Why I'm Voting for Cynthia McKinney

Before anybody gets into any debates about me "throwing away" my vote, I'd like to remind people that there are actually six major candidates running for the president of the United States and all of them are on at leas more than 30 ballots across the country. If you don't believe me, then check out this link:

http://www.votesmart.org/election_president.php

Cynthia McKinney represents to me, someone who is through with two-party politics and the incestuous relationship it upholds with corporate America. First, off the Green Party (McKinney's party affiliation), does not accept any corporate donations, as they do not believe that wealthy corporations and their strong interested of profit have the right to influence a political process. I agree with this. Both John McCain and Barak Obama have recieved many donations from coroporations, including but not limited to private health insurance corporations, big oil, credit card companies and cell phone companies.

The biggest problem I have with Barak Obama is his advocation of ending the war in Iraq by only escalalting the war in Afghanistan. His first priorities in foreign policy are militarisitc, not diplomatic. It sends shivers down my spine, when he openly applauds Israel, which has maintained the longest illegal military occupation in history, of the palestinian land and treats the natives as less than human. The U.S. supplies Israel free of charge with a plethora of nuclear weapons and other military infrastructure and weapons. That scares me. Cynthis McKinney advocates a diplomatic, two state solution and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian land. Barak Obama also openly advocates military aggression in Iran. This baffles me. First off, of course Iran is enriching Uraniam. We are too! It's called nuclear energy. Many countries do it. We just like to use that as an excuse to invade countries that may serve our economic interest. As a matter of fact, the United States has enough nuclear armament to destroy the world several times over. Israel comes in close to 2nd.

Neither Barak Obama nor John McCain support single-payer national healthcare, which helps people in much of the first world to live longer and healthier lives, free of the worry of going in debt just because you fall ill. In the United States, our bodies are treated as commodities, and our health is at the bottom of the private sector's priorities. There are also many "pre-existing" medical conditions that health care companies refuse to fund treatment for, because they are simply to expensive and they wouldn't be reaping enormous profits anymore. In our country, our health is reduced to a corporation. Obama and McCain both recieved massive campaign contributions from these evil, profit mongereing entities that dare to call themselves "healthcare." Cynthia McKinnye supports dissolving the private exploitation of our bodies and creating a government funded program that would cover everybody's medical needs, regardless of income.

Barak Obama and John McCain both supported and voted for the disatrous tax-payer heist known as the Wall Street bailout. $700 million dollars of our tax payer money was simply washed down the drain to bailout those who are responsible for putting us in this dire economic situation that we're in right now. How is that not big government? Which makes me realize that John McCain is not really a conservative and that Obama is simply more interested in maintaing the status quo of the ruling elite. Cynthia McKinney voted against this measure and spoke out eloquently.

Obama and McCain also both voted to not hold the telecom industries who participated in George Bush's illegal wiretapping accountable for their criminal behavior. Both senators gave them a clean slate and everybody got away with it. Cynthia Mckinney voted against this measure.

Obam and McCain both voted for the patriot act, which has dissolved many of our fundamental rights as a citizens for the supposed interest of "national security." Next time you get questioned at the Canadian border about your laptop and the patrol is about to take it without probably cause, think about who voted for the law. Cynthia Mckinney voted against the patriot act.

Neither McCain nor Obama are willing to talk about our country's deep roots in worldwide oppression of democracy and corporate pillaging. There's a reason why we can certain fruits during the winter and it's mainly because our multinational companies cross borders and force indigenous poplulations to work at slave-wage labor for the sake of capital gain. How is this done? It's simple. The U.S. has supperted hundreds of dictatorial and murderous military governments throughout it's history. Whether it's through a proxy war, where we simply provide weapons and train people or through direct intervention, we've constantly oppressed independent nation's will to govern themselves. Just look at how many countries we've invaded since 1890:
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html

Cynthia Mckinney has acknowledged our shameful past and what we can do to fix it. Obama and McCain refuse to even admit the history.

And finally, what's all the talk about the fucking middle class? What about the working class and the poor? Doesn't everybody deserve a decent amount of financial security? When young families have to choose between medical care and food and proper clothing for the winter monts, I could care a less if there was one more colonial house down the street with white picket fences and an SUV. Fuck that.

