Canadian singer songwriter, Gino Vannelli wore many hats. Composer, vocalist, conductor, etc. His father was a big band musician and the "big band" sound is evident in Gino's music. Gino's brother, Joe, arranged and played keyboards for most of his recording career. At a time when polyphonic synthesizers were non-existent, like Wendy Carlos, Joe overdubbed multiple parts to create a texture of sound that was remarkably coherent and full, often adding fat analog warmth to real live orchestras used in the recordings. Jazz, Rock, Funk and Swing are all spoken here like a native tongue but fused in a metal of glorious colors unlike any other.
As in the music of Steely Dan, (who will undoubtedly be making an appearance in this column before too long) I hear a bit of Count Basie and Duke Ellington luking in the background. It was Herb Alpert (The A in A&M records) that signed Gino to his 1st recording contract. We spotlight this work for its independent spirit and it's vision that was contrary to the flavor of the day. Gino now lives and works in The Netherlands (2007) and is collaborating with Dutch Jazz pianist Michiel Borstlap. They are working on a new CD, so keep your ears peeled. Gino will be appearing at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam, Netherlands on Saturday, July 14, 2007. Tickets available here.
Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who wrote and recorded together for about three years before taking on the name of 10cc in 1972 created some of the freshest most intelligent pop music of their time. Drawing from caberet, show tunes, rock, pop, and the avant garde the band was completely unique.
All four songwriters injected their songs with an incisively sharp wit and lyrical dexterity that no one has ever quite matched.
The experimental half of 10cc was Godley (vocals, drums, percussion) and Creme (vocals, guitar, keyboards), who brought an "art school" sensibility and a more "cinematic" writing style to the group. Of course Stewart and Gouldman were brilliant songwriters as well. Gouldman made a name for himself long before 10cc as a hit songwriter. The Yardbirds' "Heart Full of Soul" and "For Your Love", and The Hollies' "Look Through Any Window" and "Bus Stop" were all Gouldman-penned hits. Other notable Gouldman hits of the era included Herman's Hermits' "No Milk Today", "East West" and "Listen People". Each member of the band took turns being the lead vocalist. And when Brian Eno & Phil Manzanara wanted "Heavenly Vocals" for their 801 "Listen Now" album, they rang up Godley & Creme.
In 1968 Eric Stewart became co-owner of Strawberry Studios, and the "gang of four" pretty much moved in. They released material under the names "The Yellow Bellow Boom Room" & "Frabjoy & Runcible Spoon". Around this time all four members of the original 10cc line-up were working together regularly at Strawberry Studios. American bubblegum pop writer-producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz of Super K Productions came to England and commissioned Gouldman to write and produce formula bubblegum songs. These were either augmented or performed entirely by varying combinations of the future 10cc lineup. These songs included "Sausalito", a US hit credited to Ohio Express(Yummy Yummy Yummy),"Susan's Tuba" by Freddie and the Dreamers (which featured lead vocals by Gouldman),"There Ain't No Umbopo" by Crazy Elephant, "When He Comes" by Fighter Squadron and "Come On Plane" by Silver Fleet (these featured lead vocals by Godley.) Lol Creme said “Singles kept coming out under strange names that had really been recorded by us." Kevin Godley adds "We did a lot of tracks in a very short time – it was really like a machine. Twenty tracks in about two weeks – a lot of crap really." They also were the backing tracks producers and engineers for Niel Sedaka's "Solitaire" and "The Tra La La Days Are Over". Grahm Gouldman said "We were a bit choked to think that we'd done the whole of Neil's first album with him just for flat session fees when we could have been recording our own material." 10cc was born. Their 1st album was "10CC" which featured parody's of rock & roll like "Rubber Bullets" a send up of "Jailhouse Rock". Their second effort,"Sheet Music" became the band's breakthrough success album in 1974 with the memorable songs "The Wall Street Shuffle" and "Silly Love".
