Robbie Robertson , Kerouac & Johnny Depp

Quote of the day:

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Buddha


Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Buddha

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.
Walt Whitman

Let's begin with a little piece by Jack Kerouac recited by Johnny Depp " The Mad Road " :

Johnny Depp reading Jack Kerouac's " The Mad Road "

by Youtube user :uicanannain





Anyway here's some more music by Canadian musician singer songwriter Robbie Robertson - The first video is to his beautiful song " UNBOUND" from Youtube user WarriorPanther who has posted a number of videos with great music by Robbie Robertson & R. Carlos Nakai & Peter Kater etc.




This next video contains the original videos for two songs by Robbie Robertson " FALLEN ANGEL " & " SHOWDOWN AT BIG SKY " from Youtube user FirePrayer



take care,
GORD.

R Carlos Nakai - Native American Music & Wounded Knee

Quote of the day:

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

Acts 4:32-35 Bible New Testament (King James Version)


Here's the trailer for the film " Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee "




Anyway here's some more Native American music to begin your week by R. Carlos Nakai which I enjoy - hope you do too -
Music for contemplation & meditation
R. Carlos Nakai PROMISE from Youtube user AnneMarieCotter

Canyon Trilogy R. Carlos Nakai Canyon Records.
Published by Native American Flute Music
1989 R. Carlos Nakai 2003 Canyon Records
Daybreak Vision www.canyonrecords.com




ANASAZI from Youtube user Bethgile
Southwest settings to R. Carlos Nakai music



& R. Carlos Nakai ECHOES OF TIME from WarriorPanther



take care,
GORD.

PEARL JAM ,TIM ROBBINS , BOB DYLAN & WOODY GUTHRIE

Anyway here's another little ditty about Bush's America & the American invasion of Iraq- The video is World Wide Suicide by Pearl Jam live on Jools Holland so enjoy as the Carpet Bombing of Iraq will beginning soon just like the good old days in Vietnam & Cambodia for the Neocons it will be orgasmic all those big bombs & missiles exploding as they delight in the deaths of other human beings who stand in their way of underground lakes of oil -




World Wide Suicide Lyrics

I felt the earth on Monday
It moved beneath my feet
In the form of a morning paper
Laid out for me to see
I saw his face in the corner picture
I recognized the name
Could not stop staring at the
Face I'd never see again

It's a shame to awake, in a world of pain
What does it mean when war has taken over?
It's the same every day in a hell man-made
What can be saved, and who will be left to hold her?

The whole world...
World Over...
Yeah, it's a world wide suicide

Medals on a wooden mantle
Next to a handsome face
That the president took for granted
Writing checks that others pay
And in all the madness
Thought becomes numb and naive
So much to talk about and
Nothing for them to say

It's the same everyday and the wave won't break
Tell you to pray, while the devil's on their shoulder
Laying claim to the take that soldiers save
Tell them to quit it, the truth's already out there

The whole world...
World Over...
Yeah, it's a world wide suicide

Looking in the eyes of the fallen
You got to know there is another, another, another, another, another...
Way

It's a shame to awake,in a world aflame
What does it mean when war has taken over?
It's the same everyday and the wave won't break
Tell you to pray, while the devil's on their shoulder -

And now here's a tune by Tim Robbins from the extremely funny satirical though a little too close to reality film Bob Roberts which is a wonderful mockumentary - Tim Robbins accepting the Woody Guthrie Award 2006 performs This Land Was Made For Me aka the Yuppie Anthem & other ways to justify Greed Avarice & Neo-Colonialism or what Bush Harper & Blair call the White Man's Burden & other bits of insanity -





Anyway here's Bob Dylan reciting his poem Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie :
If you listen carefully the cadence or rhythm of the poem is like a train speeding across America like Jack Kerouac's black car flying through the darkened Night of Dead American Dreamland -or even if you will Arcade Fire's Get-away-car -



Take care ,
GORD.

Wall Street Rap - Bob Roberts

Tim Robbins directed wrote & acted in this political satire in 1992.

