It seems I've been making more blog entries on www.tribe.net than I have here on my own site. I am going to try and rectify that in the future. Until then you can keep up with what I've been doing at Tribe.net under "Greenman".

       Well, it has been too long since I made an entry, so let’s start with the Benefit for Joules Graves on Friday, November 3, 2006 at the Mateel Community Center in Redway, CA. @ 6pm.

       Several years ago Joules told me that she has always had a dream that other artists would sing more of her songs. So, when I found out that her MS had reached a debilitating level and she was no longer able to tour and perform, I got the idea to produce an album the proceeds of which would help pay some of her medical expenses. I mean dreams do come true, don’t they? I contacted 16 artists, all of which said “SURE!”. I have never worked on such an easy and wonderful project. They are all recording one of Joules songs for free. Nine of those artists will be appearing at the concert at the Mateel, produced by Darryl Cherney.

       Although, we will be wrapping up the recordings that weekend, we will be offering pre-sales of the album and the cover artwork will be on display. The artists are performing at both the concert and on the album for free, Rob Siefert of Small Town Audio Resources, here in Garberville/Redway, is mastering the tapes for free, the Mateel is contributing some of their costs, KMUD and KHUM are co-sponsoring the benefit, John Angus is contributing his art/computer skills for the poster and album, Darryl and I are contributing our time, so, as you can see it’s just one of those all around, very high events. So please come if you can, admission is donation only.

       If you can’t make it, you can make an advance purchase of the album by sending $20, inc. P&H, to me at 424 Wallan Rd., Garberville, CA 95542. Make the check out to Joules Graves and feel free to throw in some extra if you can.

       The artists appearing on the album, slight changes are possible, are:

 

       Tina Malia

       Jim Page

       Sasha Butterfly

       Joanne Rand

       Casey Neill

       Francine Allen

       Dana Lyons

       Dianne Patterson

       Darryl Cherney

       Al Torre

       Alice Di Micele

       Freedom

       Rafe Pearlman

       Lewi Longmire

       Korby Lenker

       Brian Cutean

       Fantuzzi ?

       Katia Chorover?

       and maybe a few more.

 

And, of course, feel free to send your good wishes to Joules, joules@joulesgraves.com

      

   It should probably not come as a surprise to any thinking person in the year 2006 that those in the present administration are paranoid and have an insatiable appetite for money and power. We must stop the sale of democracy by forcing campaign finance reform and we must defend our few remaining freedoms. Their latest scheme is to control the internet. This is a good place for us to draw the line.

 

   Please contact the web site below or go to MoveOn.org to STOP this most recent obscenity. Sorry I couldn’t paste the direct contact image. I am computer challenged after all.

 

   “The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, however, this process of corruption spread to the law courts and to the army, and finally when the army became enslaved by the power of gold, the republic was subjected to the rule of emperors.” ............

Plutarch, on the fall of the Roman Empire.

http://www.savetheinternet.com

PRISONS

 

 

          Over ten years ago, I started talking about the privatization of prisons, the incarceration of our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters. I stated that it was one of the signs of the moral decline of our society, our culture, our country. The fact is that a private corporation, by definition, must grow every year so by definition the population of our prisons must increase annually to feed these corporations and of course these corporations are based in Texas. In a just society the goal would be to reform anti-social behavior and to rehabilitate and educate those who violently strike out against their fellow humans and their society, in essence to strive to eradicate the need for prisons at all, but that would be a healthy society.

          In the last twenty years, the male prison population in our country has tripled, the female prison population has quintupled. 75% of female prisoners are “in” for non-violent crimes. Almost 40% of the female prisoners are “in” for simple drug possession. We also know that it is extremely, disproportionately people of color. 84% of all youth in prison are people of color. And if I needed more statistics to prove my point, The United States has the highest rate of prisoners per capita of any country in the world. If we look in the mirror with some honesty, we must see a sick and declining culture, the manifestation of the sick, self serving agenda of some old white men. What we really have is a perversion of justice in the form of the misuse of the “3 strikes law”, a war of terror called “the war on drugs” and ultimately and what is happening now, the imprisonment of those who strike out at these injustices, who elsewhere in the world are known as “political prisoners”.

          Why would anyone want do this? Well it has created a tool. This tool was so aptly used in the 2000 Presidential election to deny an estimated 50,000 people their right to vote in the state of Florida and thus illegally place someone in the office of President of the United States. In 2004, there were no honest elections in the United States once again. Simply put, we no longer live in a democracy. There is a saying, “be careful which direction you’re headed in cause you might actually get there”. We are a runaway train headed in the direction of a Fascist State. I ask you, “What are we going to do about it?”