SteveAudio

What'd I say

2011-10-08T01:07:00.001-07:00

Years later, and with new technology, we still can't make records that sound better than this:

Anji

2011-10-08T00:14:00.000-07:00

Bert Jansch was a seminal British acoustic guitarist, from whom I learned much about playing.

He had an active solo and collaborative career, and was a founding member of Pentangle, a group that connected folk acoustic music to jazz.

Here he is playing what became his signature tune, even though it was written by another wonderful British guitarist Davey Graham.

Bert passed this week.

And the rock'n'roll generation loses another statesman.

Sad.

Solidarity forever

2011-10-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

The AFM (Musicians Union) officially supports the Occupy Wall Street movement:

AFM Joins in Occupy Wall Street Protests

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2011

Contact: Honore Stockley
(315) 422-4488 ext. 104
honore@bentley-hall.com

Yesterday, AFM Local 802 Executive Board members voted unanimously to support and participate in today’s Occupy Wall Street Labor Community march. The vote came in the wake of mounting demonstrations taking place nationwide, condemning business practices on Wall Street that adversely affect working-class Americans.

American Federation of Musicians (AFM) President Ray Hair announced his participation in the Occupy Wall Street Labor Community march along with activist members of AFM Local 802. Hair explains he is joining the march "in an effort to focus attention on the economic plight of America’s working people. We have borne the brunt of employer-driven contract concessions, pension takeaways and benefit givebacks—suffering one-sided sacrifices—while America’s ruling class, the money men of Wall Street, who blew out the economy, walk away unscathed, bailed out with their big bonuses, consolidating their power," says Hair.

"This is the latest episode in the classic struggle of Capital vs. Labor," he continues. "Capital has cleaned up on American workers in these hard times, very nearly cleaning us out. This afternoon, I’ll be demonstrating the AFM’s solidarity with the labor community by marching with Local 802 members to expand the struggle to hold Wall Street accountable for the lopsided imbalance in the US economy."

Indeed. Musicians here in L.A. are struggling in the home of television and Hollywood movies. As budgets for TV & film are so skewed, $$ for music are constantly being diminished. You want to record world-class musicians who can read tough notes the first take, like they had been playing those notes for 10 years? Come to L.A., pay the going scale, and get perfect professional performances.

And pay for it, dammit!

Happy Birthday KK

2011-09-19T00:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Kristin Carol Anderson.

Her middle name was to honor our Dad's sister Carol who passed, far too young, before Kristin was even born.

Who knew then KK (as we called her) would also pass far too young.

You made everyone's life around you better. Please, wherever your soul is, know that.

Goin' to a party in the county jail . . .

2011-08-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

Jerry Lieber passed away this week, sadly. More about him here. He wrote songs like this:

And this, featuring the first notable use of what became know as power chords:

Another Elvis hit, previously done by Big Mama Thornton:

And thisL

Classic rock. Jerry, you'll be missed.

Happy Birthday, Mom

2011-08-18T12:06:00.001-07:00

I wish you were still here so we could celebrate together.

What a fool believes

2011-07-24T01:25:00.000-07:00

Michael Smerconish is an especially frustrating right-winger. While he seems to try to be reasonable and adult about the insane positions and policies the Party takes, he none the less stays faithful even as he chides about pretty obvious idiocy from the Bachmann camp:

See, my friend and former intern Ben is gay. And he never made any such choice.

Your thinking is nothing new and it runs in your family.

In 2004, at the National Education Leadership Conference, you said of the gay lifestyle: "It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say this is gay. It's anything but gay."

Then there's your husband, Marcus, who obtained his Ph.D. by virtue of a correspondence course. He runs a mental-health clinic but, according to Politico, is not registered with any of the three state boards that certify mental health practitioners. (Minnesota is one of the only states in which you can practice mental health without a license.) Last year, when asked during a radio interview about parenting homosexual children, he said:

We have to understand: barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined. Just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn't mean that we are supposed to go down that road. That's what is called the sinful nature. We have a responsibility as parents and as authority figures not to encourage such thoughts and feelings from moving into the action steps. . .
Marcus Bachmann has denied that his clinic engages in attempts to "pray away the gay," but ABC's Nightline recently aired an interview with a man who said that, at age 17, he sought help from Bachmann & Associates and: "path for my therapy would be to read the Bible, pray to God that I would no longer be gay."

Naturally, Ben, a proud Notre Dame alum, doesn't appreciate the reference to the devil, nor being compared to barbarians. His life is anything but "sad," and there are a number of things he thinks you should know.

First, he's always known he was gay. "I've always known something was different," he told me. "Coming out is more a process of accepting yourself than anything else."

Second, there is nothing in his background that caused this. He is part of a conservative family and attended a Catholic high school and college -- an upbringing that he says did nothing to "promote being gay."

And he wonders who exactly you think would "choose" to be gay, given the myriad personal, emotional, and legal issues that a homosexual lifestyle introduces.

"If you could simply choose who you were sexually attracted to," Ben wondered, "wouldn't you choose the path of least resistance? Being gay creates problems and obstacles in life that no one would willingly choose."

Yet despite these obstacles, Ben still believes that once the predisposition toward sexuality is understood as being just that, the basis for the discrimination he faces as a gay man will dissipate.

"Thankfully we live in a country that, for the most part, does not permit discrimination against those things a person cannot control. We don't tolerate bias based on race, or gender, or disabilities, because people don't choose these fates," Ben said.

Yeah, well, good luck with that, Mike. That last paragraph states a philosophy totally counter to any & every position of the Republican Party.

After proving the lie of small government, small debt, etc., maybe at last you'll see the lie of personal freedom your party endorses.

Bastard.

BTW, I hate this song, but the sentiment works. McDonald pretty much ruined the Doobie Brothers, IMHO, although I'm told he's a nice fellow.

There but for fortune . . .

2011-07-06T00:40:00.000-07:00

Phil Ochs never said it better:

Perfect music, performed perfectly. He left us much too early, wish he was still around telling the story.

Keep yourself alive . . .

2011-06-10T00:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Republican people:

Anthony Wiener will resign. I can predict exactly when: when David Vitter (R-Diapers/hookers) resigns:

D.C. Madam

In early July 2007, Vitter's phone number was included in a published list of phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates, a company owned and run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, also known as the "D.C. Madam", convicted by the U.S. government for running a prostitution service. Hustler identified the phone number and contacted Vitter's office to ask about his connection to Palfrey.^[18]^[19] The following day, Vitter issued a written statement:

“ This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible. Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there — with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way.^[20] ”

The statement containing Vitter's apology said his telephone number was included in phone records dating from his days as a member of the House of Representatives.^[6] Phone records show that Vitter's number was called by Palfrey's service five times, the first on October 12, 1999, and the last on February 27, 2001.^[21] Two calls were placed while House roll call votes were in progress.^[22]^[23]

On July 16, 2007, after a week of self-imposed seclusion, Vitter emerged and called a news conference. Standing next to his wife, Vitter asked the public for forgiveness. Following Vitter's remarks, Wendy Vitter, his wife, spoke. Both refused to answer any questions.^[24]^[25]^[26]

As background, several news outlets reported that in May 1999, Vitter replaced Congressman Bob Livingston after Livingston resigned due to an adultery scandal.^[1]^[27]^[28] Vitter said about Livingston's decision to resign, "It's obviously a tremendous loss for the state. I think Livingston's stepping down makes a very powerful argument that Clinton should resign as well and move beyond this mess", referring to Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky scandal.^[29]

Vitter will not face criminal charges due to the statute of limitations.^[30]

Vitter incurred significant legal and public relations expenses in his efforts to avoid giving testimony in the Palfrey trial and to respond to the ethics complaint. Consequently, his attorneys sought permission from the Federal Election Commission to use campaign funds to pay for these expenses.^[31]^[32] The Commission, along partisan lines, couldn't agree whether funds could be used for reimbursing costs related to the Palfrey trial but did allow them to pay for expenses connected to the Ethics Committee complaint.^[33]^[34]^[35]

Until then, fuck you very much. Family values party? No. Party unity party? At all costs.

Hypocrisy party? Of course.

Rep. Wiener: Please keep your pix to yourself. And please stay in the House. Keep yourself alive.

And you and I

2011-06-01T00:24:00.000-07:00

Perfect music, performed perfectly:

I only want to be with you

2011-05-30T00:28:00.000-07:00

Perfect music, performed perfectly. RIP Dusty:

26 years later, in 1989:

Dear musical performing artists everywhere:

Please don't sing this song. Ever. Anywhere. At any time. It's been interpreted perfectly. You'll only embarrass yourself. Kthnxbai.

Oh, don't ask why . . .

2011-05-20T00:38:00.000-07:00

Can we now, post Bin Laden, at long last admit Iraq was the epic clusterfuck of all time, and move on from it? No good has resulted, much bad has happened, and, well, please remember what the long lost Billmon at Whiskey Bar said about it:

What a Tangled Web We Weave . . .
. . . when first we practice to deceive!

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

Dick Cheney
Speech to VFW National Convention
August 26, 2002

Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.

George W. Bush
Speech to UN General Assembly
September 12, 2002

If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world.

Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
December 2, 2002

We know for a fact that there are weapons there.

Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
January 9, 2003

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.

George W. Bush
State of the Union Address
January 28, 2003

We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.

Colin Powell
Remarks to UN Security Council
February 5, 2003

We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have.

George W. Bush
Radio Address
February 8, 2003

If Iraq had disarmed itself, gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction over the past 12 years, or over the last several months since (UN Resolution) 1441 was enacted, we would not be facing the crisis that we now have before us . . . But the suggestion that we are doing this because we want to go to every country in the Middle East and rearrange all of its pieces is not correct.

Colin Powell
Interview with Radio France International
February 28, 2003

So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? . . . I think our judgment has to be clearly not.

Colin Powell
Remarks to UN Security Council
March 7, 2003

Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.

George W. Bush
Address to the Nation
March 17, 2003

Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.

Ari Fleisher
Press Briefing
March 21, 2003

There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And . . . as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.

Gen. Tommy Franks
Press Conference
March 22, 2003

I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction.

Defense Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman
Washington Post, p. A27
March 23, 2003

One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites.

Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark
Press Briefing
March 22, 2003

We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

Donald Rumsfeld
ABC Interview
March 30, 2003

Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty.

Neocon scholar Robert Kagan
Washington Post op-ed
April 9, 2003

But make no mistake -- as I said earlier -- we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about and it is about. And we have high confidence it will be found.

Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
April 10, 2003

We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them.

George W. Bush
NBC Interview
April 24, 2003

There are people who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.

Donald Rumsfeld
Press Briefing
April 25, 2003

We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so.

George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters
May 3, 2003

I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now.

Colin Powell
Remarks to Reporters
May 4, 2003

We never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country.

Donald Rumsfeld
Fox News Interview
May 4, 2003

I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program.

George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters
May 6, 2003

U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction.

Condoleeza Rice
Reuters Interview
May 12, 2003

I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago -- I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago -- whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden.

Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne
Press Briefing
May 13, 2003

Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found.

Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps
Interview with Reporters
May 21, 2003

Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction.

Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
NBC Today Show interview
May 26, 2003

They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.
Donald Rumsfeld
Remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations
May 27, 2003

For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.

Paul Wolfowitz
Vanity Fair interview
May 28, 2003

It was a surprise to me then — it remains a surprise to me now — that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there.

Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
Press Interview
May 30, 2003

Do I think we're going to find something? Yeah, I kind of do, because I think there's a lot of information out there."

Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, Defense Intelligence Agency
Press Conference
May 30, 2003
Posted by billmon at May 29, 2003 03:20 AM

Bastards, every last one of them. Rotten bastards.

You the kind of gentleman that want everything your way, Take the sheet off your face, boy, it's a brand new day!

2011-04-25T00:57:00.000-07:00

I was hopeful when former MSNBC talking head Dan Abrams started his own website, http://www.mediaite.com.

OK, the name is dumb, doesn't exactly fall trippingly off the tongue, but it has its moments.

Such as 4/20, when pointing out the immense tone-deafness of the otherwise clever Scott "Dilbert" Adams who jumped up to support Orange Co. Repub official Marilyn Davenport, who sent the now infamous Obama-as-chump-baby email to all her BFFs:

The same thing is happening today with a Republican official who emailed some friends a humorous photo of President Obama’s face on a chimp and a punch line about his birth certificate. If your only context is what the Internet says about this story, you assume it’s a typical racist act by a Republican who is already guilty by association. But if I add the context that Googling “George Bush monkey” gives you over 3 million hits, and most of them are jokes where President Bush’s face is transposed on a monkey, you see what’s really going on. Democrats and advocates of civil rights are using the media to further an agenda at the expense of a woman who was probably so non-racist that the photo in question didn’t set off her alarms as being a career-ending risk.

Yeah, no. I find Adams generally clever, pointing out the absurdity of todays' business and corporate world. But here, he bends too far over in an attempt at, I dunno, fairness?

Mediaite writer Tommy Christopher explains:

Here’s the thing. President Bush was a white dude, so calling him a chimp, while not very nice, doesn’t evoke dehumanizing racial stereotypes that have historically fueled murder, rape, and enslavement. President Obama is a black man, so picturing him as a chimpanzee does evoke dehumanizing racial stereotypes that have historically fueled murder, rape, and enslavement. Scott Adams can Google President Bush until Dilbert’s tie straightens out, and he’s never going to find a legitimate analog to this insult.

Also, this isn’t Davenport’s first brush with racial email hijinks. According to former California Republican Party Chairman Michael Schroder, Davenport defended Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose when he sent out this knee-slapper, a photo depicting a watermelon patch on the South Lawn of The White House:
While none of this necessarily makes Davenport a racist (she could just be extremely clueless about race), there’s more than enough probable cause here to absolve “Democrats and advocates of civil rights” of being wolf-crying opportunists.
Speaking of stereotypes, though, what did Adams mean by “typical racist act by a Republican?” He’s either promoting, or acknowledging, a stereotype about white conservatives, which compounds his failure to recognize the same in Davenport’s email.

Indeed. Blue Texan writing at Instaputz adds:

Yes, if your only context is that you're from another planet and haven't been around the Western world for the past 500 years -- calling a white man a monkey and a black man a monkey are totally the same thing!

Also, don't you love the way Scott assumes the woman who sent the racist email is "probably non-racist"? How does he know that?

This is nothing new for the glibertarian Adams, whose writing style and political views are reminiscent of a cross between Glenn and Helen Reynolds. What does he mean by that?

From Gawker (follow the link above):

Scott Adams, creator of the great comic strip Dilbert, is sort of a prick. He is a horrible boss, and recently penned a charming misogynist rant comparing women to children begging for candy. Now we learn he likes to bash critics on message boards under a pseudonym.

For months, Adams has been pretending to be the world's biggest Scott Adams fan under the handle "PlannedChaos." (Planned Chaos is a book by Austrian economist and libertarian hero Ludwig von Mises.) Today, he fessed up to his sockpuppetry.

It started with a thread on link-sharing community MetaFilter about Adams' Wall Street Journal op-ed on how awesome and successful he is even though he didn't get straight-As in school. Some people said mean things about the article, suggesting Scott Adams wrote like someone who has "actually convinced himself… that he's the smartest guy in the room."

That's when "PlannedChaos" weighed in, furiously defending Adams:

As far as Adams' ego goes, maybe you don't understand what a writer does for a living. No one writes unless he believes that what he writes will be interesting to someone. Everyone on this page is talking about him, researching him, and obsessing about him. His job is to be interesting, not loved. As someone mentioned, he has a certified genius I.Q., and that's hard to hide.

And when someone thought Adams was pumping himself up a little too much in the article, "PlannedChaos" wrote:

I assume you don't hate all self-promoters, such as homeless people applying for jobs. Is it Adams' enormous success at self-promotion that makes you jealous and angry?

This wasn't Adams' first time pretending to be his own fan. For months, he's been commenting on threads about himself posted to link-sharing site Reddit under the same handle. Sample comment:

If an idiot and a genius disagree, the idiot generally thinks the genius is wrong. He also has lots of idiot reasons to back his idiot belief. That's how the idiot mind is wired.

It's fair to say you disagree with Adams. But you can't rule out the hypothesis that you're too dumb to understand what he's saying.

And he's a certified genius. Just sayin'.

Just sayin'.

After a number of MetaFilter users called him out today, Adams confessed, "I am Scott Adams." Then he said goodbye: "I'm sorry I peed in your cesspool." Metafilter users are currently engaging in a ritualistic shaming: "This is a wonderful example of how to take a garden-variety fail like a slightly dumb WSJ OpEd and turn it into an epic fail," wrote Lodurr.

Just to finish, Ludwig von Mises was a complete tool, a free-market idealogue who pimped out the infamous Austrian School of Economics which has NEVER WORKED ANYWHERE. So of course it's beloved by glibertarians everywhere.

