Ranting, Raving, and Rocking by Sal Canzonieri

This was my twelfth column in AMP magazine. This one Rants on the post 9/11 USA by Bush & pals, Raves on Monster Model Kits, and Rocks on about Canada's The Dearly Beloved!

Welcome to my twelfth column for AMP magazine.

This month’s Rant:

Like the high gas prices? Ha, that's nothing, it will be hitting $5 a gallon this year. It really should be $18 a gallon! The higher it is the faster they will invest in alternative non-fossil based fuels. There is no real reason we are still burning dinosaur juice all these years other than the oil companies kept the prices low to make sure that we would be continuously using it like the 'addicts' that Bush said we were. Gasoline has been very cheap for decades when it should never have been, especially considering that not only The USA, but China and India, and the rest of the world are burning through billions of gallons a year. Is it any wonder that crude oil is considered to be only available for the next 100 years? That's nothing, 100 years, that means each year the price of gasoline will go up little by little a few dollars a year. Each dollar paid for gasoline is another dollar paid to terrorists, from the Saudi government to the US Oil companies, all terrorists. Let's get off the Oil standard, it's archaic and stupid to use it at all (at least for transportation, since you will still need it to make most plastics).

Just think, back right before Bush usurbed the presidency, there was the LARGEST federal surplus that there ever was in history. It was over $290 BILLION! But, after those glorious tax cuts that Bozo Bush put into effect after 2001, plus, BILLIONS and BILLIONS wasted on this mentally ill Iraq war, we have instead the largest deficit ever! Between 2001 and 2005 alone, the Bush Administration borrowed $1.05 trillion, more than all of the previous presidencies combined -- with an even higher deficit, $423 billion, forecast for fiscal year 2006. Thank you Mr. President! Ladies and Gentlemen, you have just seen the largest white collar crime, bank heist ever! Just think what all that money could have done for the USA. Yep, you're right, we could have invested in our infrastructure and gotten off our dependency on oil by now. But, no, they stole the surplus money and gave it all the Haliburton and friends for their services in Iraq, not to mention how much of the surplus went to the top 5% of this country, who didn't really need it. If these people gave back half of what they got, they would be able to get rid of almost half of the deficit. (also if all illegal aliens paid taxes, the resultant federal income would be enough to wipe out the deficit completely, but that's another story!)

So, what are you going to do to lower your gasline consumption? Carpool? Take the public transportation? Walk more? Ride your bike? Ehh, I bet most people are going to do nothing, since most people are do nothings now. Anyways, back to Bush. His claim that he lowered taxes and no people have more money in their pockets, is very funny, since the average middle class person only got a few hundred dollars from this tax cut. I personally got a lousy $350, which pays for my heating bill for one month or 3-6 family restaurant dinners, big damn deal. His claim is worthless for the majority of Americans, as are his claims that tax cuts have led to job growth from new private investment, since Americans have lost more good jobs than ever. What is totally absurd, and proof that they think that Americans are all idiots or wimps that won't fight, is that Bush administration's tax policies (the tax cut, the huge amount of congressional spending, etc) have necessitated hikes in federal fees, state and local taxes, and co-payment charges to needy veterans and families who rely on Medicaid, along with cuts in loan programs to small businesses and college students, and in a wide range of state services. So, big deal, one hand give's you a $1 and the other hand takes $3 from a different pocket. Eitherway, you are worse off than before, no matter how you look at it. Well, every day you see the Iraq war going on, just think had that is YOUR hard earned BILLIONS of dollars from the Federal Surplus that is going there instead of to you. They could have given every American $40,000 as a rebate, they could have let every American student go to college for free, they could have done a lot of great things with the $290 BILLION surplus, just from the interest it generated alone, but it was stolen from right under us.

The Bozo will be leaving office in 2008, while leaving behind on our backs an unwinnable, embarassing, stupid Iraqi war with the Sunnis (which is what it has boiled down to); incredible trillions of dollars of national debt; inflation thanks to high oil prices; a flood of middle and working class jobs going overseas for good; and tons more things that make me too sick to talk about anymore. What a legacy to leave behind. The Bush crime family has sold America out to the highest bidder, after first raping and plundering it. With his claim of being supreme ruler as a war powers president, how convenient, he's now the dictator of the US, able to surveil people at will and make them disappear uncharged and finally tortured, all under some legal pretense that this Gonzalez traitor has cooked up for him. What is really something to worry about is if these bozos spring some kind of another manufactured 9/11 attack to scare the shit out of people, which is their way of threatening people to shut up and let them do what they want or else.

