Rock Vault Zine Interview

The Good News: Rock Vault Zine has just posted an Interview with me about my New CD "Re-Evolutionize"!

The Bad news: It's in Turkish.

Ok, that's only bad if you don't speak Turkish. For the rest of us non-Turkish readers, I do have an English version available - although I don't have all their cool graphics. Bummer.

Enjoy!

---

Baran at Rock vault: Hi there Vyan, first of all how the life is treating you as well?

V--It goes how it goes - up down and all around.

Congrats for great debut "Re- Evulitionize". How did fans and press reacted songs?

V--The Fans have been great real supportive, and Press is good so far. I haven't started to formally make a lot of Press contacts, they've actually been coming to me which is unusual - but I think it's really cool. Normally you have to shout from the rooftops and really make yourself a near-nuisance in this business to get noticed, but I've already done a couple live on-air interviews with land and internet based radio like Flashrock.com and the Autopsy Report from England, and it's been mostly through Myspace. If this keeps I'll be the Tila Tequila of Hard Rock - except I don't look quite so cute in a thong.

I think it's difficult for you to choose, but which track is your favorite? My personal favorites are "Wannabe" and "Not Like You"

V--I was really happy with "Wannabe" from the moment that my old band Planet X/Sacto first played it. We wrote it all together during a rehearsal, the other guys Darryl (Guitar), Ron (Bass) and Mitch (Drums) worked on the music and structure while I was doing the words at the same time. We finished both of them together, it was like "BOOM" this song has to be born right now! The groove, the energy and the depth of the subject matter came together perfectly, I don't think I've written another song that flowed so well. Although that group did put out it's debut CD in 1999 (which is now out of print, and we later sold the name to someone else from Dream Theater) we never did manage to record that song for a CD, so I had to do it now - it was my finest hour then and it should be heard.

"Not Like U' also came from the same PX lineup, and although Darryl and I did record a version of it for a second PX record, it was never released. One other song from that period is on the CD, "Harden" and there's even some video of us doing an early version of that song on Youtube from years ago on a Sacramento Cable/We Show called "Capital Chaos", but we didn't record that one either. I always felt those were the three best, unreleased songs, from that band. Everything else on my new record is either completely new and written for it like "All I Feel", "Wake Up", "Tumbling Down', "Say You Will", or old solo songs I used to do acoustically in Sacramento like "Faith", "Justified" and "Refugee" - sometimes at Open Mics, sometimes on the street corner for spare change during some tough times - only now they're fully electric and rocking the way I always wanted to do them. Technically "Faith" was also one I did with Planet X, but I wrote it myself and they just used it for awhile.

You have to worked really hard for this album. You composed entire album, played nearly all instruments, mixed album and designed memorable art work. Do you believe in "Do It Yourself!" motto?

V-I kinda *have* to, the way that my life has turned over the last few years. I had to move out of Sacramento because of economic issues. I was an IT consultant with the State government back in 1999, but after a perfect crap storm of Y2K, Enron ripping of California for $50 Million, the Dot Com Crash and 9-11 shutting down the startup company I was working with back then I had to pretty much quit music and move me and my family back to L.A. to live with relatives in 2004. It's been a rough bunch of years trying to rebuild after the bankruptcy and evictions from that time. A lot of people these days are looking at those kinds of times in their future.

This record reflects both that fall and, hopefully, a rebirth. I started it with writing and recording "All I Feel", using an old hand-me-down Macintosh I bought for $40, the one guitar I didn't pawn from the bad days, a strat-styled Yamaha that I bought because Ty Tabor recommended them, a 30-watt Line 6 Amp and a cheap Radio Shack/Realistic Microphone that was a gift from a local homeless drunk I became friends with here in L.A. No one else would even talk to the guy, he smelled horrible - could barely put sentences together - but he'd do little jobs for me for a couple dollars, sweep up, take out the trash - and we'd talk for hours. Most people here won't give you the time of day without thinking you want something from them. Tony was different. He knew I was a musician, so he "found" me a microphone. I didn't know at the time what I was going to do with it - now I do. It makes the vocals sound kinda distorted and scratchy, and I've had some people mention it - but I don't care. This record wouldn't have happened without that Mic I got from Tony, so even though I eventually bought a better Microphone by the time i was halfway done recording, most of the original vocals with this cheap piece of crap with electrical tape hanging off of it - are still on the record. They sound more "real" to me... if you know what I mean. I haven't seen Tony in a years couple since they tore down the creepy little hotel he used to live at. The sound of his mic will go on.

