23/7

This blog has moved

2009-06-25T21:25:00.002-04:00

I've moved this blog over to http://clownschool.wordpress.com. please visit there..... c'mon, you've always wanted to go to clown school!

Wow, Has It Been That Long?

2009-05-04T16:40:00.005-04:00

My little unplanned break from active blogging has suddenly turned into close to two months of no posts at all. I'd apologize, but I doubt anyone's really checking this site daily or weekly looking for stuff to read.

And really, if I don't have much worthwhile to write about or share with you (assuming "you" even exist), then why fill the space with posts regurgitating the news of the day followed by my snarky comments and criticisms?

So I just wanted to drop a quick note as a place holder to show I'm still here and the blog is still going. Not sure where or when.... but it's going.

With that, I'll leave you with a Top Ten list of stuff I've really enjoyed listening to recently:

1. John Wesley Harding - Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead
2. Prince - Lotusflow3r and MPLSound
3. Silversun Pickups - Swoon
4. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South
5. Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
6. Otis Taylor - Recapturing the Banjo
7. Allen Toussaint - The Bright Mississippi
8. Jerry Garcia Band - Kean College 1980
9. Tom Petty - Highway Companion
10. My 17-month-old son talking more and more every day

Incredible Photo Art That Makes You Think

2009-03-15T21:28:00.006-04:00

I highly recommend checking out Running The Numbers: An American Self-Portrait by Chris Jordan.

His statement about it:

Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 32,000 breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. every month.

This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

~chris jordan, Seattle, 2008

Among his fine work you'll see:

410,000 paper cups, equal to the number of disposable hot-beverage paper cups used in the US every fifteen minutes.
28,000 42-gallon barrels, the amount of of oil consumed in the United States every two minutes (equal to the flow of a medium-sized river).
106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds.
125,000 one-hundred dollar bills ($12.5 million), the amount our government spends every hour on the war in Iraq.
One hundred million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees cut in the U.S. yearly to make the paper for junk mail.

One of his incredible pieces shows 200,000 cigarette packs to symbolize the number of Americans who die from smoking every six months. So 400,000 Americans DIE every year from cigarette smoking. In the name of national security and keeping us safe..... why are cigarettes still legal? I mean, approximately 3,000 were killed on that Tuesday morning in September and we waged war on terror. Where's the war on tobacco?

Another piece depicts 65,000 cigarettes, equal to the number of American teenagers under age eighteen who become addicted to cigarettes every month.

Man, we are really not keeping Americans safe!!

Anyway, be sure to also poke around the rest of his website to check out his portraits from the wake of Katrina, a global version of Running The Numbers, and other fine stuff.

Slow Blogging

2009-03-12T20:55:00.001-04:00

Wow, it's been almost a month between posts. Sorry folks... I'll come back. I promise.

Until then, enjoy this link about Slow Blogging

I Did Not Take This Photo

2009-02-20T21:53:00.002-05:00

Radio Killed Led Zeppelin: The Top 10 Songs That Remain the Same

2009-02-11T20:49:00.008-05:00

Today we mourn the death of a great band, Led Zeppelin, at the hands of big bad Classic Rock Radio. Sure, you could look at a couple tracks on the following list like “eh, that's not overplayed; I wish my station would play that one.” And that illustrates the point. The fact that we can all think of more than 10 Led Zeppelin songs that are so overplayed says something about classic rock radio.

Stairway To Heaven
Black Dog
Communication Breakdown
Whole Lotta Love
Immigrant Song
Rock'n'Roll
Fool in the Rain
D'yer Mak'er
All My Love
Dancing Days and Heartbreaker (tie)
Kashmir*

I remember when my brother got In Through The Outdoor on vinyl as a Bar Mitzvah gift. I spent a lot time obsessing on how the front and back covers were related.

I also remember hearing "Kashmir" on classic rock radio a lot when I was little. My dad and brother were musicians (I was just a drummer) and we used to listen and count and try to figure out the deal.... we thought the song was in 7/8 timing, but there was always something weird about it that messed with us. Turns out the guitars were essentially playing a riff in 3/4 while the drums were still in 4/4. Or not. Who knows....

Led Zeppelin had it all. The mystique... the albums named simply with numbers. Till the 4th one, which was so legendary and bad ass that it didn't have a title. Or it was self-titled. It had nicknames. Like Led Zeppelin IV and Zoso. And of course the song “Stairway to Heaven” was on that album. It was never actually officially released as a single and it is among the most played songs in radio history.

Then they started naming their albums and the titles were as killer as the tunes. Houses of the Holy. Physical Graffiti (which contained the song “Houses of the Holy”). Presence, which by the way is a great and vastly underrated album.

Now, thanks to Classic Rock Radio, they've been reduced to a cliché of riffs. How embarrassingly sad it is to see a grown man at a bar turn to his drinking buddy and scream out “Hey hey mamma say the way you move” and “been along time since-a rock'nROLL!” Radio made Led Zeppelin annoying by ramming it down our throats in succession with Boston, Elton John, The Eagles, Billy Joel, Heart, Bob Seger, Steve Miller, and Phil Collins everyday until we took Led Zeppelin’s awesomeness for granted.

So now we don’t think much about Led Zeppelin. We casually toss them aside because we’re “bored” with them. Or because we can only take Robert Plant’s voice in small doses. Or we just dismiss them as blues-ripoff artists… Thanks a lot, Classic Rock Radio. You ruined one of the best fucking bands in the world and you continue to stab its corpse everyday, once an hour, and every night when you “Get the Led Out.”

*Ah... but what about “Kashmir”?? The legendary “KASHMIR,” it should be in caps... with it's promise of “all will be revealed.” Its otherworldly sound. We do owe radio one small thanks: they actually played “Kashmir” for us. It's the kind of long weird cool song that they usually would fail to play. Sure they overplayed it, but we didn't mind. It's the one song on the list that is resistant to being played to death. Of course, some people think “Kashmir” is overrated. Maybe it is. Technically, The Beatles are “overrated” but that doesn’t mean they aren’t any good. But “Kashmir” reminds us that the Mighty Mysterious Led Zeppelin is still great, mighty, and mysterious. “Kashmir” lets us know that there’s more out there beyond “Black Dog” and “Stairway.”

The songs don’t have to remain the same.

With that in mind…. Here’s a bonus:

Top 10 Awesome Zeppelin Things That Cant Be Killed

1. The BBC Sesssions (2-disc live set)
2. How the West Was Won (3-disc live set)
3. 1973 5-18 Dallas, Texas (soundboard recording)
4. 1975 2-12 Madison Square Garden, NY (matrix of soundboard and audience recording)
5. 1977 4-27 Cleveland, OH (soundboard recording)
6. 1977-6-19 San Diego, CA (soundboard recording)
7. JOHN BONHAM (as should be apparent by all the live recordings listed above, the true awesome power of Led Zeppelin is best felt/heard on the live shows, not single songs on the radio. And the genius and raw talent of John Bonham is big reason why. Y'know, we learned that he drank himself to death so you expect him to be sloppy or something but he is an amazing monster and I mean that in the best possible way. So, no, John Bonham can't be killed.)
8. Physical Graffiti
9. Presence
10. The Possibility of a Led Zeppelin reunion tour with Jason Bonham on drums

They Should Make the Monday After the Super Bowl "Presidents Day"

2009-01-30T22:18:00.003-05:00

It's so obvious, I'm glad I thought of it. I need to figure out a way to make money off this idea, but I'd settle for just getting the day off.

Here's the deal: they have Washington's Birthday or I guess now they sorta combined him with Lincoln or something and made it "Presidents Day." Third Monday in February I think it is. And the Super Bowl that used to be played in late January, now increasingly falls out on the first few days of February. Not a huge deal, but that puts a bit further from Martin Luther King Day, and it has become a "February" event in our minds. "January football" now means Playoffs and "if you wanna be playing in February" is now a direct reference to making it to the Super Bowl.

So, you see where I'm going with this right? Presidents Day is kinda pointless anyway, right? It's just some random Monday off. It's not like we plan family visits or anything. And it usually isn't really on Washington's actual birthday, so why not move it back couple weeks and make it the first Monday in February? Like it matters. Jesus wasn't born on December 25.

But wait.... that's not all. I'm not proposing the day after Super Bowl be Presidents Day just for the partying factor and being able to stay up late for the game (hey, a new generation of kids/fans/consumers need to be raised, how can they watch the big game if they got school in the morning?). And it's not to avoid calling in sick, AKA hungover.

This is actually an economic stimulus package that I implore President Obama, enthusiastic sports fan that he is, to embrace and pursue. Presidents Day is usually filled with ridiculous sales on cars and mattresses (two items that are ALWAYS on sale). They drum up these silly commercials with cartoons of Lincoln and Washington to tell us to shop for stuff. Why? Most of us just do laundry that day and wonder what might be open or closed, since it's not really a holiday but it is. So no one shops. Wasted holiday.

So, once you move it the day after the Super Bowl, Presidents Day will be right after the day/night famous for not just football, but the fact that 10's of millions of Americans of all demographics gather around their TV's to WATCH THE COMMERCIALS. Personally I'm all about the game. But a LOT of people come right out and say they are "excited" for the "commercials."

What an opportunity! Wouldn't it be awesome if, the day after the Super Bowl, hordes of Americans were off work and school, and heading out to buy the cars and colas and countless other crappy items they saw advertised the night before!

This makes too much sense. And while it might not happen, I think it's more likely than the NFL moving the game to Saturday. But, until then, just keep callin in sick.

Stairwell

2009-01-28T21:58:00.004-05:00

stair
well

...

Top 10 Best Country Albums Ever

2009-01-27T22:01:00.014-05:00

Keep in mind, these are just the ones that I love the best. NOT a list of the Most Important/Influential or what have you. Just my favorites. Some might be considered classic country, folk, alt.country, country-rock... doesn't matter. I promise these are all great records. In no particular order, but numbered anyway. Ah screw it, I'll give ya 11:

Whiskeytown - Strangers Almanac
Gram Parsons - G.P./Grievous Angel
Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
Johnny Cash - The Legend of Johnny Cash
Ryan Adams / Cardinals Jacksonville City Nights
Old Crow Medicine Show - Big Iron World
Old 97's - Too Far To Care
Bob Dylan John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline
Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead

How I Became a Steelers Fan

2009-01-27T16:09:00.007-05:00

Y'know, it's weird. You're born in a certain geographic area and you are bound to certain sports teams. I guess you're really not, but it feels like you are. Or you should be. And so it was that I was born in Washington, DC, and raised in nearby suburban Maryland. A Redskins fan.

And yet, here I am, Super Bowl week, with my basement covered in black and gold. Getting geared up cuz Pittsburgh's goin to the Super Bowl.

How did I get here?

Well, I lived in northern West Virginia for 10 years and that's Steeler Country. Of course there were plenty of times that I resisted and hated the Steelers, if only because The League forced me to watch them because of where I lived at the time. But I noticed something. They were a tough, resilient bunch. On and off the field. The fans endured and the team pressed on under solid ownership and very few coaching changes.

I didn't live through it, but I lived near the Mike Tomszak and Neil O'Donnell and Bubby Brister and Kordell Stewart and Tommy Maddux eras. The Chin. The Bus. Hines Ward. I remember when they lost to San Diego in the AFC Championship in the mid-90s. Sure at the time I probably laughed and mocked them for not making it to the big game. Just as I did when they lost that Super Bowl to the Cowboys on those O'Donnell interceptions. But I wasn't a Steeler fan then. Not yet.

So after all those years of living nearby, I moved away to Baltimore, only to do so with and then marry a crazy Steeler fan. So the Steelers became my Team-inlaw. We grew close. They drafted Ben Roethlisberger. They somehow won that crazy playoff game against the Colts. The Chin. The Bus. Hines Ward. And that season, during that playoff run, I could feel it. I felt it.

The next season I went to three games, two on the road in my black and gold. We lost all three.

Then we had a son. We decided to raise him a Steeler fan. Even though he's living in Ravensville, not far from Redskins country. But... and you'll roll your eyes and think this is just politically correct, but the Washington pro football franchise has a racist nickname and have a turned a culture into a mascot. So all those lamps and hampers and onesies and kids replica jerseys we're gonna buy for our kid? They wont be supporting the racist Washington football franchise.

One of my best friends is a Cowboys fan. We have some fun Dallas-Washington banter and wagers. Some solid sports-rivalry-style hatred there. But much like me, he's starting to feel like his team represents everything that he hates about modern professional sports. So since he lives in Baltimore, and was a Colts fan as a little kid, he's pledging his allegiance to the purple of the Ravens. And much like I accept my Washington football franchise blood, he's still a Dallas Cowboys fan...

And as the Washington-Dallas games have lost the luster they had in the 70s and 80s, the Steelers-Ravens rivalry has snuck up to become the best and hardest hitting in the league. Right up to this year's game with a Super Bowl berth on the line.

So this Super Sunday I'll be cheering in hopes for a 2nd ring since I've been a Steeler fan. Tomlin. Big Ben. Hines Ward. So call me a bandwagoneer if you must. But so far Steeler Nation has welcomed me aboard that bandwagon. This is how I became a Steeler fan.

Oh yea, and Troy Polamalu.

The Day the Music Died

2009-01-27T16:03:00.002-05:00

And we'll be singin.... bye bye miss American pie:

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa – It's been 50 years since a single-engine plane crashed into a snow-covered Iowa field, instantly killing three men whose names would become enshrined in the history of rock 'n' roll.

The passing decades haven't diminished fascination with that night on Feb. 2, 1959, when 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens performed in Clear Lake and then boarded the plane for a planned 300-mile flight that lasted only minutes.

"It was really like the first rock 'n' roll landmark; the first death," said rock historian Jim Dawson, who has written several books about music of that era. "They say these things come in threes. Well, all three happened at the same time."

Starting Wednesday, thousands of people are expected to gather in the small northern Iowa town where the rock pioneers gave their last performance. They'll come to the Surf Ballroom for symposiums with the three musicians' relatives, sold-out concerts and a ceremony as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame designates the building as its ninth national landmark.

And they'll discuss why after so many years, so many people still care about what songwriter Don McLean so famously called "the day the music died."

"It was the locus point for that last performance by these great artists," said Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. "It warrants being fixed in time."

Stewart said the deaths still resonate because they occurred at a time when rock 'n' roll was going through a transition, of sorts. The sound of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Holly was making way for the British Invasion of the mid-1960s.

"The music was shifting and changing at that point," he said. "The crash put a punctuation point on the change."

All three musicians influenced rock and roll in their own way.

Holly's career was short, but his hiccup-vocal style, guitar play and songwriting talents had tremendous influence on later performers. The Beatles, who formed about the time of the crash, were among his early fans and fashioned their name after Holly's band, The Crickets. Holly's hit songs include "That'll Be The Day," "Peggy Sue" and "Maybe Baby."

Richardson, "The Big Bopper," is often credited with creating the first music video with his recorded performance of "Chantilly Lace" in 1958, decades before MTV.

And Valens was one of the first musicians to apply a Mexican influence to rock 'n' roll. He recorded his huge hit "La Bamba" only months before the accident.

The plane left the airport in nearby Mason City about 1 a.m., headed for Moorhead, Minn., with the musicians looking for a break from a tiring, cold bus trip through the Upper Midwest.

It wasn't until hours later that the demolished plane was found, crumpled against a wire fence. Investigators believe the pilot, who also died, became confused amid the dark, snowy conditions and rammed the plane into the ground.
The crash set off a wave of mourning among their passionate, mostly young fans across the country. Then 12 years later the crash was immortalized as "the day the music died" in McLean's 1971 song, "American Pie."
-By MARCO SANTANA, Associated Press Writer

Starting to Clean Up the Mess

2009-01-26T21:25:00.003-05:00

Some more good news a few days in to the Obama Administration. As promised and expected, Obama moved fast on changing the direction of our energy and environmental policies. From Reuters news service:

Obama takes steps to reverse Bush climate policies

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama began reversing the climate policies of the Bush administration on Monday, clearing the way for the government to allow states to set stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars.

The president told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider California's request, denied under President George W. Bush, that would allow it to impose stricter limits on vehicle carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for contributing to global warming.

As many as 18 other states have indicated they may follow California's lead, putting tailpipe emissions standards that are tougher than federal requirements into effect.

"The federal government must work with, not against, states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Obama said at the White House, taking a stab at his predecessor's policies.

"California has shown bold and bipartisan leadership through its effort to 21st century standards. And over a dozen states have followed its lead."

The president also directed the Department of Transportation to move forward with setting vehicle fuel efficiency standards for 2011 by March, giving automakers an 18 month period to impose them.

He also instructed the U.S. government in general to become more energy efficient.

"The days of Washington dragging its heels are over. My administration will not deny facts. We will be guided by them," he said.

Obama laid out broad principles that he said his administration would follow. It was time for the United States to lead on climate change, he said, and reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

"It will be the policy of my administration to reverse our dependence on foreign oil," he said, adding previous administrations had made similar goals.

"We need more than the same old empty promises. We need to show that this time it will be different," he said.

JAYDIOHEAD

2009-01-23T22:21:00.006-05:00

It's exactly what you think it might be: JayZ mixed and mashed up with Radiohead. Some tunes are really cool and some are just ok. Overall it's definitely pretty cool if you like either or both of these artists. And it's free to stream and/or downlowd from Jaydiohead.com.

Produced by: Minty Fresh Beats (www.myspace.com/mintyfreshmusic)

Track list:

1 - Wrong Prayer
2 - 99 Anthems
3 - No Karma
4 - Lucifer's Jigsaw
5 - Optimistic Moment
6 - Dirt Off Your Android
7 - Dreaming Up
8 - Change Order
9 - Fall In Step
10 - Ignorant Swan

Breaking News: Pen Still Mightier Than Sword

2009-01-22T22:18:00.001-05:00

Some great news already. I know some of this might only be symbolic, but it's just so refreshing after the last 8 years. From today's Washington Post:

President Obama yesterday eliminated the most controversial tools employed by his predecessor against terrorism suspects. With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the "war on terror," as President George W. Bush had defined it, signaling to the world that the reach of the U.S. government in battling its enemies will not be limitless.

While Obama says he has no plans to diminish counterterrorism operations abroad, the notion that a president can circumvent long-standing U.S. laws simply by declaring war was halted by executive order in the Oval Office.

Key components of the secret structure developed under Bush are being swept away: The military's Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility, where the rights of habeas corpus and due process had been denied detainees, will close, and the CIA is now prohibited from maintaining its own overseas prisons. And in a broad swipe at the Bush administration's lawyers, Obama nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001.

It was a swift and sudden end to an era that was slowly drawing to a close anyway, as public sentiment grew against perceived abuses of government power.

Day One, er Two?

2009-01-21T21:52:00.000-05:00

When they say "the First 100 Days," does Inauguration count as the first day? Do weekends count or is it "The First 100 Business Days"??

Either way, I cant promise a post every day, but I'll try to keep track of what PRESIDENT OBAMA does for a little while.

From various wire reports:

In his inaugural address Tuesday, Barack Obama identified "a sapping of confidence across our land" as one of many worrisome symptoms of American crisis. On Wednesday he moved remarkably quickly to restore national confidence in a dizzying day of action on symbols and substance, all of it pretty much pitch-perfect.

By noon on his first day in office, Obama had called the leaders of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority to talk about next steps for peace; asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to halt Guantánamo trials and circulated a draft executive order to close the prison within the year; and attended a prayer service that included the first-ever sermon by a woman minister and the prayers of a Muslim imam.

In the afternoon he signed two executive orders and three presidential memoranda, tightening ethics rules for his staff, strengthening the Freedom of Information Act and giving the public greater access to presidential records. "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," he said as he signed the documents. Then he watched Vice President Joe Biden swear in his senior staff, and stayed to shake hands or embrace every one of them. After that he met with senior economic advisors and top military staff to discuss plans for the economy and Iraq; later, he hosted an open house for the American people, a new symbol of his commitment to access and transparency.

Obama signs order to close Guantanamo in a year

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama began overhauling U.S. treatment of terror suspects Thursday, signing orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, shut down secret overseas CIA prisons, review military war crimes trials and ban the harshest interrogation methods.

With his action, Obama started changing how the United States prosecutes and questions al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters who pose a threat to Americans — and overhauling America's image abroad, battered by accusations of the use of torture and the indefinite detention of suspects at the Guantanamo prison in Cuba.

"The message that we are sending the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly and we are going to do so effectively and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals," the president said.

The centerpiece order would close the much-maligned Guantanamo facility within a year, a complicated process with many unanswered questions that was nonetheless a key campaign promise of Obama's. The administration already has suspended trials for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.

In the other actions, Obama:

_Created a task force to recommend policies on handling terror suspects who are detained in the future. Specifically, the group would look at where those detainees should be housed since Guantanamo is closing.

_Required all U.S. personnel to follow the U.S. Army Field Manual while interrogating detainees. The manual explicitly prohibits threats, coercion, physical abuse and waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning and has been termed a form of torture. However, a Capitol Hill aide says that the administration also is planning a study of more aggressive interrogation methods that could be added to the Army manual — which would create a significant loophole to Obama's action Thursday.

"We believe that the Army Field Manual reflects the best judgment of our military, that we can abide by a rule that says we don't torture, but that we can still effectively obtain the intelligence that we need," Obama said. He said his action reflects an understanding that "we are willing to observe core standards of conduct, not just when it's easy, but also when it's hard."

A task force will study whether other interrogation guidelines — beyond what's spelled out in the Army manual — are necessary for intelligence professionals in dealing with terror suspects.

But an Obama administration official said that provision should not be considered a loophole that will allow controversial "enhanced interrogation techniques" to be re-introduced. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the administration's thinking.

The order also orders the CIA to close all its existing detention facilities abroad for terror suspects — and prohibits those prisons from being used in the future. The agency has used those secret "black site" prisons around the world to question terror suspects.

_Directed the Justice Department to review the case of Qatar native Ali al-Marri, who is the only enemy combatant currently being held on U.S. soil. The directive will ask the high court for a stay in al-Marri's appeals case while the review is ongoing. The government says al-Marri is an al-Qaida sleeper agent.

An estimated 245 men are being held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, most of whom have been detained for years without being charged with a crime. Among the sticky issues the Obama administration has to resolve are where to put those detainees — whether back in their home countries or at other federal detention centers — and how to prosecute some of them for war crimes.

"We intend to win this fight. We're going to win it on our terms," Obama said as he signed three executive orders and a presidential directive.

The administration official said Obama's government will not transfer detainees to countries that will mistreat them, including their own home country.

In his first Oval Office signing ceremony, Obama was surrounded by retired senior military leaders. He described them as outstanding Americans who have defended the country — and its ideals.

It's Got Great Flourish

2009-01-20T13:04:00.002-05:00

At 1:04pm eastern time, CNN's Wolf Blitzer tells us that Barack Obama has extraordinairy penmanship. David Gergen concurs.

Cheney In a Wheelchair

2009-01-20T12:53:00.003-05:00

So Dick Cheney is in a wheelchair allegedly cuz he twisted his back "moving boxes" in his new house. And First Lady Michelle Obama looks like she's wearing green rubber gloves. It's so wierd to see the Bushes and Obamas standing there together sorta joking a bit as they wait to approach the helicopter that will take them back to Texas.

They're smiling... Barack looks like a kid who cant wait for his parents to leave on vacation or something. W looks like he's finally un-clinched his asshole. And as the helicopter leaves, the Obamas and Bidens noticibly sigh with a shoulder shrug like "phew, they're finally gone."

He Just Gives Good Speeches

2009-01-20T12:29:00.007-05:00

That's right. And the world is listening, and now we have a brilliant new POSITVE message. Words do matter.

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more."

It was a grand and subtle send-off to George W. Bush. It was like ding dong the witch is dead and we really do want to start fresh.

Musical Interlude

2009-01-20T12:01:00.004-05:00

My 13-month-old son is taking a nap. I'll show him this later when he's old enough to understand. But when we were watching the motorcades and introductions he would clap and then bounce to the marching-band music.

I remember when I was a kid, if Itzak Perlman was playing his violin it must be a pretty big important event. I was told and felt like I always knew that he is Jewish, and has some physical handicap. And that he was the greatest violinist in the world. It was a subtle "you can be anything in this world" feeling I guess.