Lastly, it occurs to me that Libertarians are just selfish and infantile people, who don't give a good Goddamn about anyone else.

But hey, I could be wrong.

Hoppy Easter!

2011-04-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

He dyed for your sins.

Let me sing you a waltz; Out of nowhere, out of my thoughts

2011-04-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

Perfect music performed imperfectly, but it lends it a certain charm. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Julie Delpy:

Give the poor man a chance, help stop these hard, hard times

2011-04-08T00:22:00.001-07:00

~~Screaming liberal~~ Sensible conservative Bruce Bartlett decimates the lunacy that is Paul Ryan (R-Cheezwhiz)'s modest budget proposal:

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan has been the talk of Washington this week. Most of the discussion has revolved around his proposal to privatize Medicare and slash many federal programs to the bone. Less attention has been paid to the tax side of Ryan’s plan, which is every much as radical as the spending side.

One would think that a comprehensive budget proposal designed primarily for the purpose of reducing budget deficits and the national debt would put at least some of the burden on the revenue side of the equation. First, it would reduce the need to cut spending so heavily and improve the chances of passage; unless Ryan is only interested in scoring points with the Tea Party crowd, he will need the support of at least some Senate Democrats and President Obama if he wants any aspects of his plan enacted.

Second, Ryan’s plan puts an exceptionally heavy emphasis on cutting programs like Medicaid and food stamps that primarily aid the poor, while the well-to-do are essentially held harmless because they don’t benefit much from federal spending. The one government spending program that arguably benefits the wealthy disproportionately is national defense because, as UCLA economist Earl Thompson has argued, it protects their capital. And that’s the one major program Ryan lets off the hook almost completely.

For Ryan, it is an article of faith that federal revenues must never rise above 19 percent of the gross domestic product no matter how dire the nation’s debt problem. No explanation for this necessity is offered in his plan, other than observing that the historical range of federal revenues as a share of GDP has been between 18 percent and 19 percent of GDP during most of the postwar era. Ryan simply asserts, without evidence, that this range is the one most compatible with prosperity.

Conservatives dogmatically believe that taxation is the single most important factor in economic growth, and the lower taxes are the better. But if that were the case, then the late 1990s should have been a period of exceptionally slow growth: Federal taxes averaged 19.9 percent of GDP from 1997 to 2000. In fact, that period was among the most prosperous in American history, with real GDP growing an average of 4.5 percent per year. By contrast, during the last four years, federal revenues have been exceptionally low, averaging just 16.5 percent of GDP. But growth averaged less than 1 percent per year.

. . .

Distributionally, the Ryan plan is a monstrosity. The rich would receive huge tax cuts while the social safety net would be shredded to pay for them. Even as an opening bid to begin budget negotiations with the Democrats, the Ryan plan cannot be taken seriously. It is less of a wish list than a fairy tale utterly disconnected from the real world, backed up by make-believe numbers and unreasonable assumptions. Ryan’s plan isn’t even an act of courage; it’s just pandering to the Tea Party. A real act of courage would have been for him to admit, as all serious budget analysts know, that revenues will have to rise well above 19 percent of GDP to stabilize the debt.

Go read. There's more.

I focus on the pain

2011-04-07T01:43:00.000-07:00

From Esquire, by The Collective.

Posted in full because editing or cropping would be a sin.

"Compassionate conservatism" was a hell of a brand name. You have to give Karl Rove credit for that. It was a masterpiece of political marketing. Rhetorically, at least, it managed to bridge the great gap between what the Republican party was doing and the people to whom it was doing most of it. It even managed to enlist organized religion in what was said to be an attempt to ameliorate the social consequences of the policies that were central to the agenda that the Republicans were bringing to the nation. If people were going to be forced into soup lines, they were going to be really good soup lines. The worst instincts of our politics were going to be sanctified by the best instincts of our people. It was as though the Laffer Curve described the arc of a censer or the wave of a thurible and not the inevitable swing of a wrecking ball.

Of course, it was all a shuck. (According to his memoir, David Kuo was a Republican who actually bought it, until he got to the White House and, one day, was told by Rove to come up with "a fucking faith-based thing," which is not how Saint Francis would have put it.) Not only that, but it was a shuck that, like so many things in the Bush White House, including the president therein, was so screwed up in its execution that it inevitably became a punchline. Nobody was ever going to be able to say "compassionate conservative" again with a straight face. And now, the Republicans, and the conservative politics that have possessed their party, have decided that they don't even have to try.

We are in an age dominated on one side by the New Politics of Sadism. Hurtful policies are enacted, not because of any logical benefit they might bring, but specifically because they hurt people the Republicans want to hurt. The thoroughgoing abandonment of the notion of a political commonwealth, cheered on by degrees since the elevation of Ronald Reagan and whatever ideas people could cram into his empty head, has reached the point among American conservatives where it is now the kind of faith you find in the most unshakable of perversions. It manifests itself everywhere. It's expressed politely by people like that intolerable foof, David Brooks, who's never taken a position in his life that cost him so much as a dinner invitation. On the radio, and on cable news, it's expressed crudely by people who are far more honest about their contempt for their fellow citizens.

And the sadism is running now through the institutions of government. We have made our peace with torture to the extent that support for it now is as much a litmus test for being a Republican as opposition to abortion is. (The Democrats, of course, choose to deplore it without condemning it.) The Supreme Court's majority opinion in the recent Thompson V. Connick decision — delivered, fittingly enough, by Justice Clarence Thomas, the walking Freudian petri dish who once opined that he saw nothing wrong with chaining inmates to a post in the hot sun — pretty much advises a man who was stuck on death row for fourteen years because of egregious prosecutorial misconduct to stop wasting the Supreme Court's time and be grateful his sorry ass wasn't fried a decade ago.

And, in the Congress, there is Congressman Paul Ryan, who is angling right now to make a career out of political sadism.

Make no mistake: Ryan is a thoroughgoing nutball, as bug-house crazy on economics as Peter King is on Muslims and Steve King is on anyone swarthier than himself. He is a lifelong adherent to the doctrines of Ayn Rand, which ought to disqualify anyone from ever being taken seriously enough to park cars by anyone over the age of fifteen. In terms of their connection to actual human reality, the difference between the doctrines of Ayn Rand and the doctrines of L. Ron Hubbard is not substantial, and the fervor of their acolytes is almost exactly the same. Picking Paul Ryan to handle your political economy is tantamount to electing Tom Cruise to be pope.

Paul Ryan is a thoroughgoing fraud. He went through high school and most of college on Social Security survivor benefits after his father's death. He voted for almost all the Bush programs — including both off-the-books wars — that ballooned the deficit he so piously condemns now. And this week, as he rolled out his lunatic conception of a federal budget, Paul Ryan produced the definitive statement of his political philosophy: There are those Americans who deserve to live and those Americans who don't. Period. All of the former are very, very wealthy. All of the latter are poor, or struggling, or old. Paul Ryan believes the true mission of government is to bring as much pain to the parasites as it can because, by doing so, it can liberate the genius of those people who deserve to live. When Paul Ryan dreams of a free nation, it is one in which the seventy-two-year-old spouses of seventy-five-year-old patients are free to go out and shop in a rigged insurance market for the $100,000-plus they're going to need over a lifetime of tending to that patient. If they insisted on feeding themselves, and even risking the odd vacation, over the course of their working lives and they failed to anticipate what might befall them, then the spouse is going to have to starve and the patient is just going to have to sit there in his own filth, until market forces determine that they should die.

Look at him when he talks about dismantling the hard-won protections of the shrinking middle class. He is so positively lubricious about it that his teeth seem to be sweating. Pain (not his) purifies the nation. Pain (not his) makes us free. This is what Paul Ryan dreams of when he dreams of a free people.

The object of his politics is to render political liberty subservient to economic exigencies, to render it an unaffordable luxury item available only to the wealthy, because only the wealthy are competent enough to exercise it. (Do yourself a favor and watch the interview that this serious intellectual did with that other serious intellectual, Glenn Beck, and see how fast they get around to calling ideas with which they disagree a "cancer" that needs to be excised from our civic life. The only thing that distinguishes Ryan's ideas from Beck's is that Beck is now universally recognized as a crackpot.) Ryan has come to the unremarkable intellectual conclusion that more people would rather inflict pain — even vicariously, even through his greasy sadist's smile — than receive it. He has seen that dynamic in action. Even the White House, occupied for the nonce by a putatively progressive Democrat, has signed on in a gentler way to the notion that "austerity" is the way out of our current economic morass, and "austerity" is fairly defined in this context as making other people hurt so you'll feel better about yourself. Unemployed workers, whose pensions were looted by Wall Street sharpers, rage against the pensions of public workers, not because those pensions are so gloriously lavish, but because they exist at all. Somebody has something you don't and they must pay for that. Small wonder that Paul Ryan thinks he can grin his way to the dystopic wasteland that he sees when he dreams of a free country. So much of the work already has been done for him over the previous three decades.

Look at how his nonsensical plan was received. The Right, led by the ever-polite Mr. Brooks, praised Ryan for the fortitude it takes to make life harder for the poor, the elderly, and the disabled while comforting plutocrats and corporations. Nobody laughed. The respectable Left tut-tutted, but several allegedly liberal commentators insisted that Ryan's monkeyhouse numbers should be taken seriously because Ryan himself is a serious person. (Writing at The Washington Post, the normally judicious Ezra Klein began his analysis of Ryan's proposal: "Ryan is the kind of politician I fundamentally like. He's smart, policy-oriented and willing to take political risks — but only, it turns out, of a certain kind." Jesus, kid, don't be so tough on the poor bastard.) The emerging default position within the Beltway seems to be that Ryan's budget is just crazy enough to make the recommendations of the president's Deficit Commission, which themselves were bad enough to be laughed out of the court of public opinion not six months ago, seem like a reasonable alternative.

The people explaining this troubled, wounded country to itself have completely lost their minds. They're giggling outside the cells, just loudly enough to drown out the screams from inside. When Paul Ryan dreams of a free country, he sees a glittering palace built atop blasted swamp. He dreams only of someone else's pain.

In-freakin-deed. People, we are lost.

Bound to lose . . .

2011-04-07T00:57:00.000-07:00

I've been missing lately. I could dissemble: "Working to hard . . . family stuff... blah blah." Fact is, I'm heartsick abou the direction our nation and our discourse is taking.

Watching Mike Huckabee on The Daily Show tonight was a changing moment. Huck was, to me, a conservative christian with whom I disagreed about everything, but whom I thought was a decent honest guy.

I was wrong. Huck is a dishonest self-aggrandizing whore who will say anything to further his agenda. Of late he has become a newly minted birther:

Well, that didn't take long. Just one week after calling the birther conspiracy theory "nonsense," probable GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee raised concerns of his own about the president's upbringing, in an interview with a conservative New York talk show host. In an appearance Monday on the Steve Malzberg show, the Fox News personality and former Arkansas governor appeared to sympathize with his host's questions about President Obama's citizenship, and then floated a theory of his own: Obama was raised in Kenya. Per Media Matters:

"I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American."

But don't worry, he's not a birther:

"The only reason I'm not as confident that there's something about the birth certificate, Steve, is because I know the Clintons [inaudible] and believe me, they have lots of investigators out on him, and I'm convinced if there was anything that they could have found on that, they would have found it, and I promise they would have used it."

Huckabee went on to explain how Obama's Kenyan upbringing imbued him with an anti-British worldview radically different than most Americans. (You know, like the guys who wrote this anti-British screed.) Media Matters has the full audio here.

And tonight exposed himself as a tenther as well:

. . . the tenth one was explicit, that if it was not contained in the constitution, that power is left to the states (note: my transcription from the Daily Show video)

Here's a description of "tentherism" from a liberal writer whose work I enjoy:

These efforts are all part of a movement whose members are convinced that the 10th Amendment of the Constitution prohibits spending programs and regulations disfavored by conservatives. Indeed, while "birther" conspiracy theorists dominate the airwaves with tales of a mystical Kenyan baby smuggled into Hawaii just days after his birth, these "tenther" constitutionalists offer a theory that is no less radical but infinitely more dangerous.

Tentherism, in a nutshell, proclaims that New Deal-era reformers led an unlawful coup against the "True Constitution," exploiting Depression-born desperation to expand the federal government's powers beyond recognition. Under the tenther constitution, Barack Obama's health-care reform is forbidden, as is Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The federal minimum wage is a crime against state sovereignty; the federal ban on workplace discrimination and whites-only lunch counters is an unlawful encroachment on local businesses.

Tenthers divine all this from the brief language of the 10th Amendment, which provides that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." In layman's terms, this simply means that the Constitution contains an itemized list of federal powers -- such as the power to regulate interstate commerce or establish post offices or make war on foreign nations -- and anything not contained in that list is beyond Congress' authority.

The tenther constitution, however, reads each of these powers very narrowly -- too narrowly, it turns out, to permit much of the progress of the last century. As the nation emerges from the worst economic downturn in three generations, the tenthers would strip away the very reforms and economic regulations that beat back the Great Depression, and they would hamstring any attempt to enact new progressive legislation.

Such retreat to fringe constitutional theories is one of the right's favorite tactics during times of historic upheaval. The right-wing South justified both secession and the Civil War on the theory that the Constitution is nothing more than a pact between sovereigns that each state is free to leave at will. In the immediate wake of Brown v. Board of Education, 19 senators and 77 representatives endorsed a "Southern Manifesto," proclaiming -- in words echoed by modern-day tenthers -- that Brown "encroach[es] on the rights reserved to the States" because the "Constitution does not mention education." President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spent much of his first term combating a tenther majority on the Supreme Court, which routinely struck down substantial portions of the New Deal.

So thanks, Mike for exposing once and for all who you really are: A do-anything, say-anything zealot, with only the conviction of fundamentalist religion to fall back on.

Mike Huckabee, the Donald Trump of . . . oh well, never mind.

It's true, I was made for you

2011-04-01T00:40:00.000-07:00

Perfect music, performed perfectly:

You don't have to be a Grey's Anatomy fan to appreciate Sara Ramirez's performance of The Story, originally recorded by Brandi Carlile, written by Phil Hanseroth. But you can't deny her talent.

Ms. Ramirez, besides being a TV actor, is also a Broadway star:

She debuted on Broadway playing Wahzinak in Paul Simon's The Capeman (1998). In 1999, she appeared in The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm (1999) and received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for her role. She has also appeared in A Class Act (2001) and Dreamgirls (2001), and she performed in The Vagina Monologues with Tovah Feldshuh and Suzanne Bertish.

In 1998, she played the voice of Lammy in the video game UmJammer Lammy, a spin-off of PaRappa the Rapper, both on Sony's PlayStation console. She later reprised her role as Lammy in the PlayStation 2 video game sequel PaRappa the Rapper 2, and has a smaller role, unlike the game that preceded it.

In 2004, Ramírez was cast as the Lady of the Lake in the Eric Idle/John Du Prez musical Spamalot, based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The musical opened on Broadway in 2005 to widespread acclaim, and Ramírez in particular was singled out for her performance, winning several awards including the 2005 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Following her success on Broadway, Ramírez joined the cast of Grey's Anatomy in a recurring role as Dr. Calliope 'Callie' Torres in the show's second season. For the third season she became a series regular. On a special Grey's Anatomy-themed episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, she revealed that top executives from ABC loved her performance in Spamalot so much that they offered her a role in any ABC show she wanted. She picked Grey's, of which she was a fan.^[2] While Ramírez has never performed a musical number on the show, she did provide a cappella vocals in the song "Silent Night" for the soundtrack of the show's sixth season episode "Holidaze," airing November 19, 2009. On December 21, 2009, this version of the song was released as a single on iTunes. Her first solo release is an extended play scheduled for a March 27, 2011 release through the iTunes Store. It will reportedly include three original songs, as well as a recording of a song scheduled to be performed on Grey's Anatomy.^[3]

And while it may be silly, I think granddaughter Isabella Carolina Zumaya may grow up to look something like Sara Ramirez. Who knows, maybe she'll be as talented. I have high hopes.

There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder

2011-03-22T00:16:00.000-07:00

Politics is so awful these days, it's hard to know where to start. My supply of outrage seems to have limits, sadly.

Oh, and the Republican Party has no one working in it that is sane, and wants a better America. Sorry, R friends, you may be decent people, but your party has become traitors and loons.

On a happier note, here's a perfect pop song, too often overlooked:

A little people magic if you will

2011-03-17T01:18:00.001-07:00

That line makes me mindful of the good folks in Wisconsin, fighting a corrupt dishonest felonious governor and state Senate.

Meantime some fun, artful, no-holds-barred rock'n'roll with the lyric in its original context:

And how special was Freddie? Talent that can't be taught, only perfected. Thank you for being you. RIP.

