Taking the stage at a community center in the small Northern California town of Bolinas, a group of four musicians quickly showed themselves to be returning as a vibrant creative force centered very much in the present.

     Not that the music of Country Joe and the Fish ever really disappeared. Since the release of the band’s first two albums in 1967 -- “Electric Music for the Mind and Body” along with “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die” -- many of its songs have meandered through the memories and semi-consciousness of millions of Americans who came of age a third of a century ago.

     Now reconstituted with four of the legendary group’s original five members, the new Country Joe Band has just begun to tour. When I saw them perform, midway through April, the music was as tightly effusive as ever, with poetic lyrics mostly brought to bear on two perennials: love and death.

     Their new song “Cakewalk to Baghdad” is in sync with Country Joe McDonald’s compositions that stretch back to the escalating years of the Vietnam War. With the post-“victory” occupation of Iraq in its

I do not argue with the Bob Fitrakis premise, but the question is why have so many waited so long?

Bob Woodward  is being praised by the talking heads (a naval term) as "likely the greatest reporter of this century", "the man who can really get the news stories no one else can" and other similar accolades. Is the purpose of a Bob Woodward to be the insiders ultimate hatchet man? Is it his job to destroy one of their own who has stepped out of line or has been used about as much as he/she can be used and  therefore needs to be replaced with the next step towards a "New" World "Order".? ("New" - There is nothing new about this, it is as old as Babylon.  "Order" since when is chaos order)

Look at the alternative they have set up for us.  The ultimate prairie fairy John Kerry.  If that thing had a cogent thought, the resulting friction in his head would create a steam explosion in that vacuous extremity of his.

For the millions of progressives who abandoned Al Gore in 2000 and either stayed at home or voted for Ralph Nader, what has the prospective Democratic nominee, John Kerry, got to offer?

            By now the answers are on the record. Kerry wants more troops in Iraq, and he wants austerity at home. By announcing April 9 that as president he would make deficit-reduction his prime task in managing the economy, Kerry as good as stated that he has no plans to combat America's greatest domestic problem: the lack of jobs, currently advertised in the notorious "jobless recovery." So what's left for the progressives to vote for?

April 25th 2004 is the Panchen Lama of Tibet's 15th birthday. The Panchen Lama was kidnapped by the Chinese government in 1995 and they continue to hold him and his family incommunicado.

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