OH EFFENDI (lyrics) from Sheet Music
In the middle of a caravan On a four wheel drive oasis There's a man with a thought in mind To cash in on the desert faces He's got a truckload of yorkshire girls For your harem going places And the border bums never saw The guns in the whiskey cases There's a real, big demand And it's written in the palm of his hand He's gonna change the face of the desert He's gonna sweep away the sand Hang on sheik, i've got a yellow streak I ain't here, i'm a mirage Get back des, keep it under your fez And don't give us away in the massage Look what i did for the pyramid I put a pool in and made it pay I built an elevator and a film theater And i shipped it to the u.s.a. `cos there's a real big demand And it's written in the palm of my hand I'm gonna change the face of the desert I'm gonna sweep away the sand Hang on friends! There's a lot more goodies in the pipeline So this ain't the time to close the deal Here's the deal Ooh, now you've got a howitzer all of your own Ooh, and a panzer division to chauffeur you home Gun running is fun But hang on, friends, hang on friends Allah be praised, there's a whole new craze We're gonna shoot up the foreign legion And it's up with the sheik And down with the frog We're gonna liberate the region! Oh effendi, we're gonna bury your head in the sand Oh effendi, you better get off my doggone land Hey, prince of the moonbeams Son of the sun, Light of a thousand stars Your gorillas are urban And there's bourbon on your turban And the sun shines out of your ass Oh effendi, i'm gonna grovel in your wake Oh effendi, it's all been a big mistake You're gonna cut out my liver If i don't deliver Things are getting out of hand I'm going to ride off into the sunset and Make a deal with the promised land Goodbye friends There's no more goodies in the pipeline...
Music & Lyrics By Eric Stewart & Kevin Godley
No this is not about current affairs (Though it could be) it was penned in 1973.
MATERPIECE THEATRE
Then the masterpiece "The Original Soundtrack" was released with my personal choice for best group vocals of the era, Godley & Creme's "Une Nuit A Paris", an eight-minute, multi-part "mini-operetta" that seems to have been a fairly large influence on "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical "Phantom of the Opera" also paraphrases the melody in it's overture. (Imitation is indeed a sincere form of flattery).
The perennially popular "I'm Not In Love" has heavenly vocal tracks. How did they do them? They sang each note in the chromatic scale, one at a time and made tape loops of them. Then they were hand faded in and out of the mix creating the lush bed of voices you hear in the background. This was studio wizardry at it's very best. Here is Eric Stewart's account from Sound on Sound Magazine:
"So I had the first six chords or so of the verse figured and I had the melody already figured in my head, as well as the first verse lyrics 'I'm not in love, so don't forget it, it's just a silly phase I'm going through...' so I took this to the studio, played it to the other guys and asked 'Would anyone like to finish it with me?' GG, the bass guitarist, said he would. We usually wrote in pairs, and while the major hits came out of Godley and Creme or myself and Graham Gouldman, we were a very incestuous bunch — we used to swap partners all the time. I wrote 'Life Is A Minestrone' and 'Silly Love' with Lol, and we did swap around a lot just to keep the writing freshness going. It worked beautifully for us. Anyway, at that time Godley and Creme were writing the mini musical 'Une Nuit à Paris' [which would open the album], so they went into one room to finish that, and GG (Grahm Gouldman) and I went into another to work on the 'I'm Not In Love' idea with two guitars. We developed the song pretty quickly. I usually wrote on the keyboard, but 'I'm Not In Love' was written on two guitars, and the ironic thing is that there is no featured guitar on the finished product, just a little DI'd Gibson 335 playing a light rhythm pattern. In the end, we must have spent about two or three days writing before completing it. Well, we recorded 'I'm Not In Love' as a bossa nova and Godley and Creme didn't really like it! Kevin was especially blunt. He said "It's crap". We threw it away and we even erased it, so there's no tape of that bossa nova version. It pissed me off no end at the time, but it was also very democratic and so we turned our attention to the recording of 'One Night In Paris'. Then the studio secretary Kathy said 'Why didn't you finish that song? I really love it. It's the nicest thing you've ever done.' This didn't really impress Kevin, of course, but we discussed it again, and believe me, it was Kevin who suddenly came up with the brainwave. He said 'I tell you what, the only way that song is gonna work is if we totally fuck it up and we do it like nobody has ever recorded a thing before. Let's not use instruments. Let's try to do it all with voices.' I said "Yeah. OK. That sounds... different." So a simple bass drum sound was played by Kevin from a Moog synthesizer as the rhythm track. It was Lol who thought of recording tape loops to layer the voices. it took me a couple of hours to