I cried a river over you

2011-03-13T03:05:00.000-07:00

Perfect music, performed perfectly:

Guitar: Barney Kessel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Kessel

Bass: Chuck Domanico: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Domanico

Julie London:

I Feel Fine

2011-03-12T01:37:00.000-08:00

Dear nuclear power supporters: Please buy an airline ticket to Japan and camp out near the Fukushima reactor. Unless you're willing to do that, fuck you.

Update:

Reactors at two Japanese power plants can no longer cool radioactive substances, a government official said Saturday, adding that a small leak had been detected at one of the facilities.

Atomic material has seeped out of one of the Fukushima Daiichi plant's five nuclear reactors, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) north of Tokyo, said Kazuo Kodama, a spokesman for Japan's nuclear regulatory agency.

Potentially dangerous problems in cooling radioactive material appear to have cropped up there, as well as at another of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. nuclear plants, Ichiro Fujisaki, Japan's ambassador to the United States, confirmed to CNN.
The Fukushima Daini and Fukushima Daiichi power plants are separate facilities located in different towns in northeastern Japan's Fukushima prefecture. Each one has its own set of individual nuclear reactors.

Kodama said the cooling system had failed at three of the four such units of the Daini plant.

Temperatures of the coolant water in that plant's reactors soared to above 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit), Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported, an indication that the cooling system wasn't working.

Authorities subsequently ordered residents within 3 kilometers of that facility to evacuate as "a precaution," Fujisaki said. That plant was also added to the Japanese nuclear agency's emergency list, along with the Daiichi plant.

This is exactly why I don't support nuclear power anytime soon for the US:

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is trying to confirm a report that an explosion occurred at a nuclear power station in quake-hit Fukushima Prefecture.

The agency said on Saturday that a person at the Fukushima Number One nuclear station reported that an explosion was heard and smoke was seen near one of the reactors at around 4PM.

The power station operator Tokyo Electric Power Company told the agency that 4 people were injured.

Video of the reactor in question shows the outer wall of the building that houses the reactor has disappeared.

Prefectural authorities say the power company informed them that the ceiling of the building collapsed after an explosion.

Tokyo Electric Power had been releasing air from the container of the reactor to lower pressure.

Pressure inside the container had been rising after the reactor's cooling system broke down due to power failure.

Radioactive substances have been detected near the reactor.

Indeed.

Of course, the Republican idiots running congress are on top of it:

Back in February 2009, Republicans found a lot of risible spending in the stimulus bill. In his response to the State of the Union, Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., derided the stimulus for including "$140 million for something called volcano monitoring." The gripe was mostly that the funding, mostly for U.S. Geological Survey upkeep, wasn't stimulative. (This is a pretty good argument.) But Democrats honed in on that comment to decide that Republicans were going to try to cut funding for natural disaster monitoring.
This isn't wrong. The continuing resolution passed by the GOP House, the one that just failed in the Senate, reduces funding for the federal agencies that monitor and react to disasters.

But wait, there's more:

The GOP budget plan that passed through the House last month aimed to cut funding for a tsunami warning center that issued a slew of warnings around Japan's devastating earthquake.

Complete Coverage: Earthquake in Japan

The budget, which proposed about $60 billion in budget cuts, would slash funding for the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That would potentially cripple the effectiveness of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, which issued a series of warnings over the past several days regarding the situation in Japan, where an 8.9 magnitude earthquake triggered a massive tsunami along the nation's east coast. (The PTWC is a part of the National Weather Service, which falls under the umbrella of NOAA - the organization responsible for providing tsunami warnings in the U.S.)

The Republican's proposed "continuing resolution" to fund the government, which was defeated in the Senate this week, aimed to cut $1.2 billion - or 21 percent - of President Obama's proposed budget for NOAA, ClimateProgress.org reports.

Bastards. Delusional ignorant ideology-above-all-else motherfucking bastards.

Now don't you wait or hesitate

2011-02-19T00:14:00.000-08:00

Who is the best male Rock'n'Roll singer working today? Probably a stupid question; there are many fine ones.

But I think a case can be made for this guy:

R.I.P. Gary Moore

2011-02-06T12:10:00.000-08:00

Sad news in the guitar-playing world today:

Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore found dead in hotel room

Rock guitarist and former Thin Lizzy star Gary Moore has died in Spain.

The 58-year-old, originally from Belfast, was found dead in a hotel room on the Costa del Sol.

Thin Lizzy founding member Brian Downey paid tribute to his friend.

"I am in total shock," he said. "He will always be in my thoughts and prayers and I just can't believe he is gone."

Moore had a successful solo career but it was for his time in Thin Lizzy that he will be best remembered.

He joined the band in 1973 after the sudden departure of guitarist Eric Bell but only played with them for four months.

Four years later he returned and went on to play on the band's Black Rose album.

Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham said it been a pleasure to share a stage with him.

"Playing with Gary during the Black Rose era was a great experience, he was a great player and a great guy," he said.

"I will miss him."

Niles Stokes, editor of Hot Press music magazine, had known Moore for almost 50 years. He said: "He was a phenomenally good guitarist after starting in the music industry at the age of about 15. Not only did he have success with Thin Lizzie but he had a successful solo career. His contribution to the Irish rock cannon was immense."

Thin Lizzy's frontman Phil Lynnot died in 1986.

The band reformed at various times since then and continue to tour today.

Moore played with some of his former bandmates in 2006.

Repost, from 3.9.07

In music, as in all arts, there are those who innovate (think Picasso), and those who "kick it up a notch".

Gary Moore wasn't the first guy to strap on a Les Paul and plug it into a Marshall, but he injected something special into that equipment combination. From wikipedia:

Gary Moore (born Robert William Gary Moore, 4 April 1952, in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a guitarist. In a career dating back to the 1960s he has played with bands/artists including Thin Lizzy, Colosseum II, Greg Lake and blues-rock band Skid Row as well as having a successful solo career.

Moore started performing at a young age, having picked up a battered acoustic guitar at the age of eight, and got his first quality guitar at the age of fourteen, learning to play the right-handed instrument in the standard way despite being left handed. His career has lasted over thirty years.

Gary Moore now appears as a regular radio host every Sunday and Monday on 'Planet Rock' radio. His show is entitled 'Blues Power' and plays many classic blues tracks, as well as some of Moore's own tracks.

Gary added an element of . . . I guess, precision to the rock lexicon. He rocked as hard as all the acolytes of Clapton, Beck, & Buddy Guy from the '60s, but was somehow smoother and more polished. The level of virtuosity was raised, without sacrificing any of the "soul".

Here's a video of Gary during his Thin Lizzy days:

And here he is with Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott doing the overblown yet delicious "Parisienne Walkways" live:

And finally, here's Gary more recently, in '04, paying homage to Jimi with "Red House", with bassist extraordinaire Pino Pallidino:

And best quote ever from YouTube comments:

Shit, if I could play like that, I'd have my head shaved, my balls out, be drunk all the time and wear rabbit slippers and I'm pretty sure people wouldn't notice!

Indeed.

Gotta Lovett

2011-01-31T01:47:00.000-08:00

If You Were to Wake Up:

Don't Want To Be An American Idiot

2011-01-27T00:17:00.000-08:00

My friend Mark Kleiman is a smart guy and a fantastic blogger. His take on the SOTU speech is so good that I've included this whole post:

Sometimes your opponents can see what you’re doing more clearly than your friends can. Some progressives were put off by the rather Reaganesque rhetoric of the State of the Union address, but Mark Thiessen of AEI recognized it for what it was: an attempt to harness “American exceptionalism” to pull the plough of activist government. When Wes Clark tried the same thing either Andy Sabl or I called it “the liberalism of national greatness.” I thought it was a winner then, and I think it’s a winner now.

And – contrary to the more conventional Reaganite rhetoric – Obama’s message is fully consistent with one strand of the Founding. One of the striking features of The Audacity of Hope was Obama’s identification with the thought of Hamilton, carried into the second generation as Henry Clay’s American Plan. From the Louisian Purchase, the Erie Canal, and the transcontinental railroad to land-grant colleges, homesteading, rural electrification, the GI Bill, interstate highways, and the Internet, the Federal government has again and again been the agent of crucial economic innovation. The Springfield Armory was turning out mass-produced rifles when Henry Ford was still in diapers.

Of course the feds have also sponsored boondoggles from manned spaceflight and coal gasification to the Bureau of Reclamation, the Army Corps of Engineers, and corn ethanol. If you take risks, you sometimes fail, and if you make stupid decisions under political pressure you’re that much more likely to fail. But the notion that the gummint ought to keep its nose out of the economy – or, for that matter, that a monopoly granted by a patent is somehow not a governmental intervention in the market – accords with neither logic nor history.

Indeed. Thiessen is usually awful, as are most at the American Enterprise Institute, and tries to spin his conclusion in a predictable right-wing manner. But Kleiman gets it exactly right, IMHO.

But I always thought that I'd see you again

2011-01-24T14:36:00.000-08:00

So there's this girl I met in 7th grade and we went to the movies and stuff, and dated and fought, and stuff. And I saw her again a few years later and we dated and fought and stuff. And we lived together, and dated, and fought and stuff.

In between times she and I moved a thousand miles apart, she got married, I got tours, she got un-married and I got her. And we dated and lived together and stuff, and fought.

Over the years I proposed to her twice. Years apart. She was right to turn me down, I ain't, or at least wasn't, husband material. Smart girl, smart woman. I probably broke her heart more than she broke mine, but I never forgot about her. Years later, when I lived 3 thousand miles away I heard she got married again and moved a thousand miles away.

In the last few years I've been trying to contact her, mainly just to apologize for being a jerk, but kinda maybe hoping somehow in the back of mind that maybe she was un-married again. Hell, I even joined FaceBook just in case she ... but it's hard to find your friend on FB if you don't even know her last name.

But then I got a call from a mutual FB friend that she had died 3 years ago in an accident. I called that person a liar. Then I got angry at that person. The Kubler-Ross steps aren't quite as defined as they look in print. But if this a joke, it's a pretty fucking elaborate one to put a headstone in the ground.

Of course I'm handling it in the mature way that I've now grown up in. Fist sized holes in the wall, and "I ain't drunk, I'm just drinkin'" For my friends who are tempted to call me? Please don't, I don't feel like talking. I'm OK, just going thru the shit we all do.

For Debbie, I'm sorry, you deserved better than me for years, I hope you found him. "But I always thought that I'd see you again"

Take my whole life too . . .

2011-01-21T00:47:00.000-08:00

Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, according to William Congreve. But sometimes it's all that keeps me from running screaming over the cliffs like an enraged lemming.

Anyone who knows me or follows this blog knows that musically for me it's all about the melody. And one of the loveliest melodies I know is this song, about which I wrote before: I Can't Help Falling In love With You when I was contributing to Kevin Hayden's American Street. Here's the post:

Certain melodies sound timeless: classical, pop, doesn’t matter. How many of you felt, when you heard “With or Without You” by U2, that you had heard it before . . . it somehow reminded you of something.
What it reminded you of is a classic melody, reworked enough to be different, yet standing on its own as a unique, wonderful song.
Another such melody is “Can’t Help Falling In Love“, first recorded by some guy named Elvis:
“Can’t Help Falling in Love,” by George Weiss, Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, is a pop song based on “Plaisir d’amour” by Jean Paul Egide Martini. It was rewritten for the 1961 film Blue Hawaii, starring Elvis Presley.
I won’t bother posting any videos of Elvis singing it. Like all of his repertoire, toward the end he did it too fast and jivey. But several other artists covered the song, including some unlikely ones.
Pearl Jam recorded the song for a fan club CD, and played it live often. Here’s a live recording of them respectfully covering “Can’t Help Falling in Love”:

Here’s the original version, not a real video, but still…:

And for those who want the most beautiful recording of the precursor, “Plasir d’amour”, here’s the great Greek singer Nana Mouskouri singing her timeless version of the song from her 1976 “Passport” album. Melody is the most important part of music to me. Oh, and this song is from the afore-mentioned Martini’s opera “Annette et Lubin“, written in 1789:

And just for fun, here’s my friend Liona Boyd playing a version of “Plasir…” on the “Super Dave Osborne” show . . . why, I’m not sure:

It swells my heart that people keep finding this wonderful song, and it humbles me that I find older versions that do it justice.

In the first category, here's Ingrid Michaelson:

In the latter category, here's the late Klaus Nomi:

More about that version in a minute.

And to show that younger people still appreciate the beauty of great music, here's the best version I've heard in a long time, by the French group Revolver:

Notice the music at the beginning of the Klaus Nomi performance? It's probably the melody that was the precursor of both the aforementioned songs. One of the finest melodies of all time, its' Beethoven's Pathetique. This music grabs my heart every time I hear it:

If there are rain puddles in Heaven, Christina is jumping in them today.

2011-01-12T21:08:00.000-08:00

Today once again I'm glad Barack Obama is our President.

Psycho Killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est?

2011-01-10T11:04:00.000-08:00

Excerpted via Coalition to Stop Gun Violence:

July 27, 2008—Jim Adkisson shoots and kills two people at a progressive church in Knoxville, Tennessee, wounding two. Adkisson calls it “a symbolic killing” because he really “wanted to kill…every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book,” but was unable to gain access to them.

December 9, 2008—FBI teams investigating the murder of white supremacist James Cumming, 29, a resident of Belfast, Maine, find supplies for a crude radiological dispersal dervice and other explosives in his home. Cumming's wife, who shot him to death after being abused by him repeatedly, explains, "His intentions were to construct a dirty bomb and take it to Washington to kill President Obama. He was planning to hide it in the undercarriage of our moter home."

April 4, 2009—Neo-Nazi Richard Poplawski shoots and kills three police officers responding to a 911 call to his home in Pittsburgh. His friend Edward Perkovic tells reporters that Poplawski feared “the Obama gun ban that’s on its way” and “didn’t like our rights being infringed upon.” Perkovic also commented that Poplawski carried out the shooting because “if anyone tried to take his firearms, he was gonna’ stand by what his forefathers told him to do.”

April 25, 2009—Joshua Cartwright, 28, a member of the Florida National Guard, shoots and kills two Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies attempting to arrest him on a domestic abuse charge. Cartwright is killed in an enusing gun battle with police. Cartwright's wife reports that he was "severely disturbed" that Barack Obama had been elected president. Okaloosa County Sheriff Edward Spooner states that Cartrwight was "interested in militia groups and weapons training."

May 31, 2009—Scott P. Roeder shoots and kills Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider, in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas. The FBI lists Roeder as a member of the Montana Freemen, a radical anti-government group. In April 1996, he had been pulled over in Topeka, Kansas, for driving with a homemade license plate. Police found a military-style rifle, ammunition, a blasting cap, a fuse cord, a one-pound can of gunpowder, and two 9-volt batteries in his car.

February 18, 2010—Joseph Stack of Austin, Texas, flies a single-engine plane into an office building containing nearly 200 IRS employees, killing one and wounding 13. In a suicide note, Stack lays out his grievances with the federal tax agency, stating, "The law 'requires' a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that's not 'duress' than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is ... Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer."

March 4, 2010—John Patrick Bedell, a California resident, travels to Arlington, Virginia, and opens fire on police officers at the entrance to the Pentagon. Bedell is armed with two semiautomatic firearms and "many [ammunition] magazines." Bedell injures two officers before he is killed by return fire. Reports reveals Bedell to be a Truther who believed that the U.S. government had been taken over by a criminal organization in a 1963 coup.

May 20, 2010—Jerry Kane, Jr., 45, and his son Joseph Kane, 16, fatally shoot two Arkansas police officers with AK-47 assault rifles during a routine traffic stop on Interstate 40 in West Memphis. The Kanes are killed during an exchange of gunfire with police in a Walmart parking lot 90 minutes later. Jerry Kane, an Ohio resident and anti-government activist, had a long history with police and had recently spent three days in jail for driving with an expired license plate and no seat belt. Kane considered himself a "sovereign citizen" and ran a business that centered on debt-avoidance scams.

July 18, 2010—California Highway Patrol officers arrest Byron Williams, 45, after a shootout on I-580 in which more than 60 rounds are fired. Officers had pulled Williams over in his pick-up for speeding and weaving in and out of traffic when he opened fire on them with a handgun and a long gun. Williams, a convicted felon, is shot several times, but survives because he is wearing body armor. Williams, a convicted felon, reveals that he was on his way to San Francisco to "start a revolution" by killing employees of the ACLU and Tides Foundation.

July 30, 2010—Camp Hill prison guard Raymond Peake, 64, is charged with robbery and the murder of Todd Getgen. Peake allegedly shot Getgen to death at a local shooting range and stole Getgen's custom, silenced AR-15 rifle. Investigators follow Peake to a storage unit when they find three firearms: Getgen's AR-15 rifle, a scoped Remington rifle that had been reported stolen from the range in May, and a second AR-15 rifle. Thomas Tuso is also arrested and charged with conspiracy, receiving stolen property and other crimes. Peake tells police that he and Tuso had been stealing guns "for the purpose of overthrowing the federal government."

