sorry to those of you that noticed (and cared). I have not been feeling much like blogging lately. I have been somewhat uninspired. There are few "special" postings that I was working on that are still incomplete, and I have not had enough time to do my "regular" postings. A lot has been going on over the last week, and I'll try to touch on some of it.

Let's start with Cindy Sheehan the mother of a deceased US soldier who died in Iraq. She has been staging a sit-in in front of Bush's "ranch" in Crawford, TX, and she is requesting a meeting with the president to discuss her son's death. Of course, W does not want to meet with her. He has no respect for fallen soldiers or their families unless they are going to be cheerleaders for his failed policy. So he continues to ignore the hundreds of people camped out in front of his ranch. He just keeps on vacationing. He and his motorcade just cruise by every now and then paying no attention to the ever-growing protest. More of Bush's arrogance on full display -- he can't even give the woman two minutes!

I find it absolutely stunning the way the right wing in America has gone on the attack against Sheehan. Look, I don't agree with everything Ms. Sheehan says. She does have a unique perspective on the Iraq War since her son died in it. For that reason alone, Bush's attack squads should leave her alone. Dissent is still allowed. But, the right loves to attack anyone that does not worship at the alter of George W. Bush. It doesn't matter if you served in the military in Iraq (i.e. Paul Hackett) or if you lost a family member, if you dare to disagree with Bush, you are going to be slandered and vilified. Bush and his surrogates in the media, on talk radio, Fox News, and the blogosphere launch coordinated attacks on anyone that disagrees.

Conservative "pundit" Michelle Malkin (who would be quite sexy if she weren't such an obnoxious, mean-spirited bitch) has been writing columns on an almost daily basis attacking Sheehan. She does not deal with Sheehan's request to meet with the President, or her issues. She writes about Sheehan's private life, intimating that her "activism" is causing her husband to leave her. That is shameless, but remember that Michelle Malkin is the one who went on MSNBC's Hardball last year and claimed that John Kerry shot himself so he could get a purple heart to advance his future political career. Chris Matthews, in a rare display of backbone, refused to allow this to go unchallenged. He ultimately had her removed from the show during a commercial break. Of course, the right went to town on Matthews saying he showed "liberal bias" for not allowing a right-wing crank to pull stories out of her ass and spout them off on national television.

Talk-radio kingpin, right wing idol, and pill freak Rush Limbaugh made the claim on his show yesterday that Sheehan is making up her story completely. "Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real." So...is her son secretly alive Rush? Did she never have a son? What part of her story could possibly have been made up? Rush now denies he ever said that. Funny thing about radio, though. It can be taped. You're on tape you fat fuck!

The worst (that I have heard) comes from right-wing blowhard Melanie Morgan. She was one of the participants on the "Truth Tour" of right-wing radio hosts that went to Iraq to report what's "really going on." These "reporters" came back stating that everything Bush states about Iraq is true: the Iraqis love us being there and give us flowers and candy, the war is a huge success, and there is not nearly as much carnage as is reported but the media just likes to "bash Bush." Total rosey-colored bullshit. She, of course, was unable to go anywhere without a military escort, and had to wear a bulletproof jacket and helmet at all times. I guess Iraq is just like Hawaii except for the I.E.D.s! Morgan is launching an anti-Cindy Sheehan rally in Crawford. I'm sure she's hooking up with the GOP lunatic that drove his car over the memorial to fallen soldiers down in Crawford. They seem like they would get along. Speaking of that lunatic, has anyone seen a single right-wing condemnation of this act of vandalism and disrespect shown to the military? I have seen nothing (not even from the "Beltway Boys" themselves). The GOP thinks destroying memorials to dead soldiers is okay if the memorial is set up by a Democrat. Pathetic.

You think the war in Iraq is going well? You think the Iraqis want us there? Read this article and you may have a different idea. This is possibly the greatest foreign policy blunder in our history. There will be consequences from this for generations.

Moving on....I have seen a couple of good shows since I last reported to you. I saw Neva Dinova last Saturday night at Sokol Underground. I have seen these guys numerous times before, and always thought that their live shows did not live up to how great their albums are. This time it all came together. They closed out their month long tour with Mayday with this homecoming show.

Two days later (Monday) I caught one of the shows from The Faint. They were doing two nights at Sokol Auditorium (the big room) and filming them for a forthcoming DVD. I chose the Monday show because my favorite local band Ladyfinger was opening the show. Seeing Ladyfinger on such a big stage was a trip, but hearing them through that mega-sound system was fucking incredible. They did have some technical problems (a consistently breaking string on the singer's guitar) which killed their momentum. Strangely, they got the biggest crowd response when they did a half-assed version of the new song by Kelly Clarkson (!?). Keep in mind, this is a heavy band that sounds like Drive Like Jehu. They only played it for about a minute, but the kids loved it. Orenda Fink (the other half of Azure Ray) played after Ladyfinger, but I didn't catch any of her set. I heard it was good, but that the crowd didn't pay much attention to her.

The crowd did pay plenty of attention to The Faint. Their visual show was better than it has ever been, and the band had a ton of energy on stage. They had more sound and light equipment at this show than they did for their arena show with Bright Eyes a few months ago. Suffice to say, it was loud! The band was filming both nights for a DVD to be released later this year. I bet most of the footage comes from the first night, as I heard the second night was not quite as good.

I bumped into my old boss at the show which was awkward. They haven't replaced me with anyone new, so either they don't have enough business to warrant another salesman or I am just irreplaceable. You can come to your own conclusion on that. I have started my new job. So far, it has been pretty hectic. The office manager is on vacation this week, so it has been extra chaotic. I am still learning my job while at the same time doing a bunch of other stuff to make up for the missing person. Where am I working? I won't tell you the name, but I'll show you where it is:
Right there at the orange marker. That's my office.

I will try not to let so much time go by between posts. Like I said, it is going to be hard to figure out a way to keep the site active while still maintaining a life. Bear with me during this transition period....I leave you with an O'Sexxxy Factor:

This little hottie is named Katie Kaye. Check out more pictures of her here.