Ignoring the quality of this video it is from the film Bob Roberts - it is even more relevant today - take care, gord

Kraftwerk- Metropolis & Tomorrow Belongs to America

And now for some great music by Kraftwerk using clips from Fritz Lang's Metropolis a masterpiece in film-making & is more impressive in the latest restored version it is a dystopian piece of science fiction & so has a social & political message especially as it was made just a few years before Hitler's rise to power at which time Lang left Germany along with many others in Film or the other arts ...The influence of Metropolis can be seen in numerous films especially in Blade Runner , Brazil, Dark City , Equilibrium or even The Fifth Element with its mile high skyscrapers etc.



Tomorrow Belongs to America ...part 3 - a work in progress

wrapping themselves in the flag
taking Jesus as one of their own
reciting obscure passages of the Bible
divining prophecies from the entrails of
some half -crazed madman living off of locusts & shrooms
& they pray for the end of the world
& relish images of people being tortured for all eternity
& God so loved the world
a twisted sort of love of a sadistic God
while their Jesus preaches intolerance & war
gets a kick out of shooting sparrows just for fun
or just to see them fall

& to their enemies they just repeat the refrain
like good little warped cheerleaders
we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna drop the bomb
give us a 'b' give us an 'o' give us an 'm' give us a 'b'
BOOM you're dead
while their leader sings
" Onward Christian Soldiers marching as to war
for what's power for
& what is an army for
just jobs for the poor the fooled
the fanatic & the psychotic -

& we are the champions my friend
no time for stupid losers
& their thousand excuses
America is only for winners
so keep your huddled feeble minded masses
who would destroy the American Way
& pollute our pure blood
so the tv preachers & talk show hosts all agree
you gotta kill a liberal or two
& the King Decider says off with their heads
of anyone who dares resist America's Destiny
our only means to bring peace
just silence them all
and that's all it takes -


but that's America's message to the rest of us
you are with us or against us & so it goes
so bomb them all
war is the great cleanser of the world
and if your leader does not heed us
& dares not enslave you for America's greater good
if your leader dare bring you bread & roses
if your leader dare bring you poetry & art
if your leader dare bring you peace & justice
then your leader & you must pay the price
sending in the the CIA & a thousand mercenaries
to line up all your poets & artist against the wall
& those misbehaving lawyers preaching about your rights
when only those on top have rights
while you get screwed
to kill all hope inside you
to fill you with fear
but what's a coup d' etat or two among friends
besides it's for your own good -

take care,
GORD.

Buffalo Springfield & Tommorow Belongs To America....part 2

And here's Buffalo Springfield performing " For What its Worth " with images from the intense & gritty war film Hamburger Hill



Anyway here is part 2 of my poem Tomorrow Belongs To America...a work in progress

so we've become the occupiers
we are in our safe bubble
we who live in the Green Zone
covering the continent
keep our life-style
so all's well with the world
while over-zealous soldiers die
on the streets of a foreign city
trying to prove their loyalty
but no one knows why -


from Lincoln & Jefferson
from freedom & justice for all
to the rule of the few
from the Great Awakening to Billy Graham & Jerry Falwell
has America finally got the sort of government they dreamed of
the one they deserve & want
as they march triumphal into history
singing " On ward Christian Soldiers "
since their Messiah or Prophet has arrived
from the oil rich lone star state in a stretch-limo
to whom the one-true-God speaks
wielding the sword of the righteous hand of God
all who who do not support America are in the hands of the Anti-Christ
for years Americans held to their belief of being Superior to all other nations
& now they wish to prove it
as they wait for the hand of God to intercede on their behalf
emerging from the fog of war
America was Exceptional
America was superior
America was GOD'S chosen nation
America was the new Jerusalem ( as Britain once was )
America was to fulfill its manifest destiny
America was (or is) the apogee of Darwinian Evolution
America could do no wrong
America is where everyone wants to be
& everyone wants to be an American
& tomorrow belongs to America
& a million sing in unison
I fear this is but a dream
new Nazis singing ' Tomorrow Belongs to Me '
& I wish to wake up
but the years drag on
& the wars drag on
& the soldiers get angry & fed-up
& act out their fantasies to escape the insanity
becoming sick & twisted
as the machine crushes their humanity
some go into hiding
some wound themselves
some just kill themselves
some return broken
some in body
some in mind
some in spirit
some are just silent
what tales to tell
not fit for the dinner table -

& no one wants to know
the nuts & bolts of ruling the world -

ps. See & hear Arcade Fire doing their version of The Clash's " The Guns Of Brixton " at YouTube
(embedding disabled):

Guns of Brixton
or go to gords cafe at Myspace.com to view interview with Arcade Fire -


Take care,
GORD.