Cynthia McKinney ackowledges the classist society that we live in and how a majority of our country's wealth is controlled by the smallest percentage of the rich. This is not a democracy. At best, it's a capitalistic monarchy.

I cannot believe the recent accusations of Obama being a socialist. He is SO FAR AWAY from advocating any socialist ideology. I literally fell on the floor laughing the first time I heard this. I can't imagine how the Socialist Party of the United States presidential candidate Brian Moore felt when he heard this. He probably wanted to shoot himself in the face.

Anyways, there are so many other reasons why I disagree with the two-party system, but I'm getting tired and I need to get up and vote tommorrow.

All I want to say, is that our vote should be hard to get. Never let any million dollar coporate news network (especially FOX), tell you your choices of candidates. Do some research. It's called google. You're not throwing away your vote if you feel the person is the most qualified for the job. It really is that simple.

Happy voting.

-Veg

You know what grinds my gears?

Seriously? UGGS? They're just asking to be called ugly, which is exactly what they are. Now I have absolutely no fashion sense whatsoever (nor could I give a flying fuck), but these shoes make people look like douche bags. I mean why would any girl want to have ewolk feet or chocolate brown poop logs on their legs? They look retarded. I don't care how comfortable or or warm they might be on a chilly evening on the church street marketplace: you look like a tool.
So first off girls, uggs are a huge turn-off. I don't care how intelligent, genuinely nice or charismatic you might be, because the footwear ruins what's left of you. And by the way, I'm not sure if these shoes were designed with the intention of being female footwear (I have not seen a single male wear uggs yet), but I'm willing to at least see what a guy looks like wearing them. Maybe you'll look like a viking, who knows?
I hate to generalize, but I have yet to see one girl who is NOT a stuck-up, materialistic, over-privileged, jock-dating poopstain who is wearing these vulgar statements of "cool." I don't know where these shoes came from all of a sudden, but they're sprouting up everywhere like weeds and we've got to eradicate the virus. So do your part and drop mustard on every pair of uggs you see.
Ok, so people may think I'm crazy because I'm freaking out over some lame trend, but Uggs have gone too far. They're turning a generation of stagnated, robotic clones into a generation that's even duller. Don't let the fashion fool you! Stop dating girls that wear Uggs!

(the contents of this blog are intended to be comical and if you're offended, than you probably own Uggs).

Awesome Show at 242 Main on Thursday!

So there are two bands staying at my place right now. One is from Holland, Netherlands and one is from New Jersey. They're playing 242 Main in Burlington on Thursday, but the promoter has been a total dipshit and has not posted any posters around town, which is probably why I had not heard of the show until my friend Mike from After The Fall told me they needed a place to stay. Anyways, here is the information for the show. Post on you blogs, listserves, myspace, facebook, message boards...anything!

Antillectual (Netherlands)
http://www.myspace.com/antillectual

One Win Choice (New Jersey)
http://www.myspace.com/onewinchoice

Young Denver (Burlington, VT)

Fighting Polygon Team (Brattleboro, VT)

7 PM. $8.

-Matt

Music Review #3: Shook Ones/End Of A Year 7"

Shook Ones/End Of A Year Split 7"

1. Raised By Woofs - Shook Ones
2. It's Not What You Think - Shook Ones
3. Asterisk - Shook Ones
4. Marked With A Crow's Foot - Shook Ones
5. Dan Cooper - End Of A Year

Runner Up Records

This is a very odd split. Shook Ones play four fast songs in under five minutes and End Of A Year play one very slow song that's well over five minutes long. These two bands couldn't be any less alike. Shook Ones play the kind of melodic hardcore reminiscent of Kid Dynamite and Lifetime, but with a touch of the Descendents. End Of A Year are a throwback to the mid 1980's revolution summer that spawned such bands as Rites of Spring, Embrace and later Fugazi. I'll admit, that I bought this 7" soley for the Shook Ones side, which as expected knocks me flat on my back. End Of A Year isn't exactly the kind of hardcore, punk or rock that gets my blood pumping, but I respect their decision to create music that is divergent to say the least.