August 17, 2010—Patrick Gray Sharp, 29, opens fire on the Department of Public Safety in McKinney, Texas, and unsuccessfully attempts to ignite gasoline and ammonium nitrate in a trailer hitched to his truck. Sharp is armed with an assault rifle, a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, and a 12-gauge shotgun. He is killed after an exchange of gunfire with police arriving on the scene. Miraculously, no one else is hurt. Sharp's roommate, Eric McClellan describes him as "a great guy" and states, "We're Texans. We have a right to bear arms."

January 8, 2011—Jared Lee Loughner, 22, shoots U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 19 others at a "Congress in Your Corner" event at a Safeway supermarket in Tuscon, Arizona. He kills six, including federal judge John Roll, and wounds 14, including Giffords, who is shot in the head. Loughner has an extensive history of mental illness and substance abuse, yet is able to purchase two handguns and a high-capacity ammunition magazine legally at Sportsman's Warehouse on November 30, 2010. In a YouTube video posted in December 2010, Loughner states, "You don’t have to accept the federalist laws ... Nonetheless, read the United States of America’s Constitution to apprehend all of the current treasonous laws."

These are just the incidents where someone died. I guess they could all be just lone wackos, but their speech and writing have an awful lot in common with that broadcast by Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Ruch Limbaugh and Michael Savage to name a few.

It's also very similar to that by Republican candidates and office holders.

March 21-22, 2009—Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) states that she wants residents of her state to be “armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people—we the people—are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country.”

July 15, 2009—Katherine Crabill, a Republican candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates in the state’s 99th District makes headlines by calling on Americans to resist the course President Obama has set for the country. Appearing at a “Tea Party” rally, Crabill quotes a 1775 speech by Patrick Henry and then states, “We have a chance to fight this battle at the ballot box before we have to resort to the bullet box. But that's the beauty of our Second Amendment right.

September 28, 2009—Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), the Chairman of the Second Amendment Task Force in the U.S. House of Representatives, calls House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “domestic enemy of the Constitution” at a health care reform town hall meeting.

May 30, 2010—Sharron Angle, a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator in Nevada, tells the Reno Gazette-Journal that a recent increase in gun sales nationwide "tells me that the nation is arming. What are they arming for if it isn't that they are so distrustful of government? They're afraid they'll have to fight for their liberty in more Second Amendment kinds of ways.

October 21, 2010—Pastor Stephen Broden, the Republican candidate for U.S. Representative in Texas' 30th Congressional District, tells WFAA-TV in Dallas that the violent overthrow of the government is an "option" that remains "on the table."

November 9, 2010—U.S. Representative-Elect Allen West of Florida's 22nd Congressional District hires conservative radio talk show host Joyce Kaufman as his Chief of Staff. On July 3, Kaufman told a crowd of Tea Party supporters, “I am convinced that the most important thing the Founding Fathers did to ensure me my First Amendments rights was they gave me a Second Amendment. And if ballots don’t work, bullets will."

November 29, 2010—U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, circulates a PowerPoint presentation to his colleagues in which he compares the Obama administration to the Nazi regime in Germany and likens himself to Gen. George Patton, bragging, "Put anything in my scope and I will shoot it."

June 12,2010-Jesse Kelly, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opponent wrote "Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly"

I'll ignore Sarah Palin, as everyone should, but this is not an isolated incidence, it is a trend.

Do I think such speech should be illegal? No.

But if a high school student had put cross hairs on their opponents and continually wrote about revolution and 2nd Amendment solutions, they'd be arrested. If an American Muslim had done it they'd be in GITMO, if they weren't targeted for death first. If the New Black Panther Party had showed up at political rallies carrying assault rifles, they'd be in prison and have congressional committees saying they should be in GITMO.

So let's please be consistent when we apply the Constitution and the PATRIOT Acts?

Do you know what's worth fighting for?

2011-01-08T23:29:00.000-08:00

Dear 2nd Amendment fetishists, 'concealed carry' advocates, Sarah Palin, and gun nuts in general:

Really? Can we just stop all the macho posturing and fantasizing about how guns help? When was the last time anything decided with a gun ended well?

Yes, I know police, etc., need to be armed. In a civilized society they wouldn't have to be. In England, even today, only specially trained police officers are armed.

I don't know what Jared Loughner's issues are, and I don't really care. That's for psychologists to decode. But I do know to a certainty that had he not had easy access to a gun, 6 people wouldn't have died today.

And please, any commentors that are 'concealed carry' fans. go the fuck away. You would NOT have prevented today's tragedy. All you might have accomplished would have been to kill Loughner, and then we might never know what was wrong with him. I think that will be useful knowledge.

And last, to every person who ever told me they bought a gun for protection, that's bullshit. You bought a gun because you wanted one. And that scares the crap out of me.

Come on baby, eat the rich

2011-01-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

(Most links are provided in footnotes.)
There are death panels, no, not the "death panels" lie Palin & other republicans used, (the 2009 Lie of the Year), but actual death panels. The death panel? It's Jan Brewer. (Donner, party of one? [/snark])

Gov. Jan Brewer has sentenced 100 people in Arizona to die. What was their crime? They were sick and needed a transplant. 2 have already died. The money was already allocated, AZ already was ready to receive 2x as much Fed money as they would have to provide, and reneged. Brewer and her Republican legislature said the state couldn't afford 1.4 million dollars. They were willing to spend that much to save 5 squirrels (I'm not kidding.)

But she still wants the Medicare money from the Federal coffers, (that would be our tax money) even tho she and AZ repubs reneged.

And she's not alone, 33 other republican governors also want our tax dollars to also renege on their duty to their fellow citizens. Somehow these bastards that ran on fiscal responsibility and states rights (like Gov Christie of NJ who was vacationing in Disneyworld during the snowpocalypse) suddenly think the Feds should bail them out.

And right now, the US House of ~~Republicans~~ Representatives, says that their can only be cuts in social services, and not defense, to balance the Fed budget.

Do you need any more proof that these people are trying, and succeeding, to kill us?

The majority of Americans say increase the taxes on the rich to help balance the budget. The majority of Americans don't want health care repealed, they just think it didn't go far enough.

But republicans are ignoring the will of the people.

I have a modest proposal; If you're out of work? If your family is hungry? EAT THE RICH.

link
link
link
link
link

So Tell Me, Who Are You?

2011-01-04T17:16:00.000-08:00

Ohh, a poow wittle NYT columnist got his feewings hurt, again, about us anonymous bloggers. Never mind the fact that the NYT joyfully quotes 'anonymous' sources all the time that lie and lie and lie to them, just so they can have 'access' to people that lie to them? Hmmf!

Anonymity and the Dark Side of the Internet

Read the whole thing if you want, but all you need to know is that Stanley Fish, wrote a book called "There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech and It’s a Good Thing, Too."

Yet somehow he gets the free speech to declare there shouldn't be free speech. Hmmf again, because no one just gives me the right to have a giant megaphone like the NYT, because it's only wittle fwoks who can't afford a GIANT MEGAPHONE.
****************
In related news:
The Queen of Liars, Judith Miller, who helped drive a nation into war with her stenography and lies gets all upset that someone who revealed the truth is getting more press than her:

Reporter behind WMD claims calls Assange ‘bad journalist’

A former [Judith Miller] New York Times reporter assailed for her incorrect reports about Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction is criticizing Julian Assange for being a "bad journalist."
[...]
Miller once defended her reporting with the argument that it is not a journalist's job to verify -- only to report inform readers of what they had been told.

I think that's the definition of a stenographer.

And just for facts sake, Wikileaks has vetted the leaks; when the US MIL and State dept refused to help, they went to the NYT, The Guardian and other papers. It was not a dump of 250,000 US State Dept cables, it's been a very careful release of only 2500 cables ... so far.

Judy, Judy, Judy, has more excuses, but that's a tale for a different day.

[insert The Who footage here]

Fire And Ice

2010-12-29T10:48:00.000-08:00

"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."

Robert Frost

That's about all I have to say about love and politics today. And, as usual, someone else said it first and best.

Another version of Fire And Ice below.

And in our world of plenty, We can spread a smile of joy

2010-12-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

In case you forgot, the reason for this video & charity are still going on. Mean people suck:

The actual video:

Have I the right?

2010-12-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

Whenever some rightie raises the " NPR is a Liberal Network™" theme, I slap my forehead against the desk.

See, here's what happens when a stalwart leftie at NPR meets a right-wing pundit on an NPR show. Bloodshed, you think? Well, sort-of:

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Matthew Franck argued that we need robust, even passionate debate on the issue, but that the charge of hate is not a contribution to argument. It's the recourse of people who would rather not have an argument at all.

Have you used the hate charge in an argument over gay marriage? Have you heard it? Our phone number: 800-989-8255. Email: talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.

Matthew Franck directs the Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Witherspoon Institute. His piece in the Washington Post is titled "In the Gay Marriage Debate, Stop Using the Hate Card." And he joins us now from his office in Princeton.

Who is Matthew Franck? Look at his blog at American Principles Project and you'll see much criticism of the nomination and approval of Sonia Sotomayor, with praise for Sen's Kyl, Coburn, McCain & Hatch for their principled stands against her. You'll see praise for noted conservative media personality Carrie Prejean as a well . . .

And you'll see his blogroll, full of Hot Air, Weekly Standard, World Net Daily, and other right-wing extremists (and occasional liars).

So does 'Lefty' Neil Conan of NPR take off the gloves and give Franck a thorough bashing:

CONAN: A lot of the debate is framed in terms of the - well, you mentioned the Southern Poverty Law Center, a once-respected civil rights organization. It is framed in the same kind of terminology as the civil rights arguments - that gay men and lesbians want the same rights as other people, and that those opposing it are opposing their right.

Mr. FRANCK: Mm-hmm. So the argument is made. I don't agree with that argument. I'm not persuaded by it, and I think most Americans are not. There's frequently an effort to analogize the situation of gay couples to the situation of interracial couples 45 years ago. As everyone should know and this is history...

CONAN: Before the Loving decision...

Mr. FRANCK: ...you know, there were anti-miscegenation laws that forbade blacks and whites from marrying. Those laws, of course, prevented opposite-sex couples from coming together in marital unions that everyone recognized would actually be marital unions if they were permitted to form them. In other words, people universally understood to be capable of marrying one another were prevented from marrying one another by an intrusion and intervention of the state into their freedom to marry.

The situation is rather different with same-sex couples, who have never been permitted to marry under any understanding of the laws of marriage -common law, statutory law - in any country, until quite recently.

And in order to fold them into the institution of marriage, we don't merely have to remove an obstacle to their marriage. We have to redefine what marriage is. And that's where, I think, the debate needs to be. What is marriage? And what do we take it to be? And what change are we undertaking if we extend it to gay couples? My argument, and the argument of many marriage advocates - traditional marriage advocates - is that the extension of marriage to gay couples is not an expansion of the institution but an inversion of it, and a dismantling of it.

. . .

CONAN: ...we want to give some other people a chance. But thanks very much for the phone call.

We're talking with Matthew Franck. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News.

And here's an email from Kathleen in Cape Cod: The discussion is absurd. Of course, there are hate groups. What in the world do you call an organization that exists for the sole purpose of fighting a minority group's civil rights? Who, calling for the jailing of gay people simply for being gay, like the National Organization for Marriage board member Mr. Card does, or who demonize gay people with rhetoric that compares us to child molesters, or makes insane claims that the Nazi SS was made up of gay people. The hate card is being played. Here is hatred of gay people.

And I think - well, you might disagree with some of the particulars there, Matthew Franck. Hate is being played on both sides. I think that's accurate.

Mr. FRANCK: Yes. The difference, I think, is this: that on the side of the defenders of marriage, there are no mainstream marriage advocacy organizations that are engaging in hate speech or propagating falsehoods or myths about gay people. I just - it's not happening.

On the other side, there is, I think - on the other hand - a kind of mainstreaming of the strategy to anathematize, which is what I described in my article.

CONAN: Among those you describe as part of the strategy is the judge in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, currently pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Judge Vaughn Walker held that California's Proposition 8 enacted without reason a private moral view about the nature of marriage that cannot properly be embodied in public policy.

Mr. FRANCK: Right, exactly right. And that brings us back to what I think is a key to a lot of what's going on. In the courts, a key legal question is: Is there a rational basis for a policy? If there is not a rational basis, then it cannot be upheld on equal protection or perhaps due process grounds. And so I think the full-court press we see in the culture has a kind of judicial parallel. The idea is if you can propagate the idea that defenders of gay marriage have no rational basis for defending marriage, as it has always been known in every human civilization, as the union of men and women, for - chiefly - for procreative ends, but if you can say that there's no rational basis for that, then you achieve a great strategic goal in the courts of law, which is to have judges hold that no rational basis exists for such distinctions in the law and therefore, laws like Prop 8 have to fall.

But if you can see that there's no rational basis for that, then you achieve a great strategic goal in the courts of law, which is to have judges hold that no rational basis exists for such distinctions in the law and therefore laws like Prop 8 have to fall.

CONAN: And we will see what the 9th Circuit decides - and I suspect, eventually, the Supreme Court. Matthew Franck, thank you very much for your time today.

The paragraph I bolded is the main straw man in this whole argument: That the mean gay-lovers are being mean to us non-mean gay haterz. Jeebus!

In Franck's rambling op-ed in the WaPo that led to the NPR piece above, he shows a prejudice and lack of awareness that's pretty stunning:

What's going on here? Clearly a determined effort is afoot, in cultural bastions controlled by the left, to anathematize traditional views of sexual morality, particularly opposition to same-sex marriage, as the expression of "hate" that cannot be tolerated in a decent civil society. The argument over same-sex marriage must be brought to an end, and the debate considered settled. Defenders of traditional marriage must be likened to racists, as purveyors of irrational fear and loathing. Opposition to same-sex marriage must be treated just like support for now long-gone anti-miscegenation laws.

While many "defenders of traditional marriage" are decent people with good intentions, so were many of the "defenders of traditional marriage" that fought against Loving v. Virginia, where inter-racial marriage was made a Constitutional civil right. To claim no similarity between these situations is delusional.

The best retort came in a letter to the editor criticizing Frank by a WaPo reader:

Matthew J. Franck's Dec. 19 Outlook commentary, "On gay marriage, stop playing the hate card," was an extended fallacy. Mr. Franck defended intolerance by arguing that the tolerant should not be intolerant of the intolerant, because intolerance is wrong. He is confused.

He moved on to the fallacy that bigotry against homosexuals is not irrational. He said the function of marriage is to produce children. So the infertile and those past menopause should not get married? He said same-sex marriage dismantles the institution of marriage. His conclusion was used as an argument for his conclusion. Mr. Franck succeeded only in proving that bigotry against homosexuals really is irrational.

Finally, Mr. Franck concluded the piece with an especially obnoxious fallacy: In the interest of robust debate, bigotry should be exempt from criticism, because criticism is a conversation stopper. Bigotry merits no such privilege.

Indeed.

So did liberal NPR spokesman Conan engage in debate and argument with Franck? Nope. Instead he was played as a sucker by a well spoken schoolyard bully. A mention of the SPLC position merely served up a softball for Franck to hit out of the yard in service to his prejudice. Yet I'm betting Franck got off the phone and complained to colleagues about his rough treatment.

Idiot.

Adeste Fidelis

2010-12-23T23:04:00.000-08:00

I've heard it said that the unchanged male voice is the most beautiful. I'm not sure I completely agree, but this presents strong evidence to support that contention.

Vienna Boys Choir, "Adeste Fidelis":

Ahh Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in, Are you aware the shape I’m in?

2010-12-23T21:32:00.000-08:00

My friend and co-blogger on the other site is packing her bags, loading up the dog, hauling the kid, and joining her Doctor on a move to America's arch. God speed, Joan Glenn!

Happy we'll be beyond the sea

2010-12-16T01:55:00.001-08:00

Perfect music, performed perfectly.

People, this can't be taught, only nurtured.

Here's where the song came from. Bobby's version had different lyrics, telling a different story. But as always, it's the melody that matters:

Living in the love of the common people, smile's from the heart of a family man.

2010-12-15T01:40:00.000-08:00

Perfect music, performed perfectly:

Have Yourself a Merry . . .

2010-12-10T23:17:00.001-08:00

Non-guitarists may not appreciate the artistry of this guy. Only one I ever heard who might do this stuff better might have been George vanEps. And no, Lenny Breau's style isn't like Ted's so on can't really compare except to say they were both wonderful players who we lost too soon.