Let Freedom Ring

2009-01-20T11:55:00.003-05:00

Aretha Franklin is wailing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, surrounded by the VIP Elite of all branches of government past and present... along with a sea of humanity filling the streets of Washington... and millions around the world on TV.

Wow.

And in a minute I will watch a black man be sworn in as the President of The United States.
Here we go.... the future is now.

Fleet Foxes

2009-01-07T15:13:00.005-05:00

If you're interested in checking out some great new music... I recommend the Fleet Foxes self-titled album. Folky harmony vocals. Almost a Mamas'n'Papas-meets-CSNY vibe, which is strange coming from a group of 20-somethings from Seattle.

On my first few listens, I wasn't quite feeling it. Too mellow or something. But it's a real grower, and several listens later, I love it. Just a really beautiful, timeless album.

If you want to check out their live sound (pretty similar to the album, especially on this great-sounding soundboard recording), check out this recent show.

As always (if possible), don’t the Fleet Foxes great self-titled CD at BestBuy, Target or on Amazon. Support your local independent record store (while it still exists) and buy from them.

Redistribution of Wealth: Demented and Sad, But Socialism

2009-01-06T19:46:00.001-05:00

While most of us start 2009 hoping to hold on to our jobs, houses, and 401k’s and still afford groceries and credit card bills….. the outgoing White House occupant has been busy pissing away large amounts of our money in broad daylight. And not just in the form of wasteful corporate welfare, aka Wall Street bailouts. From various wire reports this week:

BAGHDAD — The United States inaugurated its largest embassy ever in the heart of the Green Zone on Monday, officially opening the fortress-like compound that was built as a testament to America 's commitment to Iraq .

Addressing an inauguration ceremony under tight security, Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the $700 million embassy was testimony to America 's long-term friendship with Iraq , where about 146,000 U.S. troops are deployed.

For nearly six years, the grandiose and gaudy palace, with its gold-plated bathroom fixtures and enormous chandeliers, served as both headquarters for occupying forces and the hub for the Green Zone _ the walled-off swath of central Baghdad that was formally turned over to the Iraqi government on New Year's Day.

OK, so somehow we can afford to spend $700 MILLION on a “grandiose and gaudy palace” as our embassy, complete with gold-plated bathroom fixtures, and yet in late 2007 George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have helped provide health care for 4 million American children. He said the Democrats were “irresponsible” and that the program was too costly. And yet it would have been funded by an increased cigarette tax.

From the AP in October 2007:

The State Children's Health Insurance Program is a joint state-federal effort that subsidizes health coverage for 6.6 million people, mostly children, from families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford their own private coverage.

The Democrats who control Congress, with significant support from Republicans, passed the legislation to allow an additional 4 million children into the program. It would be funded by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack.

Of the over 43 million people nationwide who lack health insurance, over 6 million are under 18 years old. That's over 9 percent of all children.

In other money matters, according to recent analysis by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard’s Linda Bilmes put out by the American Friends Service Committee, the war in Iraq costs $500,000 per minute. This study found that this $720 million a day could buy homes for 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children.

Naa… that would be socialism.

Born to Run From Your Principles: Springsteen Partners With Wal-mart

2008-12-24T10:34:00.007-05:00

Yesterday it was announced that Bruce Springsteen would sell a new (another) Greatest Hits CD exclusively through Wal-Mart. He already has a Greatest Hits collection, and this one is certainly geared toward very new/casual fans who don't own any of his CD's. I don't have a problem with that part of it. Nor do I mind that recently he's been more than willing to appear on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and the upcoming Super Bowl.

What I do have a problem with is Bruce Springsteen getting in bed with a notorious corporation like Wal-Mart. I try to keep the art/music separate from the artist and his personal life and politics. But since Bruce has always been one to speak out on the socio-economical injustices in America and the world, he's opened himself up to some sort of scrutiny. While I don't begrudge him trying to make an extra buck or million, even through repacking old products and making mainstream TV appearances to maximize his exposure, I'm still a bit shocked that he would allow himself to be associated with Wal-Mart.

As many of you may already know, Wal-Mart has a notorious reputation as a company with serious blemishes on it's record relating to worker's rights and compensation, discrimination against women and minorities, the environment, and health care.

If you know me, you know that I've been a big Bruce fan since I was about 13 years old. I love his music, his legendary concerts always live up to the hype, and his willingness to speak out on social and political issues was almost always a little icing on the musical cake for those of us who agreed with him. But now this. Is it possible that Bruce's record company cut this deal and Bruce had no choice or control to stop it? Maybe. But I doubt it.

Shame on you Bruce. Yea, there's bigger fish to fry in this world... if you can still afford seafood in the present economy. And sure, I'm a hypocrite cuz there's several things in my house made in China and I've inadvertently given money to companies with sketchy labor practices. But unlike myself, Bruce Springsteen is one of the few people in the world who has the money, power, and platform to not only say no to corporations like Wal-Mart, but could speak out against them.

Please visit the following sites for more information about Wal-Mart:

Wake Up WalMart
WalMart Watch/issues
Facts from the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices

Time Capsules 2008: the Inevitable Best Albums of the Year List Thingy

2008-12-18T10:28:00.010-05:00

Another Haggy Christmas

2008-12-18T09:42:00.003-05:00

OK, I’ve ranted about horrible and pointless office Christmas “gifts” before. It was probably a bit crass and unappreciative. But this is just… wow…

I come in to work this morning and there’s a red envelope/card on my desk with a light blue rectangular tin with snowmen on it. OK. I’m thinking it might be those really good sugared pecans that some people give out.

Nope. I open it up and this is what’s inside:

A little pad of note paper that says “Let it Snow!”

A pen

A pack of Certs mints (ok, insert joke about it being some hint that I need them, but apparently everyone received this same awesome gift)

A bunch of small and large paper clips of various colors (Thanks! Paper clips! I only have 40,000 of them in my desk already!)

And…… a large nail file. What the fuck? A NAIL FILE?? Thanks.

So… we have a tin can partially filled with absolute crap that no one needs or wants. What did she do, empty out her desk? Paper clips and a nail file? Are these seasonal items or some tradition that I’m unaware of? Surprised I didn’t get some old pennies and a gum wrapper. Or some lint....

Axl’n’Roses Chinese Democracy

2008-12-12T15:25:00.002-05:00

Just listened to this album. Not sure why.

If it sounds like an Axl Rose solo album dressing up as a Guns’n’Roses album for Halloween… it’s cuz that’s pretty much what it is. It's not the first band to have one person keep the name and use it, but yea, this is an Axl & Friends album obviously. And honestly this album woulda been just as weak 15-16 years ago. So it’s not that I’m “disappointed after the long wait” cuz I was never waiting for it and never much of a Guns'n'Roses fan anyway.

The incomparable Chuck Klosterman started his review this way:

Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It's more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros? Does its pre-existing mythology impact its actual value, or must it be examined inside a cultural vacuum, as if this creature is no more (or less) special than the remainder of the animal kingdom? I've been thinking about this record for 15 years; during that span, I've thought about this record more than I've thought about China, and maybe as much as I've thought about the principles of democracy.

If you read his whole review, he’s actually quite generous and seems to actually like the album. My review goes like this: Part boring, part horrendous.... mostly forgettable soulless schlock rock. Okay Axl, go away for another 15 years thanks.

But Klosterman sums it up better:

Sometimes it seems like Axl believes every single Guns N' Roses song needs to employ every single thing that Guns N' Roses has the capacity to do—there needs to be a soft part, a hard part, a falsetto stretch, some piano plinking, some R&B bullshit, a little Judas Priest, subhuman sound effects, a few Robert Plant yowls, dolphin squeaks, wind, overt sentimentality, and a caustic modernization of the blues.

Of course Rolling Stone magazine has it in the top 10 of their Best Albums of the Year list, which makes sense for a magazine that puts Britney Spears and the Jonas Brothers on the cover.

But really, in the end it’s just hard to respect a guy who wants to be treated like a genius but cant even bother to show up for work. From TheAge.com:

Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose has been missing for two months.

The eccentric rocker has infuriated bosses at record label Geffen after disappearing without promoting the band's long-awaited Chinese Democracy album, which was released last week 15 years after the last Guns N' Roses LP.

A source told Britain's The Sun newspaper: People have been trying to contact Axl for two months and he's completely AWOL. It is frustrating because the album would have had a much better chance of going to number one if he had only been prepared to show his face.

You would have thought after spending all those years on an album you might do a few weeks of promotion.

Chinese Democracy was beaten to the number one spot in the UK album charts by The Killers' Day and Age, which sold 200,000 copies nearly twice as many as Axl's record, which is rumoured to have cost $13 million, making it the most expensive ever album.

The Raconteurs with Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe

2008-12-12T08:22:00.004-05:00

Just found this cool version of the song "Old Enough" from the Raconteurs Consolers of the Lonely album. But this time Jack White and the boys rock it bluegrass style with Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe. Intersting take on a great song, and a solid performance:

Thankful

2008-12-04T16:58:00.003-05:00

Been lacking in posting new stuff to the blog lately. But since it's that time of year, figured I'd share what I'm most thankful for: my beautiful son and his mama. Here they are, identities concealed, but still one of my favorite shots.

Keep an Eye on W

2008-12-04T15:15:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post a few weeks ago... while we all bask in the afterglow of Barack Obama's victory and follow news of his new administration (and the daily horrors about the economy), lame duck President Bush is quietly sticking it to us (and the environment) one last time.

From the Associated Press: "Angry environmentalists launched an online campaign Wednesday urging President-elect Barack Obama to undo a federal rule that clarifies when coal companies can dump mining waste in streams, calling it a long-awaited 'parting gift' from the Bush administration.

"North Carolina-based Appalachian Voices and others blasted Tuesday's Environmental Protection Agency decision to endorse the mining rule as the death of freshwater streams and the likely start of a new surge in mountaintop removal surface mining across Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky."

Juliet Eilperin wrote in yesterday's Washington Post: "The regulation got signoffs from the Office of Management and Budget and the Environmental Protection Agency this week and will go into effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register. The change is intended to resolve a nearly five-year-old fight over how companies can dispose of the vast amounts of rubble and sludge created when they blow the tops off mountains to get to the coal buried below, although the incoming Obama administration could revisit the issue."

In the New York Times, Robert Pear and Felicity Barringer write: "The rule is one of the most contentious of all the regulations emerging from the White House in President Bush's last weeks in office. Mr. Bush has boasted of his efforts to cooperate with President-elect Barack Obama to ensure a smooth transition, but the administration is rushing to complete work on regulations to which Mr. Obama and his advisers object. The rules deal with air pollution, auto safety, abortion and workers' exposure to toxic chemicals, among other issues. The coal industry could be the largest beneficiary of last-minute environmental rules."

"'This is unmistakably a fire sale of epic size for coal and the entire fossil fuel industry, with flagrant disregard for human health, the environment or the rule of law,' said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund."

Who Killed The Electric Car?

2008-11-25T16:53:00.004-05:00

I can’t recommend this film highly enough. It’s called WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? and is available thru Netflix and probably any other source you might get DVD’s from. It’s a couple years old now, but it’s so very timely: we could help save the auto industry AND the economy AND the earth AND start to break free not just from foreign oil, but OIL. Please watch this film and tell others to do the same. Here’s the trailer:

Reclaiming the L Word

2008-11-25T16:43:00.004-05:00

Sorry folks, "liberal" is not a dirty word.

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

--John F. Kennedy, 1960

BTS: Bowl Tournament Series College Playoff System

2008-11-24T15:51:00.001-05:00

It looks like we’re heading for another clusterfuck at the top of the College Football polls, with several worthy 1-loss teams, one undefeated team at the top, plus a couple of other undefeated teams from smaller conferences hovering around the #6–9 slots (Utah and Boise State), plus another small (You’re Not Worthy of Playing In The Cool Big-Conference Clique) conference team in undefeated Ball State sitting back at around #15. So since most proposed college-football-playoff talk (from President Obama on down to Joe The Sportsfan) centers on an 8-team plan (that could still manage to leave off 1 or 2 undefeated teams in favor of “better” teams from The Big Popular Conferences, I proudly present The Bowl Tournament Series (BTS) Playoffs:

Take the 15 traditional (oldest) bowls. Go ahead a slap a sponsor name on each one if that’s what has to be done to keep The Powers That Be happy about The Money, but keep the old name as part of it. Those 15 are the BTS. The rest of the Johnny-Come-Lately.com bowls that no one cares about could still exist in a non-tournament setup, so the 6-5 and 7-4 schools can experience a bowl and get a little money. Those bowls can be played whenever, filling in the December calendar with a couple getting played before/after the Final Four double header on January 1. But the BTS would consist of the following traditional bowls; note that you get a few in Florida, California, AZ, Texas, Lousiana, even one in Memphis.

HOLIDAY BOWL AT SAN DIEGO CA
LIBERTY BOWL AT MEMPHIS TN
ALAMO BOWL AT SAN ANTONIO TX
COPPER BOWL AT TEMPE AZ
INDEPENDENCE BOWL AT SHREVEPORT LA
SUN BOWL AT EL PASO TX
TANGERINE (now Capital One) BOWL AT ORLANDO FL
COTTON BOWL AT DALLAS TX
GATOR BOWL AT JACKSONVILLE FL
PEACH (now Chick-Fila) BOWL AT ORLANDO FL
ROSE BOWL AT PASADENA CA
SUGAR BOWL AT NEW ORLEANS LA
FIESTA BOWL AT GLENDALE AZ
ORANGE BOWL AT MIAMI FL

BTS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME AT SITE TBD (maybe just rotate it around nice weather cities with big stadiums like the Super Bowl or whatever)

Perhaps you'd alternate/rotate the 4 Big (currently BCS) Bowls so that one year Fiesta and Orange would be the final four, another year it could be Sugar and Rose.

Then you take the Top 16 teams, which would likely have to be determined by something similar to voter polls and computers like the BCS, but maybe tweaked yet again... but either way, 2007's final standings would have produced these matchups last year:

1. Ohio State 11-1 vs. 16. Tennessee 9-4

3. Virginia Tech 11-2 vs. 14. Boston College 10-3

5. Georgia 10-2 vs. 12. Florida 9-3

7. USC 10-2 vs. 10. Hawaii 12-0

8. Kansas 11-1 vs. 9. West Virginia 10-2

6. Missouri 11-2 vs. 11. Arizona State 10-2

4. Oklahoma 11-2 vs. 13. Illinois 9-3

2. LSU 11-2 vs. 15. Clemson 9-3

Some matchups are better than others. Some are rematches. But that doesn't matter, maybe put in rules for seeding to avoid first-round rematches, or not. Also, try to get the regular season more even: either have all conferences play a champ game, or none. Maybe have everyone play only 11-12 games, not 13. For instance, in 2007 Ohio State was done Nov 17, but WVU had 2 different bye weeks and played through 12/1. So make it all uniform: everyone plays only 11 or 12 games, including Conference Championship games for all conferences, or none in any conference. As long as it’s all the same.

Based on this year's calendar:

Sat. Dec 13 first round
Sat. Dec 20 second round
Jan. 1 Final Four double-header
Mon. Jan. 5 Championship Game

(Another option could be Dec, 20, 27, Jan 1, then Jan.12. This might have to change depending on how the calendar looks each year.)

I mean, if they can have 30 or so bowls played throughout December (and weekly Wednesday and Thursday night games all season) and not "interfere with academics or exams," I'm sure they can do this. Only 8 teams would play more than one playoff game anyway....

As far as the money/payouts attached to the bowls: for the non-playoff crappy bowls, they can stay the same. For the playoffs, perhaps all the interest and increased ad revenue as well as the original payout amounts could go into one large pool and each team gets awarded a certain amount for reaching the playoffs but losing first round, winning one, two, three games, and one final large payout for the winner. So the Big Conference BCS Bowl Big Boy Money could still stay relatively in tact. If a Hawaii or a Boise St isn't worthy, then they'll lose in the first round anyway, right?

Attendance is a major hurdle. Even if you reward the 1-8 seeds with a first-round home game, it would be hard to make that congruent with these being the “traditional bowls.” And it would be hard to sell first (or second) round tickets for neutral sites on short notice.

Of course, making this only 8 teams (which most people seem to suggest anyway) would help alleviate some of the scheduling and attendance issues.

I know, I’m a genius. Use the Comments feature below to let me know how much you agree.

Hot Off the Presses: "Enraged" video

2008-11-24T11:19:00.004-05:00

Just got an email from our good friends and rockers extraordinaire Girl Loves Distortion. You may remember we reviewed the CD HERE. Now comes word of their new video:

Greetings Earth Beings,
We have just posted our first-ever video for the song Enraged. Our great friend Josh Bolton (Drawing Lines) was kind enough to fly up from Florida this past Halloween Weekend and film the band performing live at the Artery 717 in Alexandria, VA. Most of the footage is from that night. We will also have more videos coming very soon including one for the song Luminance. Enjoy.

Divisional Fantasy Football: My Awesome Idea

2008-11-24T11:08:00.004-05:00

So after winning my league Super Bowl following the 2006 season, I quit playing Fantasy Football these last two seasons. Honestly, I must say I have NOT missed it. It's nice to enjoy football for what it is, and not end up screaming at the TV and ruining a Sunday over something stupid like "Damn, why did they throw it to Marvin Harrison? I started Reggie Wayne!!!" That said, I'm still an idea man... and i've got a great idea to breathe new life into Fantasy Football for anyone getting bored or looking for a new twist: Divisional Fantasy Football.

Each of the 8 players gets one NFL Division and can field his team from any players in that division. So the guy with the NFC East could start Eli Manning at QB, Clinton Portis and Brian Westbrook at RB’s, Santana Moss and T.O. at WR’s, Jason Whitten at TE and then choose an NFC East kicker and defense depending on matchups.

It would sort of take the fun out of the draft, since there’d only be one round, but the guy with the first pick still has to strategize… does he take the AFC West so he has L.T., or take the AFC South just to get Peyton Manning? And of course you'd still have week to week strategy of who to start/play.

Besides semi-killing the draft element, another stumbling block is the bye week. Usually the NFL schedule has most or all teams from one division on a bye at the same time. If one division does NOT have several teams on bye the same week, then that team would have an advantage. BUT, what if you had an active/inactive roster, so you could keep most of your top players active, but still leave plenty of “free agents” for other divisions to use one-time only when their division is on bye? Maybe you’d have to leave X number of QB’s available…. Maybe each week you could move players to/from inactive list.

So I have the NFC east, and they're all on bye except Dallas. Maybe I start the best of the Dallas players and then fill in with the unprotected QB's and other players from the other divisions. Maybe force everyone to leave 1-2 QB's from their division on the inactive list so the talent pool was decent....

Not sure if this format would work in head-to-head style of play, or more suitable to a “rotisserie” format where you don’t play against anyone, just accumulate points each week. Maybe it could be done either way.

Not sure how this idea could make money. Unless you could have a website where people could play for $10 and just spread the word around until it’s really popular. Not sure if you could copyright the concept so you could cash in if ESPN and CBSsportsline wanted to start offering this. Probably not, who knows. But consider this date/time-stamped blog entry as my official claim on the idea; feel free to contact me with big-money offers.

RIP Mitch Mitchell

2008-11-13T09:45:00.005-05:00

Sad news yesterday... the passing of legendary drummer Mitch Mitchell, most famous for his work with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Mitchell was one of my favorite drummers of all time. He taught me that you can be jazzy and still rock out really hard, that you can respond/react to the other musicians you play with and push each other to new places, and that you can do anything and everything you want on a small drumkit. If Hendrix took electric blues and rock guitar to another level, perhaps it could be said that Mitchell proved that a drumset could be played like a lead guitar. Not sure if that makes sense as an accurate analogy, but it's as if Mitchell took the influence of great jazz drummers like Elvin Jones and Max Roach and somehow fused it with the innovation of Jimi's playing and stumbled upon something thunderous and other-worldly. RIP.

Sunset Sky

2008-11-12T15:36:00.002-05:00

Western Maryland, late summer 2008.

Dubya's Legacy

2008-11-10T16:56:00.006-05:00

Since the election, my wife has been worried that President Bush is going to do something to somehow screw the Obama administration. Yea, it's called the last 8 years! What else can he do, short-sheet the beds?

So on the day that George W. Bush welcomed President-elect Barack Obama for a White House visit... I'll leave it to Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald to sum up just some of what has happened in this country:

As the Bush administration comes to a close, one overarching question is this: how were the transgressions and abuses of the last eight years allowed to be unleashed with so little backlash and resistance? Just consider -- with no hyperbole -- what our Government, our country, has done. We systematically tortured people in our custody using techniques approved at the highest levels, many of whom died as a result. We created secret prisons -- "black site" gulags -- beyond the reach of international monitoring groups. We abducted and imprisoned even U.S. citizens and legal residents without any trial, holding them incommunicado and without even the right to access lawyers for years, while we tortured them to the point of insanity. We disappeared innocent people off the streets, sent them to countries where we knew they'd be tortured, and then closed off our courts to them once it was clear they had done nothing wrong. We adopted the very policies and techniques long considered to be the very definition of "war crimes".

Our Government turned the NSA apparatus inward -- something that was never supposed to happen -- spying on our conversations in secret and without warrants or oversight, all in violation of the law, and then, once revealed, acted to immunize the private-sector lawbreakers. And that's to say nothing about the hundreds of thousands of people we killed and the millions more we displaced with a war launched on false pretense. And on and on and on.

They're Gettin' a Puppy!

2008-11-05T00:24:00.002-05:00

Wow. Amazing...

President-elect Barack Obama

2008-11-04T21:37:00.002-05:00

At 9:34 pm, 23-7 would like to be the first to officially project Barack Obama as the winner of the Presidency of the United States.

Yes we can.

Celebration of Now

2008-11-04T15:27:00.006-05:00

I voted today. Line wasn't too bad... about 35 minutes, but I live in a rural suburb. Fingers crossed. I'll be honest, maybe I'm just a fuzzy feel-good liberal but I actually got a little choked up voting for Barack Obama. One of my best friends once gave me some good advice: "Don’t ever start a sentence with 'If I was black I would....' cuz you don't know." With that in mind, I can't begin to imagine what the emotions would be like for 50- or 80-year-old black folks to pull the lever (or touch the screen) for this guy and actually cast a vote for a man who will likely be the first African-American President.

For so much of this campaign, while we’ve certainly acknowledged the “historic nature” of it, so many have tried to downplay race, the Obama campaign included. Sure, most of us are voting for him based on the content of his character and because we think he’s the best person for the job. But while we’ve been told that Obama is “Post-Racial” (whatever that means), I think it’s okay to not only acknowledge the magnitude of this milestone, but to celebrate it. Not just black folks. But us white folks should be able to be proud too. You don’t have to be black to feel some of these emotions… My mom used to tell me, “It’s okay to cry.” At the time I think she meant it about sad stuff, even if it was just a movie (like Brian’s Song). But I think it can apply to happy stuff too… and maybe that’s why I felt myself welling up just slightly in that voting booth while I stared at my selection for “Sen. Barack Obama (Democrat, Illinois).”

Assuming he wins, we should be happy that this country is taking a step in the right direction just from a purely political and ideological standpoint, even if it’s only a small step and the road ahead is very long and still littered with the atrocities of the Bush years. But on top of that, we should also let ourselves pause and smile (or cry with joy) about finally starting to fulfill Dr. King’s dream. It might not seem appropriate to quote Ronald Reagan here, but maybe now it finally really is “morning in America.”

This was all summed up a bit more eloquently in this past Sunday’s Washington Post by Donna Britt:

For one shining moment, let's call a halt to our red-blue bickering and predicting. Rather than glancing back at our racist past or peering into our uncertain future, we'll allow ourselves a brief celebration of now. We'll be brave and reckless enough to be happily surprised by one undeniable change:

Against all sensible odds and reasoned predictions, untold numbers of Americans of every persuasion have opened their hearts, minds and souls to the possibility that a black man is the best choice to lead them. Whatever happens, an immeasurable amount of light has illuminated our darkness. Once such doors have been pried open, it's hard shutting them as tightly as before.

