At Home He's A Tourist - Presidential Candidates Notes

Presidential Candidates Notes – Six months to the primaries
By Jason Pancake

With one year to go until the official nominations, the Presidential race for 2008 is in full swing. With so much news already being made about this election, it is easy to see how important raising money is in the election process. It’s still too early to be making bold predictions but here are some of my observations along with some interesting articles. For an excellent view of where candidate’s money comes from and who donates to them, check out Opensecrets.org.

The dollar amounts below refer to how much the candidate has raised and spent as of 6/30/07. Full reports can be found here.

Democrats

Hillary Clinton
$63 million raised /$18 million spent

Hillary has been rolling and has the current lead in the polls thanks to: brand recognition and slick political experience. Everyone knows who Bill and Hillary are and that has helped immensely with the name recognition. By not having to put out ads saying who she is, they can save a huge chunk of cash to be used for things like traveling and hiring more consultants. The Clintons also have ties to the big campaign contributors, so money won’t be an issue. Hillary is a seasoned politician and has been more polished so far. She doesn’t get in the news for saying what the media calls “controversial” things the way Barack Obama does. However, all of these make it difficult to not think of her as part of the political system. Her voting record isn’t horrible, but her speeches and moves give the impression of being calculated and that she wouldn’t risk political power to create large scale changes to help the people who aren’t important politically. Hillary has said that big campaign contributions from lobbyists won’t influence her, but can that really be the case? In this cycle, she has received more from lobbyists than even the Republican candidates. If she is the Democratic nominee, she will be a huge target, but her savvy and the fact that things are going so wrong with the Republicans should help her and doesn’t necessarily hurt her electibility.

Barack Obama
$59 million raised/$23 million spent

Ultimately the Democratic nomination should come down to Hillary vs. Barack. Political Machine vs. Rising Star. The only way that his opponents can try to attack Barack is by calling him naïve or inexperienced, because he is solid otherwise. If the national election comes down to Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania again, I really like his chances. One key to his success though will be with the youth. He has incredible support among young voters, but that group is also the least likely to vote or be active about politics. It also kind of tells you something when the daughter of the Republican front-runner, Caroline Giuliani, supported Barack Obama. At least she did on Facebook.

John Edwards
$23 million raised/$10 million spent

Of the major candidates, John probably has the best platform and message, which is to fight poverty and inequality. However, he still has manner of communicating like a trial lawyer, which might work on juries in a specific court case, but is harder to pull off in a Presidential election. John used to be a trial lawyer who worked on class-action and personal injury cases and earned millions of dollars. Since then, he has had a change of heart, but he is finding out that helping the poor and fighting for financial equality isn’t exactly a popular platform for raising corporate contributions or for reaching out to the average middle and upper class citizens who aren’t stuck in poverty.

Dennis Kucinich
$1.1 million raised /$902,000 spent

Based on the issues, Dennis remains one of my favorite candidates. Look him up. He knows what he’s talking about. Here is an interview he did on the environment . Yes he will never have a chance, but anyone with the campaign slogan “Strength through Peace” receives my respect.

Republicans

Rudy Giuliani
$36 million raised/$17 million spent

The fact that Rudy is the front-runner of the Republicans is a joke. He is a pro-choice, twice divorced Republican candidate whose only claim to fame is being in New York during 9/11. He’s also famous for dumping his second wife during a news press conference. While firefighters and workers who worked at Ground Zero got strange illnesses and now oppose him, Rudy got incredibly wealthy thanks to cashing in on 9/11. Keep in mind he left the Mayor’s office only a few months after 9/11 on 12/31/01. At that point, he had assets of between $1.16 million and $1.83 million. Then he formed a corporation and in the last five years has earned over $100 million by speaking and consulting about 9/11! And there’s a lot more. Here is an article about his misleading crime statistics and article with all kinds of info on Rudy’s friendship with ex-NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who had free renovations from a construction company with ties to the mafia and who cheated on his mistress with another woman, all while being married to a third woman in an apartment donated rent-free to assist in the 9/11 Ground Zero efforts. Wow, that is some leading candidate the Republicans have.

John McCain
$25 million raised/$22 million spent

It is amazing how far McCain has fallen. He continues to be screwed over by Bush and by the “Republican base.” In 2000, Bush’s campaign spread rumors that McCain’s adopted daughter (who is black) was actually an illegitimate child, and he lost South Carolina and the momentum. Then in the last few years, John decided to become Bush’s best friend and one of the few remaining supporters in Senate of the Iraq war, and that has further destroyed his chances in 2008. The old maverick in Washington DC gradually became the corporate and pandering politician that what he was supposed to different from.

Mitt Romney
$44 million raised/$32 million spent

He has the most money but he is still having trouble trying to explain his Mormon faith. It’s pretty sad that according to a poll in July, 32 percent of those who said they leaned Republican described themselves as "uncomfortable" with the idea of a Mormon president. See my column a few months back for more on Mitt.

Fred Thompson
Though he hasn’t officially filed for the race, this Law & Order actor has the GOP base stirred up. Unfortunately not enough to raise any money .

Ron Paul
$3 million raised/$655,000 spent

Not too bad for a Republican. He has run as a Libertarian candidate in the past and actually voted against the Iraq War, but don’t get too excited. He votes against pretty much ANYTHING at all that involves government spending. He’s also still an old school Texas Republican who is anti-choice, very conservative, and who has published personal newsletters (that he apparently didn’t look over) that had interesting things to say about black people, including that “we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in [Washington DC] are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.” Maybe he wouldn’t really like being President after all, since he would have to live in DC.

AT HOME HE’S A TOURIST :" Snakes on a Plane"

“Snakes on a Plane”
By Jason Pancake


The next time you fly from Europe, you might be surprised by how much the government will be able to learn about you. In a deal, signed July 26 by the United States and approved in Europe, all airlines flying from Europe to the United States can be required to provide personal data of passengers to U.S. authorities if it exists in their reservation systems. Even if you are a US citizen!

The Washington Post reports that “according to the deal, the information that can be used in such exceptional circumstances includes ‘racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership’ and data about an individual's health, traveling partners and sexual orientation.” The United States claims that personal data can only be used "where the life of a data subject or of others could be imperiled or seriously impaired," such as in tracking a terrorist plot.

However, whether this restraint will actually be followed is another matter. Especially with the track record of the current Bush administration and of an Attorney General who “does not recall” a number of events and who went as far as to try to get a hospitalized and drugged John Ashcroft to sign off on his domestic eavesdropping program. Yes, according to testimony by a Justice Department official, Alberto Gonzales and Bush’s Chief of Staff Andrew Card actually visited the bedside of Ashcroft, who was recovering from gall bladder surgery and who was in pain and under sedation, to seek his signature on the reauthorization.

Anything you put down when buying an airplane ticket and making travel plans may reveal a lot more information about you than you think. The Washington Post article, says that “airlines do not usually gather [personal] data, but officials say it could wind up in passenger files as a result of requests for special services such as wheelchairs, or through routine questioning by airline personnel and travel agents about contacts, lodging, next of kin and traveling companions. Even a request for a king-size bed at a hotel could be noted in the database.”