It gets off to a slow start, and he changes guitars before he starts, but wait, it's worthwhile. And stay for the bonus bit and lesson at the end.

Ah! Ah! beautiful is the Mother! Ah! Ah! beautiful is her child

2010-12-10T23:08:00.000-08:00

Christmas music on a harp-guitar. This guy is really good:

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

2010-12-10T22:35:00.000-08:00

Certain songs, pieces of music, have been perfected and never, ever, should be recorded again.

This is one:

But then again, you might like Miley Cyrus's version.

If so, I pity you.

Hark, the herald angels 'n' stuff

2010-12-10T22:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a repost from 12/23/06, with some additions:

Here's some pre-Christmas music goodness from The Roches. In case anyone wasn't sure, Handel rocks:

Here's more Christmas goodies from the girls:

And the 2 best alternative Christmas albums ever? In my authoritative opinion:

The Roches: We Three Kings

Barenaked Ladies: Barenaked for the Holidays

Here's a sample of the Ladies' men:

Of course, YMMV. But I'm right, I'm just saying...

You make me feel like dancing!

2010-12-10T15:48:00.000-08:00

My youngest brother has had a brain tumor growing in his head since he got treated for leukemia when he was 9.

At the time it was an experimental treatment, and involved chemo and radiation, massive doses of each.

All those pictures of skinny little bald kids and such that you've seen on TV? Yeah, that was him. But he survived and has been in remission for 40+ years.

But survival doesn't come without a cost. He had a seizure a few weeks ago. The local hospital he was ambulanced to knew they were unable to deal with it and ambulanced him to a hospital that had the facilities to diagnose what was going on. Massive BENIGN brain tumor.

He was in brain surgery for 14 hours. He was in ICU for days, the dainbramaged [sic] ward for weeks, a rehab facility for more weeks, but Monday he gets to come home for more rehab, but at least he's home (well, not exactly home, it's a friend's house. A competent friend who can do more for him than I/we can.)

He's had problems as an adult, and he and I have been estranged for years. But maybe that damn thing in his head was part of that. Even if we're not as close as we were at one time, I think he's going to be better than he has been for years.

It makes me feel like dancing.

You may say I'm a dreamer

2010-12-08T00:44:00.000-08:00

No better liberal ever lived. Even after her husband squandered his good will and good ideas, she stayed relevant and dignified.

Bon Voyage, Elizabeth.

And to honor Elizabeth, John Lennon (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) offers Imagine:

Walking down the Line

2010-12-08T00:24:00.000-08:00

Need any additional proof that the Republican congresspeople are hypocrites and liars?

The deal Obama and Republicans have struck also includes a one-year cut in payroll taxes, from 6.2% to 4.2%. The tax is applied to a worker's first $106,800 of wages. If implemented, it would mean that someone earning $50,000 a year would pay $1,000 less in Social Security contributions next year. Someone earning $100,000 would pay $2,000 less. The payroll tax rate would go back up to 6.2% in 2012.

The estate tax -- currently scheduled to return in 2011 to a top rate of 55% along with a $1 million exemption -- would instead come back with a lower top rate of 35% along with a $5 million exemption.

Agreeing to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans represented a major concession for Obama. In a concession to Democrats, Republican negotiators agreed to leave in place for 13 months the option to file for extended federal unemployment benefits. That will not, however, affect how long someone can collect unemployment benefits -- the maximum will remain 99 weeks in states hardest hit by job loss.
. . .

Extending the Bush-era tax cuts for two years would cost $458 billion, the Treasury Department has estimated -- $383 billion for lower and middle income Americans plus $75 billion for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making $250,000 or more. The White House has estimated that lowering the payroll tax would cost $120 billion. Extending unemployment benefits for 13 months comes with a $62 billion price tag, according to CNN estimates.

Lowering the top estate tax rate to 35% -- combined with the $5 million exemption -- costs $88 billion over two years, according to the Tax Policy Center.

To make this clear, the continued tax cuts for everyone raises the deficit. And additional unemployment and stimulative tax credits raises the deficit.

So after all the sturm und drang about fiscal responsibility, the R's go along with the program because it keeps taxes lower on their base. Only reason, to pander to the wealthy.

Tea-party folks, here's what's coming down the line: Republican interests are always aligned with the wealthy.

Not you.

So I sing a song of love for Julian

2010-12-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

PayPal Cuts WikiLeaks from Money Flow [They didn't just cut the account, they confiscated the money. Fuck PayPal/eBay.]

Calls from Joe Lieberman help force Amazon and EveryDNS to dump Wikileaks [Fuck Amazon/EveryDNS & Joe LIEberman.
My cyber shopping list is getting shorter by the minute.]

Swiss bank freezes WikiLeaks founder's legal defense fund [Oh sure, they'll help American scofflaws evade taxes, and help Nazi's confiscate Jews' money, but here they draw the line.]

Federal employees warned away from Wikileaks

Students warned: Read WikiLeaks and you're out of a government job [And it's the Universities that are telling them this. In the latest new, the US also claims to have a method of removing pee from a swimming pool.]

Assange an ‘enemy combatant’ but fault is Obama’s [sez newt Gingrich, that moral paragon.]

"Why was [Assange] not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?" - Sarah Falin [Umm, where IS OBL?]

GOP leader Mitch McConnell calls WikiLeaks founder ‘a high-tech terrorist’ [Really!? He doesn't scare me as much as you folks do.]

Julian Assange's lawyers say they are being watched WikiLeaks founder's lawyers also accuse US state department of inappropriate behaviour in not respecting attorney-client protocol [This isn't news, the Feds have been listening in on bedrooms, lawyers and clients, cell phones and all other communications for years, with out any warrants. And that's just the U.S.]

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange says militant supporters of the US military have made death threats against his family in Australia.

Assange threatens to release ‘poison pill’ if arrested or killed [Can you blame him?]

Folks, what we're seeing here is the first shot heard 'round the world of a cyber-war. Black hats and white hats, (I spend way too much time doing cyber-security), are targeting a man and his family.

It's not that simple. You can't stop Al Keda [sic] by killing Osama Bin Ladin. You can't stop WikiLeaks by killing Julian Assange. I've mirrored the site, I've downloaded the insurance file and uploaded it to other sites. I have multiple copies on media. And I'm not the only one.

What you can do is ensure everyone on the globe gets an even break AKA freedom. No starving, no imprisonment without a fair trial, (no inhumane conditions even then), health care for all.

This is the exact opposite from libertarians; they think they're special and they should get to do what ever they want. But since they rode the short bus to school, and philosophy, and economics, I'm just going to ignore them as a parent does to a child having a tantrum.

It's easy if you try.

Now for my musical selections:

Friday random 10

2010-12-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

She's Not There - Zombies
All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
Since I Met You - The Temptations
The Boys are Back - Thin Lizzy
The Way You Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra
The Wreck Of The Old Number 9 - Doc & Merle Watson
Wasn't Born To Follow - The Birds
Oh Sheila - Prince
Bugle Call Rag - Benny Goodman
Asylum - Supertramp

And a bonus video:

And Iran . . .

2010-12-01T00:39:00.000-08:00

A lot has been said about the Wikileaks cable dump. Bill Kristol, the dumbest smart guy on the planet, even said:

Why can't we use our various assets to harass, snatch or neutralize Julian Assange and his collaborators, wherever they are? Why can't we disrupt and destroy WikiLeaks in both cyberspace and physical space, to the extent possible?

Sounds like movie tough guy talk for kill Assange.

Funny though, Kristol also says this:

Yesterday on Fox News, top neocon Bill Kristol broke through all the media noise about WikiLeaks’ release of U.S. diplomatic cables and came up with his top headline: that the U.S. should forget about Middle East peace and attack Iran.

KRISTOL: The world really did not want Iran to get the nuclear weapons and Iran’s neighbors in particular don’t want Iran to get nuclear weapons and they’d like us to act to prevent it.

They’re not worrying about Israeli settlements on the West Bank or the Arab street disliking an attack on Iran. They understand that Iranian nuclear weapons would change the balance of power in the Middle East and call them to go nuclear. It would be an incredible setback for all American efforts to check the spread of radical Islam and terror and further nuclear proliferation in Middle East and around the world. That’s the headline.

Iran is a country with a special relationship with the US that too many too often forget. It didn't start with the hostages in '79. In fact, that, and virtually every gesture made by them toward us stems from this little event that Juan Cole discusses:

It should be remembered that then Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh angered Washington in the early 1950s by nationalizing Iranian petroleum. Eisenhower slapped sanctions on Iran and destroyed its economy. Washington at that time thought Mosaddegh was a pinko, though in fact he was a relatively conservative aristocrat. At the height of the crisis, Mosaddegh wrote a letter to Eisenhower, which was ignored. Ike had the CIA overthrow the elected, parliamentary government of Iran and install the Shah as a megalomaniacal dictator. So the tradition of letter-writing by Iranian leaders at times of tensions with Washington isn’t replete with successes. Of course, the Iranians took revenge for the heavy-handed US interference with their form of government. They made an Islamic Revolution in 1978-79, and more recently elected Ahmadinejad. What Washington wouldn’t do to have that nice Mr. Mosaddegh back.

In-freakin'-deed. That's some modest diplomacy right there.

And now the obligatory Flock of Seagulls Youtube. I worked a show with them in '83, the were charming, funny, a joy to work with. And Mike Score, the dude with "the hair" was the nicest of the bunch.

Why does the sun go on shining . .

2010-11-23T00:19:00.000-08:00

Krugman asks the musical question:

There Will Be Blood

Former Senator Alan Simpson is a Very Serious Person. He must be — after all, President Obama appointed him as co-chairman of a special commission on deficit reduction.
. . .
So here’s what the very serious Mr. Simpson said on Friday: “I can’t wait for the blood bath in April. ... When debt limit time comes, they’re going to look around and say, ‘What in the hell do we do now? We’ve got guys who will not approve the debt limit extension unless we give ’em a piece of meat, real meat,’ ” meaning spending cuts. “And boy, the blood bath will be extraordinary,” he continued.
. . .
Think of Mr. Simpson’s blood lust as one more piece of evidence that our nation is in much worse shape, much closer to a political breakdown, than most people realize.
. . .
The fact is that one of our two great political parties has made it clear that it has no interest in making America governable, unless it’s doing the governing. And that party now controls one house of Congress, which means that the country will not, in fact, be governable without that party’s cooperation — cooperation that won’t be forthcoming.

It’s hard to see how this situation is resolved without a major crisis of some kind. Mr. Simpson may or may not get the blood bath he craves this April, but there will be blood sooner or later. And we can only hope that the nation that emerges from that blood bath is still one we recognize.

Swell.

Context, from Mitch McConnell:

In the latest post-victory peroration by Republican honchos, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, outlined on Thursday morning his vision of the way forward for the GOP before a friendly audience at the conservative Heritage Foundation. To save you some time, here's the five-word synopsis: President Obama's agenda must die.

Loyal opposition? Not so much.

As good as it gets

2010-11-13T00:23:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Shirley Horn:

Only the Lonely

2010-11-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

This blog post by Roger Ebert is one of the finest set of words I've ever come across. I can only excerpt a tiny bit, but please read the whole thing because he, (like us;-), includes lots of salient, beautiful music.

All the lonely people

Lonely people have a natural affinity for the internet. It's always there waiting, patient, flexible, suitable for every mood.
[...]
What do lonely people desire? Companionship. Love. Recognition. Entertainment. Camaraderie. Distraction.

Encouragement. Change. Feedback. Someone once said the fundamental reason we get married is because have a universal human need for a witness. All of these are possibilities. But what all lonely people share is a desire not to be -- or at least not to feel -- alone.

Seriously, read the whole thing, it's a short short story in a blog post. It's a beautiful comment on our human condition.

And the music is great too. He just forgot one song.

You Had The World At Your Fingertips, No One Can Make It Better Than You

2010-11-09T16:12:00.000-08:00

Hey kids, get off my lawn! You too, you sanctimonious bastards who thought you were teaching Dems a lesson by not voting. Have you seen what you've done? Do you really think putting Rethuglicans in charge will help DADT, DOMA, climate change, single payer, SS, MediCare ... etc, etc, etc.

But why not, you know? After all, what have Obama & DemCo done for you lately, I mean aside from these 244 things.

The main failure for most folks was the dismal record of jobs creation, but did you know we went from LOSING jobs under Bush to (finally) gaining jobs under Obama?

Rome wasn't rebuilt in ~~a day~~ 2 years, but it sure as hell can be destroyed in ~~a day~~ 2 years.

Your poll tax and jim crow and greed have got to go

2010-11-09T00:34:00.000-08:00

I've had a little hot-blooded commentary at Facebook lately, with some folks responding to a couple of posts wherein I criticized the right-wing movement in the US and those in the LGBT community who embrace Republicanism, against their own best interests.

It all started here:

LGBT friends: Please don't vote for Republicans. They want to marginalize & discriminate against you. Dem's haven't done enough but Rs? No.

My recently found sister Carolyn took issue as a long time self-identified Republican:

Too bad that is what you think of Republicans. Sounds like you don't allow for independent thinking which even a Republican can do. P.S. This is not a "democracy" but a "republic." Look up the difference.

While she is a lovely & kind person, I suspect her knee-jerk reaction confused the issue. I said "Don't vote for Republicans", which clearly means professional Republican politicians, working in concert with the Republican Party. Clearly there can be "independent thinking" by folks of any political persuasion, but that wasn't my point.

Point was, the R party has done nothing I can think of since Eisenhower left office that would in any way help working people, minorities, the persecuted and downtrodden, or anyone else not in their power elite base.

That's all I meant. Increasing redistribution of wealth upward, decrease of civil rights, increase in national dept, decrease in American manufacturing base, decrease in real wages, massive loss of retirement income for many workers, increase in phony financial instruments designed to move even more money to the upper classes, disregard for safety and priority of active duty military, the list goes on.

That was my point. I stand by it.

Look, I know many on the religious right become seduced by social issues: abortion, gay rights, etc. But folks, wake up, you're being played! While certain right-wing politicians truly are anti-abortion, NO movement will ever be made to overturn Rowe v Wade. If they were serious, they would have done it during the many years Congress was overwhelmingly R. But it's too good a wedge issue to waste by overturning the law, it's better theater to rail against abortion as the great Satan.

So please folks, think about what actually has occurred during Republican administrations and Congresses, and then vote intelligently for what will really help you and America.

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

2010-11-05T01:02:00.000-07:00

Perfect music, performed perfectly

Rockers today: can you compete with this?

Here's a close approximation of the original version:

You've taken my life, so take my soul, That's what you said and I believed it all

2010-10-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

Eight False Things The Public “Knows” Prior To Election Day

There are a number things the public "knows" as we head into the election that are just false. If people elect leaders based on false information, the things those leaders do in office will not be what the public expects or needs.

Here are eight of the biggest myths that are out there:

1) President Obama tripled the deficit.
Reality: Bush's last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama's first budget reduced that to $1.29 trillion.

2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy.
Reality: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the "stimulus" was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been.

3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
Reality: While many people conflate the "stimulus" with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be "non-reviewable by any court or any agency.") The bailouts passed and began before the 2008 election of President Obama.

It continues quite convincingly.

I just voted by absentee ballot, I've done it every year when and since I lived in CA.

I like having the time to look at the candidates and propositions, (they don't always mean what they say or say what they mean), do the research, and decide with the facts in front of me rather than trying to remember everything I'd read under the pressure of being in the booth knowing people are waiting in line for me to make up my mind.

But regardless of what your preferred method is, get out and vote!

You Send Me

2010-10-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

I'd like to offer a post from my other site because he says it better than I can. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Bill Arnett:

WARNING: I will be using racial epithets in writing this post, words that can be hurtful depending on context, but I am doing this to make a point I would find it difficult make otherwise. The reasons for use of these epithets is two-fold: first, to show the cowardice of the two above-mentioned political parties and, second, to show how the demonization of President Obama by any means possible borders on the insane, borrows the epithets of yesteryear, and makes only the most superficial changes in form or application to try to remain free of accusations that they are still naught but bigots, racists, and homophobes who find it easier to slander, insult, brand as evil, and use slightly modified epithets to make the same old Jim Crow thinly veiled threats, denigrate our fellow citizens, make their false projections as to where a candidate stands on issues, and to run yet another "Be afraid, be very afraid…" election, a GOP specialty.

The Con Game: It has been crystal clear that the only way the GOP/Teabaggers can win elections is not based upon legislation they wish to implement to benefit the least of us, restore fiscal sanity, rein in Big Banking, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Corporations, and, in general, do something good for the party.