get my head around the idea. But then I figured how we could physically make the loops and set up the studio to do that. I rigged up a rotary capstan on a mic stand, and the tape loop had to be quite long because the splice edit point on the loop would go through the heads and there'd be a little blip each time it did. So, I had to make the loop as long as I could for it to take a long, long time to get around to the splice again. That way you wouldn't really hear the splice/blip. We're talking about a loop of about 12 feet in length going around the tape heads, around the tape-machine capstans, coming out away from the Studer stereo recorder to a little capstan on a mic stand that had to be dead in line vertically with the heads. It was like one of those continuous belts that you see in old factories, running loads of machines, and we had to keep it rigid by putting some blocks on the mic stand legs to keep it dead, dead steady. It worked, but the loop itself — and this is where it gets interesting — had to be made up from multiple voices we'd done on the 16-track machine. Each note of a chromatic scale was sung 16 times, so we got 16 tracks of three people singing for each note. That was Kevin, Lol and GG standing around a valve Neumann U67 in the studio, singing 'Aahhh' for around three weeks. I'm telling you; three bloody weeks. We eventually had 48 voices for each note of the chromatic scale, and since there are 13 notes in the chromatic scale, this made a total of 624 voices." Eric recorded the lead vocal and Rhodes piano. The band sat in the studio for 3 days just listening to the playback. Kevin suggested the Bass solo in the middle. Lol remembered he had said something into the grand piano mics when he was laying down the acoustic piano. He'd said 'Be quiet, big boys don't cry' — heaven knows why, but I soloed it and we all agreed that the idea sounded very interesting if we could just find the right voice to speak the words. Just at that point the door to the control room opened and our secretary Kathy looked in and whispered 'Eric, sorry to bother you. There's a telephone call for you.' Lol jumped up and said 'That's the voice, her voice is perfect!' "We got Kathy in the studio just to whisper those words, and there it was, slotted in just before that bass guitar solo. And it fit beautifully. Again, another little twist of fate, an accident that wasn't on anybody else's songs. We'd never heard that before. It just clinched it and made the song even more original. Poor Kathy was bemused. She didn't want to go in the studio, we had to drag her in, but she was very, very sweet and we eventually persuaded her: 'You've just got to whisper. Just whisper, don't worry. You're not singing, just talking. Use your best telephone voice.' She had a gorgeous voice, and there it is; it's on the recording... and she got a gold record for it, too."
Kathy Redfern, The studio secretary whose voice you hear saying "big boys don't cry" in "I'm Not In Love"
"How Dare You!" Their next album was another completely original work. With "Art for Art's sake" still an FM radio staple in my listening area (N.Y. - Philadelphia). When I purchase audio equipment I bring "How Dare You" and Steely Dan's "Aja" as the benchmark source for fidelity. I think both of these bands had similar production values. (Perfection or bust).
Sadly, no one has supplanted 10cc in the past 20 years. There is nothing remotely like it. I still go back to The Original Soundtrack when I want to hear something completely original, and it still gets my blood pumping, after all these years.
I will do another story in the future about the amazing contributions to both music and film these 4 gentlemen have amassed since Godley & Creme left the band. I leave you with a bit of news, Kevin Godley and Graham Gouldman recently launched a web site and have new material available for downloads! Here are some samples: THE SAME ROAD
One of the Goals of Considerable sounds is to illuminate music that our readers may not have heard before that we believe is worthy of your attention. Many of these artist's are independent. (Not affiliated with major music labels). A great wealth of talent lays in waiting. May I introduce you to Sue G. Wilkinson (If your not already a fan). I only recently became acquainted with her music and regret not previously having this entire cd in my mp3 player's "favorites" list. A song I feel is a real treat for the ears is "Sympatico" a lush somewhat ambient piece that showcases Sue's voice in modes well outside the blues scales where she is obviously quite comfortable. Her piano chops alone are reason enough to investigate this remarkable record. But you also get a unique sensibility of solid songcraft and one of the most legitimate female blues voices in the history of the genre. But to classify this work as R&B is simply too limiting, I detect bit of Professor Longhair, Fats Waller, Wendy Rene, Judy Clay, and Ann Rabson. But there seems to be equal amounts of Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, and Dolores O'Riordan, (I know these references to other artists are never really fair but you have to know where you came from to grasp where your going, right?)