I think that this interview is your very first interview on Turkey. I know it's boring question but can you tell us brief bio of Vyan?

V-I actually started playing music in elementary school orchestra. Trumpet. By High School I was in Marching Band and even played in the Rose Parade, but I didn't want to be some Jazz or R&B trumpet guy - so I eventually switched to Guitar, Vocals and Keyboards after seeing Purple Rain for the Tenth Time in a Row. I spent a few years trying to get into bands, Amalgam was one of the first - kind of a Funk/Rock thing where I was the backup guitarist when I joined the LA Chapter of the Black Rock Coalition. (I used my first name 'Frank" back then)



After that and a couple other horrible little groups I'd rather not mention I moved to Sacramento and joined Planet X (Vocals, Keyboards) and started using my middle name "Vyan". They put out one self-titled CD and I spent about 4 years with them.



Download Planet X/Sacto Mp3's

After they broke up some of guys who'd been in the later lineup of PX and some guys from one of my favorite bands from Yuba City named SHaLLOW got together to form GliTCHed.

Technically I left Glitched to move back to L.A. in 2004, but I kept in contact with them and kept working on the Glitched CD - which I plan to finish and release in a year or so - we managed to get one of our songs "Drown" onto a CD by local radio station
98 Rock and play a pretty big CD Release show.

Glitched Live 2004


In the meantime I'd also joined an L.A. band called "Silenced Within" on bass, so all the Silenced guys came with me up to Sacramento and we played a Glitched/Silenced show where I spent part of my time on bass and the rest on vocals. The other guys from Glitched who had been in Shallow were into another group too and that band - Zero Ground - finished the show. Me being 400 miles away ended Glitched, some of those guys eventually formed the band Ritalin Code. The guys who started Silenced moved to Texas - so I've been on my own since then, and now I'm finally doing something about it three and a half years later.

Silenced Within Live


More.
http://www.myspace.com/silencedwithinrocks
http://www.myspace.com/zeroground

http://www.myspace.com/ritalincode


Tell me your favorite musician and Top 5 albums?

V-Prince (Ha). With strong mention for Doug Pinnick. Ty Tabor of King's X, Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme, George Lynch and Jeff Pilson from Dokken. (I actually became real friends with a lot of these guys as we crossed paths in the music biz - except Prince, never met him, and Nuno - but I know his brother Paulo.)

Top Five Albums.

1. Sevendust (Seasons)
2. King's X (Their latest - each and every time one comes out!!)
3. 24-7 Spyz (Strength in Numbers)
4. Extreme (III Sides to every Story)
5. Dokken (Dysfunctional)

Are you still playing with Glitched and Silenced Within?

V--- Nope. (Oh look, a short answer). I would If I could, they're just too far away.

Over decades we saw (and still see) few but remarkable black rock/metal musicians such as godly Hendrix, mighty Rock George and Doug Pinnick. What do you think about that? Why do black musicians don't show interest on rock genres?

V-Ok, that's a long story and a lot of opinions vary - but I honestly think it has a lot to do with the Beatles and Little Richard. Rock N Roll, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Gospel and later Funk and Hip-Hop all come out of the experience of Black people in America. It came from being Repressed and Unfree in the "Land of the Free" - that conflict, and the passion for freedom is what drives all these types of music, but Blues & Rock are different because they're not like a whisper or a cry for freedom, they're a SCREAM. A scream that was first heard by English kids who had their own confusion and frustration after surviving the aftermath of the WWII Blitz without understanding what had happened or why. They NEEDED to Scream about some stuff, and Rock was the way they could do it. That music resonated with them, they were inspired and formed the Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Cream, Sabbath and Zeppelin.

