I grew up in a time when being liberal was almost a moral imperative. My parents supported civil rights, women's rights, and opposed the war in Vietnam. And as best as I could tell, then and now, there weren't a lot of gray areas in those positions. The left clearly had the moral high ground, and my home state of Alabama, in the 1960s, was arguably the front line in the battle for social change.

The year that was 2005 was definitely the breakout year for San Francisco rock 'n' roll outfit Tea Leaf Green.  They released the very well-received studio project "Taught to Be Proud", which even earned them a Jammy award for Best Song of the Year, and garnered a huge fan base by spreading their sound through more than two-hundred performances.

Tony Furtado's new album, Thirteen, streets January 23 and features Jim Dickinson (Big Star, Replacements ), Dusty Wakeman (Anne McCue, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam ) and producer Craig Schumacher (Neko Case, Calexico, Iron & Wine ). Tony is presently conducting phone interviews from his home base of Portland, Oregon.

I never understood the notion of the critic.  Who takes the time and effort to write about something they don't like?  I have always tried to use the written word to elevate, not dissect or discredit.  So it's with some trepidation that I set out to discuss RatDog's two night stand at (to borrow from the great Neil Peart) the "obnoxious local bank" theater (near Westbury Music Fair) on October 31st and November 1st in Westbury, NY.

After 6 years of incompetence, hypocrisy, corruption, and fear based tactics, the time has come for change.

Let's revisit a portion of Republican corruption...

1) Mark  Foley (and the republicans trying to cover it up because they're more concerned with keeping a seat in congress than protecting children).  Hastert needs to be fired immediately.  The fat f(*k sweats in the winter time.

2) Abu Ghraib prison