I guess that PNAC kool-aid is the extra-strength variety. He still expects a grateful Iraq to after W. At a debate in Portland:
Perle, a veteran of the Reagan administration and a former Pentagon adviser, was forced by one of the questioners to recast a comment he made on September 22, 2003, in which he predicted that within one year, there would be "a grand square in Baghdad named for President Bush."
"I’d be a fool not to recognize that it did not happen on the schedule I had in mind," Perle said, adding that he did not deny that the administration had made mistakes in Iraq.
But, Perle added, "I will be surprised, yet again, if we do not see a square in Baghdad named after this president." He did not specify a time.
A glimpse at the leader of the Shiite coalition voted into power fairly mocks Perle’s prediction. Ibrahim al-Jaafari has pledged to into his government. A perfect follow up to Perle would be to ask whether he thought Minister al Sadr would attend the ceremony in Baghdad to dedicate George W. Bush Plaza, while Sistani carves the ham served at the reception in W’s honor afterward. . .
was always tough to categorize–a partial explanation for why they never quite crossed into the popular consciousness. With the band basically broken up for more than a decade (their cult status fueling enough interest for a 2000 Japanese tour and a more-recent European rock fest), it was surprising to come across a new with drummer Pat Muzingo and his reflections on the band and the long-gone East Hollywood scene they helped create alongside bands like Guns \’N\’ Roses and Jane\’s Addiction.
Muzingo lays out how a bunch of punks made the transition to just-plain-rockers, shifting the sonic paradigm to include both The Sex Pistols and AC/DC. It matters now because much of KROQ\’s current mall-punk playlist cites influence from the exact same neighborhood, proof that Junkyard\’s Texas-blues-channeling Cali-punk approach was more than a bit ahead of its time.
When they first got together, Junkyard\’s punk rock cred was impeccable (even the way their coterie used their variant "blooze" tipped you off that there was communion at street level). Muzingo (and future Junkyard bassist Todd Muscat) played with SoCal hard-core fixtures (who had a couple of Cheap Trick covers in their set list right from jump street), guitarist Chris Gates was one of (Austin, Texas\’ seminal, tutu-wearing punk outfit) and guitarist Brian Baker had already earned legend-status as a fourteen-year-old member of and later . (The Hot Topic crowd now know Baker as a member of .) By the time they formed Junkyard, the players were ready for more than two-chord thrash:
"As far as opportunities elsewhere I guess you can look at it this way. No matter what band member you ask that came from the Punk scene circa 1979 - 1984 chances are they grew up skateboarding, getting stoned, surfing or just hanging out listening to Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynrd, Led Zeppelin or Van Halen. When punk came around it was like \’Fuck this shit, lets go break some shit and piss everyone off\’. But even that got old. The guitar you used to play like crap all of a sudden made music, you realized there was more than two parts to a song and ZZ Top and Van Halen were just as cool, as Black Flag and The Circle Jerks."
Junkyard\’s last L.A. appearance was at , Summer 2003, the Sunset Strip locale–a little bit of irony for a band that preferred to The Roxy way back when. That show was a one-off, warm-up for a festival they played in Spain a few weeks later, the group\’s last appearance anywhere. Rumors are very real that they\’ll be back in Europe this summer (Spain, again, maybe Italy), with - we hope - a couple of shows here at home.