AMERICAN JESUS -BAD RELIGION & TOMORROW BELONGS TO AMERICA

Anyway , here's a blast from the past which is still relevant " American Jesus " by Bad Religion



& a poem I'm working on :

Tomorrow belongs to America ...A work in progress

1
In the name of Jesus

from greedy Columbus
seeking fame & fortune
to treacherous Puritan fanatics & pirates
pouring out of
the Mayflower thumping their Bibles
giving thanks to Jesus
to a thousand massacres
of those who happened to be there
too bad for them
we take what we want
they take what they want
its a dog eat dog world
hunting down heretics & witches
in the name of Jesus
killing for Jesus
beating & breeding slaves for Jesus
burning native villages for Jesus
exploiting in the name of Jesus
lynching in the name of Jesus -

slaughtering Mexicans & Filipinos
in the name of Jesus
starving the whole world
till they all kneel to Jesus-


from a mere rabble of upstarts
going beyond their station
desiring fairness & justice
becoming insurgents
gun totting revolutionaries
fighting their English Masters
taking on the British Empire
in the name of Tom Paine & Jefferson -

enslaving a few million
just to make a buck
in the name of Jesus
twisting scripture to fit their needs
to suit their desires & fantasies
of conquest -

Take Care,
GORD.

earth peace & opera

From Live Earth - Yusuf ( Cat Stevens )



And here is Yusuf singing Wild World & Peace Train - again at Live Earth 07-07-07 Enjoy & ignore the Trolling Neocons on Youtube & elsewhere



Here's a song by Canadian Bruce Cockburn ( 1989 ) If A Tree Falls In The Forest which is unfortunately more relevant than ever & so it goes :



Here's a funny bit I hope you enjoy it even if you are an opera buff even if it was Bugs bunny cartoons that peeked your interest & so it goes...



take care,
GORD.

Keith Olbermann Bush & Cheney Should Resign & Convoy of Death Afghan Massacre

Here is another Special Commentary by Keith Olbermann pleading for Bush & Cheney to resign :



And check out article" The Opportunistic Commuter-in-Chief " July 06,2007 by Marjorie Cohn, MWC News Magazine senior editor, is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. Her new book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law is published by PoliPointPress.

When he announced the commutation of Scooter Libby's 30-month sentence, George W. Bush cited the ways Libby has and will suffer: damage to his reputation, the suffering of his wife and children, large fines, and the "long-lasting" consequences of being a convicted felon.

When he was governor of Texas, however, Bush showed no compassion for the 56 people whose death sentences he refused to commute. One was Terry Washington, a mentally retarded man executed for murdering a restaurant manager. The jury was never told about Washington's mental condition. Bush was unmoved.

When Bush's Department of Justice recently convinced the Supreme Court to affirm the 33-month sentence of Victor Rita, a decorated war hero who was charged with the same crimes as Libby, Bush expressed no concern for Rita's family or future.

And when his attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, argued just last month that the Justice Department would advocate legislation to make federal sentences longer, Bush was unconcerned about how those long prison sentences would impact the family and future of the prisoners. Yet Bush found Scooter Libby's sentence to be "excessive." But instead of reducing the prison sentence of this convicted felon, Bush let him off without a day in jail.

By commuting Libby's sentence, Bush signaled his complicity in the obstruction of justice of which Libby was convicted. Bush and Cheney had initiated the smear campaign to discredit and punish Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, after Wilson publicly debunked the centerpiece of the administration's lies about WMD in Iraq.

During Libby's trial, he subpoenaed Cheney and other top Bush officials to support his defense that he was the fall-guy for his superiors. But Libby ultimately backed down and presented almost no defense to the charges. The only logical explanation is that Bush promised Libby he would never see the inside of a prison cell. The quid pro quo: Libby keeps his mouth shut about Bush's and Cheney's involvement in the conspiracy. With the commutation, Bush made good on his promise.