This is a tricky issue because I support precautions that would make flying safer and keep me from catching tuberculosis or the plague from the person sneezing in the seat next to me, but sometimes what people don’t realize how abuse of this type of program, or even a simple clerical error, can screw up your life. In the best-case scenario you might miss your flight and be inconvenienced, but in the worst-case scenario, you might end up in a secret prison somewhere for a few years. I wish I could be kidding, but it has happened!

It is easy to dismiss this kind of profiling when you don’t expect it to happen to you, but what if you are of Middle Eastern descent? Or speak with a funny accent? Or share the name with the wrong person?

Next time: Catch my 2.5 cents on the 2008 Presidential hopefuls as we approach only a half a year to go until the California Primary elections.

On a completely unrelated note for your viewing pleasure here is the video for Final Countdown - by rock(?) group Europe:

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AT HOME HE’S A TOURIST (7/8/07) – By Jason Pancake
“The Business of Free Newspapers”

Almost everyone that has lived in LA has read the LA Weekly, just as anyone in New York has read the Village Voice, in Boston the Phoenix, and so on. These weekly newspapers are packed with extensive information on restaurants, music, art, and local events and best of all, they are free. If you think about it though, you have to wonder how such a publication can be free yet, somehow get printed each week and end up in piles on every other block and in all the stores and venues that you or I go to. These aren’t some little DIY zines that you press in your basement and hand out at backyard punk shows. I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that as with any product that reaches so many people, these “alternative weekly” papers are also a big business.

Unlike standard newspapers that rely more on subscriptions and sales from machines and newsstands, these free alternative weekly magazines make their money from the sale of advertisements. This is why at least a third of the LA Weekly consists of ads for things like plastic surgeons, “escorts”, and female “college” students offering massages.

In 2005, like with other big businesses, there was a corporate takeover/merger involving the LA Weekly as the New Times Media bought the LA Weekly (along with five other alternative papers including the Village Voice) from the Village Voice Media. Even though the New Times was run by a conservative businessman from Phoenix, Arizona, at the time, it looked like just another merger and didn’t make big waves. Here is an article on it describing how it was viewed at the time. Like all shrewd businesses, the New Times Media eventually took the name Village Voice Media so that it would sound more respectable even though it had bought it out.

From general appearances, the Weekly still looks pretty much like the Weekly. I could still count on the basics like being able to find an awesome cartoon by Tom Tomorrow, food reviews from Jonathan Gold, Weekly Rock Picks, and recently, the funny/informative syndicated columns “Ask a Mexican” and “Savage Love.”

However, there does seem to be something different. Here is an interesting article by a Weekly contributor Jon Wiener about how the newspaper is changing and things like reporting and national coverage on issues like the war in Iraq have pretty much disappeared from the Weekly. According to the author, the LA Weekly “has been truly great among alternative weeklies, with news coverage and political writing that towered above its counterparts--including the Village Voice and the eleven metro weeklies owned by the Phoenix-based New Times chain.” However, “the changes at the LA Weekly in the past six months have been dramatic: virtually no more writing about the war in Iraq or other international or national news topics, no more endorsements of candidates in elections and no more stories about the forces trying to make LA a more egalitarian and less polarized city.”

Sadly, the new style of the Weekly appears to be shifting from hard-hitting journalism to sensationalist tabloid-like pieces or pop entertainment-related stories. The article describes how: "There was a time not all that long ago," said Tim Rutten of the LA Times, "when we felt like we had to read the Weekly as soon as it came out, because they were competing with us. I don't think people at the Times feel that way any more. That's a loss to the city." The Weekly's star writers are increasingly turning out New Times-style hit pieces. In February [noted writer David] Zahniser blasted away at a school-board member whose offense consisted of remodeling his house without a building permit.” Next thing you know, they will start doing a story on some councilmember who doesn’t leave a tip at a restaurant.

Indeed, if you look at this week’s LA Weekly and consider all of the news that’s happening in the world (um, Scooter Libby anyone?), why is the main story about Christian Bale and the Art of Extreme Acting ? He’s a good actor and all, but when should an article about his new movie be a cover story of the LA Weekly?

The Weekly is still more respectable than cable or TV news, but it is still a major loss if it moves on to mainly only covering things like bad-behaving entertainment celebrities or local politicians. These free alternative papers are among the few places where reporters can report on important, investigative stories yet still actually make a living. That type of journalism just isn’t tolerated at large corporate news companies that need to protect their business/political interests. It is sad that pretty much the only hard-hitting mainstream investigative journalism source is “60 Minutes” or “Dateline” (when it isn’t spending all its time doing “to catch a predator”). If papers like the Weekly and Village Voice go down the path of your local TV news, it will be a sad day.

AT HOME HE'S A TOURIST

"Unhappy Meal"
by Jason Pancake

A common theme in government is that politicians have thrived thanks to the general political apathy of the American public. It’s natural for people to be concerned with their day to day lives and with their entertainment. For example, unless an average person or someone close to them is actually in a desert in Iraq, he or she doesn’t have a direct connection with the war. Even though the earth is warming at a dangerous rate, since it doesn’t affect us on a day to day basis, we just turn up the A/C and sit in our idling cars during rush hours. After all, we’ll be in bigger trouble today if we don’t show up for work. There are things that make people take action when they directly affect them such as illnesses, credit card interest rates, or easy access to firearms, but what about something that affects pretty much everybody?

Do you eat food? Do you like food? I sure do. Well according to news reports this past week, it looks like many

shipments of tainted food have been coming into the US from places such as China on a regular basis. According to the news report, “Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical. Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics. Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria. Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides. These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month.” If you add up the facts, it is pretty clear: Large volume of food imported cheaply from China + Low safety standards in China + Not enough FDA inspectors to check imports = Tainted food possibly ending up on your plate.

There is no need to panic and avoid all food products or switch over to the Britney Diet of Cheetos and Pepsi. However, this is a part of a larger trend. A few weeks ago, I wrote about Susan Dudley who would like to do away with all government regulations (including FDA food safety issues) yet who was appointed under the radar to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Paul Krugman of the New York Times has an interesting article about how food safety regulation has gone downhill in the last six years. Not coincidentally, the Bush Administration has been unwilling to step up food and drug safety regulations/inspection standards because in general, their policy is against the government regulation of other businesses or industries.

The argument of free market supporters, such as in the Bush Administration, is that corporations would check themselves because it’s bad for business when your customers get sick. In theory, that sounds very logical, but then again, in theory communism also sounds pretty good. The business world is tough. If there is an option where your company can cheaply import food products but a few people could possibly get sick, in a business sense, it is much more profitable to take the cheap imports.

An article written by a former FDA Deputy Commissioner describes how the increase in imports and new technology makes inspecting such a difficult job. These days, it is so easy to get products distributed and supplied to stores that there are a lot of new risks. According to the article, “FDA processed 15 million shipments of goods in 2006, up 60% since 2003. Products from more than 230 countries and more than 300,000 manufacturers…Against this, the FDA has about 625 inspectors for food and 260 for pill-type drugs.” So if you do the math (15 million shipments divided by (625 food inspectors + 260 pill inspectors), then that means that each inspector would have to check 16,950 shipments a year. Good luck with that.