There's a lot of weird things about the 9/11 attach that don't add up.  Why is it that all 19 hijackers names are not on the airline manifests that show who had bought tickets and had seats, in fact, the manifests account for everyone BUT these 19 people. Not only that but the British press had found at least 7 of these 19 people ALIVE and working in various countries. When they were interviewed they were bewildered that they were being named as being dead and as being among the hijackers! Also, what's up with Building 7 at the WTC complex, it wasn't hit by a plane at all or anything (but it was supposed to it seems). That building collapsed the same way to twin towers did, but from what? People who witnessed the building's collapse on itself say it looked exactly like a controlled demolision implosion, they even heard explosive noises and then it collapsed mysteriously. I guess that something was supposed to hit it like the twin towers were, and the timed demolition explosives went off anyways even if whatever was supposed to hit Building 7 never made it (some guess it was flight #97). Also, some firemen are saying that they were told to shut up about seeing explosives strapped to columns within the twin towers and that they saw and heard them going off before it collapsed the buildings.

Many people are showing slowed down films of flight # 175 right before the South Tower was hit, which show something attached to the underside of the Boeing Plane that is not ever there in any other such plane (it was also the maiden voyage of this brand new plane by the way), and the slowed down films show a small rocket, actually a wire guided missile, shooting out and entering the tower. You can see the films, taken from commercial tv station coverage at this site: www.letsroll911.org There on the 2nd plane, which hit the 2nd World Trade Center building, there is a very large extra piece of equipment that has been attached to the plane's fuselage, off centered on the right side of the fuselage, just forward of the gear well doors. But, it is not standard equipment for a Boeing 767 200 ER, or any other passenger aircraft. Boeing was asked to identify this equipment, obvious in almost all the news photos from 9/11. They refused to identify it, and instead suggested that these questions be answered by the 9/11 Commission. It is CLEARLY visable in all the photos and film footage that show the underside of this plane, it's not an 'if' it is there, but a 'what' is there. No one can deny something that is so clear in all these photos that is not ever seen on any other passager plane anywhere. See for your self. The ONLY planes that exist that has such a thing are military planes. Was a military plane painted to look like a passenger plane and then used to attack the building? Weird too is that in not one photo of this plane do the photos show that there are any passenger windows on the plane.

Plus, totally illogical that this Atta guy, who would be killing himself in a few hours, would drive all night from Massachusetts to Portland Maine, and then check out of room 232 of the Comfort Inn south of Portland at 5:33 a.m. on 9/11, driving their rented blue Nissan Altima to the airport, arriving in a lot at 6 a.m. with only a few minutes to catch a commuter flight to Boston's Logan Airport. In fact, their last-minute check-in caused their two bags not to make that flight, which forces the airline to have their bags arrive on the next flight. Especially since this bag contained all the information about the operation and who was involved, including the names of the hijackers, their assignments and their al-Qaida connections. Sounds like bullshit to me. Why would someone about to kill themselves by smashing a plane into a building, give a shit about packing a bag that contained all the info the FBI would want to know? How wonderfully thoughtful of the hijackers! Those nice terrorists! And, why would they risk these loaded bags (which included correspondence from the University Atta went to in Egypt, Almari's international driver's license and passport, a videocassette for a Boeing 757 flight simulator, a folding knife and pepper spray, and even extra heavy duty weapons they figured they didn't need!) be somehow opened by security and the plan would have been foiled before they ever made it to Boston. Then, by another amazing coincidence, similar papers were found in the wreckage of another airliner! One of the pieces of luggage was said to include "Arab-language papers amounting to Atta's last will and testament, along with instructions to the other hijackers to prepare themselves physically and spiritually for death." This guy thought of everything! But why would a terrorist go spilling all the beans in these two suitcases? He's not a PR man? Oh, and don't forget that his wallet was miraculously found on the ground in NYC! How come no one else's wallets or purses were found, just his? This guy tells all his pals "Check all of your items -- your bag, your clothes, knives, your will, your Ids, your passport, your papers. . . . Make sure that nobody is following you." and then he leaved behind two bags full of information? Incredible! And how about a couple of months later FBI Director Robert Mueller said on CNN, that there was no factual proof these were the guys. Weird too that five simultaneous terror hijacking drills were going on right at that time, that up to 22 planes filled the air controllers' screens so that no one there knew what the hell was real and what wasn't. Weird too that a week before the military was testing a new remote control device that could overtake a plane's controls from a distance and that four of the people that invented the device were told to go to a meeting on 9/11 and of course wound up on one of the 9/11 flights! Weird that someone anonomously warned Brown in California not to travel that day. Weird that these are just a few of the weird things that are connected with 9/11.

