The coffee’s freshly ground, there’s a wide variety of teas and the sticky buns are homemade.

• Free Bradley Manning!! “Alleged Wikileaks source Bradley Manning communicated directly with the website’s founder Julian Assange, prosecutors argued on the fifth day of his pre-trial hearing.”

• “Lori Berenson flew into New Jersey on Tuesday morning – the first time she has returned to US soil since Peruvian authorities arrested her in 1995.”

• (P)ricks Perry and Scott won’t like this news. “The European Commission has imposed tough new restrictions on the export of anaesthetics used to execute people in the US, in a move that will exacerbate the already extreme shortage of the drugs in many of the 34 states that still practice the death penalty.”

• “On a cold winter morning in Iraq’s Sunni heartland, Ali Hatem Suleiman, the leader of the region’s biggest tribe, had just returned from a morning hunt. Like many recent endeavours in the surrounding Anbar province, it was unsuccessful. Wild game and most prey birds are long gone from this parched and desolate land. And, according to Suleiman, so too is hope.”

• “On the eve of his first official overseas trip since being diagnosed with cancer, Hugo Chávez has launched a blistering attack on Barack Obama, describing the US president as a ‘clown’ and an ’embarrassment’.”

With the exception of the Arab countries taverns and bars have played an important part in revolutions through the centuries. People like Franklin and Adams spent a lot of time in taverns. Cafes, even in the Arab countries, have also played their part. During the Viet Nam war music played a large part in the anti-war movement, eg, free concerts in the parks and events like Woodstock. Rock ‘n rollers were/are predominately anti-war, chickenhawks like Ted Nugent being the exception, but where’s the music? We haven’t heard the anti-war music of those days during the wars of the 21st century.

We’re beginning to hear music focused on the incompetence of our elected officials and the greed and crimes of the banksters and the corporate whores in government but it’s still not in the mainstream. Where is it? It’s in the taverns, bars and cafes and it’s on YouTube. With the brutal destruction of the Occupy sites the Occupiers didn’t just go home to see what happens, they’re meeting in the bars and cafes. We’re seeing the birthing pains of a revolution. There are some mainstream songwriters and musicians joining the movement but I think it’s the local bands who play in the clubs who are the vanguard in the new era of protest songs.

Yesterday I was turned on to 2 new songs that reflect this new era. First there was a song written and performed by Graham Nash and James Raymond titled Almost Gone. Wendydavis posted the video in one of her diaries. The second is a song written and performed by a local band named The Strolling Scones and is titled Something Happening In The Air and was linked to by sunmusing here on the Diner. Both are extremely powerful and deserve the widest dissemination possible. In other words, tell people about them. If they don’t yet have that fire in the belly give ’em some kindling and a match.

Editorial cartoon

The truth will set you free but first it’ll piss you off.