But back in America Rock was still repressed, they called it "Race Music", "N---er Music", even when Elvis tried to play it. The first Rock DJ, Alan Freed went to jail over it. But once they heard British Rock in America - it went from being "Race Music", to the "British Invasion". Hearing that music from Black people was frightening, scary - hearing it from cute long haired English kids - transformed everything. Jimi James and the Flames coming from Seattle no one wanted to hear, but The Jimi Hendrix Experience coming from England was a HIT. A lot of people didn't even realize Jimi was even an American, or that he use to play with both James Brown, The Isley Brothers and Little Richard. He couldn't make it from here, but he could from there.

But other black artists who wanted to do Rock had to match that same intensity the Brits were getting and America simply wasn't giving it to them, plus it was pretty difficult for them to pull off that Beatles/Stones hair-style, so they didn't have the same "look" either. Jimi tried, but he never really got it - LOL. (Trust me, the hair thing was a big issue - it's why James Brown, Little Richard and even Prince processed their hair for years. We even went through it will Amalgam and me and the singer Chris Coshea used to have long talks about how the "Glam Brother" was considered so "dangerous")

Then the money got involved, artists like Pat Boone would re-record Little Richard (the original Glam Brother)'s songs and get a higher position on the same chart at the same time. Same song, but with a "safer" person = More money. Good bye black rockers.

With the Beatles doing it, and The Stones, and the Beach Boys, Aerosmith, KISS, Yes, Van Halen and everyone that followed, that original passionate scream for freedom from Rock was eventually heard in all of Europe, in Asia, even in Soviet Russia. Rock N Roll, Long Hair and Blue Jeans changed the world.

I think that after Hendrix died, a lot of Black artists just decided (or were TOLD) to swim in safer waters - stick to what they had more control of - rather than fight against the tide in Rock, which was like trying to stop Niagra Falls by holding up your hand. Not gonna happen. The money issue just killed it by the mid-70's, particular as radio become just as segregated and as niche marketed as Jim Crow had been. Black artists would be played on "Black Radio", White artists on "Rock Radio" even if it was the same song. Buy the late 80's it was so bad that Living Colour's first record didn't have their pictures on it, just so that Rock Radio wouldn't send it to the Black Radio Dj's out of habit. They weren't even shown in their first video "Open Letter to a Landlord", but eventually it actually worked in reverse - because it had been so long since anyone had seen a Black Person doing Rock the video for "Cult of Personality" got everyones attention and it became a huge hit. You never know how it's going to all work out.

I'm just doing the music that's now become an International symbol, a world-wide powerhouse, not because of what anyone else tells me I should be doing (and yes, I've been told I should do R&B or something even by people who just think they're giving me "good advice") but because - it still inspires me. That's where my passion is, so that's why I do it.

What does future holds for Vyan?

V-Next year after really getting the Press and promotion going for this record, I hope to recruit a rhythm section and form a Power-Trio for some touring. I might add another guitarist if I can find someone good enough without them being an ego-maniac. (Like making a solo record entirely by yourself isn't egotistical - HA! I got enough for both of us!) Then record some cover songs of my favorite artists, particular great black rock bands that never got heard like Subject To Change, Civil Rite, Nicklebag, Lock Up and Super 8. (I have a special Myspace friends category for a lot of these bands, the ones that are still around) By 2010 I might be ready for a second solo record.

What do you do to kill time beside music?

V-What else is there? Ok seriously, lots of TV and Movies. I just bought a DVD of "The Dark Knight" I have a ton of favorite shows like Connor Chronicles, Life, Heroes, Numb3rs and SCI-FI Stargate. Good stories with interesting people/characters all keep me thinking, and wondering.