Unlike Shook One's last split CD with melodic hardcore stalwarts Easel, from Japan, these four songs don't slow down for a minute. If you've heard the split CD with Easel, the first song "Order Form," is very mid-tempo, with cookie-cutter choruses, that will make any girl weep at the sight of these monstrous hardcore freaks. It was a welcoming departure, but its nice to see the band return to their signature brand of fast, snotty hardcore that comes very close to ripping off Lifetime. The first track, "Raised by Woofs," has a very catchy chord progression, coupled with the distinct raspy vocals of frontman Scotty. The second song, "It's Not What You Think," is a departure in the opposite direction for Shook Ones; lots of anger. As a matter of fact, I think this is the first song from them that sounds truly pissed. The vocals are screamed at first and slowly return to the more typical snotty brand of singing. However, the fast chorus dives headfirst into an angry, atonal breakdown, something Shook Ones is not known for. This is my favorite song on this 7." The next two songs, "Asterisk" and "Marked With A Crow's Foot," are equally enjoyable and more reminiscent of songs from their last full-length album, Facetious Folly Feat.

Like I said, End Of A Year is totally not my thing at all. As a matter of fact, their long and slow song killed it for me. It just completely destroyed the energy on Side A. If I was truly a fan of End Of A Year, I would have to pick a completely different day and mood to flip the record over and give them a spin. The music is very melancholy and laid-back. It might be good if you're tripping on acid in the summer time, but that's just me. It would actually fit very well in that scene in SLC Punk when they're tripping balls in the park. To their credit though, End Of A Year sticks out like a sore-thumb, which is a good think in the hardcore and punk scene, where things often become repetitive and uninspiring. I guess the only problem with this 7" is that neither bands are typical in their own respects. For examply, as much as I love Champion, their sound has been totally rehashed time and time again.

A note on the packaging. Runner Up Records really put this release together nicely. The sleeve is high quality and not just just silk-screened or some shitty paper. The vinyl itself is a beautiful, with one half clear and the other half cream green. It's really cool holding that sucker up to the light. Also, the hole in the 7" is a small one, which I prefer over the big holes, which usually means it runs at 45 rpms and not 33 (but that is not always the case either). Anyways, Runner Up Records did a great job with this release and you should support the bands and the label for the accomplishment.

Check out Shook Ones at:
http://www.myspace.com/shookones

Check out End Of A Year at:
http://www.myspace.com/endofayear

Buy the 7" at:
http://runneruprecords.bigcartel.com

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR????!!!!!!

-Veg

In Green Mountain Hell

Please check out a new underground music zine called "In Green Mountain Hell." The link is on the right. This is my friend Troy's attempt at creating a "conduit" for Vermont musicians, venues, labels, zines and other miscellaneous groups that feed the fire of the D.I.Y. community (he says you can also contact him if you're hitchiking and you need help). If you're in a band and you want to be listed on the zine, email Troy at cagelearner@hotmail.com.

For those of you who don't know, Troy has been playing guitar in a band with me called Weight Of The World. So please support the underground music scene in VT and read In Green Mountain Hell!

Coming soon...

I plan on doing a review of the Shook Ones/End Of A Year Split 7" when I get a nice solid hour to listen to whole thing several times. And speaking of music reviews and such, my friend David Jacobs and Nick Grandchamp do a punk zine out of Rutland called "Stuck In A Rut." Message him at http://www.myspace.com/slave99 to figure out how to get one. I think they're $2. I only gave him a $1 though, although I thoroughly enjoy my copy!

Weight Of The World is playing this saturday in Brookline, NH with a shitload of bands. Click on our link at the right if you want more details. I'm also working on getting more shows in Burlington and Canada. Word.

Free and fair elections? Give me a break.