"Discipline is never an end in itself, only a means to an end." (From Tao-Te Ching, a collection of philosophic poems by Laozi.) All extraordinary music shares the common bond of extraordinary discipline. Whether we speak of the brilliance of a Mozart piano concerto, Paco de Lucía performing a perfectly executed flamenco rasguedo, the wondrous vocal inflections of Giuseppe Verdi’s operatic masterpieces, Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”, the glorious simplicity of a Randy Newman song, or the supernatural tone and phrasing of a Carlos Santana guitar line; a profound discipline is always involved. Have a look at this delightful video of the "Top Secret Drum Corps" from Basel,Switzerland.
If I may make a broad generalization, I suggest the Swiss know a thing or 2 about discipline. It is evident in precision instruments crafted there, the way their business is conducted, and in their drum rudiments. It is believed by historians that the first drum corps was Swiss, sometime in the 15th Century. The Swiss had won their independence from the Holy Roman Empire in 1291, and had become known for their bravery and military excellence. The needs of extended marches and camp life encouraged the development of drum music in the 1400’s. The rest of Europe took notice of this military music at the climatic Battle of Marignano (near Milan, Italy) in 1515 and began to recognize the peculiar intelligence and discipline that this type of drumming promoted. Of Course the American Revolution was empowered by percussion as well. America boasts some of the finest drum corps in the world, but it was not invented here as many people seem to believe. American’s moved it into football stadiums and certainly added much to craft, but invented it? Even Julius Caesar refers to Drums as an integral part of the military. “Beware of the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry, [who] infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How will I know? For this I have done. And I am Julius Caesar.”
The buzz about the Top Secret Drum Corp started in Europe but after this performance in Edinburgh, Scotland, well; the secret is out on both sides of the pond. Top Secret's act is a mixture of traditional Swiss drumming with quick rhythmic devices and precision drumstick juggling. It is a truly compelling mix of contemporary and traditional percussion. It was 11 years ago when an aspiring group of young percussionists began looking for a challenge, to perfect their drumming skills and to explore fresh new approaches to their craft. They mixed ideas from the Scottish and North American style of drumming with the world renown Swiss rudiments. During the following years, Top Secret took part in many events in Switzerland and appeared on Swiss Television. The group was originally composed of six drummers and one bass-drummer. The Swiss invented the “traditional grip” of the drumsticks. The advent of drum corps has it's incipience as an actual military squadron used to keep cadence for marching. Groucho Marx once said "Military justice is to justice what military music is to music". I think if he heard this group and saw this performance he might just rescind that comment. What if instead of spilling blood, when nations had conflicts, their drum corps met on the field and whoever kicked musical butt could claim victory? Yes I am an idealist. Raise the bar high. (The realist places the bar within easy grasp.)
“Seemed to me that drumming was the best way to get close to God.” - Lionel Hampton
I have a particular fondness for African Music. With it’s upbeat emphasis on poly-rhythms and rich sonorities it never fails to enrich and enliven even the most casual listener. The musical traditions of the many vibrant, enthralling, yet divergent cultures across this great continent appear to me to weave themselves into a resplendent tapestry of exuberance for life in the moment, thirst for a brighter future, and respect for the heritage of the past.
The princess comes….. And in her train there is a gentle lady; When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name, And they call her: Angelique Kidjo, ask for her;
( Respectfully lifted and twisted from Shakespeare - Love’s Labour Lost)
Angelique Kidjo's New CD -Djin Djin The traditions and culture of Benin in West Africa will come to life as you listen to this gorgeous music created by Angelique Kidjo. The music itself is quite enough incentive to own this recording but there are a few more reasons as well. Some record producers are visionary artists in their own right. Tony Visconti, who produced this recording, is most assuredly one of these. David Bowie, The Moody Blues, T Rex, Thin Lizzy, Annie Haslam ( Do any of our readers remember Annie? The pure operatic voice of the British band “Renaissance”?), Gentle Giant, The Alarm, Adam Ant, and Kristeen Young are among his clients. I know you must be interested, but there are still more reasons you should have this recording. Branford Marsalis, Josh Groban, Alicia Keys, Peter Gabriel, Carlos Santana, Joss Stone and Ziggy Marley all contribute their formidable talents as well. The global scope of this CD is simply unprecedented. Walk (don’t run unless you happen to have your running shoes nearby) to your nearest Starbucks and buy this CD now. (If your like me you might pick up a triple espresso vanilla latte while your there.)
