"My Last Campaign"

This was in the subject line of an email I got from OFA (Obama for America) this morning. Seems like your regular fundraising email, right? They want some money, their swing has been for three bucks and the current winner of this contribution lottery may have the chance to meet both the current sitting president and George Clooney.

So what? The candidate is campaigning, he's asking for campaign funds, isn't that okay? Isn't that what candidates for elected office have been doing for countless years?

I could go on the typical "Why is the sitting president campaigning when we have people out of jobs, without healthcare or places to stay or food to eat?" rant, but I won't. Don't get me wrong, it is an important point and it SHOULD be made, in fact, I have made it, but today, I have a completely different focus.

Three words. My. Last. Campaign.

Is there a law that says he isn't allowed to run for office again? We can assume, based on his resume, that he believes in the power of elected office to affect change, right? So why not go back to Chicago and run for the Senate, the House Of Representatives, the state assembly of Illinois?

We all know the answer to this. It isn't about you and I. It won't be about the people of Chicago or the people of Illinois. It's about him, the DNC, all of his corporate givers. He wants this second term as president and he wants it to be his last campaign. Which can be prophetic if he loses. The American people he cares for so much, the American people he feels he's best for, don't deserve a second term out of him if it isn't consecutive?

It isn't profitable if it isn't consecutive.

Only a true lover of their country would run un-consecutively.

Mr. President, I am saddened that this will be your last campaign, not because I admire you as a politician or a leader, not because I do or don't agree that you are good for me or anyone else in the media/blogging world.

I am saddened to learn that this will be your last campaign based solely on the principle of the matter.

It's another sure sign that it's all about the damn money. Mr. President? Why don't you just  come out and admit it.

Please?

Because I'm going to feel compelled to go to the voting booth in November and I'd like at least a little honesty on which to base my vote.

Sincerely,

J.A. Fisher

"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."

Punk and Poetry

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of tired, outstripeed Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling,

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est

Pro patria mori.

- Wilfred Owen

(Dulce et Decorm est Pro patria mori: It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country.)

"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."

Summer Metal Tours

All across the globe, there are metal festivals, and if you live close enough to one, you may have the fortune of going. But what if you don't? Then what are your options? As of now I know of two, two on two completely different sides of the Metal spectrum.

First is Mayhem Festival 2012

Personally, I'm kind of torn about the line up. It seems pretty eclectic, and I think it's guaranteed to bring in some tons of money from the hardcore fans of all these big name bands they've gotten this year.

You have Slipknot for starters, Slayer, Motorhead and Anthrax as your headliners. But as if this won't bring in a lot of metalheads of all ages and styles, they still have something for the kids.

Kevin Lyman has also gotten, on the exact same tour (we haven't switched over to Warped Tour or Taste of Chaos here) As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, Whitechapel, High on Fire, Upon a Burning Body, I the Breather and Dirtfedd.

This is eclectic. Though it doesn't bring in your Death Metallers, your hardcore punkers (though Motorhead may bring in some punkers) and as always, fans of Black Metal are left out in the cold. (If there are any festivals, tours, concerts, etc with Black Metal bands and/or Hardcore Punk bands, please feel free to share them.)

In full disclosure, I was (and still am) tempted to go to this for Slayer, Slipknot and Whitechapel.

But then there's the Summer Slaughter Tour. I feel like all I have to say here is Cannibal Corpse, the tours headliners, but let's look at who else they got to do this amazing tour this summer. Between the Buried and Me, The Faceless, Periphery, Veil of Maya, Job For A Cowboy, Goatwhore, Exhumed and Cerebral Bore!

If I only get to see one show this year, this will HAVE to be that show, easily. And for me it's because of Cannibal Corpse, Goatwhore, Exhumed and Cerebral Bore.

Anyway, those are two shows that are going down this summer for all of you Metalheads out there.

Now for my fellow punkers. I don't know of anything in particular (though that won't stop me from looking) but Anti Flag is going to be on Warped Tour, which means if I have/had the money, I would definitely be going to that.

I guess that's the good thing about Mayhem and Warped Tour. If I wake up on the morning of the tour and have enough money to go, then I can go, because I know that they don't sell out.

But now your Summer Slaughter can sell out, so be looking for those tickets. At my local venue to get them online their like 30 bucks (that's once I've added in all the extra charges from Livenation) and totally worth every penny, so get them fast before their gone!

Alexander Fisher

"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."

Every Morning Sun Sets

And now the sun has risen, it is beating down on me. Like an anvil, the pressure of the dry heat beats down on me. Nothing is as calm and soft and beautiful as it was. The birds have quit singing, all the animals have ceased to talk to one another. They are off now to feed and hunt and kill. Now my back is burnt and I'm bent in my toils with the harsh Earth. The dirt makes my hands tough and as I kick around in my feeble human manner, the dust stings my eyes and dries my throat. There is no water. All I have are my toils. I continue to work the Earth and it continues to buck me.

Now it is night and I go inside to rest. The air is still and heavy. I move now to sleep. The truth is you will not come back to me. Tonight is a forever night. I will live forever in this night. Forever this hot, still, stubborn air will attempt to suffocate me. I am a slave to this night. I will die in this night. Your morning beauty will never again grace me, you will never come to me, you will never be mine. As this is true, I will let the night and your memory consume me. I am nothing but your slave, a slave to a mistress who has cast me aside and forgotten me. My heart is to you a broken thing in a trash can you've thrown away.

And why shouldn't I be her thing? What am I but a thing? Skin and cells and blood and hair. The only thing that makes me more is an inflated sense of ego that is universally present in the entire race, but isn't found in me. I am shit, and less than. Why are humans so conceited? We are lazy beings who gorge ourselves on our ability to steal what other things have created. The only creators among us are women. We abuse them. Mentally, emotionally, physically. You are weak. Why must you assert your 'dominance'? Because you are weak, and you refuse to accept it. You are shit. We are all shit.

"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."