Why didn't Bush simply pardon Libby and wipe his record clean? Because then Libby would be precluded from claiming the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in any future criminal or congressional proceeding, and he would be susceptible to depositions in the Wilson/Plame civil lawsuit. This calculated commutation preserves his appeal rights (and thus his Fifth Amendment claim). It is a continuation of the cover-up.

James Madison warned, "if the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty."

Rep. John Conyers Jr. has scheduled a hearing next week to investigate "the use and misuse of presidential clemency power." Responding to the Libby commutation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Bush "abandoned all sense of fairness when it comes to justice, he has failed to uphold the rule of law, and he has failed to hold his administration accountable." Maybe now they will put impeachment back on the table.

and here's more bad news for the Bush Administration as they are accused of war crimes in Afghanistan so below is a clip from the Film Convoy of death which is acvailable at YouTube or at Information Clearing House Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death

In Afghanistan, filmmaker Jamie Doran has uncovered evidence of a massacre: Taliban prisoners of war suffocated in containers, shot in the desert under the watch of American troops.

The film has been broadcast on national television in countries all over the world and has been screened by the European parliament. Human rights lawyers are calling for investigation into whether U.S. forces are guilty of war crimes. But no U.S. media outlet has broadcast the film.



And from Iraq more allegations against US forces:

Marines face scrutiny in Iraqi deaths
Investigators are examining allegations that troops wrongfully killed unarmed prisoners in 2004 during the fierce battle for Fallouja.
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 5, 2007

CAMP PENDLETON — Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents are examining allegations that Marines killed as many as eight unarmed Iraqi prisoners during a battle in Fallouja in November 2004, according to civilian and military sources.

The investigation is at least the third of possible war crimes by Marines based here and involves the same company, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, that is at the center of the largest allegation of atrocities by U.S. troops in Iraq — the alleged wrongful killing of 24 civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005.

In the Haditha case, three enlisted Marines face murder charges, and four officers are accused of failing to investigate the killings. Preliminary hearings are underway.

The two cases do not involve any of the same Marines. But some of those being interviewed in the Fallouja case were expected to serve as character witnesses for colleagues accused of murder in the Haditha case.

NCIS officials declined to provide details beyond confirming that they were probing "credible allegations of wrongdoing."

another attempt at a power grab by the Bush administration rejected by the house
and just in time for July 4th Independence Day American Democracy threatened yet again by Bush & CO.

House Balks at Bush Order for New Powers
By Jim Abrams The Associated Press Tuesday 03 July 2007

Washington - President Bush this month is giving an obscure White House office new powers over regulations affecting health, worker safety and the environment. Calling it a power grab, Democrats running Congress are intent on stopping him.

The House voted last week to prohibit the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from spending federal money on Executive Order 13422, signed by Bush last January and due to take effect July 24.

The order requires federal officials to show that private companies, people or institutions failed to address a problem before agencies can write regulations to tackle it. It also gives political appointees greater authority over how the regulations are written.

The House measure "stops this president or any president from seizing the power to rewrite almost every law that Congress passes, laws that protect public health, the environment, safety, civil rights, privacy and on and on," said Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., its sponsor.

take care,
GORD.

Countdown Coverage of Scooter Libby Commutation Part Three - Keith Olbermann

"Administration corrupt from top to bottom " Joe Wilson- Anyway it appears we have gone through the Looking Glass
where the guilty are innocent

Here is Bush's announcement which is a bit of the Theater of the Absurd-
The irony of Bush announcing his granting a Pardon for Scooter Libby at the Walter Reed Hospital which treats the wounded soldiers of an unnecessary war which was brought about by the lies of his administration & the hospital itself is part of another Bush scandal of waste & inefficiency of bureaucratic callousness of run down buildings & patients receiving inadequate care - it boggles the mind - you couldn't write this stuff except as a comedy skit on Jon Stewart or SNL or in a Kurt Vonnegut novel




take care,

gord

Keith Olbermann - Debunking London Bomb Plot & Ally Forces View Iraqi & Afghan Civilians As Expendable