That's a change worth believing in.

Tricks For Us; Treats For Polluters

2008-10-31T12:29:00.003-04:00

With all the drama, worry, excitement, and attention surrounding the upcoming Presidential election, it’s easy to forget that George W. Bush is still the current occupant and he still has (some) power. Check out this disturbing information from R. Jeffrey Smith’s piece in today’s Washington Post:

The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.

The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.

Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.

Once such rules take effect, they typically can be undone only through a laborious new regulatory proceeding, including lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis.

"They want these rules to continue to have an impact long after they leave office," said Matthew Madia, a regulatory expert at OMB Watch, a nonprofit group critical of what it calls the Bush administration's penchant for deregulating in areas where industry wants more freedom. He called the coming deluge "a last-minute assault on the public . . . happening on multiple fronts."

Oh, so when they want to push this stuff through (or the Patriot Act, or the war, or the bailout) it’s all about urgency to act with no time for honest debate. But if the next president wants to undo any of it, of course it MUST include “lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis.”

Gee, none of this sounds good. And as I read on, it didn’t get much better:

The burst of activity has made this a busy period for lobbyists who fear that industry views will hold less sway after the elections. The doors at the New Executive Office Building have been whirling with corporate officials and advisers pleading for relief or, in many cases, for hastened decision making.

According to the Office of Management and Budget's regulatory calendar, National Mining Association officials came in two weeks ago making the case for easing rules meant to keep coal slurry waste out of Appalachian streams.

Many of the rules that could be issued over the next few weeks would ease environmental regulations, according to sources familiar with administration deliberations. Lee Crockett of the Pew Charitable Trusts' Environment Group said the administration has received 194,000 public comments on the rules and protests from 80 members of Congress as well as 160 conservation groups. "This is fatally flawed" as well as "wildly unpopular," Crockett said.

Two other rules nearing completion would ease limits on pollution from power plants, a major energy industry goal for the past eight years that is strenuously opposed by Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups.

One rule, being pursued over some opposition within the Environmental Protection Agency, would allow current emissions at a power plant to match the highest levels produced by that plant, overturning a rule that more strictly limits such emission increases.

According to the EPA's estimate, it would allow millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, worsening global warming.

A related regulation would ease limits on emissions from coal-fired power plants near national parks. A third rule would allow increased emissions from oil refineries, chemical factories and other industrial plants with complex manufacturing operations.

These rules "will force Americans to choke on dirtier air for years to come, unless Congress or the new administration reverses these eleventh-hour abuses," said lawyer John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Bush Administration ladies and gentlemen!!!

BREAKING NEWS: Rock Critic Makes a Good Point!

2008-10-30T14:49:00.004-04:00

In light of my previous post, it's appropriate that I came across this quote in another review today:

The average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.

Exactly, Mr. Critic. You got one thing right!

(okay, turns out this is actually a bit at the end of the cartoon movie Ratatouille...)

Reviewing the Reviews: Cardinology by Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

2008-10-28T13:12:00.014-04:00

Maybe someone can write a “Ryan Adams Album Review Generator” program where some software will just spit out all the necessary buzzwords for a review that somehow says his new album is good and that his old ones are also good but do it in some sort of backhanded compliment way.

It must include the word PROLIFIC, as well as pastiche, antics, Gram Parsons, editor, enfant terrible and/or “bad boy,” Grateful Dead, focus, quality/quantity, and something about dating actresses or whatever...

Perusing 18 different published reviews of Ryan Adams and The Cardinals new Cardinology CD, I was amazed and amused at what I found. Sure, there’s was the usual varying of opinions (some loved it, some sorta liked it, some found it predictable and boring), but that’s to be expected with any album. Reading the reviews, apparently someone must have invented that “Ryan Adams Album Review Generator” software, cuz it’s obviously been put to some use.

Among these 18 reviews, the word “prolific” is used 12 times (including two mentions of “prolificacy” and one time Adams is even called “insanely prolific”). It is the very first word of one review, the second word of another, and it appears in the first sentence of five other reviews and in the second sentence of yet another two. One review claims that “he became obsessive-compulsive about recording anything that rhymed.”

The Grateful Dead is mentioned six times, Gram Parsons four times, and Neil Young three times. In what must be a software glitch, U2 and/or Bono is mentioned an astounding 11 times (more on that later). Variations on “quantity vs. quality” come up at least six times in addition to three references to “edit” or “editing,” and four mentions of “focus.”

With all the talk about being “prolific,” and in attempt to illustrate the “quantity/quality” point, we eventually reach the fuzzy math portion of these reviews. According to some direct quotes:

*Ryan Adams has been making music at an insane pace for more than 10 years.
*Focused on just the one LP this year (he put out three in 12 months not too long ago)
*He recorded three albums in 2005 alone (Cold Roses, Jacksonville City Nights and 29), and he hasn't missed a year since before this decade began.
*He's released 10 albums in nine years
*While it might be a short time between albums for many modern-day artists, 16 months is a long time in the world of Ryan Adams, who released three albums in 2005
*Their fourth album in as many years
*Ryan Adams returns with what seems like his millionth album,
*His first release in a year — notable for a guy who put out three full-lengths in 2005
*Five-year period starting in 1997 that spanned two bands and five exquisitely realized albums.
*Cardinology is Adams' fifth full-length album released in the last three years (not to mention the 2007 EP, Follow the Lights).

Ignoring the varying inaccuracies of some of these statements, the guy’s job is to make records. So he's made about 11 records over 9 years? (This includes Demolition, assembled from demos from unreleased albums to capitalize on the success of Gold, and the 7-song EP Follow the Lights with only 3 new songs.) Is that REALLY too much? Sure, it's a bit more than the usual 2-3-year wait between records to maximize hype that the Music Business Formerly Known as the Record Industry might prefer. But some of these reviews make it sound like he does 3 records every single year. It's actually really an average of close to one each year. As it should be.

The strangest thing I’ve found is that, all of a sudden, the Cardinals are often being compared to U2. Huh? U2? Other than perhaps his 2003 single “So Alive,” I don’t think Ryan Adams has ever sounded like U2 or even close enough to warrant comparison (including on this new album). I can maybe hear how, in “Go Easy,” when he sings "if only just to say this to you now..." the melody and delivery is kinda/sorty dripping with syrupy Bononess, but only slightly. And I don’t know if I ever would have thought of that if U2 wasn't mentioned in so many Cardinology reviews.

Again, actual quotes from the reviews:

*“Fix It” even dares to blossom into the type of stadium-filling chorus that U2’s Bono would be proud to call his own.
*U2 knock-offs “Go Easy” and “Cobwebs”
*“Cobwebs” …boasts one of the best choruses on the LP (and another that seems to be taking its cues from the U2 style of epic songwriting).
*“Magick” and “Cobwebs” cringe-worthy horrors that would shame even Bono.
*[In concert the band was] producing a hybrid that echoed Neil Young, the Byrds, Gram Parsons, U2 and the Grateful Dead.”
*…a couple of tunes veer close to overblown U2 territory.
*when he sings "Cobwebs," his voice ascends to Bono-like melodramatic heights.
*"Magick" echoes like prime U2
*…the slinkier "Fix It" (and its almost U2 moments -- ditto "Go Easy" on the Bono thing), etc.
*Cardinology is a classic-rock record to the bone, nodding to influences that Adams has conjured before but never so well: the country rock of the Grateful Dead and Gram Parsons, the arena anthems of U2.
*“Fix It” … with a soaring Bono-style chorus…

But wait, maybe it doesn’t sound like U2, since one reviewer declares “Those looking for anthemic rock will be better served by U2.”

That’s not the only contradiction these reviews are inevitably filled with. For example, after saying he's best known for quantity over quality, one reviewer then says: “Last year's Easy Tiger, billed as a return to form, was the sound of Adams trying too hard to edit himself. By making a concerted effort to rein in his self-indulgence, Adams also leeched away some of the recklessness and spontaneity that makes him so fascinating.” Very similar sentiment has also been applied to the new album in this and other reviews. They all cry (and have complained in past reviews) that he needs an editor and he's reckless and too prolific and unfocused. So he tones it down and “edits” himself, puts out a “focused” record (just ONE this year!) and then they bitch that he’s “leeched away some of the recklessness and spontaneity that makes him so fascinating.”

Another typical contradiction is that many of these same rock critics were the ones hailing him as a genius or The New Dylan following his solo debut Heartbreaker and then championing his inevitable rockstar breakout upon the release of its follow up, Gold. But now some of these same clowns write “Adams needed someone to sit him down and explain that he actually wasn't the musical messiah we'd all been waiting for.” Gee, wherever did he get that idea? At least none of them mentioned actresses...

By the way, I think the album is good but maybe not quite the mind-blower I’d hoped for. As a fan, I’m a tad disappointed that it is not as rockin and jammy as their great live shows. But the sound, courtesy of Producer Tom Schick, is very warm and organic. (Number of times Schick is mentioned in the 19 reviews I read: zero.) The songs are good; it’s a solid album that I can already feel growing on me…. And that’s all it needs to be. (UPDATE: After several more listens, perhaps this album is much better and deeper than I initially thought. It's actually, well, beautiful and very brave. And it sounds great. Keep the faith and stick with it.)

As always (if possible), don’t buy Cardinology at BestBuy, Target or on Amazon. Support your local independent record store (while it still exists) and buy Cardinology from them.

NOTE: The reviews discussed in this post came from: Wall Street Journal, New Music Express, Stereogum, Rolling Stone, Paste, Indielondon.co.uk, Buzzsugar.com, Inthenews.co.uk, Buffalonews.com, Entertainment.ie (Ireland), Entertainment Weekly, Courier-Journal (Louisville), AVclub.com, Allmusic.com, The Observer (UK), and student newspaper websites from Penn State, University of Maryland and even University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Tell Tale Signs

2008-10-23T14:32:00.003-04:00

Haven’t posted in a couple weeks…. Didn’t even bother to write up a “review” of the third Presidential debate. I guess my summary would be, to borrow a popular phrase, “more of the same.” Barack Obama seemed smart, thoughtful, and presidential, while once again John McCain came off angry, unfocused, and desperate.

But now election day is getting really close, and I just cant be bothered to comment on the trivialities like the $150,000 spent on wardrobes for Sarah Palin (how small-town regular fiscally conservative gal of her!) or whatever else is passing as news these days. I’ve fallen in to a bit of a silent hopeful pregnant pause… a calm before the storm. I’m hoping that storm is a landslide victory for Obama, but still cautious that it could be the dark clouds of a looming McCain administration…

I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to Bob Dylan’s excellent new collection Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8, Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006. Some spectacular modern-era stuff on these discs from the legend who could dedicate earlier classics like “Masters of War” to McCain and “The Times They Are Changin’” to Obama.

So as we’re speeding toward the election (or are we creeping?), the economy is crumbling before our eyes and amid our financial worries there’s also very real concerns about voter suppression tactics by the Republicans (examined here) that could help ensure a McCain victory.

In the background I hear Dylan singing “Time is pilin' up, we struggle and we scrape / We're all boxed in, nowhere to escape” and “Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin' / Everything is broken.”

And yet I’m excited at the thought of Obama winning and ushering in a new era of… of…. everything: to live in a country with real, intelligent, and inspiring leadership. I know nothing will get better over night, and that this economy will take a while to bounce back, so it’s a cautious optimism for sure.

In the background Dylan is singing “Most of the time, I'm clear focused all around / Most of the time, I can keep both feet on the ground…”

Of course, these last few weeks and likely the next two, the McCain campaign and all the pundits on The Right have been downright ugly. Trying to scare us into these ridiculous notions that Obama is a Socialist and a terrorist sympathizer. By the way, haven’t we always had a progressive tax code? Has McCain proposed a (non-socialist) flat tax? If so, I must have missed it. And while we’re all distracted by the 15 minutes of fame for Joe the Plumber, the McCain campaign continues to drop hints about who’s “pro-America” and just how radical-liberal-socialist and anti-American Obama is. Meanwhile, they downplay Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama as a "black thing," claiming in various ways that Powell only endorsed him 'cuz he's black. Funny, I dont remember anyone saying Joe Lieberman only endorsed McCain 'cuz he's white...

In the background Dylan is singing “Have you seen dignity?”

And yet somehow…. After the 2000 and 2004 elections, after living through the atrocious Bush administration years…. With all the impending economic doom and gloom…. Amid my worrying and skepticism, I’m excited.

In the background Dylan is singing “Things should start to get interesting right about now” and “The air burns and I'm trying to think straight / And I don't know how much longer I can wait.”

I Went to a Battleground State and All I Wore Was This Lousy T-Shirt

2008-10-23T14:30:00.003-04:00

I wore my Obama shirt to a festival in rural Virginia last weekend. The few times anyone said anything it was positive.

My wife did hear one guy with his wife/kids remark with some contempt in his voice, "that guy had an Obama shirt on.... It said Obama on it" and he kept looking back at us. And afterward, when we returned to our car, we found that someone had turned our Obama magnet upside-down.

Other than that, it was all positive with a few "Yay Obama!" comments as well as a "nice shirt!" from a guy in another Obama shirt. Even a bearded guy who looked a bit like what some might call a redneck said "I like your shirt! Obama!"

At the gate, a lady probably in her 50's said "You think he's gonna win?"
I said "I hope so...."
"Me too" she said.
I said "But, I'm trying not to get too excited....."
There was a 10-15 second pause as we stood there and I waited for the line to move ahead.
Then I said, "but I am."
"Me too," she said.

My Friends the Stinking Corpses and Other Reasons McCain Lost the Debate to "That One"

2008-10-08T09:08:00.006-04:00

I said it about Sarah Palin in the VP debate , and since this election has become just a matter of repeating our favorite talking points, I’ll go ahead and repeat it again now in reference to John McCain in the second presidential debate. Hopefully some other bloggers and eventually the mainstream media might actually join me in pointing this out:

If the rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is so despicable and so full of hate (and it is), and if meeting with him or another of Iran’s leaders would in some sense validate him (and his hate speech) and in turn actually give those reckless words an international platform…. Then why does John McCain insist on repeating all of his worst lines about “wiping Israel off the map” and calling Judaism a “stinking corpse”?? He’s a candidate for President of the United States, and in a debate televised across every network in America and replayed all over the world, there he is delivering Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic talking points for him. Sure, he’s denouncing those words, but he’s also constantly repeating them on TV and amplifying them through campaign rally microphones and giving them the largest platform possible by hurling them on to the Presidential political stage. And since we all agree that talking about wiping Israel off the map and calling Judaism a stinking corpse is reprehensible and disgusting maybe John McCain should stop doing it.

I’m getting the sense that people are starting to feel sorry for John McCain. I started to think that way (just a bit) last night. He's not some horrible evil guy obviously, but it seems like he's turning into this uncomfortable liar who's gritting his teeth and grinning uncomfortably cuz in his heart he knows he just can’t give his old patented Straight Talk anymore. He's not allowed. And that bums him out so he's trying to do the best job he can at being this Rovian Bush-figurehead thing that he's not really down with. He probably doesn’t condone the personal attacks about Obama “palling around with terrorists” and all the guilt-by-association rumor-mongering smear’n’fear tactics his campaign has indulged in, but he doesn’t have a choice. Not sure if that illustrates a lack of intangible leadership or if it’s simply that he’s just not really the one in charge of this campaign.

The debate reaction will no doubt include commentary on McCain abrasively referring to Obama as “that one,” and trivial analysis of whether McCain avoided shaking Obama’s hand afterward (I didn’t notice, but I’ve seen it mentioned a lot today). But the real story for me, is that I felt a "Fuckit I'm gonna lose and I think I'm okay with that" sorta vibe from McCain last night.

I excuse McCain's physical appearance and stiff mobility for the obvious reasons. But he seemed uncomfortable. Not just physically, but generally just really fish-outta-water uncomfortable. To his credit, he kept trying to show confidence (“I’ve BEEN there, I know how to DO this stuff!”) and at the end of each of his speaking segments he'd drop the mic from one hand down to the other, like "nailed it!" but he never really nailed it.

He said his hero was Ronald Reagan. Later he said his hero was Teddy Roosevelt. And the "We don’t have to prioritize! We can do it all at once! We're AMERICANS, we're the BEST and we can do ANYTHING!" seemed to ring hollow. Same with "I'll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I'll get him. I know how to get him. I'll get him no matter what and I know how to do it."

Really? He knows how to get him? Why hasn't he shared this info with anyone? Does he hate America? (Sorry, I tried to get thru this without sarcasm… couldn’t do it.) Speaking of the elusive Mr. Bin Laden (anyone checked the closet or under the bed?), it was interesting that Obama also “played the 9/11 card” if I can put it that way. It almost seemed as if he was using something from the opposition's playbook, like “hey, I can bring up 9/11 outta the blue too!” but I think he did have a fair point: he talked about 9/12, 9/13 and the next few weeks. How all of us REAL regular people actually felt. Like, man, things are different. I'm gonna smile to my fellow man and help someone out and feel a connection with other citizens for no reason other than it's the right thing to do. That feeling evaporated quickly and Obama seemed to call for that spirit to return in these equally daunting times.

But finally, toward the end, the formerly Honorable Sen. John McCain finally spoke the truth and I finally agreed with him: “That requires a cool hand at the tiller,” and again later: “I'll also tell you, when times are tough, we need a steady hand at the tiller.” Indeed. I think we all know which one of these guys is more steady-handed and cool-headed: “that one.”

The Pitbull Barks Up the Wrong Tree

2008-10-07T13:51:00.007-04:00

Seems the McCain campaign is unleashing Sarah Palin to make some targeted attacks.

"For me, the heels are on, the gloves are off," she announced Monday to a group of Republican donors at the Naples Beach Club. "I'm sending the message back to John McCain also: Tomorrow night in his debate, might as well take the gloves off."

"Okay, so, Florida, you know that you're going to have to hang on to your hats," she said at a morning rally in Clearwater, "because from now until Election Day, it may get kind of rough."

She went on to insist that Senator Obama "is not a man who sees America like you and I see America," whatever that means. Later, in Carson, CA, she said "Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country." This is in reference to the fact the Barack Obama once sat on the board of an educational charity with Bill Ayers who was part of a radical anti-American group 40 years ago. It’s quite a stretch to imply that Obama is “palling around with terrorists,” but it stokes the unfounded fears about Obama, especially when Palin doesn’t mind taking the stage at one of her appearances Monday after being introduced by Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott who said: "On Nov. 4, let's leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happened."

Hussein!! Hey everybody, Obama might be wearing a flag pin these days, but he’s still the boogey man!!

Speaking of boogey men and sleazy politics, McCain had previously said that attacks related to Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. In regard to introducing Wright into the campaign, McCain had said "there's no place for that kind of campaigning, the American people don't want it, period." But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: "I don't know why that association isn't discussed more."

Umm... Governor Palin? Where were you earlier this year when we got what seemed like two straight months of All Rev. Wright All The Time coverage from the so-called "liberal media"?? Which of the “all of ‘em, y’know, any of ‘em, vast various sources” of news media were you reading and watching that didn’t discuss Rev. Wright enough?

Aw heck, maybe you’re right doggone it. You betcha, let’s deal with some associations that should be “discussed more.”

We’ve already chronicled Palin's association with the Pray Away the Gay! church event that hoped to convert homosexuals into Normal Straight Christ-Loving Patriotic Americans… so let’s move on.

Pastor Thomas Muthee, an alleged Witchdoctor of sorts, visited the Wasilla Assembly of God church in October, 2005. Video shows Muthee put his hands on Sarah Palin's back and say, "make a way for Sarah, even in the political arena. Make a way, my God. Bring finances her way, even if for the campaign, in the name of Jesus... Every form of witchcraft, it will be rebuked in the name of Jesus. Father, make her way now." So it’s okay to have some kook hit Jesus up for some campaign money, as long as he doesn’t spout anything anti-America. But wait, there’s another association for that angle…

Palin recorded a speech for the Alaskan Independence Party’s convention just last March, and her husband remained a registered member of it until 2002, even though it was founded by a man named Joe Vogler who not only wanted Alaska to secede from the United States but also said:

"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government, and I won't be buried under their damn flag," and: "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions." One more for good measure, this is what he thinks of President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “I speak pretty frankly, I call him the dirty rotten son-of-a-bitch communist traitor, because he had involved us in that war that we had no business in.”

From a great piece by David Talbot:

Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue.

Imagine the uproar if Michelle Obama was revealed to have joined a black nationalist party whose founder preached armed secession from the United States and who enlisted the government of Iran in his cause? The Obama campaign would probably not have survived such an explosive revelation. Particularly if Barack Obama himself was videotaped giving the anti-American secessionists his wholehearted support just months ago.

Where's the outrage, Sarah Palin has been asking this week, in her attacks on Obama's fuzzy ties to Ayers? The question is more appropriate when applied to her own disturbing associations.

Then there’s Ed Kalnins, the pastor at Wasilla Assembly of God where Palin was a member. During the 2004 election, he praised President Bush over John Kerry before warning, “I'm not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person, I question your salvation. I'm sorry... If every Christian will vote righteously, it would be a landslide every time.”

The following year, in reference to criticism of President Bush and the federal government's handling of Hurricane Katrina, he said, “I hate criticisms towards the President, because it's like criticisms towards the pastor -- it's almost like, it's not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That's what it'll get you.”

And of course it’s been well-publicized that John McCain has sought and accepted the support of preachers like Jerry Falwell and John Hagee who say that Katrina was God punishing New Orleans for having a Gay Pride Parade, Catholicism is the "great whore," the Holocaust was God’s will, and other nonsense. In his 2000 campaign, McCain denounced these types as “agent of intolerance” but the 2008 version of McCain just smirks it off and cashes their checks.

For more detailed lists and explanations of the vast various sketchy associates of McCain/Palin, click HERE and HERE.

When Racists Attack: New Low for McCain Campaign and Republican Party

2008-10-07T13:43:00.002-04:00

This isn’t from some fringe right-wing blog or an anonymous email. This is from a newspaper column from Bobby May, the McCain campaign chair in Buchanan County, VA, and correspondence secretary for the Buchanan County Republican Party, warning that "the platform of Barack Hussein Obama" includes:

Illegal Immigration: "Learn to Speak Spanish";
Terrorist Threat to America: "Learn to Speak Arabic";
Reparations to Black Community: Opposes before Election Day and supports after Election Day;
Freedom of Religion: Mandatory Black Liberation Theology courses taught in all churches;
Homosexual Marriage: Coddle sexual perverts. Give tax breaks for NAMBLA [North American Man-Boy Love Association] membership;
Drug Crisis: Raise taxes for free drugs for Obama's inner-city political base;
The White House: Hire rapper Ludacris to "paint it black."

Again, this garbage is not from some hatemongering blogger… it’s from the McCain campaign chair in Buchanan County, VA, and correspondence secretary for the Buchanan County Republican Party.

Changing the Subject From Issues to Attacks

2008-10-07T13:36:00.003-04:00

The McCain campaign warned us that the gloves would come off and that things were about to get rough. They even admitted that they needed to “turn the page” and shift away from talking about the economy and start launching personal attacks against Barack Obama. That’s right, while we turn pages of our checkbooks and cant just turn the pages of our credit card statements and mortgage statements, the McCain campaign would rather concentrate on replaying all the unfounded crap that couldn’t stick to Obama during the primaries. Seems like no one’s buying it.

The War Room’s Gabriel Winant: “When McCain asks, ‘Who is the real Barack Obama,’ and later says, ‘You need to know who you're putting in the White House -- where the candidate came from and what he or she believes,’ he appears to be attempting to use the scurrilous rumors and fears about Obama for his own political advantage. To underscore the point, [in video footage] of the remarks, when McCain asks, ‘Who is the real Barack Obama,’ one member of the crowd shouts, ‘Terrorist!’”

Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald: “And as these flames engulf America's foundations, what is the Right doing -- the movement that brought us all of this through their virtually absolute control of our Government for the last eight years? They're spending all their time chattering with each other about an aging 1960s radical and giddily cheering the increasingly repellent Sarah Palin as she skips around the country in front of rambunctiously booing right-wing crowds accusing Barack Obama of palling around with The Terrorists and pointing out that he doesn't see America the way all the Normal, Good Americans do. The behavior of the last couple of weeks isn't unconventional; it's unstable, and increasingly quite ugly, even by the standards of GOP campaigning tactics.”