Let's discuss recent election? Do you think that Mr. Obama can keep his promises? At the dawn of new world order do you still believe in Revolution? ( I think you do friend :)

V-We'll see. I'm hopeful that a lot of the damage that the previous Administration did to the U.S. (which like I mentioned, I suffered personally) and the rest of the World just might begin to get fixed. America's in bad financial shape right now, and a lot of people are looking at losing everything they have (just as I did). We're all going to have to rebuild, to re-invent - to "Re-Evolutionize" ourselves - which is why I called the CD what I did. it's not just about me, it's about everyone. Obama will probably be a big part of that for all of us. He hasn't done anything "yet" to shake my faith in him, because mostly he's going about things exactly the way he said he would. He's reaching out to people that disagree, letting them all get a voice at the table, then making decisions based on *ALL* the facts, not just what he wants the hear (the way that Bush did). Bill Clinton used to do that too, and it turned out pretty well during his years - he ended the wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, helped bring peace to Northern Ireland by taking a chance on Gerry Adams. Bush didn't listen and nearly lost a war he never should have started. Listening helps. If Obama does half as well as Bill, and keeps his pants on, we should all be alright.


Here comes traditional Rock Vault question. Tell me your favorite drinking memory?

V-If you can still remember it, you weren't drinking enough!!

But I did once run into Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) at a Dio concert at the L.A. House of Blues, and oddly enough he recognized *me* (from the LA Black Rock Coalition) and we talked about his old band Lock Up, who I loved. He rushed off to watch the show and I went to talk to the guys in the opening band, Atomic Opera, who were who i'd come to see in the first place (They were friends with King's X and had the same producer) Jonathon from Atomic Opera got all excited when I mentioned that Tom was there and made me show him where, but he was deep in the middle of the mosh pit by that time and we couldn't find him.

I later got to tell that story to Ronnie Dio himself at Jeff Pilson's house, and I was dumb enough to say "If I'd known that Jeff (whose been my vocal inspiration forever) was playing with you... I would've been in the pit too" - but Ronnie was really cool about it. My wife saved my butt by mentioning that she'd been a Dio fan since Rainbow and he really felt appreciative of that. He's a great down to earth guy. Growing up and Living In L.A. you do just plain RUN INTO a lot of famous people if your in the right place at the right time. I met Eddie Van Halen at a guitar store once, and Steve Lukather (Toto) at the Baked Potato. Most of them are cool if you don't act like an idiot and freak-out around them. I did that once when I met first Neal Schon of Journey - never again.

What do you know about my country? Have you had a chance to listen any Turkish bands or singer?

V-Not that many, I admit - it can be difficult for artists to break though in this market. But I do try to listen to everything i can, everyone has something worthwhile to contribute and say. Some just say it better, it just takes practice....practice....practice.

Thanks for your participation.
Here is your turn for last words?

V-I think I used them all up. Thanks for oppurtunity to share with everyone. And don't stop ROCKIN!!

The Vigilante Gangs of Katrina

We've come a long way in the last century, in the last few years - but every once in a while an event so tragic takes place that makes you recall - we still have a long way to go.

This report on Vigilante Gangs of Gunmen in the streets of New Orleans is a chilling reminded that "Good Fences really Don't Make Good Neighbors".



It's one thing to be willing to protect your home, it's another thing to shoot, wound and kill innocent people who just happen to be trying to get back to *their own* home, and it's even worse when don't care to pay attention to the difference - simply because they "Look suspicious" to you.

Not all male blacks, are criminals, some are fathers, all are sons. They don't deserve to be "hunted like pheasants".

More on this at Thinkprogress.org

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/20/the-nation-katrina/

Vyan

If this is "Safe", I wanna know what "Fucked, Beyond Belief" Is?

These days George Bush is looking forward to being an Ex-President. He's bought a new 2 Million Dollar home in Dallas, he's making the rounds in a series of "Exit Interviews" where he's managed to justify invading and attacking Iraq - even though they had nothing to do with 9/11, and didn't have WMD's and weren't going to share what they didn't have and weren't going to attack us - or anyone - and after more American have died in Iraq than did on 9/11, he still thinks he did he "right thing".


