ike Nelson Mandela… like Rubin "Hurricane" Carter… like my cousin Nick who didn’t even know that somebody put that gun under his seat, professional blogger/journalist, or boggelist, as I just now coined, Josh Wolfe was held prisoner for his principles for a brutal and unforgiving 7½ months. It may not be 27 years, but how many years have you served for something you believed in, hotshot? And now that he’s a free man again, for skirting those principles just a bit, boggelist Wolfe has fought back the only way his small, spindly body knows how—a take-no-prisoners blog update.

"Prison is total crap," grumbled Wolfe, "they always tell you what to do and they never let you out. I don’t know who came up with the idea of prisons, but they… that guy just needs to be shot. Or sent to prison. Ooo, yeah, that would be ironic."

The serious burn was posted in Wolfe’s customary video format, saving the need for a spell-check, Saturday following his April 3 release from a federal prison in Dublin, California. Wolfe had been held since last August when he refused to turn over a video demanded by law enforcement they claimed might show participants in an arson attempt on a police car and a the injury of a San Francisco police officer. Tricky dick federal prosecutors got around pesky California shield laws which protect reporters, thereby denying the risky venture of having bloggers challenge they deserved protection as journalists, by claiming federal funds that bought the police car made it a federal case.

"That’s bullshit," countered Wolfe in his hot-to-the-web response. "If I give you Phish concert tickets, and you go there and get your ass kicked by a big dude for singing along during a serious jam, I don’t get to go down and sue the big dude or press criminal charges. Especially not if there’s shield laws that protect big dudes from being prosecuted for kicking ass when a guy ruins a concert. I mean, think about it—makes no sense."

Wolfe was released early from his sentence following a deal with prosecutors. The boggelist, who went to jail for refusing to turn over the video tape, turned over the video tape. In exchange, he didn’t have to go back to jail, an agreement Wolfe called "a sweet deal" for himself.

In addition, Wolfe was freed from testifying as to the contents of the video. Early testimony not released to law enforcement allegedly included such descriptions as, "That’s a guy really flipping out ’cause the cops are coming," and, "Oh, check this guy. What a prick." Apparently prosecutors decided they could do without Wolfe going on record.

Wolfe came to the attention of federal authorities when his video aired on local news, but the boggelist stood by his convictions by refusing to allow outtakes from the video to air. According to Wolfe, the outtakes were mostly when vengeful rioters protesting the G8 summit and calling for anarchy kept bursting into laughter when a few of them mispronounced the word as "annanarchy."

"Getting out of jail for giving them the video I refused to give them seven months earlier has allowed me to strike a blow for justice," Wolfe concluded in his "fuck you" to the system. "Let this stand as evidence that bloggers are as dedicated to protecting their sources as any other print or media journalist. Also, the arresting officer was a total douchebag, so I really couldn’t give up the tape until I heard they totally canned that guy’s ass."

Despite pressing pleas from commune reporters, Wolfe refused to embrace the word boggelist, so we exacted our revenge by misspelling in this article.

otes along party lines heralded the passing of Congress' new military budget, which would allow $122 billion in funding with the stipulation that all troops be removed from Iraq by the deadline of March 31, 2008. It was a critical blow to the G.O.P. and the president, who did not concede defeat but instead promised the bill, if it passes the House, would have to face the merciless wall of "White House Vito."

Presidential advisor and former CEO of the Dallas Quik-Dry Cement Company Vito Pantusi has been working closely with Bush on a compromise that will make all involved parties happy, a White House inside source says, particularly the President Bush party.

"Mr. Pantusi plans on visiting House and Senate Democrats personally with some associates to convince them they've voted improperly," said our source. "His associates are sporting enthusiasts, as anyone can tell by their baseball bats, and Mr. Pantusi is sure he can teach certain Congressmen all about fair play."

Acquitted on three different charges of influencing a congressional vote with a large tank of piranha fish, "White House Vito" has been an associate of the president since their days together in the Texas business community, and the president has brought in Pantusi as an advisor in hard negotiations in the past. In 2005, with an end-of-year deadline fast approaching, Pantusi assisted in advising the president in negotiating the Andean Free Trade agreement.

"The White House would like to consider this matter resolved-like," Pantusi said in a follow-up news conference, cracking his knuckles audibly for the press in one of his rare public appearances. Other involved parties declined comment, and quickly shrunk from reporters who approached them too fast with microphones.

Speculation has already begun as to what role Mr. Pantusi and his special "commission o' negotiatin' muscle" might play in opposition to the deadline bill. Representatives of the negotiating commission, including White House Vito standing ominously in the background, fielded a few quick questions from reporters on Friday.