This months Raving:

What's cooler than Bug Eyed Monsters driving in souped up custom Hot Rods? Back in the early 1960s, kids (and adults too!) had fun making all kinds of cool model kits. You could build Aurora Monster model kits featuring all the great classic Universal Films monsters such as Frankenstein, Dracula, the Werewolf, The Mummy, The Creature from Black Lagoon, King Kong, Godzilla, and many more! Also there were tons of hot rod models kits around. By 1961 the Revell company began working with no less than Big Daddy Roth, producing 1/25th scale model kits of his most famous custom made autos, such as The Outlaw, which was a gigantic hit amongst model kits builders. In 1963, Revell followed up with the Beatnik Bandit and Tweedy Pie kits. The Bandit was a great futuristic looking car and incorporated the latest fad in show rods: a bubble canopy (which Roth had formed in the oven of a local pizza shop. Tweedy Pie was a cool hot rod that Roth had purchased from mechanic Bob Johnston and updated by adding a new engine and quad headlights. Revell soon became a leading model kit manufactor of custom made cars, which were all the rage in southern California at the time.

One such company making these kind of wild looking model kits was the Hawk Model Company, who were previously known for their airplane, rocket, and battleship kits. In 1963, Hawk created a commotion at the Hobby Industry Association's annual convention when they introduced their "Weird- Ohs" model kits, which mated monster figure models with car, airplane, and boat models. Hawk's kits arrived on the market just when public interest in monsters was peaking. The Munsters and The Addams Family were top-rated shows on television, and Aurora was very sucessful selling their horrormovie monsters model kits. Hawk introduced three amazing series of model kits called Weird-ohs, Frantics, and a Ho-Dads.  Weird-ohs were the monsters and hot rot style kits, Frantics were kooky kits featuring beatniks and Rock n Rollers dancing and playing instruments, and the Ho-Dads series were beach bunnies and surfer characters. They were all funny and cool looking, with big bugged out eyes, crazy animated poses, and wild scenes. They were a lot of fun to build, paint, and display.

What's great now is that the Hawk model kits are back! You can again buy all the Weird-Ohs, Frantics, and surfer models and in their original packaging! The boxes that the kits came in were even better looking than the models! They were great looking colorful paintings that I'm sure have been an inspiration to many of today's artists.  They have reissued all these great kits again and you can find them in your local hobby shop, from internet model kit sellers, on ebay, and on amazon.com even. Keep an eye out for the Drag Hag, Francis the Foul, Digger Dragster, Davey Motorcyclist, Frantic Fruggers, Beatnik Bongo, and over a dozen more!

This month's Rocking:

There's a new amazing band from Toronto, Canada called "Dearly Beloved" , you can check them and their songs out at their myspace.com page:http://www.myspace.com/robhiggins  .
Their official website is: http://www.dearlybeloved.ca/

The band members are Rob Higgins, Niva Chow, Damon Richardson, Shannon Foerter, Alex Oreilly, and John Pogue. Damon recently used to drum for the great Danko Jones band.  Rob was in Change of Heart previously. The Dearly Beloved have a super sophisiticated writing style and they haven't released their first album yet. They have two singers that work really well together like X did. Their voices blend well together in some parts and then contrast each other in other parts of the songs. Their music is High Energy Rock, with intelligent lyrics and an exciting sound. One of the first things you are struck with is how great they write their song arrangements. Canada seems to have some of the best song writers around, with other bands like Nasty On, Tricky Woo, Come On, Bionic, all great Rock & Roll song writers.

What's great about their sound is that is careens from spiky punk into Nirvana bits and into guitar riffs that rip and then the arrangements change suddenly into late 80s post-punk like from Homestead Records back in the day. But altogether, besides telling you that they have great record collections, is that their sound is fresh and adventurous. They obviously have a lot of experience playing live and recording, because they sound not only very smart and exciting but also relaxed enough to groove into their songs while still maintaining a vital sense of urgency.

You can't go wrong checking these guys out, give their songs a listen and contact them via myspace to buy their 6 song ep. Dearly Beloved (and Be Your Own Pet) are the beginning of a new youthful wave of Rock bands that are up and coming for the new generation that doesn't copy cat everyone around them and that doesn't bore you at all. If you like great songs that stick in your head and that bring you on an exciting adventure journey as good as any post-punk bands from days gone by were able to muster, then you will be happy to hear their music. I totally love Niva's voice on their songs and the way that her and Rob's voices don't step on each other and act just as much of an instrument as the guitars and rhythm section!

That's it for this issue! Click here to read column #13

Sal Canzonieri - www.electricfrankenstein.com / www.myspace.com/electricfrankenstein
salcanzonieri@att.net