Ok, Sure, whatever.


His personal delusions don't bother so me much until it's obvious that they've been spreading to so many other people, particularly former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan who recently stated:

When Republicans say, in coming years, "At least Bush kept us safe," Democrats will not want tacked onto the end of that sentence, "unlike Obama."

The man's not even in office yet and already he's supposedly "failed the nation"... oy vey!

I'm keeping this short, because it's really simple.

Here's the problem - BUSH DIDN'T KEEP US SAFE.


When Bush came into Office he REVERSED the previous Clinton focus on counter-terrorism.
Rather than respond to the Urgent Request for a high-level meeting on Al Qaeda and Bin Laden from NSA Counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke - they ignored him for months while having meeting after meeting on Iraq.


When the August 6th PDB appeared stating clearly that Bin Laden would Attack America by Hijacking a set of planes, and that he had likely targeted New York and Washington - Bush IGNORED IT!

And finally when America WAS ATTACKED - he didn't do Jack SHIT!

Watch!

..

Most indications from counter-terrorism experts has been that Bush's actions both before and after 9/11 has made us LESS SAFE, not more.


Bush doesn't deserve credit, he deserves nothing but scorn for his incompetent and ineptitude at the cost of thousands of American Lives and Trillions of Dollars.


"Good job", Bushie - and Good Riddance.


More on this from Tonight's Countdown...

Vyan

The Black Rock Cafe - Amalgam 1991

Here's a video I just uploaded from a documentary featuring an old band of mind called "Amalgam". I used to use my first name back then - which is "Frank" - but now I use my middle-name "Vyan". Times change, but they also stay the same. Black Rock Cafe - Amalgam 1991

Check out the interview as well as the songs (which did have vocals - but aren't shown). The entire 1-Hour Black Rock Cafe documentary is now available on YouTube at this link. My favorite section is Part 12 with Blakasaurus Mex, who totally ROCK THE HOUSE!!

IMO Some of the best BRC bands at the time aren't in this documentary, although you can hear the band Total Eclipse, which featured former members of the Busboys and Sound Barrier as well as Sammy Hagar's Wabaritas, playing in the background during Part 11 with their song "Hey, You Check Me Out!" Various members of Fishbone and the Chili Peppers attended BRC Meetings. The group "Hello Children" who are mentioned in the film are on Myspace right Here. Members of Civil Rite (now known as Freakjuice) who are also mentioned in the film eventually joined Terrence Trent Darby, Body Count, Michael Franti's Spearhead, Dionne Farris from Arrested Development, Cree Summer as well as Morris Day and the Time. Tom Morello (from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave) was a BRC member with his old band Lock Up, although back then he was kinda quiet and shy. I didn't even realize he had been there until meeting him years later and he recognized *ME* from the BRC at a Dio concert. Weird. Another great group from back then was Planet Z, not to be confused with my own later group - Planet X/Sacto. (Which was a complete accident that I always thought was hilarious!)

Modern groups such as Sevendust are linked to the BRC through Lajon Witherspoon who used to be in a Living Colour cover band. Not to mention King's X, Stevie Salas and his partner for the group Nicklebag Bernard Fowler, David Ryan Harris' Band Follow For Now, England's Skunk Anansie and Ra. Brand new groups such as Blaxmyth, Headrush and this great new band I just discovered called Asphalt Messiah - and naturally myself - are still breaking down barriers and preconceptions - even our own - today. The documentary is great, but it was just the tip of the iceberg.

Vyan

Gitmo Prosecutor: "Torture is Wrong, Unethical, Immoral"

After being assigned by the Military Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld to prosecute terrorists at Guantanemo Bay - and beginning as a "True Believer" in the War on Terror - the J.A.G. officer eventually discovered that those he had been trying to prosecute for crimes, had themselves become victims of torture by U.S. Officers and agencies themselves.