They are exactly the same scams as the GOP used for self-aggrandizement, the rape and plunder America, conducting illegal wars and bigger and better genocides. They're "clean", WASPs, and they aren't concerned with the fact that the GOP as led by bush/cheney made America the laughingstock of the world, got America rated as the top terrorist threat to the world, bankrupted the country with policies that called for stealing the resources of Iraq when they could have purchased them on the open market, tried to bring back the Nixon axiom that if a president does it, it's not illegal, and they sat and did nothing as our rights were so narrowed as to render many of those rights moot.

The 'code words' regarding racial issues continue to be used in demonizing an opponent that can outthink them any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Lie about any democrats intentions, deny the lie when caught and proven wrong, then go back to telling the same lies to be picked up and magnified by the media until the lie becomes 'common wisdom.'

Think of the things you hear virtually everyday and compare them to the epithets of old which these new code words have replaced.

Image: A dead monkey, shot several times by police, and a comment to the effect that someone else will have to be found to pitch health care because the dead monkey, in every bigot's mind signifies, "The Nigger is dead! The Nigger is dead! Oh, and this is so, so funny because we can display all the naked racial bigotry we want 'cause when them goddamn liberals accuses us of hating niggers we can tell 'em that it's only (snort, snort) a monkey, not our nigger president."

Open calls from GOP and teabaggers to do anything possible to make Obama fail and be a one-term nigger president thrown out onto the trash heap of history, up to and including actually shooting the nigger, and preparing for it by carrying guns to Obama rallies just in case they get a clear shot. Radical churches have openly prayed for Obama to be killed while the GOP and teabaggers openly state they wish to commit treason by assassinating Obama and operating to block every effort he makes to better the country, not because he's wrong necessarily, but because he's not a WASP and is therefore an uppity nigger. (Remember how the MSM went nuts when Obama appeared with the OHIO STATE FLAG behind him, a white flag with an 'O' with a rainbow running through the 'O' and openly breathlessly reported that obviously only a socialist despot would design his very own flag and flout it on national TV. Many faces were awfully red when it was revealed that Obama had nothing to do with the design or display of the Ohio State flag. I believe this marked a turning point for these two pernicious parties as they learned quickly that the nigger and related epithets were not going to be politically palatable with voters.

This is a real dilemma for these two parties. They can only conduct a whisper campaign about how this nigger is 1) not a citizen, 2) a practicing radical Muslim, and 3) a socialist on par with the worst despots in history. These became the new substitutes for 'those in the know' to use instead of the politically incompatible word nigger.

Images: Hitler in white-face or Obama in white face with a Hitler-type mustache. Intent: Tie the nigger to one of the most evil despots of last century and hope the use of the white-face will quell accusations of racism. Wink, wink.

Declare that Obama is not only not a citizen, but a radical Muslim educated in some of the most vile Muslim schools in existence. Oh, boy! This is almost as good as being able to openly call the president a nigger terrorist wanna-be, as the associations they sought to make were that Obama was not American at all, owed his allegiance to the Muslim world, and that every act of his was to undermine our democracy and take over as dictator.

Image: Lacking any genuine proof of any of the vile accusations they have made the rightwing then chooses to use the "Obama as The Joker" posters at rallies, getting the signs shown on TV as often as possible. It's so fucking ridiculous to people with a modicum of commonsense to portray Obama, again in white face, a la Al Jolson in blackface, as being as evil as an entirely fictional character, but it demonstrates again the desperation of the GOP/teabaggers to imply, "No nigger can run a country founded by white christian men and just to prove it we'll put the nigger in white-face to suffer derision and disgust at the thought of Obama being a cartoon bad guy."

Tactic: Smear Obama's wife and children as much as possible. "Oh, horrors! That bitch Michelle wore a sleeveless dress to a state function! Shows you niggers know nothing of maintaining even false pretensions when it comes to State affairs! Not only that, but they allowed, and Michelle physically helped, the kids plant a garden, a fucking garden, on some of the most hallowed ground in America! Only a nigger would so degrade the Whitehouse, but is it still the 'Whitehouse' when niggers move in?" (Actually asked by GOP/teabagger affiliated groups.)

My hunch, my beliefs, about the results to soon be forthcoming from the elections: Teabaggers have assumed an ever greater load of pure bigotry to do some heavy lifting for the GOP. Now the election time grows near and the teabaggers have, they believe, smeared, slimed, and set the stage for a massive turnover favoring them and the GOP.

I see it differently. Saner heads, and yes, there are some, within the GOP recognizes the threat presented by the teabaggers. The two parties will split the vote as sane conservatives realize that even THEY don't want the teabaggers in charge, as the vicious, insidious policies they would pursue (reversing health care, destroying social security, eliminating Medicare, etc.) would not only be detrimental for America but could be the straw that broke the proverbial camels back insofar as Americans finally and forever abandoning a party too mean, ugly, and self-serving to ever effectively lead a nation.

One, but not all, of the reasons I believe this is a recent poll that showed 11% of respondents to the poll thought the teabaggers could solve America's problems while 77% believe that there is no way teabaggers will ever be able to run and solve the problems of government. This means that over half of the existing teabagger party members themselves believe that their party is not going to help America solve any problems.

How the teabaggers and GOP can believe that, combined, they represent salvation for America in the face of statistics like that simply marks them for the fools and simpletons they are. If the teabaggers win two or three seats, drawing votes away from serious GOP candidates, they will never gain a majority in either house. I actually expect that the more people think about the consequences of returning America to the Dark Ages by electing any combination of GOP/teabaggers the more inclined they will be to vote democratic party candidates.

Serious GOP elders running the party already see the handwriting on the wall and have started backing away from the teabaggers, not appearing with teabaggers, not donating money to teabaggers or providing other support, and, now, recognizing that the split vote between the GOP and the teabaggers could likely result in democrats GAINING seats, not losing them.

Well, we'll find out next week, so if you will excuse me please it's time for me to send in my absentee ballot.

I know Bill made several assertions without links, and if you ask in comments we will provide the references. Try me.

Now You're Trying To Trick Me . . .

2010-10-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

If Rand Paul, questionably skilled ophthalmologist & narcissist, kidnapper & pervert, had been campaigning in Japan, he would have committed ritual suicide by now. Sadly, he's running for U.S. Senate, so that option is off the table.

If he had the decency of a rattlesnake, he would have at least suspended his campaign, or even quit in shame after this took place at tonight's Paul/Conway debate:

And to the prick that commented on YouTube that this was likely a MoveOn.org staged event and the woman was likely faking, MoveOn.org doesn't do staged drama, unlike Tea Party darling James O'Keefe. So you're either really stupid, or just cruel. Either way, fuck off and die, please.

Contrary to Dr. Paul's assertion, the Tea Party will make you free. Well, this is real Free:

Where's this place called Lonely Street?

2010-10-23T02:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry to readers and co-bloggers for the lack of posts lately. I blame work/ambivalence/'n shit.

Meanwhile, as an antidote to the awfulness that is politics today, here is some perfect music:

Burning down the house

2010-10-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

Ya know how you keep hearing about the foreclosure crisis and how it's caused by the poor deadbeats getting loans and stuff, and if Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae hadn't been involved everything would be OK, because them poor deadbeats just made a deal with EYES WIDE OPEN.

Yeah, not so much. The research shows that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loans weren't the problem.

The problem was, and is, the banksters. Read on:

Beyond Bogus – Docx Assignment of Mortgage – Bogus Assignee for Intervening Asmts

Amid mountain of paperwork, shortcuts and forgeries mar foreclosure process

Robo-signers: Mortgage experience not necessary

Witness: Foreclosure firm owner gave gifts for altering documents

Mortgage foreclosure uproar sweeps up Northeast Ohioans

Dart Halting Evictions for Second Time in Two Years
Sheriff says he wants proof from lenders that evictions are legitimate, legal

I don't know how one buys a house without title insurance. Abstract of Title is a big industry.

So who's on the hook for all this fraud and deception?

I think that if a person/institution can't prove they own YOUR house they can't foreclose on it. That's just logical. It hasn't stopped them, but somebody should.

Now for your brain bleach:

Imaginary Lovers Numbers Never Disagree

2010-10-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

Benoit Mandelbrot died October 14th 2010. Maybe you've heard of him, maybe not, but he had an incredible force on my life and all our lives.

After reading about his research and chaos theory I was inspired 25 years ago to learn math again. Because math suddenly made sense in the real world. One simple equation, applied over and over to the results of the previous equation, are how simple things grow complicated. Back then I had to go the library, search thru bookstores, to find text books and just do the math. All the math I had learned in school was linear. His non-linear math was, to me, the secret of the universe. It was time well spent.

Mmm, fractals, they're sexy!

What's not to like, imaginary numbers that aren't imaginary but coordinate systems that can be depicted visually. And the sheer beauty of the images! And realizing that it describes everything from snowflakes, rivers and streams, leafs and trees, blood vessels and capillaries, and solar systems to galaxies.

Just like DNA with a small number of components (ACGT) that consists of all life on our planet, this, THIS is how the universe works!

E=mc² seems simple, DNA sequences ACGT seems simple, zn+1 = zn2 seems simple. We know our world is complicated, but it's also simple. It's unpredictable, it contains things that can kill us while observing the beauty, it's unpredictable, but only within ranges.

Please don't upset the ranges.

Solomon Burke

2010-10-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

Legendary soul and R&B vocalist Solomon Burke passed away Sunday at age 70, while en route to a performance in Amsterdam.

Burke was born in Philadelphia in 1940, in a room over a church founded by his grandmother; allegedly, she had foreseen Burke's birth in a dream. The church would be a key influence throughout his career. The day he was born, he was ordained a bishop, and by age 7 he was preaching sermons. At age 12 he had a radio ministry on Philadelphia station WHAT, and in his teens Burke made his first gospel recordings. He toured the East Coast as a gospel performer, but the crooked dealings that were standard practice in the music industry in the 50's soured him from becoming a full-time professional, and he returned to Philadelphia to study embalming.

Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records noted Burke's gospel recordings, though, and in 1960 invited the singer to New York to cut some R&B sides. According to Burke, Wexler was frustrated by his insistence that he was not a R&B singer, and his penchant for sermonizing while singing. Wexler hit upon the idea of giving Burke country-and-western songs to sing - a novel idea for a black artist in 1960 - yet became irritated as Burke brought his preaching style to the C&W material as well. Eventually, Ahmet Ertegun basically told Wexler to leave the young vocalist alone to do his thing. From those sessions, "Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)", which had been a hit for Patsy Cline, became Solomon Burke's first R&B hit.

Burke would continue to work with Wexler and Bert Berns through most of the 60's, and they would produce a substantial run of hits. He had a rich voice that could give a warm and tender flavor to ballads, and an impeccable sense of swing that propelled up-tempo numbers like "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" and "Got To Get You Off My Mind", two of his biggest hits. Burke's recordings continued to retain the flavor of the church, and the sermons that had frustrated Wexler turned into lengthy intros to his songs. A large, imposing man, Burke dominated the stage with his presence, and was dubbed "King Solomon" by his fans. He played his regal persona to the hilt, arriving on stage in velvet robes, a scepter, and a crown, preceded by midgets who scattered rose petals across the stage. Burke's charisma and talent made him one of the 60's most popular soul performers. He was not as well known with white audiences, although The Rolling Stones covered "Cry To Me" and "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" during their early days. Top 40 programmers likely thought that Burke's music carried too many traces of gospel for AM radio consumption; his biggest pop hit, "Got To Get You Off My Mind", only reached #22 in the Billboard charts.

Burke left Atlantic in 1968 to record for a series of smaller labels, and although continuing to be an active performer on the R&B circuit, his star slowly faded as the 70's progressed. He also kept busy in a number of other activities, maintaining his presence in the ministry and owning a Los Angeles funeral parlor. His music's legacy would spread to Hollywood in the 80's - "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" was featured in The Blues Brothers, and Patrick Swayze sang "Cry To Me" in a scene of Dirty Dancing.

During the last decade, Burke enjoyed a musical comeback. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2001, and the next year won his only Grammy for his album Don't Give Up On Me. He maintained an active touring schedule, and his performances were as grandiose as ever. With his weight having ballooned to 500 pounds, Burke now sang while seated in a throne. In 2006, he returned to country music with Nashville, featuring performances with Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch and Patty Loveless. Remaining active to the end, he was on his way to The Netherlands for a show with De Dijk when he passed away. Solomon Burke is survived by 21 children and 90 grandchildren.

And there ain't nothing I can do about it

2010-10-11T00:25:00.000-07:00

Long ago, in a galaxy far far away, the kid with the mustache playing keyboard above was me.

Today, I spent the afternoon with the lead singer (green jacket, red guitar: Dave Kellstrand) and the drummer (Hal Davis). The last time the 3 of us were all together was probably in '69, so I'd say the visit was long overdue. We were all great friends, but we just drifted due to family moves and the vagaries of normal life. But we had a fine time today, comparing memories and thoughts about our misspent youth. And music. Because at the end of the day, it's all about the music.

Interestingly, we know where the tall bass player (Jon Rooff) is, and we think we've located the guy playing the purple teardrop-shaped guitar (Mathew 'Mike' Peters).

We were what was called a cover band, but we were fairly unconventional. We played not just the current radio hits, but some fairly ambitious not-so-popular rock too. For example, we played 5 songs off the 1st Buffalo Springfield album, not just the radio singles. But we also did a couple of Vanilla Fudge tunes, songs I never heard another band attempt to cover.

Were we any good? I think so, audiences seemed to like us, and we played a lot during '67-'68. We even did our own Fudge-esque versions of a couple of songs. Toward the end of our existence, we even did one original song that I wrote call "Don't Turn Out The Light", that Dave & Mike sang and did the vocal arrangement on. We felt we were future stars.

A recording of us at the gig pictured did exist, but we have no idea if it's around anywhere.

Obviously I have no real idea what song this photo shows, but since I'm playing keys pretty intently, and not guitar, I have a feeling it might be our version of this:

Farm Aid at 25

2010-10-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

Bob Dylan and Tom Petty at the first Farm Aid concert.

Farm Aid officially turns 25 this weekend, with this year's show held in Milwaukee. Founders Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young once again head up an all-star lineup helping to raise money for American farmers. I was there for that first show, held September 22, 1985 in Champaign, Illinois. With over 100 acts performing that day, it was easily the most diverse lineup I ever witnessed in concert.

The inspiration for Farm Aid came from remarks made by Bob Dylan at the successful Live Aid concert held earlier that summer. "I hope", Dylan said, that some of the money that's raised for the people in Africa, maybe they could just take a little bit of it, maybe … one or two million … to pay the mortgages on some of the farms." Willie Nelson felt that this was a fine idea. Soon, along with John Mellencamp, Nelson organized farmers to travel to Washington to testify before Congress about their struggles. In addition, with Neil Young, they began to put together a benefit concert intended to provide assistance to struggling American farmers. They named their benefit Farm Aid, and billed it as "A Concert For America".

They chose the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium as the site for their show, and enlisted Chicago promoter Ron Stern to oversee the logistics. Arriving in Champaign, Stern quickly learned that the home of the Fighting Illini was ill-equipped to be a music venue: “There was only 100-amp [mains] service at the stadium; not nearly enough to power a whole stage show and a dressing room/backstage complex,” he recalls. Also, a way had to be devised for getting the myriad of acts on and off stage efficiently without delaying the show. Stern brought in $50,000 worth of generators and negotiated with the power company for additional electrical capacity. To keep the show moving, a manually-operated rotating stage was built. Divided in half, while one act performed for the audience, the next act set up their gear on the half behind the curtains.

The diverse roster of performers for Farm Aid I was a spectacular array of country, rock, and blues artists rarely matched on any stage before or since. Twenty-five years on, a lot of memories of that day are a bit fuzzy, but for sheer variety and quality, I've never experienced another day of music quite like it. The show began in a steady drizzle, but by afternoon the skies had cleared, and over 75,000 of us enjoyed a fine Midwestern autumn evening. Country kingpins like Alabama, Vince Gill and Kenny Rogers appeared on the bill with legends such as Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn and George Jones. Acoustic performers like Joni Mitchell and John Denver were featured during the day; after dark rockers like Foreigner and Huey Lewis took the stage. John Fogerty came out with a woman dressed as a pig who danced on stage, symbolizing Fogerty's legal troubles with his ex-manager. Bon Jovi, barely known at the time, played one of their first shows in a stadium atmosphere. Lone Justice, another emerging act, played one of the night's sharpest sets. Bob Dylan appeared, backed by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Their performance was so well-received that they soon agreed to launch a nationwide tour together. Sammy Hagar played live with Van Halen for the first time; Hagar launched into a raunchy monologue that got their set taken off The Nashville Network's live broadcast. Founders Young and Mellencamp turned in fine performances. Willie Nelson's set began the day's proceedings. He was a bundle of energy all day, bounding on and off the stage, introducing acts, generally keeping the party going. Nobody throws a party like Willie Nelson. Well past midnight, he launched into an hour-long set that I don't think was scheduled; I'm sure that he would have played till dawn if they had let him.