After a paragraph detailing the real important issues and crises facing America, the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson observes:

But John McCain wants us to talk about Barack Obama's acquaintances. He and Sarah Palin are going to try their best to make us talk about anything but the big issues facing our country, because most Americans think Obama's solutions are better than McCain's.

We all understand that the strategy of the McCain campaign is one of distraction -- his campaign aides have acknowledged that they want to shift the focus from the economy to character, which means personal attacks against Obama. Lacking any fresh mud to sling, the McCain people are trying to exhume guilt-by-association charges that were exhaustively examined months ago during the primaries. This is pure mudslinging and nothing but a cynical campaign tactic, but that doesn't matter to the McCain campaign. What matters is that we're writing and talking about this extraneous stuff -- and not about the issues that polls say voters really care about. The McCain campaign has made clear that it wants to change the subject. We can, and should, change it back.

A New York Times editorial: “Mr. McCain made clear on Monday that he wanted to make the final month of the race a referendum on Mr. Obama's character, background and leadership -- a polite way of saying he intends to attack him on all fronts and create or reinforce doubts about him among as many voters as possible.”

The Boston Globe said Obama was “facing a broad new assault on his character from rival John McCain and the Republican Party.”

USA Today: "As they prepared Monday for Tuesday night's presidential debate, John McCain attacked Barack Obama's credibility. But some of McCain's fellow Republicans say the aggressive tack may not offset the damage to his candidacy from the sinking economy."

Former McCain strategist Mike Murphy, in his blog for Time magazine, writes: "Meanwhile the McCain campaign retains its lamentable focus on press tactics at the expense of a real strategy... Over the top negative attacks and a campaign message that too often seems to be little more than sarcasm and suppressed anger has damaged McCain's priceless and hard earned 'brand' as a different kind of Republican. McCain's best option now is to ditch the chainsaw and offer a scared and angry country what it badly wants; hope and leadership. And Palin should drop the braying attacks on Obama's aging hippie radical pals…”

And finally, from American Prospect's Ezra Klein: "If his campaign's final assault is defeated, it will be read as a repudiation of these politics. It will be understood as firm proof that you can no longer purposefully shatter this country's uneasy sense of tolerance and consensus and be assured that your pieces will be bigger . . . McCain, a man who once fashioned himself as among the country's most decent leaders, will have to live with the knowledge that history will remember him as having been unable to stand against bigotry and fear when they presented a political opportunity."

How Dishonorable

2008-10-07T11:39:00.003-04:00

What a surprise! John McCain’s latest TV ad blatantly misrepresents a quote from Barack Obama by simply taking out one little phrase and presenting it out of context and calling it “dishonorable” and “dangerous” before concluding that Obama is “too risky for America." What a sham. Once again, McCain is the dishonorable one. Today’s Washington Post lead editorial breaks it down to illustrate the ad as the blatant distortion that it is:

THE TONE is ominous, the shadings dark. "Who is Barack Obama?" asks the latest campaign advertisement from Sen. John McCain. "He says our troops in Afghanistan are 'just air-raiding villages and killing civilians' . . . How dishonorable. . . How dangerous. . . . Too risky for America."

Here's what Mr. Obama actually said about Afghanistan in August 2007: "We've got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there." The gap between that reality and the McCain ad -- not quite a lie, yet not a fair representation, either -- is where the campaigns seem to be heading with four weeks to go until the election.

But the relevance of character can't excuse an anything-goes assault. Mr. Obama's use of the word "just" in his statement on Afghanistan was inartful. But Mr. McCain knows perfectly well that Mr. Obama doesn't believe U.S. troops are killing only civilians. He also knows perfectly well that the problem Mr. Obama described -- the alienation of Afghan civilians by military tactics that lead to too many civilian deaths -- is real and demands a rethinking of strategy. What's dishonorable in this case is the McCain ad, not the Obama statement.

This John McCain ad blatantly distorts Barack Obama's words in an effort to paint him as callous about the role of the U.S. military. His meaning was the opposite of what is portrayed in this spot.

How the McCain Campaign Changes a Light Bulb

2008-10-07T09:16:00.002-04:00

Found this posted on the web, not sure of its origin....

How many members of McCain/Bush/Schmidt/Rove campaign does it take to change a light bulb?

1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed;

2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed;

3. One to blame American Voters for burning out the light bulb;

4. One to arrange the invasion of a country rumored to have a secret stockpile of light bulbs;

5. One to give a One Trillion dollars to Wall Street for the new light bulb;

6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step ladder under the banner: Light Bulb Change Accomplished;

7. One campaign insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how McCain/Bush/Schmit/Rove was literally in the dark and out of touch with the American Voter

8. One to viciously smear #7;

9. Sarah Palin to campaign on TV and at rallies on how John McCain has had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along;

10. And finally one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.

CD Review: Earth Beings On Exhibit

2008-10-06T10:55:00.009-04:00

The Jonas Brothers aren’t the problem. And we can’t blame Kanye West’s ego, Rolling Stone magazine, or the hype of the next U2 album. Nor can we blame The Eagles for charging $250/ticket to their shlocky concerts. And it’s not Kid Rock’s fault, and we cant blame Toby Keith. (OK, we can blame those last two guys for being no-talent symptoms of some things that are horribly wrong with society and popular music.)

To attempt an analogy, it’s almost like getting so caught up in the salaries, scandals, steroids, stadium-naming rights for corporations, merchandise marketing, and TV ratings that swirl around professional sports that it’s easy to forget that these are just games that we all played ourselves as kids and could simply go outside and play again right now with other people (if we still played outside and interacted with other live humans).

Somehow we’ve all managed to lose sight of the fact that music is…. MUSIC. It’s not product, though it certainly has been marketed and sold as such. Music is not a popularity contest, despite what millions of American Idol fans have been programmed to believe. Karaoke is not music. Guitar Hero is not music. Your myspace page and your iPod playlist may contain music, but it, itself, is not music.

Music is Girl Love's Distortion's debut CD, Earth Beings on Exhibit (Etxe Records). I say that because it’s not pretentious. Sure, they look cool in the photos and they made damn sure that the CD sounds great, but they aren’t trying to look cool or sound marketable or capitalize on a niche or do anything but just… play… music. So it’s aptly titled: Earth Beings on Exhibit…. This is us, this is our art. It is rock music, and like it or not, it is real.

And that’s what’s so rare. GLD is a band of actual people making artistic alternative guitar rock. As if that’s not a horrible and generic enough label, I’ll try to categorize it and “tell you what it sounds like,” even though that’s also part of what’s gone wrong. I hear a strong Sonic Youth influence even if it doesn’t actually sound like SY per se. But the elements are there: the guitar prowess, the feedback, the dissonance, the artsy factor, the presence of both male and female voices, the unconventional song structures juxtaposed among flashes of catchy pop (like the houseful of shaggy-looking weirdos living on the same block as the clean-cut Normal American Family).

While it’s great that technology and access has enabled millions of people to “start a band” and made it easier for existing bands to distribute and promote their music in creative new ways (and often without the “help” of Traditional Record Companies), it’s also spawned a whole new generation of amateurs posing as pros. And if they have the coolest clothes, the right haircuts, and a little bit of money behind them, you might not notice that they suck.

Well Girl Loves Distortion doesn’t suck (how’s that for a glowing endorsement?). They have serious chops to go along with their creative eyes and ears. Lead guitarist and bassist Steve Rubin manages to harness the fury of Crazy-Horse-era Neil Young guitar freakouts and filter them through the tasteful simple/unique approach of someone like The Edge. Guitarist/bassist Chris Goett compliments Rubin perfectly as a songwriter and player and manages to give his own songs a classic Lou Reed/David Bowie baritone that offsets Rubin’s imperfect inner Thom Yorke. Drummer Jenn Thomas isn’t afraid to let all of the creative voices in her head sing out loud, and it’s always refreshing to see and hear a drummer who plays a creative role within the song and makes the drums a real instrument. She doesn’t try to be Neal Peart but still manages to do more than just play along and keep a beat.

GLD’s Earth Beings on Exhibit CD is proof that real people still make real music and, in treating it like a serious art form while not taking themselves too seriously, the result is real good.

Shut Up and Sing

2008-10-06T08:38:00.003-04:00

That's usually what you hear shouted from some of the masses anytime a rock star decides to take 30 seconds and excercise his or her right to free speech and utilize their large profile and public platform to convey a message they believe in: "SHUT UP AND SING!!"

Personally I've never had a problem with musicians or actors using their fame to offer their opinions on the issues of the day. Why not?

As a longtime Bruce Springsteen fan, and a current Barack Obama supporter, I'm certainly glad to see Bruce making a few acoustic appearances at rallies and voter-registration drives in key swingstates.

Here are the comments he made from the stage in Philadelphia on Saturday, October 4:

Hello Philly,

I am glad to be here today for this voter registration drive and for Barack Obama, the next President of the United States.

I've spent 35 years writing about America, its people, and the meaning of the American Promise. The Promise that was handed down to us, right here in this city from our founding fathers, with one instruction: Do your best to make these things real. Opportunity, equality, social and economic justice, a fair shake for all of our citizens, the American idea, as a positive influence, around the world for a more just and peaceful existence. These are the things that give our lives hope, shape, and meaning. They are the ties that bind us together and give us faith in our contract with one another.

I've spent most of my creative life measuring the distance between that American promise and American reality. For many Americans, who are today losing their jobs, their homes, seeing their retirement funds disappear, who have no healthcare, or who have been abandoned in our inner cities. The distance between that promise and that reality has never been greater or more painful.

I believe Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his work. I believe he understands, in his heart, the cost of that distance, in blood and suffering, in the lives of everyday Americans. I believe as president, he would work to restore that promise to so many of our fellow citizens who have justifiably lost faith in its meaning. After the disastrous administration of the past 8 years, we need someone to lead us in an American reclamation project. In my job, I travel the world, and occasionally play big stadiums, just like Senator Obama. I've continued to find, wherever I go, America remains a repository of people's hopes, possibilities, and desires, and that despite the terrible erosion to our standing around the world, accomplished by our recent administration, we remain, for many, a house of dreams. One thousand George Bushes and one thousand Dick Cheneys will never be able to tear that house down.

They will, however, be leaving office, dropping the national tragedies of Katrina, Iraq, and our financial crisis in our laps. Our sacred house of dreams has been abused, looted, and left in a terrible state of disrepair. It needs care; it needs saving, it needs defending against those who would sell it down the river for power or a quick buck. It needs strong arms, hearts, and minds. It needs someone with Senator Obama's understanding, temperateness, deliberativeness, maturity, compassion, toughness, and faith, to help us rebuild our house once again. But most importantly, it needs us. You and me. To build that house with the generosity that is at the heart of the American spirit. A house that is truer and big enough to contain the hopes and dreams of all of our fellow citizens. That is where our future lies. We will rise or fall as a people by our ability to accomplish this task. Now I don't know about you, but I want that dream back, I want my America back, I want my country back.

So now is the time to stand with Barack Obama and Joe Biden, roll up our sleeves, and come on up for the rising.

Video of his 42-minute set at the Philadelphia rally is available here.

01. The Promised Land
02. Ghost of Tom Joad
03. Thunder Road
04. No Surrender
05. Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street
06. The Rising
07. This Land is Your Land

Lipstick on a Stinking Corpse

2008-10-03T10:10:00.011-04:00

If you’re looking for a roundup of VP-debate reaction from the so-called mainstream media, I’ve assembled a few snippets below in the previous post. Now I’ll offer my thoughts, and I’ll start with something that I don’t think ever gets mentioned:

If the rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is so despicable and so full of hate (and it is), and if meeting with him or another of Iran’s leaders would in some sense validate him (and his hate speech) and in turn actually give those reckless words an international platform…. Then why does Sarah Palin insist on repeating all of his worst lines about “wiping Israel off the map” and calling Judaism a “stinking corpse”?? She’s a candidate for Vice-President of the United States, and in a debate televised across every network in America and replayed all over the world, there she is delivering Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic talking points for him. Sure, she’s denouncing those words, but she’s also constantly repeating them on TV and amplifying them through campaign rally microphones and giving them the largest platform possible by hurling them on to the Presidential political stage. And since we all agree that talking about wiping Israel off the map and calling Judaism a stinking corpse is reprehensible and disgusting maybe Sarah Palin should stop doing it.

Never mind that Barack Obama never actually said that he himself would meet with Ahmadinejad himself; and never mind that everyone from Henry Kissinger and James Baker to Madeline Albright, Condaleeza Rice and others all agree that we should have some diplomatic relations and engage in conversations with Iran and other adversaries, as Obama has suggested. Facts matter little to Gov. Palin. She sang the praises of diplomacy and promised that she and John McCain would engage in diplomacy… but at the same time accused Barack Obama of naivety for wanting to engage in… diplomacy. Huh? I guess it’s possible that she doesn’t know what the word diplomacy means, but I think she does. She’s not as profoundly dumb as she appeared in her few TV interviews. But diplomacy doesn’t sell tickets or boost ratings. She would rather spout fear, and then of course figure out a way to pivot back to talking about oil. And along the way, if she happens to slip in a simplistic, misleading, and disrespectful soundbite like “Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq,” well then that’s okay too, and also you betcha.

Speaking of fear, when asked specifically about the economic crisis and the bailout plan she instead put on her Hockey-Mom sweatshirt and her Joe Sixpack hat and said in her very first response of the night that you can go to a kid's soccer game on Saturday and ask parents how they feel, and "I'll betcha you're going to hear some fear." Fear, fear, fear.

Palin said things like “Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people and too many parts of our planet” and “We would never allow another Holocaust” and “Darn right it was the predator lenders… There was deception there, and there was greed and there is corruption on Wall Street” and that mortgage lenders were "rearing that head of abuse." She used the word "energy" 29 times.

She didn’t want to fully admit that global warming and climate change is man made. ("I'm not one to attribute every man -- activity of man to the changes in the climate. There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet.") She dismissed the causes as unimportant ("there are real changes going on in our climate and I don't want to argue about the causes"), but then claimed to want do something about it. Memo to Governor Palin: it’s a good idea to know what’s causing a problem if you truly want to actually fix it.

She complained about “the mainstream media filter” and wished that she could just talk to the American people…. Well who was or is preventing her from going on Meet the Press or any other news show and sitting down and talking to the American people? And was it the “media filter” who couldn’t even name one other Supreme Court case beyond Roe v. Wade? Was it the “media filter” who, when asked what newspapers or magazines she reads, answered “Oh, uh, y’know, all of ‘em, or any of ‘em… a vast variety of sources….”?

Back to the debate, when they tried to delve further into economic issues and Biden started getting into some specifics about bankruptcy laws and mortgages, Palin’s response? “I want to talk about, again, my record on energy versus your ticket's energy ticket, also,” because her state has oil and, y’know, and also she’s just a Washington outsider and also a maverick. And while the real real regular Americans are worried about losing their homes, and while moderator Gwen Ifill and Sen. Joe Biden want to talk about the nitty-gritty specifics of these very real concerns, the Governor who plays a regular American on TV actually admitted that “I may not answer the questions the way the moderator wants me to” and instead seemed proud of herself for correcting Biden by explaining that the chant of her mindless followers is “Drill, baby, drill!” and not “Drill, drill, drill” as Biden alluded to earlier.

Oil. Fear. Oil. Soundbites. Oil. Folksy. Oil. Remind you of anyone currently holding the title of President?

So, just to clarify since some people didn’t seem to get it the first time: the Bush/Cheney administration is the pig; the McCain/Palin campaign is the lipstick.

VP Debate Reaction Doggone-it and, Also, You Betcha!

2008-10-03T09:34:00.005-04:00

One aptly written headline read “Sarah Palin exceeds expectations -- and still loses.” Another claimed "Biden Wins, Palin Wins, Obama Wins, McCain Loses." Biden used the word "fundamental" many times, while Palin sprinkled in a heckuva lotta folksy language and seemed to enjoy falling back on the word "also."

The Washington Post’s Harold Meyerson said, “She responded to any question that required real-time thinking by ignoring it and dredging up a canned answer from the McCain campaign’s canned-answer pool. She had memorized her answers, even if they weren’t the answers to the questions Gwen Ifill posed. Her performance was dissociated, jumbled, and at times completely contradictory, with soundbites appearing and reappearing almost at random.”

Some other reaction, starting with the New York Times:

She succeeded by not failing in any obvious way. She mostly reverted to and repeated talking points, like referring to Mr. McCain as a “maverick” and the Republican ticket as a “team of mavericks,” while not necessarily quelling doubts among voters about her depth of knowledge.

Although Ms. Palin name-dropped several times, presumably to show fluency in foreign affairs, she did not always drop the right name. At one point, she referred to the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David D. McKiernan, as "McClellan.”

Ms. Palin also tended to seize on a single point or phrase of Mr. Biden or the moderator and veer off on her own direction in her 90-second answer. Asked whether the poor economy would cause Mr. McCain to cut his spending plans, Ms. Palin picked up on Mr. Biden’s discussion of energy to criticize Mr. Obama’s positions on energy and talk about her fights against oil companies in Alaska.

In response to a question about her views on an exit strategy in Iraq, Ms. Palin championed Mr. McCain’s support for the “surge” of American troops there; hailed “a great American hero,” Gen. David H. Petraeus; and attacked Mr. Obama’s Senate votes.

After that, Mr. Biden turned to the moderator and said, “Gwen, with all due respect, I didn’t hear a plan.”

Eugene Robinson wrote in the Washington Post: “I thought Sarah Palin made one huge, central mistake -- and I expect it to be reflected in surveys asking voters who won (as it is already, indeed, reflected in a CBS snap poll of uncommitted voters indicating that they saw Joe Biden as the winner). Her error was that she hardly talked at all about policy solutions, except when the debate got onto the subject of energy and offshore drilling. But on everything else -- the financial crisis, the economy in general, health care, the war on terror -- she gave little more than promises of reform and ‘maverick’-y governance.”

From Salon’s Joan Walsh:

She lost the debate when Biden choked up over losing his wife and child in a car accident in which his sons were critically injured -- and she went straight back into “John McCain is a maverick.” I truly expected her to express human sympathy with Biden, and her failure to do so showed me something deeply wrong with her.

She made other mistakes that others have already caught: She called the top commander in Afghanistan General McClellan; his name is McKiernan. She said the troop levels in Iraq are down to pre-surge levels; they're not. She simply didn't answer a lot of the questions. Moderator Gwen Ifill tried to pull her back, but Palin is stubborn; she had her talking points, and she stuck to them.

John Nichols wrote in The Nation: “Let's be clear that Palin did not crash and burn as her most ardent detractors anticipated – or, at the least, hoped – she would. Yes, the governor rambled at times, and she had no comebacks at those moments when Biden directly challenged the validity of her over-the-top claims about Obama's Senate voting record. But Palin gave Republican spin doctors enough material – mainly in the form of folksy one-liners -- so that they could cheer her ‘success’ without sounding entirely ridiculous.”

In a Slate article titled “So Palin spoke in complete sentences; She still knows nothing about foreign policy,” Fred Kaplan writes:

When Palin repeated her charge that Obama was "beyond naive" in calling for negotiating with adversaries "without preconditions," Biden explained what the phrase meant, then noted that it was supported not just by the five former secretaries of state who recently co-authored an endorsement of the idea but by our allies, with whom Palin had just said we needed to work together.

When Palin recited McCain's line about applying the principles of the Iraqi surge to Afghanistan, Biden (correctly) noted that the U.S. commanding general in Afghanistan has said the surge wouldn't work there.

Finally, when Biden said the Bush administration's foreign policy has been an "abject failure," and proceeded to list the many ways in which that was so, Palin's only reply was to smile and say, "Enough playing the blame game." If Obama and Biden talk so much about change, she added (as if this were really a clever point), why do they spend so much time looking backward?

To which Biden replied, with uncharacteristic pith, "Past is prologue." And so it is. At another point, he noted, "Facts matter." And so they do.

More to the point, he noted that McCain has never explained how his policies would differ from Bush's on Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, or Iraq. In other words, even if Palin is right that 2009 is Year Zero, what would she and her No. 1 do differently? She didn't answer the question, any more than McCain ever has, perhaps because there is no answer.

When Biden was asked what line he would draw in deciding whether to intervene in other countries militarily, he cited two criteria: whether we had the capacity to make a difference and whether the countries in question were committing genocide or harboring terrorists—in which case, he said, they would have forfeited the rights of sovereignty.

Palin replied merely by hailing John McCain as a man "who knows how to win a war, who's been there." (McCain has said this about himself as well several times, though, with all due respect for his military record, where's the proof of this claim? What wars has he won, and what did he do there?)

Um, What Was the Question?

2008-10-03T08:29:00.000-04:00

Maybe Sarah Palin doesn't know that "Achilles heel" means "weak spot." Or maybe she was just very much conditioned to ignore the questions and pivot to the buzzwords and talking points. The transcript says it all:

MODERATOR: Let's talk conventional wisdom for a moment. The conventional wisdom, Governor Palin with you, is that your Achilles heel is that you lack experience. What is it really for you, Governor Palin?

PALIN: My experience as an executive will be put to good use as a mayor and business owner and oil and gas regulator and then as governor of a huge state, a huge energy producing state that is accounting for much progress towards getting our nation energy independence and that's extremely important.

But it wasn't just that experience tapped into, it was my connection to the heartland of America. Being a mom, one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child, about kids heading off to college, how are we going to pay those tuition bills? About times and Todd and our marriage in our past where we didn't have health insurance and we know what other Americans are going through as they sit around the kitchen table and try to figure out how are they going to pay out-of-pocket for health care? We've been there also so that connection was important.

But even more important is that world view that I share with John McCain. That world view that says that America is a nation of exceptionalism. And we are to be that shining city on a hill, as President Reagan so beautifully said, that we are a beacon of hope and that we are unapologetic here. We are not perfect as a nation. But together, we represent a perfect ideal. And that is democracy and tolerance and freedom and equal rights. Those things that we stand for that can be put to good use as a force for good in this world.

John McCain and I share that. You combine all that with being a team with the only track record of making a really, a difference in where we've been and reforming, that's a good team, it's a good ticket.

Political Stuntman

2008-09-26T08:35:00.007-04:00

John McCain is looking more and more like a desperate and dishonest politician willing to pull any stunt to change the subject and grab some headlines in hope that he can save his dwindling chance at power.

He said he was “suspending” his presidential campaign to go back to Washington to deal with the economic crisis and the bailout discussions. But after lying to David Letterman, cancelling his appearance cuz he just had to hop on a plane and head to DC (but then staying in NY and sitting down for an interview with Katie Couric), his campaign changed their story and said he cancelled because “this is not a time for comedy.”

Oh, spare me the drama. Sure the economic crisis is very serious, but “this is not a time for comedy”??? This isn’t Sept.12… and oh by the way, I guess it was okay for The Formerly Honorable Sen. McCain to appear on the Conan O’Brien show on August 29, 2005 after celebrating his birthday with President Bush… that same day Katrina and breached levies were drowning an American city. Was that a “time for comedy”?

By most accounts, McCain’s announcement that he was bringing the presidential campaign circus to Capitol Hill actually served to inject partisanship into the negotiations and kill what everyone thought was a deal on the bailout. Heckuva job there Johnny!

If all this wasn’t bad enough… he didn’t actually suspend his campaign. His advertisements were still running in key swingstates. His campaign offices were still open and running. His surrogates were still all over TV talking him up. And, despite McCain's stated campaigning hiatus, his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, paid a highly visible visit to memorials in lower Manhattan to those killed on Sept. 11.

Ohh, okay. Suspend the campaign.... but go ahead with the 9/11 photo op. Stay classy McCain/Palin!!

And then there’s this ridiculous stunt about wanting to cancel/postpone the first debate. The rest of us regular working Americans are somehow capable of taking care of our kids in the morning, going to work and attending important meetings during the day, and then doing something else in the evening. To paraphrase Obama, sometimes the President has to handle more than one thing at a time. Come on, Uncle John, just show up to the debate.... after all, it is only against some naive inexperienced celebrity community organizer, right? How hard could it be?