Rather than being a lone sheep among wolves, in a recent Washington Post Op-Ed, a former U.S. terrorism interrogator who succesfully used non-violent and non-abusive tactics to secure information from some our highest value terrorism targets leading to the neutralization of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, has echoed Col Vandeveld's deep and serious misgivings.

I'm not some ivory-tower type; I served for 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, began my career as a Special Operations pilot flying helicopters, saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, became an Air Force counterintelligence agent, then volunteered to go to Iraq to work as a senior interrogator. What I saw in Iraq still rattles me -- both because it betrays our traditions and because it just doesn't work.

Torture and abuse are against my moral fabric. The cliche still bears repeating: Such outrages are inconsistent with American principles. And then there's the pragmatic side: Torture and abuse cost American lives.

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse.

You can't say it much plainer than that - there's a right way to fight terror and wrong way. Using Terror itself is Wrong. "Enhanced Interrogation" is Torture and a War Crime, it doesn't work and it costs American lives.

Vyan

William Ayers on Good Morning America

Following his OP-ed from In These Times, William Ayers appeared on Good Morning America.



Point of fact: Obama did not start his campaign in Ayers house, he started his State Senate Campaign at a Holidy Inn. Ayers did not say "he wished he bombed more" in 2001 - he said "He wished he'd DONE more to end the Vietnam War". Over the last 20 years, Ayers and Obama have met about 6 times. The interviewer, this being on ABC which is pretty much as Right-Wing as FOX , threw a ton of B.S. at him - but he handled it very, very well once he was finally able to speak and address the heart of this "Guilt By Association" mess at about 7:15 into the video.

Ayers: "Everyone one of us should talk to lots and lots of people, especially our political leaders. Far from being a demerit on his record, the fact that he (Barack) is willing to talk to a lot of people, from a lot of different walks in life, with a lot of different opinions and still have a mind of his own is something we should admirer and honor.

"It's not all all true that he sought me out to listen to my radical ideas, or I sought him out, we came together in Chicago, in the civic community over issues of school improvement, and fighting for the rights of poor neighborhoods to have jobs and housing and that's the full extent of our relationship. So this idea that we need to know more, that's there's some dark hidden secret, is just a myth. It's a myth thrown up by people who wan to exploit the politics of fear, and I think it's a great credit to the American people that those politics were rejected."

He may come off a bit strong when he says "the Crimes of the Vietnam Era" were being commited by the U.S. Government, but let me just point out that Ayers was never successfully prosecuted largely because of >criminal acts committed by the FBI which tainted the case.

From the Weather Underground Wiki Page:

In April 1971, The "Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI" broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania.[31] The group stole files with several hundred pages. A majority of the files targeted radical left wing groups, and some individuals, for criminal or subversive activities. By the end of April, the FBI offices were to terminate all files dealing with leftist groups.[32] The files were a part of an FBI program called COINTELPRO.[33] However, after COINTELPRO was dissolved in 1971 by J. Edgar Hoover,[34] the FBI continued its counterintelligence on groups like the Weather Underground.

In 1973, the FBI established the 'Special Target Information Development' program, where agents were sent undercover to penetrate the Weather Underground. Due to the illegal tactics of FBI agents involved with the program, government attorneys requested all weapons- and bomb-related charges be dropped against the Weather Underground. The Weather Underground was no longer a fugitive organization and could turn themselves in with minimal charges against them.[35]

Ayer himself never hurt anyone. It was cases like his that led to the creation of the FISA court, to prevent law enforcement from repeating programs like COINTELPRO, which used illegal wiretaps, planted evidence and even blackmail against other 60's radical and well known "socialists" - people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and John Lennon.

Vyan

Caribou Barbie Thinks we owe Bush our Thanks...

Today at the Republican Governors Association Sarahcuda Palin, the VP loser who just won't get the Hell off the TV, after stating repeatedly in her exclusive interview wtih Greta Van Susteren, and her exclusive interview with Matt Lauer, and her other exclusive interview with Larry King that's it's hard to win when people want CHANGE and you're in the same party as President Bush...

she now says that we owe Bush our THANKS FOR PROTECTING AMERICA. Oh Really?