Farm Aid I raised over $9 million for struggling farmers, raised awareness of rural issues, and began a tradition that surprised Farm Aid's founders, who thought that they were putting together a one-time-only event. To this day, the Farm Aid organization has raised over $37 million and continues to advocate for family farmers throughout the USA. Celebrate 25 years of Farm Aid by checking out these classic performances from founders Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young from that first show in Champaign. For more details, there's this excellent article about the challenges involved in staging that now-historic show.

Meet me at the bottom, don't lag behind, bring me my boots and shoes

2010-09-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

I call bullshit:

Factory Jobs Return, but Employers Find Skills Shortage

BEDFORD, Ohio — Factory owners have been adding jobs slowly but steadily since the beginning of the year, giving a lift to the fragile economic recovery. And because they laid off so many workers — more than two million since the end of 2007 — manufacturers now have a vast pool of people to choose from.

Sounds good so far but ...

Here in this suburb of Cleveland, supervisors at Ben Venue Laboratories, a contract drug maker for pharmaceutical companies, have reviewed 3,600 job applications this year and found only 47 people to hire at $13 to $15 an hour, or about $31,000 a year.

Wait, isn't this where your beloved 'the free market' comes into play!?

If you can't find a skilled worker at $15/hr shouldn't you pay better wages? And/or pay for training?

Not to mention companies like this shipped as many of their jobs overseas as possible to make their stockholders happy, (IOW, help the rich get richer), and now they complain that their dog they wouldn't feed is biting them.

Just a guess, but if you didn't pay upper management 100x more than labor then maybe you could afford to find/train qualified workers. At the least qualified workers could afford to move there.

Not since right before the Great Depression has income inequality been so large. One would think MBAs and CEO's would get this: Henry Ford was an *hole in so many ways, but even he understood if people can't afford to buy your product it severely limits your product's profitability.

Now for the post's title song, Working Man's Blues #2

I've got to admit it's getting better (Better) A little better all the time

2010-09-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

From Dan Savage:

Another gay teenager in another small town has killed himself—hope you're pleased with yourselves, Tony Perkins and all the other "Christians" out there who oppose anti-bullying programs (and give actual Christians a bad name).

Billy Lucas was just 15 when he hanged himself in a barn on his grandmother's property. He reportedly endured intense bullying at the hands of his classmates—classmates who called him a fag and told him to kill himself. His mother found his body.

Nine out of 10 gay teenagers experience bullying and harassment at school, and gay teens are four times likelier to attempt suicide. Many LGBT kids who do kill themselves live in rural areas, exurbs, and suburban areas, places with no gay organizations or services for queer kids.
[...]
I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.

Dan's right, and he did something about it, the It Gets Better Project. and it's catching on.

Here's Dan and Terry

If you have a problem with someone's sexuality or sexual orientation? GO FUCK YOURSELF ... regardless of what teabagger [ironic, ain't it?] Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell says.

And here's some brain bleach

You're no good, baby, you're no good

2010-09-27T01:01:00.000-07:00

CNBC will never be considered as anything but wildly supportive of the investor class and anti-labor/common people.

Yet even by their Gordon Gecko standards, Carly Fiorina was too greedy:

A consummate self-promoter, Fiorina was busy pontificating on the lecture circuit and posing for magazine covers while her company floundered. She paid herself handsome bonuses and perks while laying off thousands of employees to cut costs. The merger Fiorina orchestrated with Compaq in 2002 was widely seen as a failure. She was ousted in 2005.

THE STAT: HP stock lost half its value during Fiorina’s tenure.

And then there's her little Iran problem:

Fiorina's having a rough time of it. Her latest problem: defending herself against charges that HP made loads of money during her tenure by selling its products in Iran despite a U.S. trade embargo. "To her knowledge, during her tenure, HP never did business in Iran," Fiorina's campaign told the San Jose Mercury News.
Really? Fiorina had no idea? That's odd, since...
Fiorina in 2003 noted Middle East sales were defying global trends, and, as theMerc notes, HP's partner there issued a press release saying sales topped $100 million and that "the seeds of the Redington-Hewlett-Packard relationship were sowed six years ago for one market - Iran."
Three of the three HP partners in the Middle East contacted by Christopher Stewart for a story in Portfolio magazine's August 2008 issue readily agreed to ship printers to Iran. Portfolio notified HP of the incidents, but the company didn't condemn them, instead refusing comment. Fiorina was gone as CEO at this point, but Portfolio noted that diversion of American products to Iran trough Dubai had been going strong for many years.
HP had an office in the Dubai free-trade zones notorious for funneling American goods to Iran, Portfolio reported — so it had ample means to be aware of how its products were being shipped.
After the SEC noticed the prevalance of HP products in Iran, it asked the company about the matter, and got back a letter from the company saying its Dutch subsidiary sold $120 million to Iran in 2008.
Finally, in January 2009, HP severed ties with Redington Gulf, the distributor that had publicly bragged about its Iran trade six years earlier.

Yep, Carly was selling to embargoed/Demonic Iran while most people, especially conservatives, thought we should be invading/bombing Iran back to the Stone Age.

Making a profit from blood and tears and American lives. A good conservative, Carly is.

This is a yawl, ya'll

2010-09-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

t'is I'll be there in sunshine or in shadow

2010-09-23T01:35:00.000-07:00

Perfect music performed perfectly:

I've been aware of Eva Cassidy for some time, and having heard her just a bit, I assumed she was a cult hero, a musician known more for her brief and tragic career rather than her talent. But tonight on NPR I heard this performance, and I understood. I finally understood what the big deal was.

Many singers pound the high notes, since it's somewhat easier to work at the top of one's range when over-singing. But Cassidy doesn't do that. Instead she interprets the lyric with control and nuance. The high notes are delicate, appropriate for the message of the song. This is fine singing by a fine singer.

Oh, and songwriters? Let me know when you've written a melody that can compare with this one.

Danny Boy is actually a melancholy song, sung by a father whose son is going off to war. But it can be interpreted as a cry for unrequited love, or anything the listener feels right. But the melody . . . again, most songwriters would give a limb or 2 to have composed that melody.

Here's a completely alt version of the song, fun performance of the still lovely melody:

How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?

2010-09-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

McJoan @ DKos on tax cuts for the über-wealthy:

They'll argue that it's about protecting seniors and middle-class people who have significant investments, but they'll lie. It's about making the rich richer and driving up the deficits to make the case for killing Social Security and Medicare.

Read it all, makes perfect sense. These guys (The Professional Right) are not just out to steal your $$, but to game the system forever in their favor.

Bastards.

Girls just wanna have fun

2010-09-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky to have had special unique relationships with all my siblings. One thing they all had in common was nicknames.

Kristin's full name was Kristin Carol Anderson. But for reasons only known to my twisted synapses, I came to call her Kristin Carrot, and often just Carrot for short. Luckily she embraced it.

When she bought her condo, she decorated with carrot motif items, some of which I have now. All the more to better remember her. As if I'd ever forget.

Today, Sunday, Sep. 19, Kristin would have been 51. I'd give just about anything to celebrate the day with her. In my heart, I will.

Happy Birthday, Kristin Carrot!

Kristin went with me to see Cyndi Lauper in concert in '91 (Pam was out of town), and we went backstage and met Cyndi through Catherine Russell, who was singing backup on the tour.

So for Kristin, here's Cyndi:

Addendum by The Sailor: Steve? Your true colors are shining thru

I never wanted 2 be your weekend lover I only wanted 2 be some kind of friend

2010-09-20T19:40:00.001-07:00

Music for the rages

Purple Rain - Prince
Willow Weep For Me - Chad & Jeremy
Put A Little Love In Your Heart - Lennox & Green
For Your Love - The Yardbirds
I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt
You And I - Earth Wind & Fire
Space Child - Spirit
I Ain't Missing You - The Babys
As Tears Go By - Rolling Stones
Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper

Just because you love someone with all your heart doesn't mean they have to love you back.

Fire, I'll take you to burn

2010-09-10T23:32:00.001-07:00

Some one once said "Judge not . . ." Well, screw that. I'm going to judge nutbag phony pastor 'Dr.' Terry Jones by saying he isn't a Christian.

How can I know this? How can I know what's in a person's heart? And aren't modern evangelicals saved by 'grace' alone, leaving them fully able to be assholes & jerks?

Simple: no one who has truly embraced the message of Jesus can act this awfully. This self-aggrandizing prick with his phony doctorate and eBay store is no more a Christian than Jim (no relation) Jones was. Self-important charlatans leading the delusional. At least in this instance (so far) no one has died.

So 'Dr' Jones? Go to Hell. Fuck off and die.

And for the traditional media that sucked up all his droolings like water from Lourdes and sprayed it across our teevee screens? You're not much better.

Jason Linkins at Huffpost puts the whole sad mess in perspective:

The story of how one lone idiot, pimping an 18th-century brand of community terrorism, held the media hostage and forced some of this nation's most powerful people to their knees to fitfully beg an end to his wackdoodlery is an extraordinary one. It's a modern media retelling of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying", in which a gang of Islamaphobes, cast in the role of Addie Bundren, bamboozle the media into carrying their coffin full of malevolence on a journey of pure debasement. Let's begin at the beginning.

In-freakin-deed.

Saturday Sailboat Blogging

2010-09-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

The above pic is from a relatively calm moment today. Winds were 8 Kts, gusting to 25!

Summertime, And the livin' is easy/There Ain't No Cure For The Summertime Blues

2010-09-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

I apologize to my blog colleagues and our readers that I haven't posted lately. Sometimes life just gets in the way. I think this is a good way to get back into my groove.

Stray Cat Strut

2010-09-02T11:33:00.000-07:00

CEOs are often not necessary. They can be like interior decorators: they make changes and crave praise for no tangible reason. Anyone who has spent much time in business understands that.

At their best, they're idea people who also make great spokespersons: think Steve Jobs. At their worst, they're either preening hulks who are attention whores (Donald Trump) or they're just annoying idiots who get in the way of actual progress. These last types are about as welcome in the workplace as that one-eyed one-eared stray cat you chase from your yard every night.

CEOs also have something in common: they mark their territory. Do you really want the smell of CEO urine stinking up the place?

So California, do you really want a failed-upward right wing tool like this representing your interests in Washington? She'll probably outsource police and firefighters to India:

Listen, People...

2010-08-28T02:19:00.000-07:00

And if you don't watch out, This boogie man will get you

2010-08-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

By now we all know about the Laura Schlessinger n-word-a-thon this week. Seriously, what do you expect? She has a long history of being intolerant and opinionated, much like Rush Limbaugh in drag. Her "advice" is often simplistic and demeaning to the women that call in, so why she still has an audience surprises me. I guess there are still women who need to be scolded for thinking on their own.

That brings me to the point I think others have missed. Jade, the hapless call-in victim of Schlessinger's weird obsession with "what blacks do" and You voted for Obama", was asking for help dealing with a non-supportive husband. Historically I think you'll find that Schlessinger almost always will side with the husband in the relationship, telling the women to suck it up and be a good housewife. It's anti-feminist dogma.

That she doesn't seem to do this in her own life is, of course, obvious hypocrisy. Kind of like Newt saying:

"It doesn't matter what I do," he answered. "People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live."

Moral: Don't be a morality scold if you have no morals yourself.

Note: I won't use "Dr." in relation to Schlessinger. Her doctorate is in physiology, not in counseling and guidance. And outside of the office, no one deserves to be called Dr. except for medical doctors.

My God's bigger than your God

2010-08-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

Awful, simply awful:

Members of a medical team gunned down in Afghanistan brought some of the first toothbrushes and eyeglasses villagers had ever seen and spent no time talking about religion as they provided medical care, friends and aid organizations said Sunday.

Dr. Thomas Grams, 51, quit his dental practice in Durango, Colo., four years ago to work full-time giving impoverished children free dental care in Nepal and Afghanistan, said Katy Shaw of Global Dental Relief, a Denver-based group that sends teams of dentists around the globe. He was killed Thursday, Shaw said, along with five other Americans, two Afghans, one German and a Briton.
"The kids had never seen toothbrushes, and Tom brought thousands of them," said Khris Nedam, head of the Kids 4 Afghan Kids in Livonia, Mich., which builds schools and wells in Afghanistan. "He trained them how to brush their teeth, and you should've seen the way they smiled after they learned to brush their teeth."

The team was attacked after a two-week mission in the remote Parun valley of Nuristan province, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) north of Kabul. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found Friday, and were returned to Kabul Sunday aboard helicopters.

The families of the six Americans were formally notified of their deaths after U.S. officials confirmed their identities, said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the embassy.

The Taliban has claimed credit for the attack, saying the workers were trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. The gunmen spared an Afghan driver who told police he recited verses from the Islamic holy book the Quran as he begged for his life.

But Grams' former partner at the Durango practice told the Associated Press Sunday that the medical group had no religious mission.

Grams had "absolutely zero interest in proselytizing," Dr. Courtney Heinicke said.

The members were working with the International Assistance Mission, or IAM, one of the longest serving non-governmental organizations operating in Afghanistan. The group is registered a nonprofit Christian organization but does not proselytize, said its director, Dirk Frans.

If the IAM doesn't proselytize, that makes them the rare exception to Christian aid groups. On the AIM website we see this:

IAM’s core values are:

Dependency on God
Love for All
Teamwork
Accountability
Learning
Quality Work

I'm not blaming the victims, because I have no direct knowledge of this organization, but "Dependency on God" at the top of their values list doesn't surprise me.

I do have extensive knowledge of several evangelical organizations here in So. California, and they would sooner proselytize than eat.

In fact, so sure is their faith that several of them regularly send missionaries to Central & South America to spread their version of the Gospel to the poor, ignorant, and 'unsaved' Roman Catholics living there.

In the evangelical world, "saving souls" is like collecting scalps for God. They regularly rate the success of outreach concerts and events by the number of people who respond to the "altar call" or who ask to speak to ministers after the event.

Was IAM doing this? I have no idea. If they were practicing medicine without preaching, that's nothing but noble. But if they were preaching and trying to "save souls", that would reflect the enormous hubris of the Evangelical movement in this country. Committed to faith in their God and their values to the exclusion of any acceptance of any other viewpoint.

In other words, like an American Taliban.

John Cole has the best last words:

This the kind of thing that just makes you want to bomb the Taliban back to the stone ages, which is a great thought until you realize they think the stone ages would be a mighty fine target destination.

Just get out of the region. Now.

Marry me . . .

2010-08-05T01:01:00.000-07:00

Indeed:

Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples.

A group that might find common cause with this ruling is, surprisingly, the 2nd Amendment fetishists. After all, if "they" can rule that you can't get married because "they" don't like you, "they" can rule that you don't deserve to own guns.

I frankly think most don't deserve to own guns, but what the heck, if you're OK with folks getting married, I'm OK with you owning guns.

Boise & Olson comment on Rachel Maddow (I'm still distrustful of Olson due to Bush V. Gore. I don't completely trust him):

And I still don't trust Ted Olson, even though he's on the right side of this issue.

If you can't say anything nice . . .

2010-07-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

Bump & Update by The Sailor

Sherrod Announces She’ll Sue Breitbart

The ousted Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod said Thursday that she intended to sue Andrew Breitbart, the conservative Web site operator that publicized a misleading video about her last week.

INAL, but it seems she has a clear case for defamation:
Typically, the elements of a cause of action for defamation include:

1. A false and defamatory statement concerning another;
2. The unprivileged publication of the statement to a third party (that is, somebody other than the person defamed by the statement);
3. If the defamatory matter is of public concern, fault amounting at least to negligence on the part of the publisher; and
4. Damage to the plaintiff.

Since this is a civil suit the standards of proof are lower, so we'll see what happens. (BTW, pass the popcorn!)

To me the case is less about the trial than the discovery process. Breitbart & co can be compelled to answer a lot of questions. It's about time that somebody fought back against these bastards.