Here is a simple yet moving video which helps to express the sense of futility & despair of US troops in Iraq & that their only goal is just to survive another day -
Soldier in Iraq sings Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower - Dave Mathews style -
makes one sad for these poor bastards used as tools or pawns by the Neocons & the elite to fight their wars -Gord




NATO confirms civilian casualties in Afghanistan
liveleek



Downer defends coalition operations in Afghanistan




US forces kill 50-80 MORE Afghan civilians in air-strikes fromLIVELEEK


Hamid Karzai Condemns Nato use of force in Afghanistan



For more on Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan & Iraq check out the following stories :

US criticised over Afghan deaths, July 2, 2007 at Media With Conscience MWC

Recent air raids by the US-led coalition and Nato have killed more civilians than Taliban fighters, an Afghan human rights group has said.

The claim by the Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission came after at least 45 civilians reportedly died in an attack at the weekend in southern Helmand province.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) acknowledged that there were some civilian casualties but said the death toll was much lower.

The rights group said on Monday that the US and Isaf should deploy more foot soldiers against suspected Taliban rather than using air raids.

"Air operations have killed more civilians than Taliban," Nader Nadery, a commissioner with the human rights group, told Reuters news agency.

"Certainly, reduction of air operations decreases civilian deaths for it is difficult to distinguish between military and non-military people."

And :
"Up to 80 Civilians Dead" After US Air Strikes in Afghanistan
By Jason Burke,The Observer UK, Sunday 01 July 2007TruthOut

Witnesses claim a village in British-run Helmand was bombed for three hours after the Taliban attempted to ambush a US-Afghan army convoy.

Air strikes in the British-controlled Helmand province of Afghanistan may have killed civilians, coalition troops said yesterday as local people claimed that between 50 and 80 people, many of them women and children, had died.

In the latest of a series of attacks causing significant civilian casualties in recent weeks, more than 200 were killed by coalition troops in Afghanistan in June, far more than are believed to have been killed by Taliban militants.

The bombardment, which witnesses said lasted up to three hours, in the Gereshk district late on Friday followed an attempted ambush by the Taliban on a joint US-Afghan military convoy. According to Mohammad Hussein, the provincial police chief, the militants fled into a nearby village for cover. Planes then targeted the village of Hyderabad. Mohammad Khan, a resident of the village, said seven members of his family, including his brother and five of his brother's children, were killed.

'I brought three of my wounded relatives to Gereshk hospital for treatment,' he told the Associated Press news agency by phone. The villagers were yesterday burying a 'lot of dead bodies', Khan said.

He spoke as American forces in Iraq also found themselves heavily criticised over civilian deaths when eight people died, apparently caught in crossfire from a gunfight between insurgents and soldiers in Baghdad's Sadr City yesterday. But residents, police and hospital officials said eight civilians were killed in their homes and angrily accused US forces of firing blindly on innocent people. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the raids and demanded an explanation for the assault on a district where he has barred American operations in the past.

In Afghanistan, the civilian deaths caused by US and Nato-led troops have infuriated local people and prompted President Hamid Karzai to publicly condemn foreign forces for careless 'use of extreme force' and for viewing Afghan lives as 'cheap'. The increasingly fragile President has urged restraint and better co-ordination of military operations with the Afghan government, while also blaming the Taliban for using civilians as human shields.

Ban Ki-Moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, raised the issue of civilian casualties on a four-hour visit to Afghanistan on Friday on which he met the senior Nato commander there, the American General Dan McNeill.

Iraqi faction alleges 350 dead in US military operation
Sunday 01 July 2007 JOUNALO

The Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni political faction in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet, published a statement on Sunday alleging that more than 350 people have been killed by a US military operation in Baquba to hunt down al-Qaeda-affiliated members.
They termed the operations "collective punishment" in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province which lies 57 kilometres north-east of Baghdad.

"Neighbourhoods in western Baquba have witnessed, since last week, fierce attacks by occupation forces within Operation Arrowhead Ripper," the party said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq.

"The forces shelled these neighbourhoods with helicopters, destroying more than 150 houses and killing more than 350 citizens, their bodies still under wreckage, in addition to arresting scores of citizens," the statement added.

take care ,
GORD.