There’s not exactly an easy solution to this, but it is clear that not much has been done in the last several years despite the massive increase in products (especially food) that have been imported. So far, the food issue is unfortunately looking like another public case of “I’ll wait until something happens to me.” As with everything that is going poorly right now, that is exactly what the Administration is counting on.

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Can’t Be Surprised Anymore: Chevron Pays Fines in Iraqi Oil Scandal, Condi Rice Involved?
By Jason Pancake

The next time you go to the gas station to pay a ridiculous amount to fill your tank, here is something to think about.

This week it was reported that Chevron is preparing to acknowledge that it should have known kickbacks were being paid to Saddam Hussein on oil it bought from Iraq as part of a defunct United Nations program, according to investigators. In addition, Chevron is going to pay a settlement including fines estimated to total $25 million to $30 million. Of course, Chevron is claiming it was some kind of misunderstanding, but when you are paying millions of dollars in fines because your company paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, it means someone screwed up! By coincidence, or maybe not, one person under scrutiny is Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice.

In case you thought she appeared out of nowhere, the President’s loyal sidekick, Condi, was actually on the board of Chevron for ten years (1991-2001) which included the time period of this scandal. While Rice was on the Chevron board, she led its public policy committee, which oversaw “areas of potential political concerns for the company.” [Doing my best John Stewart voice and hand motion impression] “So Condi was in charge of potential political concerns at Chevron? Hmm, couldn’t PAYING EXTRA SURCHARGES FOR IRAQI OIL TO THE ONE AND ONLY, SADDAM HUSSEIN, be considered a “POTENTIAL POLITICAL CONCERN?” In 2001, Rice left Chevron to become national security advisor for W, and the rest is history. We got rid of Saddam Hussein and destroyed Iraq, and Chevron went on to post among the highest earnings for a company in the history of the world. As a parting gift, Chevron named a gigantic oil tanker after her: “The Condoleezza Rice.” I kid you not. Here’s a scary article dated April 5, 2001 which discusses Rice’s ties to Chevron and the article wonders if there might be a potential that the Bush Administration is a little too cozy with a major oil company. It is one of those moments you wish you had a time machine. Here’s a quote from the article that is just priceless: “while some have written off the [tanker] ‘Condoleezza Rice’ as a small and humorous footnote to the Bush administration, the danger exists that it could turn into more.”

Now let’s put this in perspective. Condoleezza Rice, was named National Security Advisor (and later Secretary of State) after she had spent the previous 10 years on the executive board of a major American oil company. Since the above 4/5/01 article was written, the following things have happened: 9-11, Bush Administration claims Saddam Hussein and Iraq have WMDs and were involved with 9-11, These claims questioned, Gas is up to $2.50/gallon, Invasion of Iraq begins, Mission Accomplished!, Still in Iraq, Saddam Hussein captured, Gas is above $3/gallon, Bush re-elected, Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” documentary highlights some scary things about pollution, Gas still above $3/gallon, Claims for going to war against Iraq and Saddam found to be untrue, Chevron and Exxon Mobil earn the greatest profit in the history of the world, Still in Iraq, Gas is up to $3.50/gallon.

While it wasn’t like Chevron secretly snuck suitcases of cash over to Saddam’s palace, here’s what happened: A $64 billion program was set up in 1996 to help ease the effects of United Nations sanctions on Iraqi civilians after the first Gulf war. Until the American invasion in 2003, the program allowed Saddam's government to export oil to pay for food, medicine and humanitarian goods. Using an elaborate system of secret surcharges and extra fees, however, the Iraqi regime received at least $1.8 billion in kickbacks from companies in the program, according to an investigation completed in 2005. One of these companies who got oil from Iraq and paid kickbacks was Chevron. While Chevron is not expected to admit to violating the United Nations sanctions, it is expected to acknowledge that it should have been aware that illegal kickbacks were being paid to Iraq on the oil. There are always shadowy questions. One Italian businessman testified that he sold Iraqi oil to many companies, including Chevron, and all were aware of the Iraqi request for payment of a surcharge. Chevron and the other companies would just add this surcharge amount into the official price.

Is it just a simple coincidence that Rice was on the Board of Chevron during these unnoticed overpayments? Probably. But, hmm, is there a pattern throughout her career of warnings and hints being missed that something is going on? Of things not being done? Haven’t oil companies benefited enormously from this administration? It’s too bad the mainstream media and people of power just don’t ask enough tough questions about things like this. As a result, we may never know.

Here’s another article about this topic .

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"Disposable Heroes"

by Jason Pancake

The most effective forms of advertising are through personal testimonials or the recommendations of our personal heroes. Some testimonials use the average man or woman to appeal to the consumer. “I’m an average dude and I drink Soda Z because it rocks.” Better testimonials have celebrity endorsers! People use the logic that if someone they really adore and respect uses a certain product or feels a certain way, they must be right. In arguing your case to a large number of people, it’s easier to link an image or a face to a cause than it is to make a clear, sensible explanation. You can write an excellent 500 page argument of why civil rights are important, but it is more effective to mention and flash a photo of Martin Luther King giving a speech. You can describe to a ten year old, the musical and sociological significance of 1970s punk rock history, but to make him/her a fan, all you need is a photo of Sid Vicious or the cover photo of “London Calling.”

The same idea of a “hero” has been used throughout history to support military causes, including the current “War on Terror.” The image of a war hero is an incredibly effective form of propaganda that media outlets and citizens just can’t get enough of because people can easily feel inspired by fascinating stories of heroism and interesting individuals. Unfortunately, what happens if the stories being told were not real? What if the truth was being buried in favor of a cool Hollywood-style ending in order to raise some poll numbers?

The two most recognizable legends to grow out of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were those of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch. Pat Tillman was the square-jawed football player who gave up millions of dollars to be an Army Ranger and was valiantly gunned down by the enemy while protecting his troops in battle. Jessica Lynch was the cute blond girl from West Virginia who was taken prisoner by Iraqi insurgents during a firefight and whose rescue from an Iraqi hospital was captured on videotape. These were great stories that inspired many in 2003, but turned out to be far from true. Last week, in Congressional hearings, Tillman’s family and Jessica Lynch herself, testified that the Pentagon lied to turn them into war heroes.

I felt especially sad when I heard Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan in 2003 even though I didn’t know him personally. He was just one of thousands of soldiers who have died in Iraq or Afghanistan, but something was different because he was a celebrity that I knew about. He was a hard-hitting safety on the Arizona Cardinals whose square-jaw and tough face looked sort of like Henry Rollins. I liked him because he was a long-haired rebel who was against the Bush administration’s policies and was an avid fan of Noam Chomsky. He was the perfect hero for the America war effort at a time when the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was fresh in the news. It wasn’t until months later, that it was revealed that he was actually shot by his own fellow soldiers. Even Tillman’s family was not told for weeks what had happened and were led to believe that he was killed while heroically saving his team. The soldier standing right there when Tillman was shot in the back of the head by his own men (!), was ordered by military officials not to tell Tillman’s brother, who was stationed nearby, what had really happened. More on this story can be found in this article at USA Today .

