Wednesday, October 24, 2007


Hillary Clinton at Fresno High 22OCT07

It was a good speech. She doesn't need notes. Very well thought out. Support the troops not the war. After the speech she greeted folks. All the waving hands hoping to get an autograph or a handshake was touching. The most interesting part for me was where I was standing was where the 'protesters' were. There were about 15-20 of them holding various anti-Hillary signs. There was a biker with two big american flags on his Harley. There was a disabled guy in a wheel chair who yelled out, "Yeah, free abortions for all!" The grey-haired Republican women, who had t-shirts on that said they were the life of the party. One of them held a sign up that said: "Hillary lives in upscale Govt housing for free" I didn't understand the point of that one. The Ron Paul supporters and the IWW kids vied to be which one yelled out the loudest, angriest accusations. Seeing these two groups on the same team was funny. The Far Left (IWW) went so far to the left that they met up with the far right (Ron Paul Libertarians) and became allies in their common dislike of Hillary. Politics does make strange bedfellows.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

FILE SHARING HURTS LOCAL INDEPENDENT MUSICIANS, TOO

Making this argument is like standing in the middle of highway 99 and trying to stop a giant tractor-trailer rig headed right at me. But, I’ve been thinking about this for a couple years now and I have to let it out.

Will the judgment against Jammie Thomas for $220,000 for file sharing handed down in a Duluth courtroom a few days ago slow down file sharing? I don’t know. I know it probably won’t slow down the file sharing of independent and out of print music. That is more widespread than ever before. The silence of local musicians and songwriters on the issue is due to the digital divide. A lot of small-time musicians and songwriters are being ripped off and they don’t even know about it. I highly recommend Google Alerts for finding out if there is anybody out there giving away or selling your music on the Internet.

I have refrained from criticizing file sharing until now because I wasn’t confident that I knew enough about it. Plus, I was afraid to speak out against this because of fear of reprisals. But I know enough now that I feel like my argument is logical and ethical.

There are some legitimate reasons behind the argument in favor of file sharing that I totally agree with. They all kind of come under the heading of: Major Label- Bad. The reason they are bad is because total power corrupts totally. I have been saying this for over 25 years. Thanks for coming to the party. They have had a near-total monopoly of the music business for many decades. We are, I believe at the beginning of another revolution to unseat the power of the majors. But, it’s going to be one hell of a war because this isn’t the first time they have fended off such an attack. And they won’t go peaceably. They will fight this with everything they have. This is also driven by the crux of the shift from the physical recording to the digital file. How far will it go? Will there be physical copies of albums in the future, or just digital files?

The majors have been unfair in the pricing of records they have sold over the years and people are wise to that now. They have also treated some of their artists unfairly, too. While they pour immoral amounts of money into a few top sellers they cast off smaller artists while at the same time selling their back-catalog and then turn around and refuse to pay royalties to these lesser knowns. Heck, I believe they won’t pay ANY artist royalties unless they are forced to do so under the threat of litigation.

But, if file sharing has made it hard for the majors to sell music it has also made it hard for anyone to sell music. Including local, independent musicians and labels.

There has been an awakening in Cities over the last few years over the value of local creative types. Localism is another issue I have embraced for decades and I’m glad they have come to this party as well. I have never had a problem with people making a few copies of my music to give to a few friends. In the rare instances when I find an album I like enough to buy, first thing I do is make a few copies to give to my friends. But, when someone uploads it to a web page and lets a whole album’s worth of music, artwork, photos, logos and track listings sit there 24 hours a day for perpetuity they distribute a lot more than just “a few copies to friends”. And it only takes a few of these guys to completely wipe out what little bit of sales a small-time musician/band could get.

What is it about the hard work that goes into writing, performing and recording music that these people feel isn’t worth being paid an honest days wage for an honest days work? I would be happy to get just a living wage for my efforts. Someday they will find a way to steal on the same scale other intellectual property like books and T-shirts. Maybe then it will stop.

I have learned to live in a new world of lowered expectations. Ok, so you won’t let me sell the 10 or 20 albums a year I could possibly sell if things were going really well. Will you at least let me be the one to give it away? So I can at least have the fun and prestige of distributing my own music? And know that I have retained at least some form of ownership of the music I have spent a lifetime writing, performing, recording and archiving? No, they won’t even let me have that. They even stole my ability to be the one to give it away.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Dem’s CNN/YouTube debate fresh and interesting 24jul07



It was such a smart move for CNN to partner with YouTube to sponsor this debate. It puts the old cable news organization on the high road to being up to date with the now generation. Last night’s debate with the 8 Democratic presidential candidates was unusual to say the least with the questions being submitted to YouTube and then played for the candidates. It was just so refreshing to have questions asked in unusual ways. Some were songs, some were jokes and many were filled with heart-felt honesty. It was the first time I ever saw a common person ask a presidential candidate a question and then the moderator turn right around and ask the guy if his question was answered! And he eventually said, no! This new format encouraged the candidates to be honest.

Anderson Cooper did such a bang up job as moderator. My respect for him just grows with time. Openness and honesty is what we crave in our leaders and this new team hit a home run in that department.

And what’s Fox News doing? I tell you, they’re not partnering with any cutting-edge technology to bring more relevance and clarity to issues. That would go against their prime directive. No, they had political correspondent Carl Cameron telling us all the inside poop about the hate-filled, raging rivalry between Hillary and Obama. And the implication was, as it always is with Fox/Limbaugh that Hillary and Obama are lying, vengeful charlatans and are not to be trusted.