When asked about the debate on the CBS Evening News, McCain responded: "I understand how important this debate is and I'm very hopeful, but I also have to put the country first." Is anyone buying this horseshit? This is the guy who has missed more Senate votes than anyone. When the latest G.I. Bill was voted on, he put Campaign First and blew off the vote to appear at a high-price fundraising dinner. But now all of a sudden he wants to make this all about him (despite his Country First talk), as if Congress cant function without him. As if the first debate in this crucial Presidential contest is somehow not important to the country.

Back to the bailout negotiations, from the Washington Post’s late Thursday afternoon update by Michael D. Shear and Lori Montgomery:

Sen. John McCain returned to Washington on Thursday after declaring that he has suspended his campaign, but he appeared largely detached from the flurry of negotiations on a $700 billion economic rescue package that appeared to be headed to a successful conclusion.

McCain's "Straight Talk Air" landed at National Airport just after noon, and McCain's motorcade sped toward the Senate. But by then, senior Democrats and Republicans were already announcing that a deal in principle had been reached.

"This is the presidential campaign of John McCain undermining what Hank Paulson tells us is essential for the country," said Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. "This is McCain at the last minute getting House Republicans to undermine the Paulson approach."

The White House meeting was in part the result of McCain's stunning pronouncement Wednesday that he would stop campaigning to return to Washington, where he had urged Bush to convene a summit to address the crisis.

… for most of the afternoon, McCain has not visibly been part of the action on the issue. He was not present when House and Senate negotiators emerged from a two-hour meeting to declare success. That announcement was made by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Robert F. Bennett (Utah) and Frank.

McCain, by contrast, spent some time in his office with several Republican colleagues, briefly stopped at Boehner's office, then left for lunch at the Capitol's Mansfield Room before returning to his office in the Russell Senate Office Building.

So he doesn’t land until after noon…. Then goes and dicks around the Senate with his boy Joe Lieberman, and then he goes out for lunch? But he doesn’t have the time or inclination to go before the American people and debate Barack Obama and show and tell us why we should trust him to be the leader of the free world?

McCain's not putting Country First. He's not showing leadership. He's just a stuntman in a political theater.

The Replacements Reissues: Can't Hardly Wait

2008-09-23T16:56:00.004-04:00

Today marks the much-anticipated release of Rhino’s remastered and expanded editions of The Replacements four Sire-era albums, Tim, Pleased To Meet Me, Don’t Tell A Soul, and All Shook Down. These new versions feature remastered sound, plus bonus tracks of unreleased demos and alternate versions.

A few months ago, their earlier material (originally released on Twin Tone) was given the same treatment. While Let It Be, from that earlier era, is often held up as their “best” (and I do like that one a lot), I’d say that Tim and Pleased To Meet Me are my favorites. I was working in a record store when Pleased To Meet Me came out and there was a ‘Mats fan there who would play it all the time. It grew on me and I ended up loving the Replacements too… I can't say enough about how monumental these guys were in influencing a generation of bands from indie rock to alt.country and every suburban music-lover inbetween who just wanted to crank up some great tunes and fuck off.

TIM was the band's last album fueled by the legendary original line-up of lead singer and songwriter Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars (drums) and brothers Bob and Tommy Stinson (guitar and bass, respectively) and their first on a major label, Sire Records. Rhino's newly remastered and expanded edition features the original 11 tracks plus 6 previously unreleased bonus tracks, including three tracks recorded at a 1985 session with Westerberg's idol, Alex Chilton, among them an electric outtake of “Can't Hardly Wait.”

Their fifth full-length and second for a major label, PLEASED TO MEET ME was recorded in Memphis with legendary producer Jim Dickinson. The new remastered/expanded edition from Rhino features the original 11-song classic album from 1987 plus 12 rare bonus tracks, half of them previously unreleased.

These great Replacements reissues are also available on 180-gram virgin vinyl, minus the bonus material. Don’t buy this stuff on Amazon or look for it at Best Buy. Support your local independent record store (while it still exists) and buy your ‘Mats reissues from them.

Bush Urging We Must Act Fast (Again)

2008-09-23T12:10:00.002-04:00

This is a great post courtesy of The Rude Pundit:

You know, the Rude Pundit realizes there's only so many ways to describe a dire situation, but, really, and, c'mon, is it all not a variation on the same tune?

From the statement by President Bush on September 22, 2008 on the current economic crisis and the possible bailout: "Failure to act would have broad consequences far beyond Wall Street."

From Bush's speech explaining why he needed war authorization for Iraq, October 7, 2002: "Failure to act would embolden other tyrants, allow terrorists access to new weapons and new resources, and make blackmail a permanent feature of world events."

2008: "It would threaten small business owners and homeowners on Main Street."
2002: "He would be in a position to threaten America."

2008: "Americans are watching to see if Democrats and Republicans, the Congress and the White House, can come together to solve this problem with the urgency it warrants."
2002: "We have an urgent duty to prevent the worst from occurring."

It's all lessons from childhood: If you cry wolf often enough, you may just ignore it when that toothsome fucker is carrying away your infants and livestock. You say the sky is falling and it's not, then next time there better be clouds around your ass.

Financial Crisis: a Look at the Big Bailout

2008-09-23T07:24:00.001-04:00

Funny cartoon from Scott Bateman:

Time Capsule 2005: Another Side of the "New Dylans"

2008-09-20T09:54:00.001-04:00

“Time Capsules” is our way of putting some of our favorite albums from particular years into a... little, um, time capsule so music fans can read our reviews of notable releases from various years. We were going to take the actual CD's and launch them into space in real time capsules, or bury them in the ground so future generations and/or aliens could be sure to find the best CD's preserved. But that seemed a bit pricey and foolish. Plus, aliens (and/or future generations) aren't likely to go digging thru the ground looking for stuff, they'll probably just poke around on the internet. Let's hope they find this site sooner than later. The following review was written in 2005:

With the release of 2005's first handful of great records, four of America's finest singer/songwriters have offered us yet another study of the duality of each of these recording artists: Beck, Bright Eyes, Bruce Springsteen, and Ryan Adams. While all four have at different times (and to various degrees) been cursed with the "new Dylan" label, one of the things they all really have in common is a refusal to be pinned down and labeled again. Perhaps by subconsciously taking a page from Dylan's book, they've each managed to explore their own duality as a means of throwing us curves and proving that sometimes following a muse means making lots of left turns.

Beck has been almost deliberate in presenting his two sides. His albums alternate between his funky playful mix-tape collages and his more somber acoustic folk material. After his wildly eclectic debut Mellow Gold spawned the unlikely hit "Loser" and offered an original mix of both of Beck's sonic personas, he re-released some earlier recordings: the first a noisey experimental affair, and the second a stripped-down song-oriented set. In 1996 he released what would prove to be his signature recording: Odelay, a masterpiece collaboration with producers the Dust Brothers. True to form, he would then get all somber/acoustic on us with Mutations (1998) before returning to the neon lights and party vibes of Midnite Vultures (1999) and then back to introspection and heartbreak with 2002's Sea Change. Critics loved it, hailing Sea Change for its mature songwriting and lush sound. But close to a decade after Mellow Gold and Odelay, critics and fans alike wondered if Beck would ever put all of his styles back together again.

Bright Eyes, the "band" that serves as creative vehicle for singer/songwriter Conor Oberst, became a critical and cult success with the release of Lifted, or The Story's in the Soil Keep Your Ear to the Ground in 2002. With sprawling narratives, stunning/clever/rambling lyrics, and musical diversions that ranged from the stark to the symphonic, Lifted was at times as bloated and pretentious as its title. But it was also brilliant, earning the then-22-year-old Oberst the unenviable and predictably clichéd titles bestowed by the label-happy media of the new century: "alt-folk boy genius of the emo generation." Yet another "this generation's Bob Dylan." Recording since his first demo at age 12, this protégé from Omaha, Nebraska could've awoken in the aftermath of such success in danger of crumbling under the weight of the lofty expectations, his own prolific output, or both.

Bruce Springsteen, the veteran hall-of-famer and most rich and famous of this grouping, has been showing us both of his sides for more than 30 years. Signed as an acoustic singer/songwriter and perhaps the first in the long line of New Dylan's, he shook the comparisons with his wall-of-sound rock classic "Born to Run," and epic stories like "Jungleland" and "Thunder Road." He also established himself among rock's greatest live acts, building his reputation with marathon concerts. His dualities really started surfacing in the 1980's. After having a hit with "Hungry Heart," he took a chance and released a brutally stark acoustic album, Nebraska, that was essentially home demos. This was followed by the multi-platinum juggernaut Born in the USA that spawned 7 Top Ten singles and made Springsteen a pop superstar. So, he really started throwing some curves: the quiet Tunnel of Love examined self doubt and his failed first marriage; the arrival of the 1990's signaled the end of the E Street Band as Bruce simultaneously released Lucky Town and Human Touch in 1992 with a new batch of studio musicians; 1995's The Ghost of Tom Joad found him back in solo/acoustic mode; after releasing a boxed set of previously unreleased material and a greatest hits disc, he reunited the E Streeters for a tour and then a full-band album The Rising. So, 30 years after Born to Run, "Epic Springsteen, The Boss of Live Rock'n'Roll," is still battling "Joe Everyman, Acoustic Troubadour of the Dark Lonesome Highway" for creative control. Which Bruce would show up in 2005?

Asking which one will show up has been one of the few constants in the career of Ryan Adams. Would it be the heartbroken country singer with the golden voice or the bratty self-absorbed rocker, so drunk that he breaks his wrist falling off the stage? A detailed look at some of his solo work can be found HERE, but, like the artists mentioned above, Adams has an acute duality that's evident in his work: the acoustic Heartbreaker, followed by the more upbeat folk-rock of Gold, followed by Demolition, a diverse collection of unreleased tracks and demos. Then the lush and mellow mopey songs of Love is Hell, released concurrently with the disposable guitar-rock of Rock'n'Roll. Despite a few shortcomings, everyone agrees that Adams is an amazingly talented songwriter, perhaps too prolific for his own good. So, like in the case of Beck, people wondered if Ryan could stop messing around and put it all together.

As the sun rose on 2005, all four of these guys were readying new releases. On January 25th, Bright Eyes showed up first, releasing two separate albums at once, just as Springsteen and Adams had once done. That's always a tough trick to pull off. Bright Eyes succeeds, mostly because the albums, both lyrically driven, are very different in sound and instrumentation. He had originally considered splitting the ambitious Lifted into two separate releases, and by doing so with these new albums, he shows us the stark contrast of his two sides. Digital Ash in a Digital Urn lays a cold and modern electronic foundation for Oberst's whiny wails (not unlike the Cure's Robert Smith) and deathly meditations. It's a solid yet unspectacular effort, but the real gem is it's acoustic-based companion, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. This terrific set of folk tunes won't help Bright Eyes escape the Dylan comparisons, but it does cement his growing legend as one America's great young songwriters and recording artists. Wide Awake is just a simple and purely great album, highly recommended along with Lifted.

In March, Beck returned with Guero. The Dust Brothers are back at the production controls, and, at first listen, Guero sounds like Beck has once again followed a gloomy, mellow release with another funkfest. But further spins reveal a well-crafted and deeper album than the throwaway party hits of Midnite Vultures. It's not quite a true return to his peak form of Odelay, but more like a mature effort that proves Beck can unify his folksinger/songwriter self with his more outgoing mix-tape party host alter-ego.

A month later, Bruce Springsteen left the bombastic Bossman bandleader at home as his solo storyteller incarnation returned with a fine new CD, Devils & Dust. This mostly acoustic 12-tune set alternates between folk ditties, somber narratives, and a couple of formulaic upbeat rockers. Springsteen's songwriting is in fine form, as his ability to craft stories and characters benefits from Brendan O'Brien's production and more instrumentation and melody than the quiet, often-droning Tom Joad release. Devils & Dust, while embracing the twangy folk and country sounds of violin and steel guitar mixed with his own effective acoustic guitar work, also finds Springsteen exploring some uncharted territory of his vocal abilities as he employs a high falsetto on a few tracks. By meshing his quiet acoustic sound with some light and catchy rock tunes, Bruce is finding a potent middle ground where his two personas merge into one, or at least cross paths with great results.

Finally, in early May, Ryan Adams released the first of a reported three new albums slated for 2005: Cold Roses, with his band The Cardinals. Wow. This is the one that his fans have been waiting for: a finely crafted double album combining the subtly stellar songwriting of Heartbreaker with the full-band sound and accessibility of Gold. Adams and his band cruise through the 18 tracks as the acoustic, electric, and lap-steel guitars spiral up, intertwine, and cascade down as if they were conjured up by Jerry Garcia himself. The lyrics and titles, complete with references to roses, magnolias, friends, "stranger's angels," Cumberland, sweet illusions, and dancing all night, are more reminders of the Grateful Dead. But this is no boring set of trippy instrumental noodlings. There are some great, great songs here.

Packaged like a miniature gatefold LP, this folk-rock throwback features two Ryan trademarks: clever word play ("Let me go, I'm only letting you down" and "Telling me to take it easy but I took a photograph") and occasional wrist-slitting depression ("I aint afraid of hurt, I've had so much it feels just like normal to me now"). But while 2003 found Adams a bit brooding on Love is Hell and full of self-aware mockery on Rock'n'Roll, 2005's Cold Roses smells of the sweet fulfillment of a great talent who's finally letting his terrific songs speak for themselves.

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As always (if possible), don’t buy these albums at BestBuy, Target or on Amazon. Support your local independent record store (while it still exists) and buy from them.

Frank Zappa Knew It 20 Years Ago: the "Liberal Media" is a Myth

2008-09-19T07:06:00.000-04:00

"The concept of a "liberal media bias," spoon-fed to CNN viewers in talk-show blather and pompous 'news commentary' throughout the Reagan years, has at last been exposed for the pitiful manipulation it always was.

'Liberal' bias? Suppose a newsperson was some sort of frothing 'liberal' - would he get a broadcast job in the first place? Not on CNN. But, suppose he did, and tried to sneak some form of "bias" into a story, do we think he'd last a week? Get serious. Frothing right-wing extremists are, however, prominently displayed and in plentiful supply on CNN.

The license holders for most broadcast outlets (especially the commercial networks) hardly qualify as "liberal" by any stretch of the imagination - and the guys on the board of directors? Gimme a break. This applies to all news outlets - electronic and print. The guy who owns the outlet determines policy and content - that's why he owns it, so he can control it. This power to mold public opinion is bartered for 'favors' among 'friends' - it is the essential tool of spin-control"

-Frank Zappa, 1988

McCain's Empty Double-Talk on the Economic Crisis

2008-09-17T14:02:00.012-04:00

As our economy crumbles and the financial news gets more catastrophic by the day, John McCain continues to spout phony rhetoric in hopes that his soundbites about “fixing Wall Street” might actually resonate with voters.

Of course, as we know, much of the current crisis was enabled by the massive deregulation McCain supported in the late 1990s when it was initially sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm, who is now an economic adviser to his campaign.

But McCain has flip-flopped and is changing his tune on regulation and government involvement. From Michael D. Shear’s article in today’s Washington Post:

A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth.

Now, as the Bush administration scrambles to prevent the collapse of the American International Group (AIG), the nation's largest insurance company, and stabilize a tumultuous Wall Street, the Republican presidential nominee is scrambling to recast himself as a champion of regulation to end "reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed" on Wall Street. "Government has a clear responsibility to act in defense of the public interest, and that's exactly what I intend to do," a fiery McCain said at a rally in Tampa yesterday.

A little background, from the same article:

[In 1999,] McCain had joined with other Republicans to push through landmark legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (Tex.), who is now an economic adviser to his campaign. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country's financial institutions competitive by removing the walls between banking, investment and insurance companies.

That bill allowed AIG to participate in the gold rush of a rapidly expanding global banking and investment market. But the legislation also helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments.

As Shear puts it, “McCain now condemns the executives at those companies for pursuing the ambitions that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act made possible.”

Yesterday, Barack Obama gave a detailed speech that not only criticized McCain on this issue, but offered his vision for solutions to this mess. He also launched a new plain-spoken ad that points to his detailed plan to fix it. Funny, everyone says Obama just gives nice speeches about hope but never offers specifics. And yet here he is saying “please go to my website and read my plan.”

Meanwhile, McCain suggested we should form a commission to study the problem, “like the 9/11 Commission.” What? This sounds like holding a meeting to decide when the next meeting should be. While our major financial institutions are failing, McCain has no clue what to do so he wants to form a commission to maybe try to figure something out and then hopefully implement something or other. Obama’s already studied it and he HAS a plan. But John McCain would rather win an election than fix the economy (that he continues to declare is fundamentally strong).

So McCain threw up (pun intended) his own TV spot that promises to "reform Wall Street" and pass "new rules for fairness and honesty." In the ad, he also says, "I won't tolerate a system that puts you and your family at risk. Your savings, your jobs . . . I'll keep them safe." Don’t worry, Uncle John will keep you safe. Soon as he wastes a few months appointing a commission and that commission spends a few months studying some stuff and making some recommendations that might get implemented a few months after that.

Of course it wouldn’t be a McCain ad without some lying: McCain says, "My opponent's only solutions are talk and taxes.” Really? As this whole post and the links within it prove, Obama does have a plan and McCain’s the one who only offers “talk.” And every independent, non-partisan study actually says that Obama will provide more tax relief for the “bottom” 95% of Americans than McCain.

Again, everyone assumes that John McCain is some known, proven leader with a plan and that Barack Obama is just an empty suit who “never offers specifics.” But he does. As for McCain? His senior policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, told reporters that there was no need for McCain to be specific right now: "I don't think it's imperative at this moment to write down what the plan should be," he said. "The real issue here is a leadership issue.''

Well, I agree we need real leadership. But I doubt we’ll get it from John McCain. All he’s offered is a bunch of double-talk. "I'm always for less regulation," he told the Wall Street Journal just 6 months ago. He added: "I'd like to see a lot of the unnecessary government regulations eliminated."

But NOW, after the deregulation that McCain himself championed has bankrupted our economy, he says “Government has a clear responsibility to act” while he offers vague soundbites about how he will “reform Wall Street” and “keep us safe,” when in fact his only suggestion is to form a commission to study the problem that Obama already has a plan to fix.

UPDATE:
The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson got off a good one about McCain: "He's shocked and outraged that Wall Street's preening Masters of the Universe threw a drunken toga party and smashed all the furniture -- but he helped buy the beer and told the cops to look the other way."

How Would a Patriot Act?

2008-09-17T14:02:00.011-04:00

Today Glenn Greenwald has a great and sarcastic post regarding the outrage from the Right regarding Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's yahoo email account being hacked. In it, he also manages to hit us with a bunch of great links to help us find out where our own privacy and freedoms went:

Still, it's really a wondrous, and repugnant, sight to behold the Bush-following lynch mobs on the Right melodramatically defend the Virtues of Privacy and the Rule of Law. These, of course, are the same authoritarians who have cheered on every last expansion of the Lawless Surveillance State of the last eight years -- put their fists in the air with glee as the Federal Government seized the power to listen to innocent Americans' telephone calls; read our emails; obtain our banking, credit card, and library records; and create vast data bases of every call we make and receive and every prescription we fill and every instance of travel and other vast categories of information that remain largely unknown -- all without warrants or oversight of any kind and often in clear violation of the law.

The same political faction which today is prancing around in full-throated fits of melodramatic hysteria and Victim mode (their absolute favorite state of being) over the sanctity of Sarah Palin's privacy are the same ones who scoffed with indifference as it was revealed during the Bush era that the FBI systematically abused its Patriot Act powers to gather and store private information on thousands of innocent Americans; that Homeland Security officials illegally infiltrated and monitored peaceful, law-abiding left-wing groups devoted to peace activism, civil liberties and other political agendas disliked by the state; and that the telephone calls of journalists and lawyers have been illegally and repeatedly monitored.

And the same Surveillance State Worshipper leading today's screeching -- Michelle Makin -- spent the last several years deriding those who objected to the President's illegal spying program as "privacy crusaders" and "constitutional absolutists" and "civil liberties absolutists".

9/11: Don't Forget

2008-09-11T14:37:00.003-04:00

Don’t forget the thousands of victims who were killed on September 11, 2001, and all their families and friends. I respect and honor them by continuing to research what really happened that day, inspire others to do the same, and hope that someday the truth will come out and justice will really be served.

Don’t forget that 140+ senior military, intelligence service, law enforcement, and government officials, 530+ engineers and architects, 120+ pilots and aviation professionals, 300+ professors, and 210+ 9/11 survivors and family members have gone on record to question the official story of 9/11.

Don’t forget to read this excellent interview from The Conservative Voice with David Ray Griffin.

Don’t forget to read Griffin’s article “The 9/11 Commission Report: a 571-Page Lie"

Don’t forget to check out the Top 40 Reasons to Doubt the Official Story of 9/11

Don’t forget to sift thru the 250+ “smoking gun” links on this great site.

And of course…
Don’t forget to read my two previous posts on this subject: Why the Official Story About 9/11 is Sketchy and 9/11: If You Think I'm Whacked.

Don't forget....

Pray Away The Gay!!

2008-09-09T12:44:00.008-04:00

It’s amazing that such a close-minded homophobic religious fanatic is actually on a major party ticket as a Vice Presidential candidate. Oh, who am I kidding…. Look at the Current Occupant of the White House.

From the Associated Press:

Palin's Church Promotes Conversion Of Gays

Gov. Sarah Palin's church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer.

"You'll be encouraged by the power of God's love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality," according to the insert in the bulletin of the Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin has prayed for about six years.

Palin's conservative Christian views have energized that part of the GOP electorate, which was lukewarm to John McCain's candidacy before he named her as his vice presidential choice.

She is staunchly anti-abortion (opposing exceptions for rape and incest), and opposes gay marriage and spousal rights for gay couples. Focus on the Family, a national Christian fundamentalist organization, is conducting the Love Won Out Conference in Anchorage, about 30 miles from Wasilla.

Hey, what’s wrong with being gay? I thought, based on what they said at the Republican Convention, that “WE ARE ALL GOD’S CHILDREN.”

Palin, campaigning with McCain in the Midwest on Friday, has not publicly expressed a view on the so-called "pray away the gay" movement. Larry Kroon, senior pastor at Palin's church, was not available to discuss the matter Friday, said a church worker who declined to give her name.

Too bad the McCain campaign wont let Palin near any real questions from the media. They even had the nerve to say Palin wont submit to interviews until the media showed a willingness to treat her "with some level of respect and deference." Um, excuse me, last I checked she’s an unknown who’s running to be a 72-year-old heartbeat away from President, so why shouldn’t we be able to grill her on what she does or doesn’t know about national economic and foreign policy? As the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne puts it, "Deference? That's a word used in monarchies or aristocracies. Democracies don't give 'deference' to politicians."
So now they’ve scheduled a softball lovefest with McCain-favorite Charlie Gibson of ABC.
From Glenn Greenwald’s blog on Salon.com:

If I were a McCain adviser and wanted to have Palin sit with someone who is perceived as a "journalist" while knowing that no damage could possibly occur, I'd pick Charlie Gibson, too. There are many, many other equally good alternatives, but when it comes to wretched passivity and sycophantic establishment worship, the former "Good Morning America" host -- whose career was built on oozing amiability and inoffensiveness -- is as good as it gets.

This is the same Charlie Gibson who, while questioning Barack Obama during one of the primary debates, insisted on dwelling on flag pins and Rev. Wright. I guess I'll just pray that he gives Palin similar treatment...

Palin Not Against All Corruption and Wasteful Gov't Spending

2008-09-09T11:19:00.003-04:00

The McCain/Palin campaign has made a big deal about how Gov. Sarah Palin cut back on wasteful government spending and took the previous governor's plane and "put it on ebay." But I guess she didn't mind wasting some taxpayer money as long as it went into her pocket.

From today's Washington Post:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.
She wrote some form of "Lodging -- own residence" or "Lodging -- Wasilla residence" more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.
Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 -- Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage.
In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin's daughters' expenses.
One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room.Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children's travel expenses, state finance director KimGarnero said: "We cover the expenses of anyone who's conducting state business. I can't imagine kids could be doing that."
Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000, said "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam: you pay yourself to live at home."
Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could "count on one hand" the number of times his children accompanied him.
"And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state," he said.