Meanwhile, Jessica Lynch was also a perfect hero for the war in Iraq. She already has a TV movie made about her exploits. She appeals to all the key demographics because she is a nineteen year old, small town West Virginia, blonde “Little Girl Rambo” who put up a good fight yet, had to be rescued by the big, strong manly US commandos. During the early stages of the war, the legend was that she was injured in a gunfight ambush while shooting down terrorists, was captured and abused by evildoers, and then dramatically rescued by American troops from a hospital. What actually happened? According to the testimony Lynch gave, her vehicle was indeed hit by a rocket in an ambush, but her gun had jammed so she didn’t actually fire a shot. She was taken to an Iraqi hospital where kind nurses and doctors treated her well, and the Iraqis had actually tried to return her to US forces. However, the military insisted on filming a dramatic rescue operation for a good photo op. At the Congressional hearings, she said “I'm still confused why they lied and tried to make me into a legend.” “American people don't need to be told elaborate tales” about US forces, she said. In the end, she ended up being a true hero by standing up to the government that tried to hide the truth and use lies about her to sell a badly mismanaged war.

Regardless of the lies told, there isn’t a question of the bravery of Tillman and Lynch. It is just really appalling how they were used as pawns and publicity and then casually disposed of and kept out of the public eye as the truth was revealed. Today, Tillman’s friendly fire case still hasn’t been fully investigated, and Lynch still suffers from medical problems from her injuries and needs a brace to stand.

Selling an unpopular war can’t be done with charts and academic papers. A country needs larger than life characters. There are thousands of tragic personal stories of dead and injured men and women from this war, but most of those stories aren’t widely circulated because they don’t involve teenage girls sensationally rescued on video, or NFL players who become Army Rangers. Until more celebrities start fighting in the war, the only stories you will hear about soldiers in the news will be largely accounts of anonymous, unknown soldiers killed by road side bombs. Their families and friends will suffer (and perhaps on PBS you might actually see a name, photo, and age), but for the most part, the casualties remain treated by TV news as flag-covered boxes with a number. 3000, 3500, 4000.

*photo of Jessica Lynch from www.jessica-lynch.com

*photo of Pat Tillman from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4815441

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Looking at Election 2008: Part One (of too many)
by Jason Pancake

Even though the 2008 Presidential Election is still 18 months away, politicians have been raising large amounts of money and making humorous claims earlier than ever. Take Republican candidate Mitt Romney for example. By pulling an Arnold and saying he was pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and pro-gun control, Romney (a Mormon Republican) was somehow able to get elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2003. These days however, in order to win over the Midwest, Deep South, and Methtown, USA, Romney has done a complete turnaround (or some would say, a flip-flop) and is against all those things.

Recently, Romney has even gotten cozy with the NRA and said “I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty much all my life." Of course this is hilariously misleading. This piece in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Star-Telegram says it pretty well: “In Romneyland, "I've been a hunter pretty much all my life" means two outings: one as a 15-year-old to hunt rabbits and once last year when he joined major donors to the Republican Governors Association to shoot quail on a fenced game ranch in Georgia.” Last year's trip was an outing with major donors of the Republican Governors Association, which Romney headed at the time. These people were not exactly in the same income-level as the average gun owner. This CNN article has a full recap too and says, “An aide said Wednesday that Romney was not trying to mislead anyone, although he confirmed Romney had been hunting only on those occasions in his life.”

If I were a real hunter, I would be falling over laughing. By the way, Mitt “I’ve been a hunter pretty much all my life” Romney just joined the NRA last August. What about the old Romney who supported the Brady gun control law and a ban on assault rifles while running for Senate in 1994? "That's not going to make me the hero of the NRA," he told the Boston Herald at the time. "I don't line up with a lot of special interest groups." Even while running for Governor in 2002, he said “We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts. I support them. I won't chip away at them. I believe they protect us and provide for our safety."

He’s an analysis of Romney’s statements regarding guns.

To be fair, he did say later that in his younger days, he used to shoot small rabbits and rodents in Utah that he didn’t need licenses to hunt, but even those claims barely qualify him as an “avid hunter.” According to an AP article, this “Lifelong hunter” Romney does not even own his own gun. It turns out the gun Romney claims to have is actually owned by his son and kept at the vacation house in the fancy resort town of Park City, Utah. He has been living in Massachusetts since 1971, he has a second home in New Hampshire, and he grew up in a wealth Michigan suburb, Bloomfield Hills. However, “officials from Michigan, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where a license is necessary to hunt such small game, said they could not immediately locate any license for Romney.”

I know he’s just doing what he has to do to be a good born-again Republican, but sometimes it’s easy to understand why people don’t trust the government and care more passionately about Sanjaya’s hair than they do about the state of the country. I’m not singling out Romney because he “flip-flopped,” but rather because this whole issue shows how sad it is that Romney has to gain the NRA’s favor for political funding, contributions, and support. The gun lobby in this country is huge money maker and that’s what it really is: a business. It just works out well that they can profit off of America’s love of things that go “boom!” and “pow!” Unfortunately, giving crazy and desperate people easy access to guns is like leaving sharp objects or chemicals in a room with an unattended toddler. A responsible, smart kid probably won’t get hurt with them, but the dumb, mischievous kid is in trouble. Too bad there are a lot of these “dumb kids” in the US.

Update:

When recounting his hunting experience, Romney said: "Shooting a rabbit with a single-shot .22 is pretty hard, and after watching me try for a couple of weeks, [my cousins] said, `We'll slip you the semiautomatic. You'll do better with that.' And I sure did."

A couple of weeks ago, I thought this quote was merely pathetic because using a semiautomatic to shoot rabbits should barely qualify as hunting. But reading the quote after the Virginia Tech shooting is scary and sad because the same concept (how well high powered weapons work), was key in the damage done on campus. Read the Romney quote again with a slight change: “Shooting a bunch of college students with a single-shot .22 is pretty hard, and after watching me try for a couple of weeks, [my cousins] said, `We'll slip you the semiautomatic. You'll do better with that.' And I sure did.”

The Virginia Tech shooter had a semiautomatic Glock 9mm and a Walther P22. Look up their capabilities. These are devastating weapons. They were designed to be used by people to shoot more than just rabbits. If you need these guns to hunt your rabbits/quails, or if you need these to defend your mobile home, then you must either be living in the middle of Baghdad or in a nuclear fallout area that produces giant bloodthirsty mutant rabbits.


Plugs of the week: “Armed Madhouse” by Greg Palast is out on paperback this week. It should be essential reading to anyone that wants to learn about what is happening in the world.

And also check out Bill Moyer’s new series on the PBS website or on your local PBS station. He is one of the most respected journalist out there and does incredible news stories.

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AT HOME HE’S A TOURIST

By Jason Pancake

“Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.”
-Kurt Vonnegut’s Rule of Writing #2:

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”
-Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

Last week, we lost an incredible author, Kurt Vonnegut. Among his most famous novels were Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Cat's Cradle. He was also an editor/contributor for “In These Times” magazine and here is a good collection of some of his later essays. Vonnegut was definitiely an outspoken, entertaining character that you could root for.