PALIN: In politics, people sometimes go to great lengths to avoid stating the obvious, but I think it’s about time that we all remembered that the greatest measure of a president is whether he protected and defended this great country. America’s 43rd president took that foremost responsibility, that most important charge, seriously. He poured his life into it. He succeeded in keeping America safe from another attack.

I’m thankful he is my soldier son’s commander in chief and for that, I say God bless George W. Bush, and I thank you, Mr. President.

Ok, even if you ignore the obvious fact that Track Palin would not be in Iraq right now if it weren't for George Bush's HUNDREDS OF LIES to the American people about Saddam Hussein - the truth is that George Bush Failed to protect America.

After the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1992, President Clinton tracked down and captured the bomber, Ramzi Yousef. Bush didn't catch bin Laden. Besides catching Yousef, Clinton then thwarted multiple plans against the U.S., including the bombing of multiple planes over the pacific ocean, the bombing of the Holland Tunnel and the bombing of LAX during the Millenium Celebration. And they didn't illegally kidnap or torture *anyone* in order to do it. America was NOT attacked for 9 years after the first WTC bomb, so the person we should thank is Bill Clinton - but that doesn't mean they weren't *planning* another attack - they were. Bush knew it, he was repeatedly warned by both Richard Clark and George Tenet - but he DIDN"T DO JACK SHIT about it.

August 6, PDB: Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America." :

After U.S. missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a [deleted text] service.

An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told [deleted text] service at the same time that Bin Laden was planning to exploit the operative's access to the U.S. to mount a terrorist strike.

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Laden's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the U.S. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Laden lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning hisown U.S. attack.

Ressam says Bin Laden was aware of the Los Angeles operation.

Although Bin Laden has not succeeded, his attacks against the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Laden associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.

AI Qaeda members -- including same who are U.S. citizens -- have resided in and traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains asupport structure that could aid attacks.

Two Al Qaeda members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our embassies in East Africa were U.S. citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Laden cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [deleted text] service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar' Abd aI-Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers Bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or Bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.

(This is quoted in it's entirety because a) people really do need to see the entire thing considering how long we've been lied to about it and b) it's been declassified, publically released and is a now a public domain document)

This is the document that Condoleeza Rice claimed was "Historical" and didn't indicate any future attacks - but LOOK AT IT. It specifically says that Bin Laden wants to Repeat Yousef's Attack on the World Trade Center, that they had operatives inside the U.S., that they planned to hijack U.S. planes -- that they planned to attack Washington -- they had everything but the date of the attack right in front of them.

If "protecting the nation" (instead of the Constitution which is what the Presidential oath states) is a President's foremost responsibility - then George W. Bush competely and utterly failed on both counts. He didn't protect the nation, and he didn't protect the Constitution.

Vyan

Prop 8; Gender Terrorism Redux

We fell down on this one people, preoccupied with our own lives, the cost of gas the stock market meltdown, and the Presidential Race - we let this one get away from us.


Some months ago the California Supreme Court Ruled the right to love and marry the person of your choice, and have that love returned regardless of their gender was a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT under the California Constitution.


The California Constitution contains an Equal Protection Clause modelled directly on the U.S. Constitutions 14th Amendment. This is the amendment that promises "all persons within the jurisidiction of the states - the Equal Protection of the Law" It was implemented in 1865 following the end of the Civil War and also erased other Constitutional mistakes such as the "3/5th of a person" clause which led to the Dred Scott decision, where the Taney Court Ruled that the (Original) Constitution did not apply to Black people.


In 1896 the Supreme Court decided the re-define the 14th Amendment to allow for "Seperate But Equal" accomodations between the races (starting from a situation involved segregated portions of a train, and a black man who protested being taken out his seat and moved to the "Black section")

The court said this...