You won’t be disappointed. In case your wondering, the title of the album refers to the sound of the bell that greets the beginning of a new day for Africa. This album, I believe, is the beginning of a new day for Angelique and all of us who take the time to listen as well. The tracks are really quite stylistically diverse yet the deep flowing river of African consciousness flows through it all. Up for something unusual? How about an up tempo Haitian treatment of the Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter” or a new rendition of French composer Ravel's "Bolero."?
I don’t attach a great deal of significance to Grammy awards because frankly these types of honors are more about commerce than art. I will predict however, that this will not only be nominated but actually win one of those coveted statues this year. The CD is available simultaneously at Starbucks Company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada as well as traditional retail. Angelique will appear on NBC's The Tonight Show on Tuesday, May 22nd with Ziggy Marley and will appear on The CBS Saturday Early Show on Saturday, July 14th.
I Also have her touring schedule here:
JUNE 10 New Haven, CT International Festival Of Arts & Ideals 16 Hollywood, CA Playboy Jazz Festival 22 Salt Lake City, UT Utah Arts Festival/Library Square 23 Aspen, CO Jazz Aspen 24 Taos, NM KTAO Solar Center 26 Sante Fe, NM Sante Fe Brewing Company 28 Montreal, QC Le Spectrum
JULY 17 Greenville, SC Bi-Lo Center* 18 Charlotte, NC Charlotte Bobcats Arena* 20 Norfolk, VA Scope Arena* 21 Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall* 24 East Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena* 25 Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum* 27 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless* 28 Albany, NY Pepsi Arena* 30 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun* 31 Wilkes-Barre, PA Wachovia Arena*
AUGUST 3 Hershey, PA Giant Center 4 Pittsburgh, PA Mellon Arena* 5 Westhampton Beach, NY Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center 6 Albany, NY Washington Park Concert Series 7 Milwaukee, WI US Cellular Arena* 8 Green Bay, WI Resch Arena* 10 St. Paul, MN Xcel Center* 12 New York, NY Central Park Summerstage 14 Edmonton, AB Rexcall Center* 15 Calgary, AB Pengrowth Saddledome* 17 Vancouver, BC GM Place* 18 Seattle, WA Key Arena* 21 Napa, ID The Idaho Center* 22 Portland, OR Rose Garden Arena* 24 Stockton, CA Stockton Arena* 25 Anaheim, CA The Honda Center* 28 Salt Lake City, UT Delta Center* 29 Denver, CO Pepsi Center* 31 Omaha, NE Qwest Center* *supporting Josh Groban
In the beginning, Man created music. We don’t know what it sounded like, there were no mp3 files, wavfiles or CD audio. There weren't even vinyl, cassettes, acetate disks, 8 tracks, or radio. Our only glimpse of the early music is through random bits of surviving cave art. Food, sex, musical instruments, and fire appear in ancient cave drawings and petroglyphs around the world. I suggest that these things were elemental to the lives of these people. Admiring the work of someone in the distant past, I can not help but feel that electric tingle of connectivity with the art and the artist . A bolt of lightning ensues from a dim and distant time. An epiphany blooms from somewhere deep in the subconscious and blossoms in the consciousness. Am I so different from this ancient artist?
Music, and perhaps all art for that matter, celebrates both the communal and the individual, the ebb and flow, yin and yang, night and day. It speaks to us on many different levels simultaneously. We can intellectualize it, theorize it, categorize it, or just let it wash over us and experience it. It is both a mathematical language and a conduit for emotion. The very nature of music is both corporeal and spiritual.. It is an idea, and in a world whose mythology fades in the cold light of day; it is the closest thing we have to magic. It’s properties are concurrently: Solid, (instruments, listeners and performers retain their physical size and shape.) Liquid, (smooth and flowing in quality). and Gaseous (without a fixed shape or volume and being able to expand ).