I have become considerably distrubed by the amount of spin that the media and corporate politicians have put on the truth. Last night I saw a car sporting a "give peace a chance sticker," paired with a "Obama '08" sticker. The staunch hypocrisy of this bumper sticker couple is a frightening one indeed.
Senator Barak Obama would do anything but give peace a chance if he were elected to office. While I agree with his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq, I don't agree with expanding our bloated military budget to expand war in Afghanistan. That country is in ruins and perpetuators of violence are still at large. The only way to fix our eroding worldwide reputation is to particpate in a cooperative diplomatic case to bring terroists to trial. Senator Obama supports further violence.
The democratic incumbent is also a strong supporter of the death penalty, the patriot act, nuclear energy, the fradulent "war on drugs," immunity for telecom companies participating in illegal surveillance of citizens, the no child left behind act, and the most recent heist of taxpayer money to bail out corrupt wall street corporations. Senator Obam also opposes gay marriage, single-payer healthcare, the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, peaceful negotiations with Iran and is a strong supporter of Israeli apartheid over Palestine.
Why do U.S. citizens feel that Senator Obama will give peace a chance? I think a great deal of this confusion among the citizenry is the two-party system, the corporate-owned media and their lobbyists in congress. Mainstream politicians are governed by the interests of wall street and the political puppets in the white house. Every move is a career one and far from the interests of the American people, who overwhelmingly support withdrawal from the middle east, universal healthcare and a decent education. The media blackout of third-party candidates keeps the citizenry in the dark, making the American public feel like they need to vote for "the lesser of two evils," rather than with their beliefs and values.
There are many political parties that are committed to supporting a living wage, health for all, education for all, peaceful negotiation, ending poverty and bringing an end to genocide, like the current ethnic clensing in Darfur, Sudan. People don't vote for these candidates, because they are repeatedly denied participation in the electoral process. There was plenty of room on stage for the debate between John McCain and Barak Obama, to also include Green Party Candidate Cynthia McKinney, Independent Ralph Nader, and even Libertarian Candidate Bob Barr.
The American people are being fooled by the corporate-owned media, which prevents the United States from having free and fair elections. Please think about this before casting your vote.

I Fucking Love Montreal

I finally had my first good weekend since I've moved up to Burlington. This past Saturday, I went up with a bunch of friends to Montreal to celebrate my friend Ryan's birthday (singer of Unrestrained...which if you haven't checked out yet, then shame on you!). Also in the group was Phil, the bass player from Unrestrained, his girlfriend Annalise, Taylor, Nate, Tori, Mike (is playing drums in my new band) and this guy with huge gauged ear that everybody calls the Reverend. Even before we left Colchester I knew it would be a great trip when Ryan proudly stole a Vermont t-shirt from a gas station and claimed that he was so college.

First off, we didn't get through the border smoothly at all. After we gave the dude our passports, he questioned us intensely about our intentions to go into Canada. He even asked us if we had automatic weapons and cocain. I couldn't stop giggling. It was just so silly. So he took our passports and told us to pull around to the side and come into the border patrol office, where they made us wait for 15 minutes, until they gave us back our passports. They must have been doing background checks or something. Anyways, this was bugging the shit out of Ryan and Phil, because they had made reservations at this place in downtown Montreal to play group laser tag at 9:40 PM and we were still more than an hour aways and it was already past 8. Funny thing was, Nate was driving the other car with Tori, Mike and the Reverend right behind us and they went through just fine, which is weird, because Mike is fucking loud and obnoxious and Nate has huge dreads and looks like he deals marijuana.

So we finally pull into the city an hour and a half later and we have fucking 5 minutes to find a parking space and get to the laser tag place. Ryan kept calling them asking if they would wait five more minutes and they agreed, but even after we finally found a parking space and walked four blocks, we still showed up late, but thankfully another group had cancelled! Fucking luck was on our side that night.

Now onto laser tag. First off, I haven't played the game since I was in middle school and it was some lame ass set-up at Rutland High School and all the 7th graders got to ride up in a bus. Anyway, I got the horribly embarassing score of 88, which was the second to worst score out of the whole group (aside from Annalise, who got a 57, but I don't think she was really into the game). Apparently I only got 8 hits on anybody else throughout the whole game. However, the Vermont group annhiliated the local French Canadian group. I think that had something to with Ryan. He was acting like that fucking drill sgt. from Full Metal Jacket. Anyways, I did hit Nate 4 times, who for some reason was the only Vermonter on the French Canadian team (they had green blinking lights and we had red blinking lights). I think he was pissed, because his name in the game was Battle Axe and second of all I totally fucking suck, and he didn't get one hit on me. The actualy laser tag complex was fucking awesome. It was four floors high and had fucking smoke machines everywhere, so I felt like I was Metal gear solid. There were also flashing lights everywhere and all these sniper holes and shooting glitter. In a way, it reminded me of the Agro Crag from Global guts (does anybody remember that show?). I had such a good time. Mike was fucking crazy too. He kept leaping and making these diving shots at the Canadians (plus Nate).