Next week, I will present the first of a series of articles on Election 2008 which will include candidate profiles, absurdities, and how the role of president is out of touch with the average American. However, I think Vonnegut said it best: “There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.”

In tribute of Kurt, here is a typical article of his that was written in 2005.

Your Guess Is as Good as Mine
By Kurt Vonnegut
12/12/05

Most of you, if not all of you, like me, feel inadequately educated. That is an ordinary feeling for a member of our species. One of the most brilliant human beings of all times, George Bernard Shaw said on his 75th birthday or so that at last he knew enough to become a mediocre office boy. He died in 1950, by the way, when I was 28. He is the one who said, “Youth is wasted on the young.” I turned 83 a couple weeks ago, and I must say I agree.

Shaw, if he were alive today, would envy us the solid information that we have or can get about the nature of the universe, about time and space and matter, about our own bodies and brains, about the resources and vulnerabilities of our planet, about how all sorts of human beings actually talk and feel and live.

This is the information revolution. We have taken it very badly so far. Information seems to be getting in the way all the time. Human beings have had to guess about almost everything for the past million years or so. Our most enthralling and sometimes terrifying guessers are the leading characters in our history books. I will name two of them: Aristotle and Hitler. One good guesser and one bad one.

The masses of humanity, having no solid information to tell them otherwise, have had little choice but to believe this guesser or that one. Russians who didn’t think much of the guesses of Ivan the Terrible, for example, were likely to have their hats nailed to their heads.

We must acknowledge, though, that persuasive guessers—even Ivan the Terrible, now a hero in Russia—have given us courage to endure extraordinary ordeals that we had no way of understanding. Crop failures, wars, plagues, eruptions of volcanoes, babies being born dead—the guessers gave us the illusion that bad luck and good luck were understandable and could somehow be dealt with intelligently and effectively.

Without that illusion, we would all have surrendered long ago. But in fact, the guessers knew no more than the common people and sometimes less. The important thing was that they gave us the illusion that we’re in control of our destinies.

Persuasive guessing has been at the core of leadership for so long—for all of human experience so far—that it is wholly unsurprising that most of the leaders of this planet, in spite of all the information that is suddenly ours, want the guessing to go on, because now it is their turn to guess and be listened to.

Some of the loudest, most proudly ignorant guessing in the world is going on in Washington today. Our leaders are sick of all the solid information that has been dumped on humanity by research and scholarship and investigative reporting.

They think that the whole country is sick of it, and they want standards, and it isn’t the gold standard. They want to put us back on the snake-oil standard.

Loaded pistols are good for people unless they’re in prisons or lunatic asylums.
That’s correct.

Millions spent on public health are inflationary.
That’s correct.

Billions spent on weapons will bring inflation down.
That’s correct.

Industrial wastes, and especially those that are radioactive, hardly ever hurt anybody, so everybody should shut up about them.
That’s correct.

Industries should be allowed to do whatever they want to do: Bribe, wreck the environment just a little, fix prices, screw dumb customers, put a stop to competition and raid the Treasury in case they go broke.
That’s correct.

That’s free enterprise.
And that’s correct.

The poor have done something very wrong or they wouldn’t be poor, so their children should pay the consequences.
That’s correct.

The United States of America cannot be expected to look after its people.
That’s correct.

The free market will do that.
That’s correct.

The free market is an automatic system of justice.
That’s correct.

And so on.

If you actually are an educated, thinking person, you will not be welcome in Washington, D.C. I know a couple of bright seventh graders who would not be welcomed in Washington, D.C.

Do you remember those doctors a few years back who got together and announced that it was a simple, clear medical fact that we could not survive even a moderate attack by hydrogen bombs? They were not welcome in Washington, D.C.

Even if we fired the first salvo of hydrogen weapons and the enemy never fired back, the poisons released would probably kill the whole planet by and by.

What is the response in Washington? They guess otherwise. What good is an education? The boisterous guessers are still in charge—the haters of information. And the guessers are almost all highly educated people. Think of that. They have had to throw away their educations, even Harvard or Yale educations, to become guessers. If they didn’t do that, there is no way their uninhibited guessing could go on and on and on.

Please, don’t you do that. But let me warn you, if you make use of the vast fund of knowledge now available to educated persons, you are going to be lonesome as hell. The guessers outnumber you—and now I have to guess—about ten to one.

At Home He's a Tourist

"Live and Let Die"
by Jason Pancake

In the latest act of saying “f- you” to the environment and credibility of American government, Pres. Bush used a recess appointment to name extreme anti-regulation supporter, Susan Dudley as his top appointee in charge of uh, government regulations. This has kind of slipped by the radar of the mainstream media, but it has major implications! The LA Times has a good story of what happened: “President Bush on Wednesday appointed as his top regulatory official a conservative academic who has written that markets do a better job of regulating than the government does and that it is more cost-effective for people who are sensitive to pollution to stay indoors on smoggy days than for government to order polluters to clean up their emissions. As director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget, Susan E. Dudley will have an opportunity to change or block all regulations proposed by government agencies.”

Dudley’s job is important because as mentioned, she can change or block all regulations proposed by government agencies that affect everything from health, safety, pollution, car airbags, clean air/water, and business practices. This is dangerous because her career is built around deregulating any safety or consumer protection that might interfere with companies earning the very top profit. She calls public health regulations a “hidden tax that hinders profits”. In her article, she actually criticizes the fact that people’s children have to wear “Consumer Product Safety Commission-approved pajamas” that might cost them 2 cents more to buy and hurts the pajama producer’s profits! Doesn’t she understand why people want consumer safety laws? Without laws, what would keep companies from producing dirt cheap pajamas that easily catch on fire or have harmful chemicals in them? There are always stories on the news about unsafe toys and other products.

This report by OMB Watch.org has comprehensive information about Susan Dudley and her think tank, the Mercatus Center. This group that Dudley leads is corporate-founded (and corporate-funded) and whose donors have included companies with long records of pushing for deregulations, such as BP Amoco, Exxon Mobil Corporation, General Motors, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Pfizer, and State Farm Insurance. Their whole philosophy is that the free market/businesses should control all aspects of how things get done and that safety regulations get in the way of profits.