..If he be a white man and assigned to a colored coach, he may have his action for damages against the company for being deprived of his so called property.
Upon the other hand, if he be a colored man and be so assigned, he has been deprived of no property, since he is not lawfully entitled to the reputation of being a white man.....

A black man wasn't entitled to something a whtie man had - simply because he's not a whtie man.


Last Tuesday California Repeated Plessy and said that Gay people aren't entitled to what Straight People have - the right to love and marry.
We've turned the clock back over 100 years. Good job people, way to move "forward.
"

The 14th doesn't say the only straight people will have equal protection - it say s ALL People.. Gay people are still people right?

Plessy wasn't fixed until Brown V Board of Education - over 50 YEARS LATER.


On the basic issue of what is Right and what is Wrong - Prop 8 was a tragic mistake, and like Plessy it will not stand.


But we have other issues to address in the meanwhile, such as why did this happen? It is hate? Is it Fear? Is it Righteousness?

Many devout people feel that homosexual is nothing more than a "sinful lifestyle choice".
They point to Leviticus 18:22

..You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
..

Under Levitcus and "Abomination" is punishable by death. But it doesn't stop there as the West Wing Character President Jed Bartlett pointed out in the very first episode of that series.

..Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I had you here. I'm interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7.
["When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
](small chuckles from the guests) She's a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, and
always clears the table when it was her turn.
What would a good price for her be? While thinking about that, can I ask another? My Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry, insists on working on the Sabbath, Exodus 35:2, clearly says he should be put to death [Six days shall work be done,but on the seventh day you shall have a holy sabbath of solemn rest to the LORD; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death] Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to call the police? Here's one that's really important, 'cause we've got a lot of sports fans in this town. Touching the skin of a dead pig makes us unclean, Leviticus 11:7.
[And the swine, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.
] If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother, John, for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads?..

Leviticus says the a child who talks back to his parents has commited - you guessed it - an ABOMINATION.
Should that child be put to death?

But here's the rub - the Bible in John Chapter 8 also says this:

.. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.
10 Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again." 12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." 13 The Pharisees then said to him, "You are bearing witness to yourself; your testimony is not true." 14 Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness to myself, my testimony is true, for I know whence I have come and whither I am going, but you do not know whence I come or whither I am going.
15 You judge according to the flesh, I judge no one.

..

Jesus ministered to the sick and to the criminal. If being a homosexual *Is* a sin and crime, Jesus would have been the first to offer out his hand in friendship.


Where doesn't that leave those who claim to be following along Jesus' path?

Do you condemn or do you forgive? Do we tear people down, or do we build them up?

Here's another point, people who argue that being gay is a "choice" feel that the 14th Amendment shouldn't apply simply because it isn't a racial or gender issue. You can't choose or change your race (unless you're Michael Jackson) so the protections in place for these people under equal protection shouldn't apply to gay people.
Besides the fact that the California Supreme Court ruled in exactly the opposite way, the larger point is this -- isn't being a catholic vs being a protestant, or a episcopalian or jewish or muslim or buddhist a choice? Isn't that choice clearly and obviously protected by both the 1st *and* the 14th Amendment? (All Persons Right?)

And how about this, what if it isn't entirely a choice at all?

Last year 60 Minutes did a special investigating the causes of homosexuality and found that science has found that it appears not to be "taught" (so we don't need to worry about what people are telling our children in school - little Johnnie isn't gonna come home in a dress and LIKE IT just because someone "double dog dared him"!!) but it isn't neccesarily genetic either. As of the time of this report, hormonal differences, stemming from varying levels in the womb of the mother seem to be the best source and have been replicated in laboratory settings - even two genetically identical twin brothers were interviewed. One was straight, one was Gay - and it wasn't something he "learned", it was just who he was and had been since birth.


http://60minutes. yahoo. com/segment/68/gay_or_straight

So with that in mind, what the heck did California - and several other states - actually *DO* this past Tuesday?

I think it was a Hate Crime. I think it was a not so subtle form of intimidation and yes - emotional terrorism.
But then that's just me- or is it?

Vyan