McCain McLies and MsLeads in Acceptance Speech

2008-09-05T10:13:00.012-04:00

Here’s a breakdown of John McCain’s speech with my comments….
First let me note that he was NOT wearing a flag pin. And he calls himself a Patriot, pffft…

SEN. MCCAIN: In my life, no success has come without a good fight, and this nomination wasn't any different. I'm grateful to the president of the United States for leading us in these dark days following the worst attack on American history -- (extended cheers and applause) -- the worst attack on American soil in our history and keeping us safe from another tack -- attack that many -- many thought was inevitable. AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

After the obligatory first line about accepting the party’s nomination, McCain’s next line alludes to his time as a Prisoner of War, and the very next line after that reminds us about 9/11 and raises the specter of another “inevitable” attack. Be afraid, be very afraid. So within the first minute or two of his speech, he’s already reminded us that he was a PoW, 9/11 happened, and we will be attacked again. Great start.

SEN. MCCAIN: a word to Senator Obama and his supporters. We'll go at it -- we'll go at it over the next two months. You know that's the nature of this business, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and my admiration… And I wouldn't be an American worthy of the name if I didn't honor Senator Obama and his supporters for their achievement.

Oh, they respect Barack Obama? I couldn’t tell from all the condescending mockery of him in most of the speeches at the Republican Convention. I couldn’t tell from the ads that portrayed him as a dimwitted celebrity. As Obama said, “With the nation watching, the Republicans mocked, dismissed, and actually laughed out loud at Americans who engage in community service and organizing.” C’mon Barack. Chill out, they respect and admire you.

SEN. MCCAIN: All you've ever asked of government is to stand on your side and not in your way.

Of course, a government under a President McCain WOULD stand in your way if you wanted to terminate a pregnancy. Speaking of which, on to Sarah Palin:

SEN. MCCAIN: She's tackled tough problems like energy independence and corruption. She's balanced a budget, cut taxes, and she's taken on the special interests. (Cheers, applause.) She's reached across the aisle and asked Republicans, Democrats and independents to serve in her administration. She's the wonderful mother of five children. (Cheers, applause.) She's -- she's helped run a small business. She's worked with her hands and knows -- and knows what it's like to worry about mortgage payments and health care and the cost of gasoline and groceries. She knows where she comes from and she knows who she works for. She stands up for what's right, and she doesn't let anyone tell her to sit down. (Cheers, applause.)

See? She’s just a regular person like you. I guess she was “fighting corruption” when she demanded that the librarian remove books from the library that Palin found offensive, and then fired that librarian for not complying. And maybe it was “fighting corruption” when she wanted her ex-brother-in-law fired and then fired the person who wouldn’t comply with that. Oh wait, I think that IS corruption.

And as for her balanced budgets, tax cuts and taking on government spending…. Check out this report by Anne Kilkenny direct from Wasilla, Alaska:

During her six years as mayor, she increased general government expenditures by more than 33 percent. During those same six years, the amount of taxes collected by the city increased by 38 percent. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax, which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefitted large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.The huge increases in tax revenue during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list, though — borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt but left it with indebtedness of more than $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? Or a new library? No. $1 million for a park. $15 million-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex, which she rushed through, on a piece of property that the city didn't even have clear title to. That was still in litigation seven years later — to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5 million for road projects that could have been done in five to seven years without any borrowing. While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once. These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

Meanwhile, back to McCain’s speech, where he’s finally gonna get those damn kids off your lawn.

SEN. MCCAIN: Let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first-country-second, Washington crowd: Change is coming. (Cheers, applause.)

Yes, change is coming. And it’s name is Barack Obama. Which Washington crowd is he warning? The Republicans who’ve controlled the White House for the last 8 years and the Congress for 6 of the last 8? Is that the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first-country-second, Washington crowd he’s talking about?

SEN. MCCAIN: I'm not -- I'm not in the habit of breaking my promises to my country. You well know I've been called a maverick, someone who -- (cheers, applause) -- someone who marches to the beat of his own drum. Sometimes it's meant as a compliment and sometimes it's not. (Laughter.) What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don't work for a party.

Translation: I don’t break my promises and I don’t work for a party… unless I need to abandon my principles and flip-flop on every major issue in order to win my party’s nomination. And even though I really wanted Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman as my running mate, I caved in to the extreme wing of my party and put politics above country by selecting someone who is fiercely Pro-Life and thinks that the war in Iraq “is a task that is from God.”

SEN. MCCAIN: I've fought the big spenders in both parties who waste your money on things you neither need nor want.

Well, except for the $10 billion a month for the war…. And the $5 Billion we gave to Pakistan that we cant account for… and all the no-bid overpriced contracts that went to Halliburton and Blackwater….

SEN. MCCAIN: And thanks -- and thanks to the leadership of a brilliant general, David Petraeus --(cheers, applause) -- and the brave men and women he has the honor to command, that strategy succeeded, and it rescued us from a defeat that would have demoralized our military, risked a wider war and threatened the security of all Americans. (Applause.)

Oh, we succeeded? I thought he said earlier that another attack was “inevitable.” Well, if we’ve been rescued from defeat and we’ve succeeded, then I guess we should be bringing the troops home ASAP. Sweet!

SEN. MCCAIN: We believe -- we believe in low taxes, spending discipline and open markets. We believe in rewarding hard work and risk takers and letting people keep the fruits of their labor. We believe -- (cheers, applause) -- we believe -- we believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life -- (cheers, applause) -- personal responsibility, the rule of law and judges who dispense justice impartially and don't legislate from the bench. (Cheers, applause.)

Spending discipline… didn’t the Republicans take over a record surplus and then run up a record deficit? Where was the personal responsibility for that? And as for rule of law, justice and judges.... didn't the Bush Administration have a scandal involving hiring/firing judges based on political affliliation and loyalty? Didn't a judge appointed by Bush's dad cast the vote in the Supreme Court that gave Bush the presidency? Just wanna make sure I’m remembering that correctly. But here’s the real doozie:

SEN. MCCAIN: We believe in a government that doesn't make your choices for you, but works to make sure you have more choices to make for yourself. (Cheers, applause.)

UNLESS of course those choices have to do with who you marry and what you do with your reproductive organs. THOSE choices we’ll actually make for you and/or take them away.

SEN. MCCAIN: I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. (Boos.) I will open -- I will open new markets to our goods and services. My opponent will close them. (Boos.) I will cut government spending. He will increase it. (Boos.) My tax cuts will create jobs. His tax increases will eliminate them. (Boos.)

Really Uncle John? It’s just that simple huh? Vote for you and you’ll give me money… Vote for the other guy and he’ll take my money away? Now that we know that, the choice is so clear! You should be CRUSHING him in the polls!

SEN. MCCAIN: My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat (boos) -- where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor. (Boos.)

And a Bureaucrat should NEVER stand between you and your doctor…. Unless you’re considering using contraception or terminating a pregancy.

SEN. MCCAIN: Now, my opponent promises to bring back old jobs by wishing away the global economy.

Haha, that’s a good one. Actually Obama has said in many speeches that the old jobs that Bush/McCain shipped overseas are not coming back. But let’s not let facts get in the way of a good soundbite.

SEN. MCCAIN: We need -- we need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice. (Cheers, applause.) When a public school fails to meet the -- its obligations to students -- when it fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children, and I intend to give it to them. (Cheers, applause.) Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. (Cheers, applause.) But they will have the choice and their children will have that opportunity. (Cheers, applause.)

Just to review: you will have freedom of choice when choosing schools, but not when deciding who to marry or what to do with your reproductive organs. Got it.

SEN. MCCAIN: We'll attack -- we'll attack the problem on every front. We'll produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells offshore and we'll drill them now. (Cheers, applause.) We'll drill them now. AUDIENCE: (Chanting.) Drill, baby, drill! Drill, baby, drill! Drill, baby, drill! Drill, baby, drill! Drill, baby, drill!

Yes, they actually chanted “Drill, baby, drill!” for the second night in a row. And no, we wont see a drop of new domestic oil in John McCain’s lifetime.

SEN. MCCAIN: We'll -- we'll -- my friends… we'll increase the use of wind, tide, solar and natural gas. We'll encourage the development and use of flex fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles. (Cheers, applause.) My friends, it's an ambitious plan, but Americans are ambitious by nature. And we've faced greater challenges. It's time for us to show the world again how Americans lead. (Cheers, applause.) This great natural cause will create millions of new jobs.

Gee, the lofty rhetoric sounds nice… but these are just empty words in a speech. Where’s the details and specifics?

SEN. MCCAIN: We have dealt -- (cheers, applause) -- we have dealt a serious blow to al Qaeda in recent years, but they're not defeated, and they'll strike us again if they can.

Wait, I thought the strategy succeeded and rescued us from defeat? Which is it?

Here’s where McCain then warned us about the new boogeyman and started making his case for the next war, before pivoting to Russia:

SEN. MCCAIN:Iran remains the chief state sponsor of terrorism, and is on the path to acquiring nuclear weapons. [Russia] invaded a small, democratic neighbor to gain more control over the world's oil supply, intimidate other neighbors, and further their ambitions of reassembling the Russian empire.

Hmm…. there's a bad guy "on the path to acquiring nuclear weapons." Invading someone to gain more control over oil, intimidate, and further the ambitions of an empire... Those things sound awfully familiar.

SEN. MCCAIN: We face many dangerous threats in this dangerous world, but I'm not afraid of them.

YOU should be afraid, but John McCain isn’t.

SEN. MCCAIN: I know how the world works. I know the good and evil in it.

The guy has never sent an email and just had his wife show him the internet for the first time, but he knows how the world works. It’s all black & white, no gray area, just good guys and bad guys… kinda like a childish game.

SEN. MCCAIN: Instead of fighting over who gets the credit, let's try sharing it.

Sort of like how McCain gladly shared the credit Bush bestowed upon him after that latest GI Bill passed… y’know, the one McCain was actually against. That’s right folks, Mr. Troops has time and again voted against Veterans benefits.
OK, time to wrap it up with the clincher:

SEN. MCCAIN: I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. (Cheers, applause.)

Nevermind that Barack Obama has continually emphasized that this election is NOT about him. It’s McCain’s campaign that has nicknamed Obama “The One” and even ran ads mocking him as some religious cult figure. But just keep repeating it and it becomes part of the narrative.

McCain’s only chance of winning is to somehow turn this into Mr. Honorable War Hero vs. The Self-Centered Possibly Muslim Elitist. Good luck with that.

The Irony of Sarah and Bristol Palin

2008-09-02T15:17:00.005-04:00

It’s interesting that the Palin family and McCain campaign are asking that we all respect their privacy and not politicize the out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy of Bristol Palin. Well, guess what. Republicans, and more specifically the Christian Right-wing of that party, have always been the ones thrusting private issues into our politics. Whether it was Gay Marriage or Abortion or the failed Abstinence-only education programs, it was always okay for them to force their alleged “family values” on the rest of us.

Gov. Sarah Palin is against abortion even in cases of rape. She and Sen. McCain are against sex education in schools. And now that the Palins' unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, and will have the baby and allegedly marry the father, they are being hailed as wonderful because they are choosing life. Of course when inner-city teenagers have babies, they are accused of being welfare moms gaming the system for a government handout and never celebrated for "choosing life."

From John Nichols at The Nation:

Sarah Palin says she is "proud" that her 17-year-old daughter, who is five months pregnant, has made a "decision to have her baby."

Foes of abortion rights are celebrating the decision. Richard Land, the president of the Southern Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention, says, ``The Palin family, in making this choice to affirm life and affirm the baby, is giving a pro-life stance."

Referring to Palin's daughter, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, said, "Fortunately, Bristol is following her mother and father's example of choosing life in the midst of a difficult situation."
Interesting words those: "decision," "choice," "choosing."

Palin and her family are being celebrated for making wise and responsible decisions and choices. Yet, Palin and her party would deny Americans the right to wise and responsible decisions and choices.

Sarah Palin the Desperation Pick

2008-08-29T11:21:00.005-04:00

This is a desperation move. Sorry, no disrespect to Sarah Palin, I’ll get to reading up on her this weekend. But does John McCain think that he’s going to somehow steal away some “Hillary Democrats” by simply putting a female on his ticket? A little-known, inexperienced, not-ready-for-prime-time, first term Governor from Alaska? Really? Does he think that women are so shallow and gullible that they will simply go vote for whichever ticket has the female V.P.?

Of course he made sure she was Pro-Life so that it would garner approval from his base (the last 20% that approve of Bush, combined with the 20% that are misinformed skeptics of elitist Muslim candidates). But he wanted to attract the alleged indepents/conservative-centrist Democrats. But how? A well known cheesy looking business guy like Mitt Romney? A former Dem and current Jew like Joe Lieberman? A young Indian-American “rising star” politician like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal? Or, how bout…. A WOMAN!! Hey, Good for Palin, good for progress and babysteps and equality and all that. But this is a shallow, desperate move by a guy who sees the New America pulling out of the station with a head full of steam and this old warrior can do nothing but run after it waving and screaming “wait for me!”

Again, with apologies to Gov. Palin… this is window dressing. This is Bush in the flight suit with the Mission Accomplished banner behind him. So now McCain gets to play Cheney Warman and Palin gets to be the aw-shucks Puppet? That’s cute.

Sure, this might get everyone talking and might change the subject away from the Democrats successful convention and Obama’s great acceptance speech. But that conversation will clearly end up being about who really gets it and is ready to not just play Leader-Guy but to actually lead all of us in fixing this country.

UPDATE:

Just watched her introduction speech. She was solid and professional and I think she did a good job.

That said, she used to stand up against big oil and special interests and inefficient bureaucracy and wasteful spending. now she's standing WITH all that stuff, wearing all black and a large flag pin, and playing the P.O.W. card and then praising Hillary Clinton in an obvious suck-up ploy for female votes.

Olympic Logo Looks Like Cigarettes

2008-08-20T08:00:00.012-04:00

Why does the Olympic logo look just like a pack of cigarettes?? You see it on the polo shirts of TV commentators and everywhere else. It's like a subliminal Marlboro add or something. Maybe it's for population control? I don't know... You think Michael Phelps would have all those Gold Medals and a DVD if he smoked cigarettes?

Art Monk Finally Gets Call to Hall

2008-08-01T21:05:00.007-04:00

For years I'd felt that one of the great sports injustices was the exclusion of Washington Redskins WR Art Monk from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I'd even sent emails to the voters about it. Seriously. So this year I'm thrilled that Monk was finally voted in.

And in a strange twist of cruel irony... I wont be able to watch the festivities Saturday evening because I'll be at the wedding of my good friend. A Cowboys fan....

Anyway, congratulations to Art Monk. Here's a copy of the email I sent to HOF voters:

I’m writing in reference to Art Monk and his Hall of Fame candidacy. With all the coverage that goes to the likes of Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson (and Michael Irvin’s induction for that matter), this would be an appropriate year to enlighten the younger generation on a class act like Art Monk. Of course, he also has HOF-worthy stats, including 3 Super Bowl rings (with 3 different QB's).
I know you can access the necessary stats of Monk compared to current HOF WR's, but I've included them at the bottom of this email for your convenience. Please check them out, and remember that Monk played in a run-oriented attack that also threw to TE’s and always had other dangerous WR’s.

Last year, I sent emails to most of you, and only heard back from Woody Paige (who supports Monk) and he said maybe all the letters turn the voters off. Huh? Perhaps the volume of letters speaks to the injustice of Monk’s exclusion from the Hall. What else can we do? And, allegedly (according to Peter King’s interview on ESPN Radio regarding Irvin’s numerous drug offenses), the voters only consider what happened on the field, so I can't imagine that us letter-writing fans have been keeping Monk out of the Hall.

I’ve also heard the argument that most opposing Defensive Coordinators were more concerned with stopping Gary Clark and/or Ricky Sanders. Well, based on that Redskins team’s success, apparently they were keying on the wrong guy.

While I have included Monk’s stats below, I know a lot of folks say “It’s not all about the numbers.” Since it's more than just numbers.... what is it? Carrying yourself with class? Check. Being a team player? Check. Winning? Check. Championships? Check.

Art Monk’s name on the ballot? CHECK.

940 catches
12721 yards
13.5 avg per catch
68 touchdowns.

3 Pro Bowls. 3 Super Bowls.

Playoffs/SuperBowls:
69 catches, 1062 yards, 7 TD's

Comparing Art Monk to Hall of Fame wide receivers
Name / Rec / Yds / TDs
Art Monk / 940/ 12,721/ 68
Charlie Joiner / 750 / 12,146/ 65
Don Maynard /633 / 11,834 /88
Raymond Berry /631/ 9,275 /68
Fred Biletnikoff /589 / 8,964/ 76
Lance Alworth / 542/ 10,266/ 85
Tommy McDonald/495 / 8,410/ 84
Don Hutson / 488 / 7,991 / 99
Paul Warfield / 427 / 8,565/ 85
Tom Fears /400 /5,397 /38

Thank you for your time and consideration

McLame Running the Campaign He Said He Wouldn't

2008-07-30T15:59:00.004-04:00

Mr. Honorable Respectable Serious Public Servant We All Respect, John McLame McSame McCain has over the past week or so turned into a childish name-caller. Is this part of some attempt to look younger? By constantly launching misleading and outright false criticism thru what he says and his campaign advertisements, McCain is proving that he is just not, well, Presidential. Unless we're still cool with "Presidential" meaning like George W. Bush.

Of course there's been his line about Barack Obama caring more about winning the election than the war. There was that completely false ad that claimed Obama canceled his visit to injured troops because the Pentagon wouldn't allow cameras.

And now he's stooped to the lowest in a new low:

"He's the biggest celebrity in the world. But is he ready to lead? With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says no to offshore drilling and says he'll raise taxes on electricity. Higher taxes, more foreign oil -- that's the real Obama," says the new ad that also shows crowds screaming "Obama!"
Top McCain adviser Steve Schmidt said it was accurate to compare Obama to the two celebrities who, as one reporter said on the call, are of ten portrayed as "frivolous and irresponsible."
"I don't poll Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, but I know they're international celebrities, so apples to apples," he said.

That's just flat-out disrespectful and inappropriate. I realize that Barack Obama hasn't been sitting around in the Senate isolated from the real world for the last 25 years, but I think he's done enough to at least deserve some basic respect and not be compared to two young untalented starlets famous for being tabloid train wrecks. That's simply not fair and way out of bounds. Especially when Obama and his surrogates cant even utter the words "John McCain" without first setting it up with the required "I have a lot of respect for his service to our country and he's a true patriot who should be honored by all of us, but..."

Let's talk policy. Why doesn't McCain talk about how/why his administration and leadership of this country would differ from Obamas? Yes, Barack Obama is treated like celebrity by the media and the people in this country and all over the world. Get over it. Stand up and tell us while you'll be the better President instead of taking immature cheap shots like this. It's disgusting, especially coming from the guy who promised the respectful campaign that we need and deserve.

Responding to the ad, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said, "On a day when major news organizations across the country are taking Sen. McCain to task for a steady stream of false, negative attacks, his campaign has launched yet another. Or, as some might say, 'Oops! He did it again.' "

UPDATE

Apparently Barack Obama agrees with me:

"You know, I don't pay attention to John McCain's ads, although I do notice he doesn't seem to have anything to say very positive about himself," Obama said, according to NBC's First Read blog. "He seems to only be talking about me ... You need to ask John McCain what he's for and not just what he's against."

Ron Artest to the Houston Rockets

2008-07-30T15:37:00.004-04:00

I actually like this move. I know, there's a decent chance this guy could spontaneously combust or melt down or whatever. But there's also a chance that he's still a great player who finally gets it and maybe isn't as crazy as he used to be. It's very possible. He likes Rockets coach Rick Adelman, Houston is a major market that Artest might enjoy living in as much or more than Sacramento. And, oh by the way, the Rockets have Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming and some nice roll players. I say even with a couple short injury stretches for McGrady and/or Yao, this team will contend for the top seed in the Western Conference.

Getting ready to chase a title together?

Rush Limbaugh's False Premise Strikes Again

2008-07-25T08:52:00.004-04:00

I shouldn't even give that pathetic right-wing blowhard the time of day, or space on my blog, but here's some of Rush Limbaugh's misguided and misleading reaction to Barack Obama's speech in Berlin:

So now he has to go apologize for the United States of America. This is just beyond the pale. He's talking to Germans and making excuses for the United States of America? Exactly right. This is insulting. It is demeaning. But ladies and gentlemen, if you are wondering when you hear Obama talk about change, this is it. The change is: America sucks, America's deficient, America's guilty. He lives in America, likes the country, but he's a citizen of the world. And he has to go over to Germany, and I don't know about you, but I'm frosted. That was Barack Obama ripping his own country.

Wow. Unfortunately, some voters will get so dizzy from this ridiculous spin that they will actually believe it. "Obama went to Germany and RIPPED AMERICA!!"

Really? When did Obama say that America sucks? How exactly did he rip his own country? Let's take a look at the passages from Obama's speech that got Limbaugh so riled up:

People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time. I know my country has not perfected itself. At times we struggle to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people, we've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

We acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world. Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from other lands and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

Hmm... so now admitting that the U.S. isn't perfect, rejecting torture, shunning discrimination, and keeping the promise of equality and opportunity is now deemed as "insulting" and making excuses for America and held up as an example of "Obama ripping his country."

I know, we should expect and ignore such simple-minded drivel from an idiot like Rush Limbaugh. But I'm concerned about the sadly large percentage of the population that will buy into this faulty logic.

Olympic-sized Irony

2008-07-22T11:49:00.003-04:00

In the UK, The Guardian reports:
“In a damning criticism of US integrity, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said ministers should no longer take at face value statements from senior politicians, including George Bush, that America does not resort to torture in the light of the CIA admitting it used waterboarding. The interrogation technique was unreservedly condemned by Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said it amounted to torture.”

Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald comments:
"If Britain -- one of America's closest allies during the Bush era -- is openly proclaiming that it cannot trust the word of our government, then who can? For the British to conclude in a formal Report that the U.S. is essentially an untrustworthy rogue nation when it comes to human rights abuses -- 'The committee's conclusions amount to saying we can no longer rely on assurances from a US administration that purports to uphold the civil and political standards of behaviour,' as MP Andrew Tyrie put it -- is about as potent an indictment of how far we've fallen as one can imagine."

Amid this backdrop, President Dumbass King George actually said the following in a White House send-off of American athletes heading to the Olympics:
"In Beijing you will convey our nation's most cherished values. As ambassadors of liberty, you will represent America's love for freedom and our regard for human rights and human dignity."

Hahahahaha!!

The Dark Side

2008-07-21T10:35:00.006-04:00

Last week saw the release of what looks to be another great (and damning) book about the Bush Administration: The Dark Side: the Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer.

From the Salon review by Louis Bayard:

The very first Sunday after the 9/11 attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney descended like a cloud on "Meet the Press" to outline the Bush administration's response. "We'll have to work sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies -- if we are going to be successful. That's the world these folks operate in. And, uh, so it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal basically, to achieve our objectives."
Around the nation, one presumes, numbed heads were nodding in approval. Whatever it takes to get those bastards. The true nature of our Faustian bargain would not become clear until later, and maybe it needed a journalist as steely and tenacious as Jane Mayer to give us the full picture. "The Dark Side" is about how the war on terror became "a war on American ideals," and Mayer gives this story all the weight and sorrow it deserves. Many books get tagged with the word "essential"; hers actually is.

In a New York Times opinion column, Frank Rich points out that, "In [Mayer's] telling, a major incentive for Mr. Cheney's descent into the dark side was to cover up for the Bush White House's failure to heed the Qaeda threat in 2001. Jack Cloonan, a special agent for the F.B.I.'s Osama bin Laden unit until 2002, told Ms. Mayer that Sept. 11 was 'all preventable.' By March 2000, according to the C.I.A.'s inspector general, '50 or 60 individuals' in the agency knew that two Al Qaeda suspects -- soon to be hijackers -- were in America. But there was no urgency at the top. Thomas Pickard, the acting F.B.I. director in the summer of 2001, told Ms. Mayer that when he expressed his fears about the Qaeda threat to Mr. Ashcroft, the attorney general snapped, 'I don't want to hear about that anymore!'"