Here are some of the things Dudley has argued:

· She argued that air bags should not be required in cars, but just requested by consumers who are willing to pay extra for them. Her argument is that in a free market, if people really want air bags, they will pay for them or car manufacturers will put them in because it would make more people buy their cars. Of course, the reason laws requiring seat belts and air bags were created in the first place was because car manufacturers weren’t doing anything to keep people in crashes from unnecessarily dying. At that time (as well as now), it’s common sense that leaving the price of air bags to the car makers meant that many people who might have really needed the safety feature were not able to afford them. Car makers forced consumers to pay five times more for air bags as optional features than for air bags as standard equipment in a car. For example, let’s say the cost of air bags as a standard feature is $1000 (out of the total cost of a $21,000 car). Without this regulation, if you wanted the optional air bag, it would have cost you $5000 (making the car total $25,000). If you’re paying for a $20,000 car, you can probably afford the $1000 cost to save your life in an accident. However, if you had to pay $5000 for overpriced optional airbags, it would be a lot harder to afford, especially for poorer families.
· She opposed stricter limits on arsenic and other chemicals in drinking water, which even goes against what the Bush administration was saying. She has argued that the Environmental Protection Agency's calculations of the costs and benefits of clean water did not take into account that that the lives of some people should not be worth as much, particularly older people with shorter life expectancy. Seniors (who tend to vote the most) were outraged and politicians called this a stupid theory. Even though she values an older person’s life less on an economic level, it doesn’t make sense in this argument because you would be measuring the deaths caused by a polluter’s negligence. If someone killed ten people, it doesn’t matter if the victims were all 35 or 65 years old. The criminal still killed ten people.
· She wants to reject a rule designed to protect consumer privacy which limits financial institutions’ ability to share your private customer financial information without proper consent. Basically, she is saying that banks should be allowed to share your financial information with whoever they want, but that according to the “free market,” people who don’t like having their financial information shared with other companies should just work it out with their bank. People probably wouldn’t even know what was happening. Her solution would be to wait on hold for an hour on the bank’s “Customer Service” number if you have a problem.
· Her Mercatus Center think tank created reports opposing measures to curb global warming, stating that the "evidence regarding global warming and human contribution to it is mixed, and...if a slight warming does occur, historical evidence suggests it is likely to be beneficial, occurring at night, in the winter, and at the poles. Taking 'precautionary action' to protect human health based on a series of tenuous linkages would likely create a new set of risks." Basically, this says that global warming is good because it will keep the temperature warmer at night and in the winter. Yikes.
· And finally, she says that the government shouldn’t force polluters to try to prevent smog but that instead, we should just have a pollution warning system "so that sensitive individuals can take appropriate 'exposure avoidance' behavior" — mostly by remaining inside”! If you have asthma (or get asthma due to smog) stay inside because it hurts the profits of polluting companies.

With a Democratic majority, there was very little chance Dudley would have been confirmed. Even last year when the Republicans still ruled both houses, Bush couldn’t nominate her because many groups opposed her nomination. This year however, Bush used a recess appointment, which meant that he was able to appoint an official for that term of Congress without getting approval from the Senate. He has bypassed the Senate with this rule over 100 times, most notably with controversial UN Ambassador, John Bolton. When even Joe Lieberman is unhappy about Dudley’s appointment and calling it a misuse of power, that is pretty bad.

Eight Managers?

Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of the Turtles take us down the path of working with managers in the music business



Thank you to Tess Taylor and the NARIP Newsletter for turning us onto this great video!

At Home He's a Tourist: Five Minutes of Your Time

Five Minutes of Your Time

By Jason Pancake

In school almost every student learns something about the American Revolutionary War and has probably heard the phrase “no taxation without representation.” For better or worse, thanks to the efforts of the colonists, we have a system of government where each area is represented by an elected representative. These representatives are your voice and are supposed to stand up for you! Does this always happen? No, but it is no excuse not to know who represents you. Your tax dollars go towards government and the your elected representatives determine how the money is spent and how laws affect your life. It’s sad when people care so deeply about who they think should be an american idol or a ballroom dancing minor celebrity, yet they pay thousands of dollars a year in taxes and don’t even know who runs their daily lives and is in charge of spending these tax dollars.

Each American has representatives in the Senate, Congress, and their state and local governments. Generally, people know who their President, Vice President, Governor, and maybe Senators are, but once you go beyond those people, the knowledge goes way down. There are all kinds of polls and surveys showing how pathetic the general public’s knowledge is of their representatives. I strongly believe that students should be able to name or at least find the name of their major representatives in order to graduate from high school. The decisions that these representatives make shape almost every aspect of the country and where you live.

There are racist, homophobic nutcases out there that want to carry concealed weapons, believe that being gay is morally wrong, and who don’t believe evolution should be taught in school, yet these people aren’t marginalized and laughed off because they tend to know who their representatives are and how to contact them.

Believe it or not, if you write a letter to your elected representative, you will get a response from his or her office. Your representative might not do much about the cause you want to support, but at least they know you are out there.

What you can do:

If you already know who all your representatives are, that is awesome. If not, you can easily find out. In the time it takes you to check your email or to read through your Myspace bulletins, you can find out who controls many aspects of the country and your daily life.

Here are the essentials:

1. Your Representative in Congress: Go to the House of Representatives website at www.house.gov and enter your zip code to find your representative. You need zip +4 to do a search. You can find your zip+4 at the USPS.com website.

The House.gov website is cool because you can also look up voting records and bills that are being heard.

2. Your State Representatives: In most states such as California, you have a State Senate and Assembly. These are the people that make state laws and approve the budget. Just like the national level where you have the President, Congress, and Senate, on a state level, things have to be worked out between the Senate, Assembly, and Governor. This website VoteSmart.org has a lot of resources and information on how to find your state representatives. You can also do a Google search for your state’s legislature. (For example, search for “California legislature”) The Official California Legislative Information website also has all kinds of good information about California laws and your representatives.

3. Your local city/county representatives: Finally, it is good to know what’s happening in your own neighborhood and city. They are the ones that decide whether or not a 300-unit apartment building with no additional parking is going to be built on your street. You can look up your local city and county’s webpage to find out who your representatives are.

Once you figure out your local representatives, it doesn’t hurt to do some research and see what’s happening in the rest of the country and feel fortunate that hopefully your representative is better than some of those hacks. Things don’t change unless enough people make it happen, but at least people should know who they have to convince.

At Home He's A Tourist

Four Years Later
By Jason Pancake


Since the Iraq War began in March 2003, over 3200 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq, 800 private contractors have been killed, well over 100,000 Iraqi citizens have died due to the occupation, and thousands of Americans and Iraqis have been injured. Billions and billions of dollars have been spent, while private contractors like Halliburton and Blackwater have made ridiculous amounts of money by ripping off the government. A solid majority of the nation thinks the war is not going well and people support a withdrawal 59% to 33%. Despite a slim majority of Democrats in the House and Senate, what is there to show for people’s frustrations? Only a resolution to slowly start withdrawing troops… in August 2008 . This bill doesn’t really mean much because it barely passed the House (218-212) and Senate (50-48) and everyone knew that the President would veto it.

Howard Zinn, author of important books like The People’s History of the United States , has written a nice article about this withdrawal debate and arguments about why this timetable means little. Indeed, even though many politicians acknowledge that something different needs to be done, we are still continuing to do what we are doing. It is like a cartoon where we are in a boat in the water with a bunch of holes, and we are trying to plug the holes one by one with our fingers and toes. Of course, the water keeps pouring in because there are too many holes and not enough fingers or toes. Zinn’s article can be found at http://www2.blogger.com/www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0507 Zinn makes the point of how the general public has to make the difference and take action because “we are not politicians, but citizens. We have no office to hold on to, only our consciences, which insist on telling the truth.”