There is nothing else quite like music in the Universe. Imagine for a moment, if Franz Liszt had been killed in a plane crash at 23 like Buddy Holly was, how the course of music history would have changed! (Not to mention Aviation History!) If you have "Vista" as your Operating system, the sounds in your computer were created by King Crimson founder and guitarist Robert Fripp. Here is a relevant quote from the inimitable inventor of "Frippertronics" that I would like to share with you. “Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence." Video of Robert Fripp with analog looping system 1979.
Everything is music. All matter and energy vibrates at specific frequencies . Pythagoras, Aristotle, Dante, and Milton all theorized about the harmonic relationships of "the music of the spheres". Quantum physics is based on frequency or the vibrations inherent in any and all elementary particles. The basic idea behind string theory is that the constituents of reality are strings of extremely small size which vibrate at resonant frequencies. These strings can vibrate in different modes (just like a guitar string can produce different notes).
Music is everything. Vibration is the thread from which the fabric of the universe is woven . On a macroscopic level, stars, solar systems and planets all are singing their own signature theme songs through their unique vibrations (radio waves). On a microscopic level, a composer attempts to rearrange the molecules in the air. My task today is to arrange the words in this article. Since the universe depends so heavily on music, I hope it's a good one.
I ponder what the music editor for “ Duly Consider “ should write about and what the Music Scene section should include. Like music itself, I have concluded, the subjects to explore have no bounds. It will be easier to define what Duly Consider’s Music Scene will not be. It will not be about crass commercialism and it will not be about current mainstream music. It will be about everything else. Frank Zappa once said “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture". Here I am, dancing about architecture.
(This is a mirror post to my article at http://dulyconsider.blogspot.com/)
In the year 1928, Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that the real threat to American freedom was not from an outside assault, but from the devious manipulations of our own misguided leaders. "The greatest dangers to liberty," he duly observed, "lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding."
Zealots have seized our beloved country, and they've proven time after time that they have no understanding whatsoever of the essence of America, our hard-won liberties, our rule of law, or our system of checks and balances in government.
TThese men of zeal are not well-meaning. They are arrogantly striving to thrust an unrecognizable America of supreme executive authority, surveillance , secret government and suppression of dissent upon us. Their weaponry includes promoting fear, manipulation of the media, gerrymandering, disinformation campaigns, the hijacking of honorable patriotic notions, and the duping of good but feeble minded individuals into supporting them through deception, fraud, coercion, extortion and brainwashing.
"You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you have to concentrate on" -George W. Bush
"Fascism should properly be called corporatism because it is the marriage of corporation power with state power"
- Benito Mussolini.
Many of the corporations that bribe & coerce our elected representatives today on K street are the same entities that bought brown shirts for Mr. Hitler. Government acts to serve the interests of elite multi-national corporations not it's own citizens. Consider that Congress and the Supreme Court are on the corporation payroll as well as the administration. Remember that the corporations dominate our press, our airwaves, and a congress that signs bills crafted in congressional offices by corporation lobbyists. Controlling the press by consolidating all the news media into a few corporate camps would be the envy of Hitler's Dr. Goebbels.
Mussolini's opposition kept quiet because he made the trains run on time. The crimes committed in the name of fascism will not be forgotten or forgiven. Now we face the neocon phenomena, but the cause is the same. . . Corporate domination of humanity.
The Zealots constantly wave the bloody flag of 9/11, demanding that the citizenry surrender liberties or be attacked again by psychotic maniacs, that we mustn't question their authority for this only encourages the psychotic maniacs, that all government operations must be cloaked in a dark veil of secrecy to keep the psychotic maniacs off balance, and that executive power must drastically expand to protect us from the psychotic maniacs.
While claiming that they must "secure" America for a post-9/11 world, the zealots are taking us back to a world before our constitution or bill of rights existed. They have been stunningly successful in a short time, frenetically taking Machiavellian step after step, which a submissive news media and obedient Congress have missed, ignored, or applauded. These two "institutions of vigilance" have failed us miserably. "We The People" are the last line of defense. If we can not stop this dangerous rise of authoritarianism, we shall perish from the face of the earth. The great American experiment will go the way of Pluto.
Gino In Atlantic City 1999