"In, uh, response to the question, ah, from the ravishing lady from The Washington Post with the killer rack," replied Pantusi associate Johnny Lips, "the president is, uh, looking for an amicable solution to the, er, Iraq budgetary disagreement. The president would, uh, prefer to leave the decisions on, um, monetary needs and appropriate troop presence to the, er, military personnel in charge of that there decision."

Pantuis himself only responded to one question, when a reporter from CNN asked if the president had any doubts about pursuing a war the public increasingly opposes. To which White House Vito answered by throwing his cigar at the trembling reporter and shouting over the microphone, "You want me to come down there and show you some fucking opposition? You like that, tough guy? I should smack your fucking glasses off, numbnuts."

If the White House chooses to pass the bill, the new budget requires Bush to start bringing troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan within 120 days. If negotiations go roughly with Vito Pantusi, 120 days is also the average length of hospital stay expected for congressmen who have enjoyed a difficult compromise with Bush's advisor. The Democratic majority in the Senate, however, warned that they would not be scared by White House intimidation.

"It's the president's right to respond with Vito to any legislation he disagrees with," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, "but Congress is not without its own powers. If the president tries to force through his own Iraq budget through the Senate after rejecting ours, we're always willing to respond with Philly Buster."

The Senator gestured to a husky Samoan page standing behind the speaking Democrats, scratching his goatee and nodding his head ominously.

Dudes, us rock 'n' roll die-hards can longer lie to ourselves: Rock 'N' Roll is dying.

Who among us is a music doctor, a hard rock Dr. House, who could diagnose when exactly rock 'n' roll contracted its fatal disease? It might have been the first time Richard Marx released his first album, or as late as when Russell Crowe thought he had the balls to rock. And no doubt we can put a lot of that blame on the cancerous influence of corporations. These modern corporations are leeches who suck the life right out of rock 'n' roll, nothing like the good corporations who gave the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols, and Pearl Jam before their big wide-release breaks.

The way I see it, we have two choices: We can sit back and wear black kerchief armbands and piss and moan about the death of rock 'n' roll—or we can save it. Guess which one Derek Zomny is all 'bout.

I speak the fothermuckin' truth when I say I have the one band that can save rock 'n' roll. I'm not so different than Jon Landau in Rolling Stone years ago, saying with certainty, "I have seen the future of rock 'n' roll and his name is Bruce Springsteen." My case is exactly the same, except for Rolling Stone had readers. Also, I am in the band that is the future of rock 'n' roll: Face Mask.

Despite being the lead singer/songwriter/lead guitarist/manager/van driver/owner for the band Face Mask, I have no bias when I say we are the best fucking band out there right now. When people ask me what is our sound, I say pure fucking beauty, man. We aren't like other bands and we refuse to sound like them. We aren't like these other bands that came to save rock 'n' roll but just kipe the original sound of some other band. Oasis? Puh-leeze. They're sub-Beatles. The Strokes? The Velvet Underground meets the Buzzcocks. We sound like the band Jesus would have had and nothing else.

Like any band, we had to start by playing covers of our influences. Josh (rhythm guitar, though sometimes the lying prick will tell girls he's lead guitar, as if) was really into the Edge a long time ago, but now he listens to mostly Clapton. So we worked "Sunday Bloody Sunday" into our repertoire. Nash, our bassist, has always been a big Rush man, so we had to play "Tom Sawyer," and since him and me both like the Zep, and I could do the shit out of a scream, we covered "Immigrant Song," too. We used to have a big fat drummer named Sticky Pete, too, and he made us do some Primus shit we weren't into, but we kicked his ass to the curb for a more photogenic dude on skins, Clint Warhawk. He's not an Indian, but fuck if you can tell that. And he's really into Guns 'N' Roses, so we added "Sweet Child O' Mine" to our latest set list.

I don't have to tell you guys, however, that the real test for a band is their original material, and nobody has the fucking original material we do. I write songs like John Lennon and Paul McCartney were locked in a fucking room with Kurt Cobain and Bob Dylan. You go into that room and maybe you find nothing but blood and entrails and a pile of pure genius songs, that's what it's like in my composition book where I compose.

Songs like "You Don't Bring Me Malt Liquor," "Tongue Death," "Fancy Fucking Girl," and "Trip on This Shit, You Cock" (an instrumental, but not because I couldn't think of lyrics) will go down into the rock history books next to "Eleanor Rigby," I guaran-fucking-tee you.

This may all seem like cocky boasting to those of you who haven't heard us yet, but I swear, Face Mask more than lives up to the expectations I give you. And anyone who doesn't believe me, and will be in the Richmond, Virginia area May 25 is welcome to come to Thomas Jefferson High School on prom night and see the future of rock 'n' roll, alive and kicking. We also do stage-diving.

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