Indeed the outcome of this war, as with past wars and injustices and civil rights, will be up to us, the citizens of this country. The only reason the concept of withdrawing troops even got this far is because the people of this country made their voices (and votes in November) heard that they wanted a change. Unfortunately, it wasn’t loud enough to cause real action to be taken. While it’s true that we should be upset that elected representatives (especially Democrats) are not more assertive about standing up against something that evidence has shown to be wrong, but we have to look at it from their side too. Politicians need a lot of things in addition to voter support to preserve their jobs (money, political allies, etc.), and the anti-war members of Congress and the Senate are still not the clear majority. There were massive protests that eventually helped end the Vietnam War, but there just haven’t been the widespread outcries here with this war. In polls, people state that they are against the war, but the action hasn’t been there. This can partly be due to how today’s armed forces are “volunteers” that make up a relatively small portion of the overall population, and there is no draft that directly affects the average citizen. Many people don’t really realize how much sacrifice and hardships fall on a small percentage of the population. The extent of many people’s sacrifice has been $3.95 they paid to slap a yellow sticker on the bumper of their car. Also, even though the country is racking up a major deficit (that will eventually need to be paid off), there has been hardly any financial sacrifice required of the average person. No taxes have gone up to pay for this war and people have been told that we can beat those insurgents by buying more stuff at the mall. Watch this video as the President literally says to go shopping more. Here is the transcript: “As we work with Congress in the coming year to chart a new course in Iraq and strengthen our military to meet the challenges of the 21st century, we must also work together to achieve important goals for the American people here at home. This work begins with keeping our economy growing…And I encourage you all to go shopping more.”

The administration still makes the same old arguments that leaving Iraq would “embolden the terrorists,” but what does it tell the “evil doers” when we continue to stubbornly do the exact same thing by sending our young men and women to their deaths and burn through billion dollars a month with no clear intention of what our solution is. The evidence is clear that so much of what the public was told was wrong: Iraq had WMDs, Saddam was involved in 9/11, we will be greeted with flowers and chocolate, we don’t need 100,000’s of troops, the insurgency is in its last throes, the troops don’t need fancy armor, and the list goes on. At the same time, what does it tell the Administration (and the “terrorists”) when a majority of the American public claims it is against the direction of the war and voted for a number of new Representatives, yet the Congress, Senate, and the American public still can’t take action amend these mistakes? As Howard Zinn says in his article: “It reminds me of the physician in Europe in the early nineteenth century who decided that bloodletting would cure pneumonia. When that didn't work, he concluded that not enough blood had been let.” The blood is still flowing.

SXSW Report : Checking Out and Checking In

by: Siria

Oh my Texas!

This year my patner in crime 74associates and I took the Kiss or Kill motto to heart when heading to Texas/SXSW "arrive early stay late," and instead of driving out we flew. Thankfully I had no showcases to put together and would get to be on my own time schedule. We had a lovely 25 minute stop in Albuquerquee where people more people boarded and some people actually (imagine that) got off in what appeared to be a small airport in the middle of nowhere. Then back in the air until our 2 hour layover in Dallas (we originally thought it was Denver and didnt get it) where we ran into many groups of women clad in denim from head to toe (I exaggerate not, and wish I had taken pictures), cowboys, and the McDonalds was having some sort of big gaudy purple and gold celebration (something I hope to not witness again - we saw a woman in panic mode over not getting her southern chicken sandwich in a timely fashion). When we finally headed back to our gate we learned that we had to wait longer due to our plane not having a gate to board through. There were also some other Austin bound people who had been waiting for hours for the apparently turbulent flying conditions to be cleared up, thank goodness we didnt have to wait too much longer as we all know how much I love to wait. The thing that struck me as odd were the number of people that appeared to know each other in our waiting area, it was a little disturbing.

Finally we arrived in TX and hailed a cab to our first hotel (while BSB and Silver Needle were on their "Blind in Texas" tour we went on our very own of the hotel circuit which we will call "Checking in and Checking Out" yeah... double entendres...bring 'em). We didn't head into the city as we were pretty wiped so we decided to just wait until Wednesday to start terrorizing the streets of Austin.



Wednesday

It begins...

Wednesday we had to check out of our first hotel and head to the second one of our "tour". So we checked in and headed back out to Austin in the gray drizzly weather. For some reason I can't recall what we did for the first few hours :(. I know that later in the evening we caught Silver Needle and BSB at the Blind Pig during one of their showcases of which we literally followed the sound of their music until we got to the venue. This is where we learned of the infamous "Blue Steel" (special powers that we witnessed first hand) and about "Winner" :). We spent part of the evening hanging out at The Blind Pig, then paid a visit to The Apple Bar where The Viper Room/Swinghouse/Hell Ya (etc.etc.) were holding their showcases complete with Casper (the Viper Room doorguy) working the door, followed by some time spent at Uncle Flirty's with more cocktails and beer Johnny99 style. Then 99 left us and Andre, Chris, Cooper, Greg, and Matt found us and off we headed to another party with the promise (the beginning of a string of many broken ones) of free alcohol. We got there and of course no free alcohol but there were still bands playing what felt like a house party (I think I feel like we kept going in the back way everywhere). We're sorry to have missed KorK but when I checked in on it everything was going just fine! This is the night that I referred to days later as the night where I wasn't really drunk (witnesses say otherwise). I almost got Andre in a fight (thank you and I'm sorry...Amanda would be proud) with a silly white suit wearing wannabe rock star who had decided to get a little too close (by this I mean pretty much kidnapping) a little too often for my liking. After this we were walking back down the streets of Austin where we ran into the fun boys of the Prix! They were heading back to their hotel and it turned out they were staying at the same one we were staying at(until checkout time the next day that is), we stayed out after they hailed their cab then finally the Silver Needles, BSBer's, and us parted ways and went back to our hotels. Who knows what time it was.


Thursday

More "Checking Out and Checking In"

After checking into our main hotel (where we would be spending the majority of our trip). We spent an hour at least possibly two waiting for a freakin cab...and ended up sharing a cab with two of the organizers (and djs) of that nights NASA Party. They are also opening up a new venue in downtown Santa Ana in the Arts District, they were on their way to set up for gig. We were on our way to the IndyHits/Band Promote Party at Guero's Taco Bar to support Mr. Mike Galaxy, we stayed long enough to say hi to all the right people and trick people into thinking we were staying for the show (we would've loved to but there was no free food nor alcohol and we were starving and lacking intoxication). The Weather Underground among other bands were scheduled to play. We made our way by walking (a looooong ways) to the Filter Parties back on Congress and Fourth (a ways away from Guero's to say the least) where along the way we ran into a guy (Austin native who looked familiar to us) who tried to coerce us into going to see a free off the beaten path performance from the Cold War Kids, which after some deliberation we had to turn down, since we were trying to make it to Cedar Street (Filter) in time to see Aqualung. We finally made it to the venue and caught up with Shameless Andie (who is the photo editor at Filter and my partner in Shameless Ent.) but realized we had the date wrong and Aqualung would not be taking the stage until the next day. We caught the end of Midnight Movies, The Besnad Lakes, Kenna, Youth Group, and Badly Drawn Boy. Zack Galifianakis was the MC. After we ate at a sports bar, and discussed the art of a sport bar and tried to think of different activities the bar could have. Next we went to our safety spot for the past two years the bar who's name I can never remember (Something like El Capitan, Conquistador, or Cabo... something along those lines) It has a great patio and Martin from the Letter Openers knows the owner from a while back. We then spent a long time being bored and listening to a boy and his dreams about being a firestarter who works at a flower shop and a girl who is in the Austin Roller Derby league who's boyfriend djs at the Roller Derby Events...EXCITING!!! We couldn't take it anymore and left spending more time being bored and just standing in one place waiting (for nothing in particular) and refusing to move. Then we ran into the Randies or rather I spotted them and yelled at them/for them/towards them, where they confused our kazoos for vibrators (I guess some company was giving away vibrators) then we finally left I think...fast forward to later that night where rejoined up with Shameless Andie and her friend Jamie at the Apple Bar for Valient Thorr (who were awesome!) and then headed to the NASA Party which was a trek and a half we made half the journey and then took one of the bike buggys the rest of the way (we were wearing heels and didnt know how much longer the place was). We got there in time for Spank Rock and again no free alcohol. We ran into the guys who we'd shared the cab with earlier, Andie and Jamie left after a little while, we met some guys (Austin Natives) who knew everyone at the party that we didnt really care to know. One kept a loaf of bread in commemoration of meeting 74associates, the party turned into a pumpkin at exactly 2 am, and they gave us a ride back to our hotel (we had them drop us off at the wrong hotel so they wouldnt know where we were staying) after that we called it a night.