But, they are free to say what they wish. And it’s up to us to ferret out the truth. I’ll bet you the Republican presidential candidates will have a big problem with the YouTube format used last night when CNN does this with them in September. Can you imagine Bush subjecting himself to such a questioning format?

I honestly think any of these candidates would make a better president than the current administration. I like all of them. Hillary has a substance and experience that Obama doesn’t have but, my favorite candidate is Obama. I think he is a born leader and would bring a huge wave of hope and prosperity to our country.

They were genial, articulate and a few times quite funny. I roared with laughter when Anderson said they couldn’t find anyone to the left of Kucinich. I also liked the honest comments by Clinton and Biden about the logistics of getting our troops out of Iraq. They have been saying for many months now that it just can’t be done overnght. It has to be done in an orderly fashion to protect our troops and minimize civilian casualties.

Thursday, June 21, 2007


Train derailment McKinley and Blackstone ave. Fresno

The derailment today (19jun07) at McKinley and Blackstone is another exclamation point for the Rail Consolidation struggle. These railroad tracks cut right through the heart of town. Thousands of people cross hundreds of times a day at dozens of crossings. It's only a matter of time until another tragic accident happens. And will the really big one come any time soon? I hope not because I live just a half block away.

The fact that Railroad tracks carrying over 40 trains a day run right through the middle of Fresno City College campus is amazing.

On Sept. 13 2001 Junior Puletapuai, an FCC football player was killed trying to beat the train as he returned from football practice. It was the last straw and they finally put in an undercrossing on the campus. Another young man was killed trying to beat the train just a few months ago, too. It is a nightmarish recurring theme. To put the blame solely on the people who err in judgement and chalk it up to stupidity is insensitive and selfish.

These tracks should be moved. And probably will be moved at some point in the future. According to www.movethetracks.org about $100 million of the $600 million needed to make it happen was approved in the last election. We're a long way away, but it's a start.

The loss of life. There have been so many people killed on these tracks, most by accident, some by suicide. The lurking danger day after day for everyone that crosses the tracks and for everyone that lives nearby has become unbearable.

If that tanker car would have released it's flammable gas into the air how many people would have been injured or killed?

The intersection of McKinley and Blackstone will be closed today (wed. june 20) as the crews fix the damaged road, tracks and crossing arms.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

The Unraveling of the Neocon agenda

On November 7th, 2006 the American people spoke loudly to the Republicans: "Throw the bums out!" We Democrats didn't win just The House and The Senate but, also the majority of Governorships and many State House elections, too. This happened not because of a new and effective strategy by the Dems but by the corruption and incompetence of the Republicans.

In the last few months leading up to the elections, after The Jack Abramoff scandal , The Duke Cunningham scandal , The Tom Delay scandal and The Mark Foley scandal even many Republicans had had enough! It had become very clear to the general public what we Dems had known for quite a while: The Neocon (Republican) philosophy is flawed.

Many of the key points of the Contract with America that the Republicans had touted as their mandate when they swept into power in 1994 has not been enacted. In fact, since they have had near complete power for the last 12 years they have plainly done the opposite. Their main point was to clean up the corruption in government but the 109th Congress turned out to be the most corrupt in recent memory.

The Republicans have used the government to establish institutional corruption by bringing in special interest groups into the chambers and committee rooms to craft legislation to benefit those groups. In return those special interests such as, The Oil companies, The Auto Industry, Insurance, Banking, Pharmaceuticals and anybody else with a lot of money gave huge donations to political campaigns, PACs and "charities".

We couldn't have engineered this. They did it to themselves. We didn't win because we were so good, we won because they were so bad. After the exorbitant expenditure of time, effort and money in 1998 to impeach Clinton based on his lying about an extramarital affair their piety in '06 seemed so phony. They are the very epitome of hypocrisy. Nothing Clinton or the Democrats have ever done was as corrupt as the 109th Congress and their cronies.

So, it is fun to sit back and watch the unraveling of the Neocon agenda. To hear Rush Limbaugh lament at the point of tears that he "won't carry their water anymore". Even the religious folk who came to the polls in droves now see that they were just pawns used by the Neocons to gain power. Behind their backs they ridiculed them and didn't really enact their policies.
They can't stand up and say, "Vote us in, we 'll clean up Washington ". Nobody believes that anymore.

Even the one Conservative issue that makes sense to me, Fiscal Responsibility has been trashed by these Neocon crooks and morons. They went on a 12 year extravagant spending and borrowing spree that eclipses anything in the past. We will never forget "The Bridge to Nowhere ". They can't say anymore with a straight face, "Vote for us, we 'll control spending ".

I read an Op Ed piece by a Conservative leader in the Fresno Bee saying that, in the wake of all the Republican scandals, people shouldn't hate the philosophy. They should just hate those corrupt individual persons. I had to laugh. It sounds like more flawed logic. What happened to love the sinner, hate the sin? Those crooks will serve prison sentences so I don't have to waste my time hating them. It's those policies based on their ideology that enabled them to be corrupt. No, I can 't afford to get into hating every corrupt individual. It 's nothing personal. It's their ideology that is so wrong and undermines the intent of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.