So after laser tag, we slowly made our way down to Fouf's, which is this awesome Punk Rock bar/club. Ryan wanted everybody to get drunk on his birthday, which is funny because he's edge. The Reverend was edge too. Afterall, who would want to see a drunk priest (actually that would be fucking hilarious)? On the way down, we ran into my new friends from Montreal, Jess and Bex, who always come down to hardcore shows in Burlington. They are so cool. They even sat with the lame-ass vegans of the group, which consisted of me, Taylor and the Reverend. They have surprising plain English for living in the only french-speaking province in Canada. Now that I think of it, I've never seen Jess or Bex speaking french to each other. Maybe because it would alienate us dumbass Americans? Probably.

So Fouf's was really fucking rowdy and loud. The minute I walk in there, they're playing Rise Above by Black Flag. SWEET. I felt right at home until I realized how expensive beer is in Canada. Most of the good beer was near $5 or $6 a glass, so I had to settle for the shitty Molson Dry which was $2.50. And suprisingly, Budweiser was all the rage there, which I totally don't get it. Budweiser is the fucking Wal-Mart to the beer industry. They're a monopoly and they fuck over small breweries. It also tastes like mokey piss, which should stop you from supporting them. Anyways, Canadians seem to love the watered-down crap liquid. I've heard through the vine that Budweiser is the most popular import in London. Really? WTF.

Fouf's is surprisingly massive. Ther are three floors to the place, the 2nd and 3rd floord being smaller bars, with adjacent show spaces, that everybody was just dancing in, because there weren't any live bands that night. Thats a bummer. I would've loved to see some Canadian punk and hardcore. Anyways, the DJ just played a bunch of ska, which was kinda lame, but fun to dance to I guess. Actually Ryan started bumping and grinding every single person he saw, including this poor dude in the corner of the room was puking guts out. It was so funny to see al these meatheads try to do a circle pit to Sum 41. To be honest, it seemed like they were at a football practice. All of us just stood by and watched. Bex and Jess kept mocking them and did surprisingly better!

Eventually Bex and Jess got sick of the bar scene and said goodbye. They are officially my favorite Canadians. There was also this other girl named Lindsay from Montreal that showed up at the bar, but I didn't know her too well. She seemed infatuated with Phil and Ryan. A few times, I actually felt bad for Annalise, as I watched Lindsay jump on Phil's back, but yeah they were just being friends. So finally, me, Mike, Taylor, Phil and Nate were pretty drunk, so we all left and decided to cause a ruckus in the streets. It first started when we lost sight of Phil and all of a sudden he came out of nowhere holding a door. So Ryan grabbed it and took it to the nearest huge set of stairs, which happened to be a marble staircase in front of some government building, wher Ryan decided to surf down the staircase on the door. It was so fucking awesome to see him do that in the middle of big city in front of all these people. Next, we decided it was time block traffic. We found the massive street cones that were like four feet tall and when no cars were coming, we blocked off one end of St. Catherine Street and then ran behind some bushes to see what the line of cars would do. They all fucking took the left hand turn! Not a single person got out and moved a cone! SUCCESS! We did this several more times and were successful everytime. Serioulsy though. Where were all the Montreal cops? I never once heard even one siren come on in the distance. Must be all the wine shops and eclairs... That wasn't even the end of the tom-foolery. At one point, after I went to the bathroom at a subway, I cam back out onto the street find Mike, Ryan and Phil pushing a huge dumpster into the middle of the street. They started running away and told me to follow them. Yeah, those Unrestrained dudes are fucking crazy.

Eventually, it was almost 4 in the morning and we finally decided to leave to go back to the U.S. Nobody wanted Ryan to drive back, because apparently he says really dumb shit to the U.S. border patrol people....and he really did. When we finally got to the border and the guy asked us what we were doing in Canada, Ryan told him he were buying hookers with counterfeit money and fake credit cards. The guys looked at him really weird and confused. Then he asked what we had in the car and Ryan grrabbed my Snapple and told him I had crack tea. I freaked the shit out at first, but then started laughing when I realized the border patrol officer was really annoyed looking, probably because he was so tired. Then Ryan called Taylor an Oger. Finally the guy was sick of Ryan's shit and gave us back our passports. I really surprised he didn't make us pull over to the side and get out like the Canadian border patrol. So much for Homeland Security!

So we finally got back to Burlington at nearly 6 AM and I went right to bed and passed out and woke up at 2 PM. I had such a fucking good time in Montreal. I really hope they invite me on more trips like that.