Here is a video from Valient Thorr







Friday

No more checking out and checking in! Yay! This day we headed straight to the Vice Party to pick up our laminates for the Vice After Party on Saturday Night. We got there and had no desire to stick around despite the promise of Bloc Party, The Melvins, etc.. We made our way back to Cedar Street to ensure not missing Aqualung (74associates' dreamboat...sigh...) but not before stopping by a BBQ joint that had grape kool aid and sweet tea as their beverage options, their food was not great but maybe I had the wrong thing, I don't recall the name but think it was Ben's I can totally show you where it is though. We had a bout of deja vu while waiting to cross a street when we ran into someone we met last year in strangely enough the same way we ran into him last year who we will call Mr. Glitter from Roadrunner Records, who assured us they are still doing well and the signings continue. We made it in time to catch the Panda Band (who I don't really remember), Money Mark (from the Beastie Boys), and finally Aqualung. Next we wandered around for a little while and found nothing overly interesting so went to The Belmont where I lost my heart in TX to the upstairs patio where we sat watching the sun set with a crowd of rock star looking people and Tommy Sunshine djing behind us in between and after bands and saw MEW perform. I wanted to stay there forever but then it got dark and people left and it got cold so we left but not before being joined by BSB and Daniel and Andre of Silver Needle. I think after this we tried to make it to Public Enemy but thought better of it when we realized how far it really was. Mr. Matt Southwell was the voice of reason on this night. So the "voice of reason" +4 went back to their hotel and we kidnapped the Silver Needle frontman and went and got something to eat and then later did some barhopping and some catching up. We later caught up with Chris (drummer of Silver Needle aka Blue Steel who had come from the Public Enemy show) at The Blind Pig and were later joined by Johnny 99 who dropped in only for a little bit as he was on his way to see Sloan, we later parted ways with Dan and Chris and were leaving when I heard my name being shouted by "Hi It's Me Paul Palacios" and entourage who had just come from the iHeartComix Party that got shut down and we got lured back into hanging out some more, we then re-united with Johnny99 and we closed the night out at the bar who's name I forget.



Aqualung pic stolen from 74associates

Saturday

SXSW was taking its toll...we headed straight to Cedar Street for the free BBQ that we'd missed all week long. I really wanted to see The Fratellis and Mando Diao there but also wanted to see
The Walkmen at another party...I finally reasoned that I would pay to see The Walkmen anytime (plus who knows how their set went as their lead singer had just gotten out of jail after his late night arrest a few hours before their performance that day) but probably wouldnt pay to see the other bands so there we stayed the WHOLE day! We caught The Pipettes (who were totally entertaining and just plain cute and fun girls), Mando Diao (who were amazing live), Mew (who we stayed inside for as we'd just seen them, I imagined ways of making the bathroom line more exclusive and for VIP only while 74associates slept). Then the Fratellis took the stage. I have loved "Chelsea Dagger" for months now and so does anyone else I play it for. They were great overall but I would rather see them at night in a seedy bar with both me and them more intoxicated. They were followed by a special performance by Thurston Moore and friends that we didnt stick around for. We later went to a place called Noodleism with which I do not recommend you ever visit (their food is fine but their service...HORRIBLE...HORRIBLE...HORRIBLE!!!!), we got kicked out of there pretty much, seriously :).

We finally went back to the hotel room to get some rest before heading to the Vice Party later that night.

Here is a video from the Pipettes and they were just as fun live (if not more so)







Saturday Night - Part Two


Vice Saves Texas...

We aren't sure from what...possibly from old men at the Elks Lodge gawking down at passer-byers from their rooftop patio? We got to the Vice Afterparty at about 1:30 am (give or take an hour). It was in full swing and Against Me was on the stage. There was free Dewar's and we ran into Kiss or Kill's own Phi Phenomenom Zach (our visuals guy) who was hanging out with the peeps from Good Magazine, and Bedtime for Toys. Ran into a few other people as we pushed our way to the hard to get to rooftop patio and were just getting settled in and trying to get away from boring conversations when all of a sudden it sounded like a few people fell off the roof. Thankfully, noone did go over but the whole guardrail and brick wall did fall over. I guess people were trying to climb the wall to get to the roof and into the party as they were being hardcore about having the laminates to get in. In the end the roof was no longer safe and the police and firemen were called and the best party of all of SXSW was shut down for the second time that day (the first time is too long a story to get into). So approx. 400 people were stuck waiting for Taxis at this out of the way Elks Lodge. We were smart and walked away from the party not before taking some pics and saying some so longs to those we knew and found a cab rather quickly.




Here are some pics from the Vice Aftermath (photos by me and 74associates)








Sunday



We checked out and took all of our luggage (and made quite a scene) to have breakfast at the IHOP along with every other person staying near it. The manager had to watch our luggage while we ate, but he loved us and asked us to come back next year. We then were waiting for our cab to take us to the next hotel when I decided to try one final time with the hotel we had been at to give us the same rates as the next hotel would be and thankfully they did. We were sooo tired so we stayed in all day and watched way too much reality tv, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and E! and caught up on emails. I thought the Girls Next Door were supposed to be way hot? They look like a lot of other girls I know.


Monday

Spent like 4 hours at the Austin airport and finally flew back to LA.

There were many more crazy characters along our trip but this is long enough as it is! Next year we are def. staying downtown (we get better and better at maximizing our trip each year)! Everyone into music should make it to SXSW at least once to experience it firsthand.

Advice for SXSW first timers - Stay as close to downtown (6th St.) as possible (or all your money will go to cabs), take the personal cell phone numbers of cab drivers and rickshaw guys, do try to get to the places with free food and free alcohol early (it doesn't last long). have a plan but don't expect to stick to it, RSVP to everything even if you think you won't attend them.