From Andrew J. Bacevich’s review of Mayer's book in The Washington Post: "As Mayer makes clear, the White House seized upon the prospect of open-ended war with alacrity. And why not? In the near term at least, going to war almost invariably works to the benefit of the executive branch. War elicits deference from Congress and the courts. As a wartime commander-in-chief, the president wields greater clout. In this particular case, war also helped deflect demands for accountability: Despite what Mayer describes as 'the worst intelligence failure in the nation's history,' the aftermath of 9/11 saw not a single senior official fired."

Bloomberg’s Craig Seligman takes note of how the book traces torture and other atrocities directly back to Vice President Dick Cheney, his chief aide David Addington, former secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo: "Wrapping themselves in the flag, repeating the mantra 'security' and attacking anyone who questioned this insanity as soft on terrorism, they succeeded in disgracing their country before the world, and now they deserve to be called what they are: traitors. In a just world they would be prosecuted and convicted."

According to some of the books’ revelations reported in the Washington Post, "A CIA analyst warned the Bush administration in 2002 that up to a third of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have been imprisoned by mistake, but White House officials ignored the finding and insisted that all were 'enemy combatants' subject to indefinite incarceration, according to a new book critical of the administration's terrorism policies.

"The CIA assessment directly challenged the administration's claim that the detainees were all hardened terrorists -- the 'worst of the worst,' as then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said at the time. But a top aide to Vice President Cheney shrugged off the report and squashed proposals for a quick review of the detainees' cases.”

The book quotes Cheney staff director David Addington as saying, “There will be no review. The president has determined that they are ALL enemy combatants. We are not going to revisit it."

This all seems to echo the opinion of the late historian Arthur Schlesinger: "the Bush administration's extralegal counterterrorism program presented the most dramatic, sustained and radical challenge to the rule of law in American history."

Time Capsules: the first half of 2008

2008-07-18T09:18:00.016-04:00

We have to be comfortable, we're fighting TERROR!

2008-07-18T08:59:00.003-04:00

Once again, I wish this was some fake news story from The Onion, but no, this is the lead story in many papers across the country. From R. Jeffery Smith's story on the front page of the Washington Post:
The Air Force's top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on "comfort capsules" to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs, according to internal e-mails and budget documents.
Air Force officials say the government needs the new capsules to ensure that leaders can talk, work and rest comfortably in the air. But the top brass's preoccupation with creating new luxury in wartime has alienated lower-ranking Air Force officers familiar with the effort, as well as congressional staff members and a nonprofit group that calls the program a waste of money.
Air Force documents spell out how each of the capsules is to be "aesthetically pleasing and furnished to reflect the rank of the senior leaders using the capsule," with beds, a couch, a table, a 37-inch flat-screen monitor with stereo speakers, and a full-length mirror.
Another 16.2 MILLION dollars down the drain. Yea, we're "winning" all right.

Hey Big Oil, You Gonna Finish That?

2008-07-17T14:57:00.008-04:00

Sure, everyone knows that opening up more U.S. territory to drill for oil won’t really produce a drop of oil for at least 5-10 years and likely would have no immediate impact on gas prices, and very little impact on long-term prices at the pump.

Well, everyone knows this except President Dumbass and his boy John McInsane, who admitted “Even though it may take some years, the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have a psychological impact that I think is beneficial.” Huh? A “psychological impact that I think is beneficial” how? Cuz it sounds good? Cuz it might win you votes among the people that fall for such obvious pandering as this and the horrendous and laughable “gas tax holiday” idea?

But one little fact that’s been grossly under-reported and usually not even mentioned in all the hoopla about opening up more U.S. territory to drilling….
As reported by CNNmoney.com back at the end of June:

Oil companies and many lawmakers are pressing to open up more U.S. areas for drilling. But the industry is drilling on just a fraction of areas it already has access to.
Of the 90 million offshore acres the industry has leases to, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico, it is estimated that upwards of 70 million are not in production, according to both Democrats and oil-industry sources.
Oil companies "should finish what's on their plate before they go back in line," said Oppenheimer analyst Fadel Gheit.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Ask No Evil

2008-07-17T14:29:00.003-04:00

On Tuesday, the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin made a great point:

"At Bush's hastily scheduled press conference this morning -- his first in over two-and-a-half months -- not a single reporter asked him about torture. It's understandable that the primary focus was on the economy. But couldn't someone have at least asked whether he still maintains that the U.S. hasn't tortured detainees? And if he does, how he defines torture?"

Following the Money in Pakistan

2008-07-15T16:07:00.007-04:00

For anyone looking for a million here to pay off some mortgages or a billion or so there to build some schools … there’s the recent “news” that the U.S. cant account for or was swindled out of $2 billion of the $5 billion it has been giving to Pakistan to "help us in the war on terror." That’s billions with a B.

As the LA Times reported on 6/25/08:

WASHINGTON — The United States has paid more than $5 billion to reimburse Pakistan for counter-terrorism expenses that have often been exaggerated, if not fabricated, according to a government audit released Tuesday that blasts the Pentagon for poor management of the program.

The report concluded that the Pentagon could not properly account for as much as $2 billion in payments to Pakistan over a three-year period from 2004 to 2007.

Auditors uncovered an array of questionable costs, including $45 million for roads and bunkers that may never have been built; $200 million for the operation of air defense systems even though Al Qaeda has no known aircraft; and overcharges for meals and vehicles used by Pakistani troops.

Overall, the report by the Government Accountability Office concluded that the Defense Department had routinely covered costs without verifying that they "were valid, actually incurred, or correctly calculated."

The Pentagon has paid about $5.6 billion to Pakistan in counter-terrorism reimbursement funds in the nearly seven years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, by far the largest sum paid as part of the program to a counter-terrorism ally.

The document is the latest in a series of studies to criticize the Bush administration's management of the Coalition Support Funds program, which was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and has doled out billions of dollars to 27 nations.

The GAO also documented apparent overcharges for meals and vehicle maintenance. During one period, the Defense Department was paying the Pakistani navy more than $3.7 million per year in repair and maintenance charges on "a fleet of fewer than 20 passenger vehicles" that was never used in combat. The charges amounted to more than $19,000 per month for each vehicle.

Pakistan sometimes seemed to be double-dipping, submitting separate charges for "vehicle damage" and "cost of vehicles repaired" without explaining the difference between the two categories.

Bobby Wilkes, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Central Asia, acknowledged breakdowns in oversight but defended the program, saying the support funds are "critical to our eventual success in Afghanistan and the war on terror."

Wow. Really? Yup. There was also something about it the same day in the Washington Post:

The Bush administration has paid Pakistan more than $2 billion without adequate proof that the Pakistani government used the funds for their intended purpose of supporting U.S. counterterrorism efforts, congressional auditors reported yesterday. Their report concluded that more than a third of U.S. funds provided Pakistan since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were subject to accounting problems, including duplication and possible fraud.
"It seems as though the Pakistani military went on a spending spree with American taxpayers' wallets and no one bothered to investigate the charges," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Washington should "stop pouring money into a black hole," Harkin said.
Pakistan is the largest recipient of Coalition Support Funds as part of a counterterrorism effort the Bush administration launched in 2001 after the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington. Pakistan has received more than $5.5 billion of the nearly $7 billion distributed to 27 countries over the past six years.
"Apparently, the Bush administration cares so little about the hunt for Osama bin Laden that it is barely paying attention to how the Pakistani military is carrying out the fight," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement. "It's dangerous to treat the battle against al-Qaeda so casually, and it's unfair to American taxpayers to be so careless with billions of their dollars."

Surely there must be some kinda mistake, right? Pretty incredible that we could be so easily and blatantly ripped off of $2 billion dollars. (Or the whole $5, when you consider that we’re not getting much “help” at all from them…. More on that below.) I mean, if I don’t pay $1700 of my taxes I bet that I will have serious problems and the U.S. Government would demand and eventually get that money back.
Did we all know how much our government was giving to Pakistan? It sounded familiar. Turns out there was this little piece Mother Jones back in March of 2007:

Pakistan Gets Fat $4.2B Check, Now 3rd Largest Recipient of US Military Aid
03/28/07
The Center for Public Integrity informs us that thanks to a Defense Department program- Coalition Support Funds (CSF)- Pakistan is now the third largest recipient of all US military aid and assistance, following the heels of Israel and Egypt….

The three years prior to September 11, 2001, US military aid to Pakistan was $9.1 million. Three years after 9/11, it was more than $4.2 billion, a 45,000% increase. Since 9/11, Pakistan has been awarded a total of over $10 billion.….

According to figures provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) between 1954 and 2002, the US provided a total of $12.6 billion in economic and military aid to Pakistan. Of this, the majority, $9.19 billion was given during 24 years of military rule, only $3.4 billion was given to civilian regimes which ruled for 19 years.

On average, US aid to Pakistan amounted to $382.9 million for each year of military rule compared with only $178.9 per annum under civilian leadership for the period until 2002.

So much for "spreading democracy."

—Neha Inamdar, Mother Jones

I wanted to keep following the money. We sure did have an interesting relationship with Pakistan. Obviously they must be good friends and allies if we give them $5 billion dollars for their “help” and never ask for any receipts. Turns out that General Mahmoud Ahmad, who was the head of the ISI (Pakistan's CIA) in 2001, was the person who gave orders to Saeed Sheikh, an ISI agent, to wire $100,000 to Mohammed Atta on September 10, 2001.

What? Well i'm sure we smoked that guy out of his hole and brought him to justice (after torturing him, of course)… right? Uh, not exactly….. Shortly after 9/11, he was forced to “retire” in some fashion. But it turns out that he had been meeting with the Director of the CIA George Tenet, along with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, as well as Porter Goss, Bob Graham, and other members of various congressional intelligence committees, in the days just before, during, and following 9/11.

That seems a bit odd. The guy who ordered $100,000 to be wired to Mohammed Atta was meeting with high-ranking U.S. officials while the planes were hitting the towers. And this was (quietly) reported by such mainstream outlets as the Wall Street Journal, Salon, United Press International, and the Washington Post.
But the 9-11 Commission Report didn’t mention any of this, and left the money question unresolved, saying: "The U.S. government has not been able to determine the origin of the money used for the 9/11 attacks. Ultimately the question is of little practical significance."

Oh.

I thought we were supposed to wage war on all the evil doers and the countries that finance and harbor terrorists? Isn’t Bin-Laden still hiding out along Pakistan’s border? Didn’t they wire money to the hijackers? Instead, we not only gave them $5 billion to “help” us…. But they overcharged/misplaced/stole $2 billion of it.

On top of all that…. It was just back in April that the Associated Press reported:
“Terrorists are still operating freely in Pakistan along the country's Afghanistan border, despite the U.S. giving Pakistan more than $10.5 billion in military and economic aid, according to a government watchdog agency. The Government Accountability Office says in a report released Thursday that the U.S. lacks a comprehensive plan to deal with the terrorist threat.”

Well, if they’re not doing anything but taking the money, we can be confident that the United States is certainly doing something about the terrorists there… right?

Nope. Just the other day the AP had this story:

Pakistan: U.S. not hunting bin Laden on its turf
July. 12, 2008
NEW YORK - Pakistan's top diplomat said Saturday there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaida leader.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his nation's new government has ruled out such military operations, covert or otherwise, to catch militants.

"Our government's policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive," he said Saturday. "People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in."

But keep the money coming….

Who thought that following money trails could get so dizzying? In my travels, I finally came across this little gem: the folks over at Vetvoice.com happen to stumble upon this article from The Nation from the spring of 2001:

Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-US terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush Administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously.
That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the United States the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that "rogue regime" for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God. So, too, by the Taliban's estimation, are most human activities, but it's the ban on drugs that catches this administration's attention.
Never mind that Osama bin Laden still operates the leading anti-American terror operation from his base in Afghanistan, from which, among other crimes, he launched two bloody attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998.
Sadly, the Bush Administration is cozying up to the Taliban regime at a time when the United Nations, at US insistence, imposes sanctions on Afghanistan because the Kabul government will not turn over Bin Laden.

Ah…. The good old days…..

Let's Do Nothing About Global Warming But Add More Hot Air

2008-07-11T08:28:00.011-04:00

I wish I was kidding. But this is really the lead story on today's WashingtonPost.com:

EPA Won't Act on Emissions This Year
Instead of New Rules, More Comment Sought

At first glance I thought it was a headline from The Onion. But no, it's not a joke, it's real. That's right. We need more talking about global warming. What are they waiting for, a sequel to Al Gore's movie? More evidence? More scientific studies for the government to edit, censor, or ignore? According to the lead:

The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now.

Well that's great. Let's not take any steps. Let's stand around on the sidewalk scratching our heads while the anvil and piano come crashing down on our heads to kill us.

The story continues:

The Supreme Court, in a decision 15 months ago that startled the government, ordered the EPA to decide whether human health and welfare are being harmed by greenhouse gas pollution from cars, power plants and other sources, or to provide a good explanation for not doing so. But the administration has opted to postpone action instead, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

To defer compliance with the Supreme Court's demand, the White House has walked a tortured policy path, editing its officials' congressional testimony, refusing to read documents prepared by career employees and approved by top appointees, requesting changes in computer models to lower estimates of the benefits of curbing carbon dioxide, and pushing narrowly drafted legislation on fuel-economy standards that officials said was meant to sap public interest in wider regulatory action.

The decision to solicit further comment overrides the EPA's written recommendation from December. Officials said a few senior White House officials were unwilling to allow the EPA to state officially that global warming harms human welfare.

This is just sick and disgusting, but not at all surprising. Well, I guess the good news is I dont have to worry about saving for retirement or a college fund for my kid since we might not be around much longer. That's a relief.

And this comes just a couple days after the Post ran this story:

Cheney's Staff Cut Testimony On Warming

Members of Vice President Cheney's staff censored congressional testimony by a top federal official about health threats posed by global warming, a former Environmental Protection Agency official said yesterday.
In a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), former EPA deputy associate administrator Jason K. Burnett said an official from Cheney's office ordered last October that six pages be edited out of the testimony of Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gerberding had planned to say that the "CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern."

Gee, Uncle Dick decided that we can't even SAY that climate change is a serious health concern. Aren't these the people who keep telling us they are the only ones who can keep us safe? And that their main concern (above the Constitution, above Human Rights, above our children's well being and education, above the economy and housing crisis, above energy independence) is to KEEP US SAFE??

Can someone please explain to me how ignoring climate change, and flat-out censoring scientific findings that could help save our planet and the human race, is keeping us safe?

Cartoonist Tom Toles does a pretty good job summing up the Bush Administration's policy on climate change:

Top 10 "Best 3 Consecutive Albums"

2008-07-02T08:51:00.011-04:00

I think the title is clear enough: these are the 10 best 3-consecutive album runs. The only general guidelines were: no live albums, no ep's, no greatest hits/collections, and of course they had to be 3 in a row by the same artist. here's the list, in no particular order:

1. Bob Dylan
Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde. If you don't automatically nod your head in knowing concurrence with the greatness of these three releases, stop wasting time on the computer and go buy these CD's. And to think that 40 years later he posted Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, and Modern Times. A solid run that late in a career, but not great enough to make this list.

2. Rolling Stones
Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street. Steven Van Zandt (Silvio Dante, E Street guitarist, and underground garage rock DJ extraordinaire) once said, "Beggars Banquet to Exile on Main Street make up the greatest run of albums in history—all done in three and a half years." Sorry Little Steven, we only have room for three on this list.

3. The Beatles
Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Or: Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, and the white album. Or: Help!, Rubber Soul, and Revolver... or... you get the idea.

4. Jimi Hendrix
Are You Experienced?, Axis Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland. Wow. Three amazing albums that each stand on their own as bonafide "desert island classics" on their own. Not bad considering this was almost his whole studio output during his lifetime. Incredible considering this was done within about two years.

5. Neil Young
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush, and Harvest. Once again, with an artist this good you could pick a different three. I picked these.

6. Bruce Springsteen
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, Born to Run,and Darkness on the Edge of Town. This has it all, from funky seaside sound and rambling lyrics of the early days, to his definitive classic, and on into Darkness, where the dreams imagined on Born to Run awoke to stark realities. (A more consistent thematic trilogy might be BTR, Darkness, and The River, but for overall quality I'll stick with these three.)

7. U2
Under a Blood Red Sky, Unforgettable Fire, and The Joshua Tree. I skipped Wide Awake in America because it's an EP. While many people hail War as one of their best (and I agree), I think Under a Blood Red Sky is a good live representative of most of the War tunes. If I could skip Rattle and Hum for not being a "real" proper studio release, then Unforgettable, Joshua, and Achtung Baby would also be a good trio.

8. A Tribe Called Quest
Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, Low End Theory, and Midnight Marauders. Three truly great albums from a peak era in hip-hop. Still gets heads nodding.

9. Radiohead
The Bends, OK Computer, and Kid A. I was tempted to start with OK and go through Amnesiac. And some people might start with Kid A, skip the Live Recordings release and go through Hail to the Thief.

10. OutKast
Aquemini, Stankonia, and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. No explanation necessary. If you don't know you better axe somebody.

Honorable Mention.
Wilco: Being There, Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Time Capsule 2003: Rock Is Hell

2008-06-16T09:27:00.004-04:00

Dulles to Munich

2008-05-15T13:11:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a plane. Excuse me, AIRBUS. After an impressive-looking first class area, the rest of the plane had a front and back section, each almost as big as regular planes. There were 2 aisles separating the sets of 2, 4, 2 seating in each row.

I’d been on a plain like this as a kid when my family took a trip to Israel and Egypt. But that was 25 years ago. Jeez… back then I used to think just being 25 was old, or old enough. Now somehow I’m old enough to remember something I did 25 years ago.

I’ll tell you what, Lufthansa has nice service. Each seat had a fresh pillow and blanket it in plastic waiting for our heavy heads and weary bones. The plane started moving very soon after we all boarded. None of this shit we usually get on AirTran or Southwest where you sit there for a half hour in the stuffy air while the captain tells you that we’re waiting for other planes to take off so we can first start taxiing down the runway.

No, these Lufthansa peeps are all business. Once we took off, the little TV screens showed maps with a little airplane icon tracking our progress. It would zoom in on the DC area and then zoom out to bigger pictures showing the ocean we’d cross and marking our final destination of Munich.

Quickly, the efficient staff was serving drinks and some strange cheese-stick crackers. They didn’t have Jack Daniels, but I can’t complain: the drinks were apparently free. I opted for some Warsteiner premium verum: German beer. Pretty good.

It’s something like 10pm and they’re serving a hot dinner meal after coming around to give us hot/moist towels. Dinner came in little foil containers with either a veggie/pasta dish or chicken, green beans, and mashed sweet potatoes. I got the chicken. They came with a roll, a surprisingly nice salad and some tiramisu cake that was really good.

After dinner, the beer and Zanex team was starting to win the battle against the cramped seats and nearby crying children. It was time for Radiohead’s Kid A album to take me off to sleep among the clouds. I faded in and out, changing pillow positions and shifting in my seat and apparently sleeping for 2-3 hours. I’m really not sure.

Soon the house lights were back on, people were stirring and bright sunlight came through the few windows whose shades had been opened.

My eyes hurt, barely encouraged by the sight of the coffee and breakfast carts coming around. Didn’t we just eat dinner? It’s 3am, but with the time change it’s 9am. I’m tired.

As we approached Munich, we quickly realized we’d be landing at about the time our connecting flight to Athens would be boarding. Looks like we’d have to do an O.J. Simpson through the airport to make it to our gate on time. (Keep in mind, in this context, to “do an O.J. Simpson” means running and jumping over luggage if necessary to hustle through an airport like the old Hertz commercials, not stabbing and killing our ex-wife and her friend and dropping our bloody glove near our house and not going to jail and then coining a new euphemism: “Looking for the real killer,” which actually means “Playing golf and making smarmy comments at money-making appearances.”)

I’d heard how nice and modern the Munich airport was, and it was, but we didn’t have time to linger. We negotiated all the escalators and corridors following the signs for Gate G20. We got there just in time to join the end of the line of people boarding the flight for Athens.

Thank god. I don’t care how nice the Munich airport is, the next flight to Athens wasn’t till 7pm and the thought of sitting around for 8 hours in another airport was unappealing to say the least.

A smaller, regular-sized plane this time. Just a 2-hour flight. But once again, Lufthansa hooked it up: lunch was a hot rice dish and 2 more free Warsteiners.

Waiting at Dulles

2008-05-15T12:04:00.003-04:00

We only got to the airport 6 hours early.

Better early than late, of course, but I don’t think I’ve ever checked in and gone through security a full 6 hours early. Talk about having time to kill… I needed an arms dealer and a warehouse full of explosives to carry out the bloodbath necessary for this wait.

We got to our gate, 45B, and it was crowded with people waiting to board a flight ahead of ours. I pictured them safe on the ground at their final destinations, knee-deep in their vacations, before we would even board our plane.

Fuck.

We sat at the next gate over, adjacent to ours. There were plenty of seats. We figured we could just shift over to our actual gate sometime in the next few hours once it cleared out.
Within about 12 seconds we were ready to take a walk. Find a snack, some drinks… maybe some window shopping.

My 75-year-old Greek father-in-law stayed sitting at the gate. We surrounded him with our carryon luggage and set off to explore what Dulles Airport had to offer.

The Tequilery, a small bar that served Mexican food. Dan’s Tap Room, a restaurant/bar that looked to have basic American fare: burgers, grilled chicken salads. A kiosk selling countless items printed with USA and America! Even shot glasses, nail files, towels, and toilet paper with the White House logo printed on it. How ridiculous. Who would want that shit? Even if you gave it as a gift, would anyone really think you stayed at the White House? Seems to me that commercialized crap like that does as much to soil the alleged sanctity of the office of the presidency as anything Bill and Monica might have done after a late-night pizza.

On we walked, passed a magazine shop with a Starbucks in it, a small Borders bookstore, and your other basic airport/pseudo-mall offerings.

Outside, the rain continues to pour down for the fourth straight day. It seemed like it had been raining for weeks. Between the rain and the waiting to board a 9-hour flight, I felt like a giraffe or zebra waiting for Noah to give me the “All aboard!” onto his ark.

Got a slice of pizza, sat around, took a walk, sat around, went for drinks, sat around, took another walk, stood around cuz we just couldn’t sit anymore.

At some point, I went for drinks with my brother-in-law. He ordered a rum and coke, and I got a Jack Daniels and ginger ale. For the extra $2 we both upgraded to “doubles.” So our $8.50 drinks had almost as much liquor in them as what a regular single drink should. Pretty soon the father-in-law shows up. If there were 2 things he could sniff out in an international airport, it’s a bar and his sons.

He’s an Ouzo man of course, but most American bars, especially these small airport/mall joints, usually don’t have Ouzo. So in restaurants he usually gets beer. Budweiser is his brand. Not Bud Light, or Select Ice Draft or anything, just “Gimme one Budweiser,” he says.

But now, here, in the midst of a 6-hour wait… after driving 2 hours in the rain from our house to his son’s hotel… after sitting in the hotel restaurant/bar for a 2-hour lunch that featured 2 Budweisers for him and the worst service known to man… after all this, and an 9-hour flight ahead of us, Budweiser wasn’t gonna cut it.

“You have cognac?” he barks quickly in his accented English.
The waitress says, “Sure, Courvoisier or Hennesy?”
“It no matter, just make-a for double!”

We drank our drinks and watched Spain and France play World Cup soccer, tied 1-1, and tried to pretend to recognize tripping fouls and show mild excitement if/when the ball neared the same zip code as the goal.

The waitress came back around and asked dad if he wanted another drink. He declined and she gave the clichéd flirty-waitress smile and said, “Oh well, I tried…” After she walked away, dad commented that she had a beautiful smile. He’s 75 years old. Tired. Impatient. But he still knew when a cute waitress had a nice smile.

On our way out, he even went so far as to stop her and tell her how beautiful her eyes and smile were. When guys half his age or younger pull that shit it’s usually somewhere between sad and desperate, and not far from creepy. But when he did it, it was as cute as her smile.

Back at Gate 45B, we were still serving out our sentence as other inmates began to fill in the seats around us. Outside, the rain pounded the runways and the sky darkened.
Soon we’d be taking off and joining the rain, clouds, and darkness up in the sky. Obeying that little light that tells us when we could unhook our seatbelts… about 362 passengers and a large crew would crowd onto this big plane… this giant tube with engines and wings… and trust the physics and technology that most of us don’t understand and hope we can safely sail 50,000 feet above the ocean and cross the whole damn thing.

Next stop: Munich.

Stick a Fork in Hillary Clinton

2008-05-09T09:47:00.008-04:00

Tuesday night, with her small lead in Indiana dwindling to what would ultimately be a measly 2-pt win, er, tie really….. Hillary Clinton took the stage to ecstatically claim victory, despite getting blown out in North Carolina. That, combined with the close Indy results, signal the beginning of the end of her quest to return to what she seems to think is her house…. That White one on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Within the first several minutes of her speech, she was telling us the name of her website and asking for money.

She’s vowed to keep going….. and she will, trying to hang around till Barack Obama self-destructs and/or she can get Florida and Michigan resolved (in her favor). Neither will happen. Maybe they cut a deal with FL/MI but she wouldn't get all those delegates.

She's done. But she knows she'll win 2 of the next 3 primaries so she'll hang around like that last guest who just won’t leave when the party is over

I wonder if the Clintons are just sorta seeing what happens this week with numbers, spin, Superdelegates..... then, after winning West Virginia on Tuesday, she can go out on top and say she was willing to go all the way and keep fighting (for us!) but the math/votes/supers.... she'll say she's doing the right thing for the party so she can be VEEP, or, more likely come back in 2012 if McLame wins or whatever.

Hopefully she quits sooner than later. One more week instead of one more month. PLEASE Hillary.

She has to realize that it's foolish to wait till the May 31 meeting about FL/MI (why not move that up a few weeks!) It'll just make her look like she's trying shenanigans, and even if they somehow resolve/seat those delegates, they'll give some to Obama so it still won’t matter. If she quits this week before WV, it'll look like it's not her choice. By quitting next week, she can get one more win AND pretend to be going out on her own terms.

Apparently, everyone knows this and admits it but the Clintons:

"Stick a Fork in Her - She's Done," recommended the New York Post, calling Indiana a "shroud" for Clinton.
"This nomination fight is over," said Clintonite-turned-ABC Newsman George Stephanopoulos.
"We now know who the Democratic nominee is going to be," submitted NBC's Tim Russert.
"For the Clintons, this is the night the music died," proposed MSNBC's Pat Buchanan.
The Washington Post had Clinton's own aides conceding "it would be difficult."
Word spread overseas. "It would take a miracle for her to win," concluded the Times of London.

And as Superdelegates continue to trickle over to Obama (following a few former Clinton supporters who switched to Obama last week), now, even more prominent Democratic Clinton supporters are saying she should get out soon.

But word is she’ll finish out all of the primaries and this is more likely to officially end in early June.

Meanwhile, the day after his solid showing in North Carolina and Indiana all but locked up the nomination, Obama had no events scheduled. I like that........ "my work is done here, time to catch up on some sleep. Lots more work ahead."

And now McCain is pushing that "Hamas has endorsed Obama.” The general election is on.

When Obama wins states like NC, they say "oh, well duh, high black population. He was supposed to win," as if it shouldn’t count. When Clinton wins in PA, OH, or Indiana (barely), where it's her white non-college demographic, they hail it as absolute proof that only she can beat the mighty John McCain. That only she can get votes from blue-collar white voters.

But let’s give some uneducated/blue-collar/white people some credit. Maybe they are smart enough to realize that McSame will keep screwin the poor/middleclass while the rich get richer and a Democrat might return us to better economic times, peace, and prosperity. Maybe, just maybe.... rural types will finally realize that the ol' Republican politricks of "They're gonna take away your guns and ban your bibles! There will be fags running in the streets tryin to molest your kids!" is just a load of crap.

Sure, Obama didn’t win the majority of the blue-collar vote when matched up against a Democrat like himself... but when matched up against McBush 3.0, Obama will be able to win on issues like jobs and the economy. That will win back most of the blue-collar vote. It's ridiculous to suggest that how Obama faired in the primary vs. a Democrat dictates with any certainty how he'd fair vs. a Republican in November.

Unfortunately, as much as I tried to give them credit two paragraphs ago, there are still a lot of rural folk who will fall for the "those damn liberals'll raise your taxes, take your guns, ban your bibles, and let the fags run wild!" spin
And in that voting booth they'll assume that all politicians will screw the working guy no matter what, so let's just fall prey to the fear tactics and vote for McSame to keep us McSafe because we think Barack Hussein (did you know his middle name was HUSSEIN!!) Obama might be a Muslim or something....

“We just don’t know anything about him” I hear people say. Well, he has all his policy proposals on his website. He’s written two books: one about his life and upbringing, and one that lays out his vision for America. So you can know plenty about him if you’re really interested.

I think it's funny how people often criticize Obama's speeches for being short on substance.... as if every single appearance must be him reading policy papers and reciting all of his issue positions. Yea, I know the knock on Obama is that he's all style and "just lofty speeches," but there are times when the duty of a leader is to provide some inspiration... some clarity and perspective on important issues, even if they are general ones such as “the direction of our country” and “the way Washington works.”

Gore and Kerry were criticized for being nerdy and/or boring, lacking style and inspiration.... now Obama's being criticized for being not nerdy/boring enough.

But what do I know; I’m just another Barack Obama supporter. Another fool who has been duped by lofty rhetoric. Ah yes, of course. Anyone who supports/likes/votes for Obama must be just caught up in blind faith. It couldn't be that we've been reading and watching and listening and come to an informed decision. We’re just so caught up in the lofty speeches that now we're all drones aimlessly following this false prophet of hope. okay.

Danny Federici 1950-2008

2008-04-18T09:18:00.010-04:00

Most of the headlines will read “Long-time Springsteen keyboardist dies.” His name was Danny Federici, and even most music fans couldn’t pick him out of a lineup. He wasn’t an onstage sidekick like saxophonist Clarence Clemons…. He didn’t clown around and share Bruce’s microphone or have a side job on the Sopranos like Steve Van Zandt. But Bruce fans know that, simply put, Danny was The Man.

My friend Mike from the Fearless Romantics blog put it this way: “Oh, this is just so sad. Danny will always be the man. every time I listen to one of those great tracks where he just defined that E Street sound, gave it that extra zing, a bit of mystery, and, like I've said before, made sure Bruce never became Meat Loaf. He always seemed to be in the background at the shows, in terms of personality – he just let his music do the talking. But you knew that he'd been there all the way, was a superb musician, and without him the whole Springsteen sound would have been so different.”

He’d left the band late in 2007 to battle cancer… a fight he lost April 17, 2008 when he passed away. Sad news for sure, as he’d recently joined the band for a guest appearance in Indianapolis just a few weeks prior.

I guess most of us hoped he was recovering and would be back with the band soon. Reports from a recent show in Anaheim noted that, during the intro to "Magic," Bruce paused and seemed to stammer his way through the words "Danny needs your prayers..."

It’s strange to feel sad about the death of someone you didn’t know and never met. But I’m glad that the last time I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, we sat behind the stage but pretty close and behind Danny’s side of the stage.

During band introductions, Bruce used to refer to him as Phantom Dan. Now you see him, now you don’t. RIP Danny, you’ll be missed.

See him take one of his solos from his final show with the band by clicking here.

From BruceSpringsteen.net:

"Danny and I worked together for 40 years - he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much...we grew up together."
—Bruce Springsteen

The Federici family and the E Street family request that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund. A web site for the Fund has been established: http://www.thedannyfedericimelanomafund.com/news.html

Record Store Day: 4.19.08

2008-04-14T10:20:00.004-04:00

April 19, 2008 has been declared Record Store Day by the folks who declare such things. There was a RecordStoreDay.com website about it with quotes from artists and a way to search for your nearest store, but it seems to be down. See how bad they must be hurting?
Go out this Saturday and support your local independent record store! I read something recently that the two largest music retailers in the U.S. are Walmart and iTunes. That’s kinda sad. Stop buying CD’s from Best Buy and Target and start supporting these local indie places before they’re all gone.

Aahh… but what to buy? Here’s the Top 10 New, Old, and Recent Albums Recommended With Confidence:

1. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Dig Lazarus Dig!!! (2008) Strange storytelling, distinctive voice, rockin tunes, and solid production. In other words “the new Nick Cave album is good.”
2. Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero (2007) Most famous for the way Trent Reznor hyped this before its release, but the album itself is actually great. Too bad the marketing got more media coverage than the music. I’ve never been a big Nine Inch Nails fan, but this is an excellent record. Very “listenable” songs for the average non-NIN fan, but still packed with the all the noise-meets-instruments genius of Reznor’s production.
3. Jason Isbell – Sirens of the Ditch (2007) Former Drive-By Trucker’s first solo album is full of solid tunes. Highly recommended.
4. The Word – The Word (2001) Pedal-steel guitar phenom Robert Randolph teams up with keyboardist John Medeski and the North Mississippi Allstars for jammin instrumentals that aren’t too wanky or boring.
5. Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely (2008) Brendan Benson and Jack White get the band back together, resulting in a deeper, more varied, and flat-out rockin second album.
6. Old 97’s – Too Far to Care (1997) Underrated classic alt-country gem here. Trademark witty lyrics and heartbroken melodies… The peak example of the Old 97’s train wreck of rock and country.
7. Wu Tang Clan – 8 Diagrams (2007) Legendary hip-hop group led by The RZA return to peak form with an instant classic. That’s not just lazy review-speak, the album is really that good.
8. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Howl (2005) Alt-rockers tone it down a bit for more of an Americana feel and it yields the highlight album of their career.
9. David Crosby – If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971) Crosby’s first solo record is an overlooked piece of rock history. Nice little album features great guitar work by Jerry Garcia. Appearances by Mickey Hart, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Bill Kreutzman, Phil Lesh, Grace Slick, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young don’t hurt either. But Crosby’s voice and songs like “Music Is Love,” “Laughing,” and “Cowboy Movie” are the real stars here.
10. Black Keys – Attack & Release (2008) New one from bluesy guitar-drums duo gets better with every listen.

I like the Counting Crows new album. That's right, I said it!

2008-04-10T14:51:00.006-04:00

I know… it’s not cool to like the Counting Crows. They’re a pop/rock band that originated in the 90’s and had a big hit with “Mr. Jones.” Their lead singer Adam Duritz looks like Robert Downey, Jr., with fake dreads.

They make decent records. Their first one, August and Everything After, was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. They have this sort of modern-folky/classic rock sound behind Duritz’s more-than-capable vocals (often referred to as “whiney”). And while he often sounds whiney (told ya), he is a good singer and decent lyricist.

But this is the blogosphere. I’m kinda new to this blog thing, and while I might not have invented the Internet, I’ve clicked around enough to know that serious music freaks and bloggers are not supposed to like the Counting Crows. Like, at all. Duritz and the Counting Crows are the people and bands we’re supposed to make fun of while extolling the virtues of some hot trendy band of hacks like the Killers or Snow Patrol. Sorry, but I’m not playing along.

Rolling Stone magazine, that former authority on all things rock music and former pillar of music journalism, just had a good feature on Duritz. Talked about how he has a life-long mental illness that’s been diagnosed as a dissociative disorder. Now, I’m usually the first person to not feel sorry for rich celebrities who “just cant cope” with their fame and riches. But maybe this guy is a real human being who happens to have some real issues that have nothing to do with being a celebrity (other than living under a microscope of criticism and needing to take meds that make him gain weight). Maybe he’s not just whining about how hard it is to be the rich and famous Mr. Jones Guy. The article was titled Why Can't Adam Duritz Get Any Respect? How the Counting Crows leader battled depression and his critics — and made his best album in a decade.

Then, elsewhere in the same issue, the actual album review is filled with snarky comments like “We know, dude: Life in L.A. is tough.” And yet it also admits that some songs are “little masterpieces of pop craft.” So it’s like they can’t deny that the actual album is good (despite the unenthusiastic 3-star review), but they’re just too cool to not take cheap shots at Adam Duritz.

Funny, looking at my notes from when I first heard the album, I wrote: “it's okay. after a few listens I’m not all gung-ho to keep listening more..... I liked the first album a lot (back then) but I wouldn't classify myself as a big Counting Crows fan so I kinda don’t care either way.”

A few listens later I wrote: “Listened to this again yesterday, starting on track 8 and just listening to 8-14. Pretty enjoyable. I reckon it would be better with a few less tunes (taking out tracks 1, 13, and 14 wouldn’t hurt).”

By today, several more listens later, I found myself writing “man I’m really loving this record a lot more than I ever thought I would!”

Hmm. So there it is: I love the new Counting Crows record and I’m not gonna be ashamed to admit it. Just don’t send this link to any of your really cool music buddies.

Democrats Hate America??

2008-04-10T13:42:00.001-04:00

So this morning on my drive in... i see this asshole in a truck and on the back in HUGE (huge!) letters it says DEMOCRATS HATE AMERICA, and the C in democrats is actually the soviet hammer/sickle.

Okay, first of all, I’m not a democrat, but you can guess that their alleged platform is more in line with my thinking than the republicans. But that doesn't matter. How ridiculous and flat-out stupid and wrong is that statement?
So I’m considering just giving him the finger for being such a dick, though I probably would just do the stare-down headshake. But as I pull along side I see he's in uniform that says "county sheriff’s office." so this is the kinda whackjob that works in a sheriff’s office? Does he have a gun??

Now.... I know.... free speech and all.... but does he REALLY believe that? Aren’t there other more accurate statements he could make that might be thoughtful/intelligent reasons to not vote Democrat?

What the fuck is wrong with this country that people need to put DEMOCRATS HATE AMERICA in huge letters on their truck??

You do NOT look cool with that Bluetooth thing in your ear!

2008-04-10T13:23:00.008-04:00

Sorry if that's you, but you're an asshole.

Seriously. There’s other hands-free options. And most of the time when I see people wearing them, they're not even on a call. Just walking around with this fuckin thing in their head so everyone can see they have one. Like "Ooh! I might get a call! I’m ready!" Bunch of tossers. Again, sorry if you have one. They just look idiotic.

ugh..... there's more and more of them every day! Multiplying like cyborgs or something. And I saw this freakin really old guy with white hair, sitting in a restaurant with his wife, not on a call, wearing one of these things.
Saw another dude the other day, driving a pistachio/light-blue Mercedes..... had a Bluetooth thing in his right ear while he was talkin on a phone he was holding to his left ear!
This is what we’ve come to? We’re so “busy” in our “fast-paced, hi-tech” world that we can’t even go like this [raises arm so hand meets ear]??

Freedom Fries and Trucknuts

2008-04-10T12:03:00.005-04:00

Okay, so the other day I saw one of those BOYCOTT FRANCE stickers that were popular a couple years ago. And how funny that places started changing their menus to "Freedom Fries" cuz "we dont serve FRENCH fries," all because they were smart enough to not join in our stupid war in Iraq. Yea, freedom fries. That'll show 'em!!

Then yesterday i saw a sticker that said "F*CK TERRORISM."
YEA!!!! we're winning!!!

Also... y'all seen these big fake scrotums that rednecks hang from the bottom of the back of their big-ass trucks?? Do they think this is remotely cool or tough? really? a freakin fake sack of nuts hanging from their truck? it's silly and gross.

I guess they're saying "my truck has balls" in some fashion, but just go ahead and drive a big-ass truck, that's enough to let us know you're some big bad cool dude.

Unwritten, part 2

2008-04-09T15:06:00.001-04:00

I read a lot. Mostly novels, contemporary stuff. Some quasi-hippie neo-classic shit like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Strange rambling epic stories like all of Tom Robbins books. Loved John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, but also A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.

I’ve always found excuses to wander into a bookstore and just sniff the spines. For different reasons, I have the same love for danky oddly-organized dimly lit underground used book stores that I have for the bright huge chain stores that offer best sellers, a warehouse-sized store full of every book under the sun, and a mini pseudo coffee shop in the corner.

While you can’t beat the mystique and value of a mom’n’pop used book shop, I also love the smooth new books. You can just pull them off the shelf with that ffft sound and gently imitate it by wooshing your palm across the cover. Ffft.

Sometimes I’ll visit books I’ve loved… just to touch them again. Remind me of the feeling I had when I was with them. And to make sure certain title are there. Are they in the right place? On the proper shelf, waiting to be chosen so they can give those same feelings to someone new.

I love to pick up nice crisp new books, even if they’re old titles new in paperback, the actual book itself is new. Pages unruffled, spines unbent. Like a little gift waiting to be unwrapped; to share its story and dreams and imagined worlds.

If I haven’t read it, it’s new to me.

Even books I know nothing about by people I’ve never heard of attract me. I like to turn these books over and read the glowing quoted snippets promising “a journey like no other,” and “a mesmerizing tale” or “a world of infinite possibilities playing out in a small town.”

“Redemption.”

“A tour-de force.”

My favorites were the quotes about the author. “As compelling a first novel as has ever been written.” “A strong new voice.” “Perhaps the first great voice of his generation.”
That’s what I wanted to be.

But I was a sham. All my unused pens, still full of ink, and stacks of empty pages were proof that I was nothing. I wasn’t a writer. I was the first great waste of my generation’s voice. But slowly I was forcing myself to speak.

PHOTO: The Bean in Chicago

2008-04-09T10:24:00.004-04:00

This was taken underneath "The Bean" in downtown Chicago, fall 2006.

FOLKIN ACROSS THE POND: How a Brit Fell in Love With American Music

2008-04-08T16:59:00.005-04:00

23/7 trades emails with London’s Mike Short from the Fearless Romantics blog.

23/7: So Mike, growing up in England, how did you gain a profound interest in, and appreciation of, such purely American music? Not that other people all over the world haven't always liked Bob Dylan and other American artists, but some of your absolute favorite music (Ryan Adams, Wilco, the Jayhawks, Bruce Springsteen, Dylan) are just so rooted in American folk. How did you develop this taste?

It seems that all through the rock era, the biggest and best bands have been from your side of the pond (Beatles, Stones, Black Sabbath, the Clash, U2, Radiohead). While I'm sure you may be a fan of some or all of them, it's the American folk that seems to have really struck a chord with you. Also, how do you feel about some of the UK-based singer-songwriters like Elvis Costello and Robyn Hitchcock?

Fearless Romantics: I think originally it stemmed from the group I hung around with when I was at university -which was when I started to stockpile CDs like anything (there was a superb CD fair over the road from my college, first Saturday of each month). At that time, everyone was into Oasis, Radiohead, Pulp...all that stuff. They fetishised these bands and it really turned me off - and what's more they were very exclusive, disliking everything which was alien to them. When I went to college, it was all about the Beatles and Bob Dylan as far as I was concerned, and I got stick for it! Amazing to think of it, from a bunch of 18 year olds. So anyway, when it came to making decisions about which direction to take my musical interests, I really took what I saw to be the natural routes outwards from Dylan - the Byrds, the Band, later on Ryan Adams, the Jayhawks - rather than those from the Beatles - the 90s Britpop bands, glam, punk, and so on.

On top of this, I have always been fascinated by American culture - most of my favourite authors are from the States, and I think the three trips I made there left a lasting impression on me. Just the vastness of it and the miles of open country - it was the aspects of Britain that I liked, but magnified. I had a late rebellion and instead of reacting against my parents when I was 14, I reacted against the classic British intellectual snobbish anti-American standpoint when I was 18.

In fact the US cultural factor is probably a better explanation than the 18 year old nobody-understands-me explanation. The music I really like represents a culture which, although I'm not a part of, holds a real interest to me. The fact that I'm not part of that culture probably helps - I can over-romanticise at my leisure.

Singer-songwriters like Elvis Costello - I respect them but their excessive and self-conscious Britishness drives me mad.

How about you - how do you view the classic British bands and songwriters that you mentioned? Do you relate them to any view you have of British culture?

23/7: Interesting stuff.
Well, to sound like a typical American, I have very little knowledge of British culture. I have this ignorant, stereotypical view of stuffy queens eating tea and crumpets, much like some people around the world view us as fat, McDonald's-eating, Bush-voting idiots watching reality TV.

Musically, I'm always reminded of the British Invasion. Like the Beatles, Stones, the Who and others had to come here and show us how to really rock. But there's always this air of "We're better than you with our fancy accents." Maybe that's the "self-conscious Britishness” you mentioned.

While I really dig Radiohead, it's more form a pure musical and studio prowess standpoint. Just an enjoyment and appreciation of their albums, as well as their live show. I don’t personally relate to them as much as I do more purely American experiences like Bruce and even hip-hop. I don’t get into Oasis, "brit-pop" and other more contemporary British music. I'm pretty turned off by most of what I've heard.

There is this feeling of, if an American artist is "huge in England" than he/she is poised for stardom. Like you guys "get it" and eventually we will to. I think Jimi Hendrix sort of had to go conquer England before coming home to success in America.

FR: One of the things you say which I find really fascinating is your view of British culture - which you say is stereotypical and ignorant - as being stuffy; because I really think you're right! It is not that we're all upper-class tea drinkers. But I do think that British culture is very proud. Whatever class or group Brits are from, they seem to be very proud of it, to the extent that they sometimes find it difficult to respect other cultures. My university friends were typical lefty, PC, worldly students, but I think US culture threatened their proud superiority - it's harder to patronise such a powerful country as the US.

Anyway, musically, I think the UK is a test ground for a lot of acts because it is smaller than the US - start with small goals and so on. Sure, the Who and the Beatles and the Stones taught white America how to rock, or at any rate they helped with that process, but their music came from America to begin with. And ok, much of that music evolved from forms that can be traced back to Africa, so the US can't claim sole responsibility. But I think those UK bands got big because they were the first white bands to make that kind of music.

23/7: I just heard a quote from Elton John. Excuse me, SIR Elton John. He was performing with Ryan Adams on Country Music TV a few years ago and they asked about how country music influenced them and their music and Elton said he thought of country music as "the white man's soul music. The only white music that came out of America that was sort of equivalent to black soul music and gospel music."

I thought that was an interesting point. And it's funny, modern country music in America has become a pop fashion show. Where good-looking men and woman wear cowboy hats and sing twangy, watered-down love songs that they didn't write. It's such a far cry from REAL country music. But I guess that's happened in almost every genre, where the pursuit of money catches up and surpasses the quality and authenticity. Trying to compare or equate Toby Keith or Tim McGraw to Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson is a bit like putting crap like the Black-Eyed Peas in the same category as Public Enemy.

FR: Yeah, I've heard that quote and I agree: there's a lot to it. I subconsciously relate country to soul and folk to blues. The analogy isn't great, as I guess folk is a much more general term describing music from all different places (old English folk songs, Irish ditties, bluesy slave tunes), but I guess if you narrow folk down to “American folk,” then it kind of works. So the Basement Tapes are to Robert Johnson as Ryan Adams is to Otis Redding. What do you think?

23/7: Hmm.... I think we might lose each other if we keep up all these analogies. But that's a pretty good one there.

Music Time Capsule: 2004

2008-04-08T15:13:00.005-04:00

What does your band sound like?

2008-04-08T14:33:00.005-04:00

In case you need a catchy blurb to describe your totally cool (and Indie!) new band... you can use this:

We sound like a cross between Bob Seger, Bob Saget, Bob Dylan, and Bob Marley. Kinda like early Black Rebel Motorcycle Club meets Cleveland the Black Dude on Family Guy. It's sorta like a sober Replacements doing a film score for a Wes Anderson movie.

You're welcome.

Brush With Fame: Joan Baez

2008-04-08T14:12:00.003-04:00

I once got Joan Baez's autograph. She was doing a book signing but I couldn't be bothered (well, didn't have the money OR the interest) to buy her $30 book. I only went cuz i was on lunch break from the record store where I worked when I was 16 and she was in the same mall at the book store and i reckon she knew Bob Dylan so I should go....

So I get up there to the front of the line and hand her a paper to sign and she looks up, looks me right in the eye and says, "What, you didn't buy the book?"

Classy.