Original & most excellent post below:

I'm sure Andrew Breitbart is really just a lovable teddy bear of a guy. Thus, I'm sure the allegation that he maliciously edited a video to spread a story that a Dep't of Agriculture employee was making a racist speech was just more librul media criticizing a bold and brave conservative:

In July 2010, Breitbart posted two short sections of a taped speech delivered by Shirley Sherrod at the NAACP 20th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet on March 27, 2009. Sherrod, an official with the United States Department of Agriculture, held the position of Rural Development Director for the state of Georgia. In the snippets posted on Big Government.com (a Breitbart website) and YouTube.com, Sherrod (an African American) recounted an incident 24 years earlier when she worked for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund. In the posted video, she described how she limited how much help she gave a white farmer in foreclosure. As a result of the posted video, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asked Sherrod to resign, which she did.^[38] Breitbart states "this tape is about the NAACP. It’s raison d’etre is about non-discrimination. And when Shirley Sherrod is talking there, in which she expresses a discriminatory attitude towards white people, the audience responds with applause and the NAACP agrees with me. And it rebuked her and the audience."^[39]

Soon afterwards, the NAACP posted the complete 40 minute video of the speech on their website showing that the point of her speech was to describe for the audience how her thinking had evolved over time to view people not as black or white but as poor. The NAACP audience is shown applauding Sherrod's change in attitude. John Spooner, the white farmer from Iron City, GA in question, praised Sherrod's efforts for him, called suggestions she was racist, "Hogwash," and suggested she get her job back. Breitbart later indicated that his purpose in posting the edited video snippet was not to get Sherrod fired but to show racism amongst the NAACP participants, claiming he was given the edited and misleading tapes by someone else.^[40] In the meantime, the White House apologized to Sherrod and the Vilsack offered her a new position in the department.^[41]

Clearly a misunderstanding. I mean, Andy (can I call you Andy, you fuck?) has never done anything like this before:

Authorities criticize selective editing of ACORN videos. According to the California attorney general's office the videotapes were "severely edited by O'Keefe." In a statement, Attorney General Brown said that "The evidence illustrates... that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality. Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor." Likewise, a March 1 New York Daily News article reported that "a law enforcement source" said of O'Keefe and Giles: "They edited the tape to meet their agenda." A March 2 New York Post article, headlined "ACORN set up by vidiots: DA," reported of O'Keefe and Giles' ACORN tapes: "Many of the seemingly crime-encouraging answers were taken out of context so as to appear more sinister, sources said."

Breitbart said his strategy for promoting ACORN videos was to "deprive" people of "information." The Washington Independent reported on September 24:

Within hours, Breitbart was doing interviews with reporters who wanted to know how, exactly, the story had come about, and why Big Government was releasing the videos and the identity of the muckrackers - 25-year-old James O'Keefe III and 20-year-old Hannah Giles - so slowly.

"It was strategized," Breitbart told TWI this week, so "that they would be deprived of the type of information that a defense attorney would try to gather in order to create a defense."

Who were "these people?" They were not just the leaders or members of ACORN itself. "They" were the Democratic Party, the White House, the progressive Center for American Progress and its president John Podesta. The "Democrat-media complex" is Breitbart's name for the whole apparatus. "We deprived them of information," Breitbart explained, "so that they couldn't come up with a vile, kill-the-messenger attack with the media doing the groundwork for them."

O'Keefe falsely claimed undercover video campaign was a "nationwide ACORN child prostitution investigation" implicating many ACORN employees. From a November 16, 2009, BigGovernment.com post by O'Keefe:

Although Mr. Felix D. Harris of Los Angeles ACORN told us he didn't care about our prostitution business in regards to a housing loan, he drew the line when we spoke about the underage girls.Although he did not kick us out, he was the only employee in our nationwide ACORN child prostitution investigation who would not assist us.

The videos, however, don't support the allegation that many ACORN offices were willing to aid child prostitution. Giles and O'Keefe released heavily edited videos of their encounters at eight ACORN or ACORN Housing offices. In at least six of those instances, either the activists did not clearly tell the ACORN employees that they were planning to engage in child prostitution; or the ACORN employees refused to help them or apparently deliberately misled them; or ACORN employees contacted the police following their visit.

Seriously, if you want to know the evil that is Breitbart, Media Matters has the whole ugly story.

This guy makes Jack The Ripper seem like a speed-dater, and Ted Bundy seem like the boy next door.

He doesn't even believe the ideology he's pimping out, he's just in it for sport. In other words, he's a Republican.

Bastard!

By the way, Breitbart, in the original German, translates to "wide beard".

I feel pretty and witty and gay

2010-07-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

Georgia Grad Student Sues University Over Gay Sensitivity Training

Jennifer Keeton Says She Was Told to Change Her Christian Beliefs or Be Dropped From the Program
[...]
David French, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund and also director of its Center for Academic Freedom, told ABCNews.com that the lawsuit on Keeton's behalf is one of about a half-dozen similiar cases involving counseling or social work students in the last few years.

Hmm, David French, where have I heard that name before? Oh wait, I remember:

Eastern Michigan U. student's lawsuit is dismissed
[...]
Julea Ward says she was removed from Eastern's counseling program because she refused to counsel gay clients, saying she believed homosexuality was morally wrong.
[...]
Alliance Defense Fund attorney David French says the group will appeal the decision.

Oh where to start ... I'll start here: Jennifer Keeton wasn't told to change her beliefs, she was just told she'd have to attend sensitivity classes. And if she didn't attend them she couldn't complete her studies.

That sounds reasonable to me. They didn't ask for her to change her beliefs, they just asked her to attend more classes.

Julea Ward also failed in her attempt to get a degree so she could impose her religious beliefs on the public.

That also sounds reasonable to me.

Look, if you're going for a geology degree, and you think the Earth is 6000 years old, you flunk. Because you can't do your job.

If you're a pharmacist and you refuse to sell condoms, or any other legal BC, you flunk. Because you can't do your job.

Frankly, if your religious views make it impossible to do your job? Find another job.

By bringing their doxastic errors into secular professions they are imposing their religion on others. The 1st Amendment doesn't work that way.

Cause our love would be forever

2010-07-28T00:45:00.000-07:00

If I was 30 years younger, I would play lead guitar for this band:

Take Five

2010-07-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

My heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery go out to Al Jarreau. I'll never forget you and your wife having me over for Thanksgiving when I lived in LA. Take Five Al, and get well soon!

Update (SteveAudio): I second that emotion, Sailor. I've never worked with Al, but he's a national treasure, to be sure.

For reference, here's Take 5 performed by the original artist, some guy called Dave Brubeck:

Still I look to find a reason to believe

2010-07-19T00:10:00.000-07:00

I regularly read the Orange County Register to see how stupidly Libertarianism is represented and explained. But this week it's especially easy to see how empty their positions are, when they publish letters that contain such as this:

He said he was not a socialist yet everything he has done in regard to domestic affairs has dramatically risen(sic) our level of debt, increased government control over every aspect of our lives and slammed the private sector. That is socialism.

He promised the "most transparent administration in history" yet everything is done in backroom deals, requests for documentation are dismissed or ignored and you can't get a straight answer out of anyone in his administration. Fog is more transparent than Obama.
He sold himself as the great uniter on matters of race yet he's proven to be nothing more than a race-baiting bigot himself. He calls a white police officer's actions stupid on national TV while admitting he knows nothing about the case yet he refuses to prosecute Black Panthers who are caught on film violating people's civil rights. He sends he wife to speak at the NAACP, an organization that's sole purpose is to promote one race and who calls the Tea party movement "racist" without any proof whatsoever. He is willing to falsely accuse Arizona of passing a racist immigration bill just to garner Hispanic votes in November when the bill specifically prohibits racial profiling and virtually mirrors federal law that he will not enforce. Obama is every bit the uniter as was George Wallace who, by way, was another Democrat.

Extra points for the Wallace reference: "I'm not racist, Wallace was. But I hate a black president as much as Wallace would have!"

I'm not going to bother to fisk the points the write presents. Anyone who reads here regularly will see through the idiocy & hypocrisy without my help.

My sole point is that the OCRegister has this at the top of their "Letters to the Editor" section with no comment, so they must feel this represents what their readers believe. I can't figure out who is more empty-headed, the Editors, or the letter writer. I'm surprised they're smart enough to breath regularly.

Faith is a great thing sometimes. In a relationship it's key. For religion it's pretty mandatory. But for a reality-based world view, it's really not appropriate. That's not faith, that's being a sucker. Believe in reality, not in dogma or ideology.

A nice cover of the great Tim Hardin song:

happy blogiversary skippy!

2010-07-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

skippy & co. are some of the hardest working people in blogtopia, and yes, we know skippy coined that phrase!

the 'roo crew are fabulous, fantastic and funny, not necessarily in that order.

I read the news today, oh boy!

2010-07-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

Crazy here, get your crazy here!

Angle: My campaign is part of God’s ‘plan’

GOP candidate: Obama taking away your chance to find God

La. Senator David (Diaper) Vitter Endorses Birthers

(MN Rep) Michele Bachmann sees a 'nation of slaves'

Is it just me or does anyone else think the above folks, elected or want to be elected, are ... hmmm, what's the DSM term ... fucking nuts!?

Steve Benen is much more civil than I am, so I'll quote him instead of my original four letter filled, fact filled, objective rant:

WHEN AN ENTIRE POLITICAL PARTY MOVES TO BIZARRO WORLD.... Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) probably didn't realize the impact his remarks would have. The right-wing Arizonan was asked on Fox News how his party would pay for $678 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy, which Republicans are currently demanding. Kyl said what he actually believed: Republicans wouldn't pay for them, and thinks it's a mistake to even try. Spending should be paid for, Kyl said, but tax cuts shouldn't.

Read the whole thing, I'll wait.

Owner of a lonely heart

2010-07-10T00:54:00.001-07:00

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had a reality check today:

A nephew of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suffered a seizure after he was beaten and shocked during a scuffle with security guards at a New Orleans area hospital, relatives alleged Friday.

Derek Thomas, 25, was immobilized with a stun gun Thursday after he tried to leave the emergency room at West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, La., his sister told WDSU, a local television station. Security responded after Thomas refused a doctor's request to put on a hospital gown and started to leave, Kimberly Thomas said.

While this action by the security guards is deplorable, maybe this is a teachable moment for Justice Thomas, who once found such thuggish behavior less than awful:

Back in 1992, just after joining the court, Thomas dissented in the 7-2 decision that upheld a $800 award for damages for a Louisiana inmate who, from behind his locked cell, argued with a prison guard. Three guards took the inmate out of his cell, put him in handcuffs and shackles, and dragged him to a hallway where they beat him so badly that he suffered a cracked dental plate.

The lower court ruled that the beating had nothing to do with acceptable prison discipline. But Thomas all but laughed off the beating, saying the injuries were ''minor.'' Thomas said the ''use of force that causes only insignificant harm to a prisoner may be immoral, it may be tortious, it may be criminal, and it may even be remediable under other provisions of the Federal Constitution, but it is not `cruel and unusual punishment.'''

Perspective, dude.

Why do so many on the right lack the ability to intellectualize about awful treatment of other human beings? This shouldn't be that hard. But until it happens in their close circle of family & friends, it remains an abstraction uncomprehensible.

Of course, Thomas might still not understand what empathy is:

To the Editor:

Your July 7 article about Judge Clarence Thomas's intellectual journey on the path of self-help reports his oft-repeated quotation about his sister, then on welfare: "She gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check. That's how dependent she is." The rest of the quotation condemns her children: "What's worse is that now her kids feel entitled to the check, too. They have no motivation for doing better or getting out of that situation."

This is an appallingly callous statement and contrary to the facts. As reported in The Los Angeles Times on July 5, Judge Thomas's father deserted the family when the children were small. The mother supported the family by picking crabs at 5 cents a pound. When a fire destroyed their home and belongings, the mother, who could no longer support the children cleaning houses at $15 a week, sent the boys -- not the girls -- to live with their grandfather, an independent small-business man.

Judge Thomas's sister, Emma Mae, stayed home and graduated from high school. She got married and had children, and then her husband deserted her. While the judge was attending Yale Law School, she supported her family with two minimum-wage jobs. Her mother worked as a nurse's aide at the local hospital, and an aunt took care of the children.

Then the aunt suffered a stroke, and Emma Mae Martin had to quit work to take care of her. This was when she went on welfare. She was on welfare about four and a half years. Now she works as a cook at the local hospital, reporting to work at 3 A.M. She has three children. One works as a carpenter; one was just laid off, and the 15-year-old is in school.

This is hardly a story of welfare dependency. The women of this household worked hard at low-paying jobs, took care of one another and raised their children. It is a story not only of race and poverty, but also of sexism -- desertion by husbands, lack of child support, giving boys, not girls, the opportunities to get ahead.

And when the elderly aunt needed care, it was the adult female relative -- again, typical -- rather than the men who assumed the burdens. This was when Emma Mae Martin had to go on welfare. What was she to do? Can you imagine the long-term care that might have been available to an elderly African-American woman in rural Georgia?

Ms. Martin then left welfare, again works hard, and her three children are in the labor market or in school. In other words, in the face of great odds, she did exactly what Charles Murray and other conservatives have asked: she completed school, she worked, she got married. She has suffered because of irresponsible men, male preferences, lack of an effective child-support system, lousy jobs and a lousy health-care system.

What can we say about her brother? He had the advantages. Yet he cruelly distorted her situation and publicly humiliated her and her children. Is this the kind of person we want as a Justice of the Supreme Court? In contrast, Emma Mae Martin has retained her dignity, her tolerance and generosity -- qualities one would like to see in a Justice. It's too bad she was not nominated for the Court. JOEL F. HANDLER Prof. of Law, University of California Los Angeles, July 8, 1991

So for young Derek Thomas, best wishes for a good outcome. For Justice Thomas, fuck you.

Bastard.

Waste Deep in the Big Oily

2010-06-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

Governor Bobby Jindal is a piece of ... work:

Gov. Bobby Jindal urges Obama to get deepwater drilling back quickly

Jindal vetoes bill to open oil spill records

Jindal's statement doesn't address the specific question of why Louisiana is using only 1,053 of the 6,000 National Guard troops available to the state.

But, but, he has a better plan!

I, Bobby Jindal, Governor of the State of Louisiana, do hereby proclaim June 27, 2010 as a Statewide Day of Prayer In the State of Louisiana and in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jesus Christ Bobby, don't you think god already knows about the spill, and that your policies are helped cause it!? Instead of asking folks to pray how about asking them to go down to the shore and clean some birds or use those absorbent ShamWows to clean up the mess.

I mean, for god's sake Bobby, first you say you turned down the stimulus money, then you're caught handing out big checks of the stimulus money and taking credit for it; you say the Feds should back off while whining that they're not doing enough!

The only thing you have going for you in the party of gNOPE is you have been out dumbed by your fellow Gulf Coast Governors. And that's not a nice thing to say about anyone.

Bobby et al, pray in one hand, shit in the other. Let me know which one gets full first.

Rock of Ages

2010-06-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Been a soldier for a thousand years . . .

2010-06-24T00:07:00.000-07:00

So McChrystal was sacked today, for obvious reasons. He's a complicated guy, who voted for Obama, and banned Fox News from TV's at his headquarters.

But lest anyone remember him fondly, he's still this guy:

Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, describing McChrystal's role in what he calls an "executive assassination wing" of the military's joint special-operations command that Hersh claims reported directly to former Vice President Cheney's office (NPR, March 30, 2009).

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1897542,00.html#ixzz0rqYP1wp6

And this guy:

McChrystal has been accused of involvement in covering up of the fact that Tillman had been shot by his own comrades, having approved a citation for a posthumous medal that attributed his death to "enemy fire," though the general also penned a memo warning the White House against describing the circumstance of Tillman's death for fear of future embarrassment.
An official investigation blamed McChrystal for “inaccurate and misleading assertions” in the formal recommendation of Tillman for a Silver Star.

And this guy:

Camp Nama, for example, was clearly authorized by high authorities, was a mini-concentration camp for detainees, with U.S. soldiers in no uniform, with no names, licensed by their commander-in-chief to beat and terrorize and torture at will. Money quote from a soldier who witnessed the systematic, approved abuse:
"Once, somebody brought it up with the colonel. 'Will [the Red Cross] ever be allowed in here?' And he said absolutely not. He had this directly from General McChrystal and the Pentagon that there's no way that the Red Cross could get in ‚Äî they won't have access and they never will. This facility was completely closed off to anybody investigating, even Army investigators." ...

Was he just allowing his staff to shoot-off their collective mouts, or was he condoning clear and obvious disrespect for the chain of command? Was he even trying to organize a "soft coup"?

McChrystal’s, of course, playing innocent now, and he’s apologized to the White House, but it’s hard to believe a man who spends his every waking hour plotting strategy would “accidentally” leak these kinds of whopping gaffs to the press.

It should serve as a reminder to everyone that not all military coups are violent overthrows of a democratically elected president. Sometimes, disgruntled generals can perform “soft coups,” a gradual, sneaky undermining of presidential authority and policy. Oops, did I just mentioned we’re killing civilians to the press? Whoops! Did I just discredit the president to Rolling Stone?

I dunno. But he's clearly not in charge of his staff. And that doesn't bode well for a military commander.

And he doesn't seem to understand this kind of soldier:

I`d rather switch than...

2010-06-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

...listen to this twaddling swill.

Crooks & Liars:

Sen. Joe Lieberman is telling his critics to "relax" over a bill that would allow the president to disable parts of the internet as he deems necessary.
China has an internet "kill switch" and the U.S. should too, according to Lieberman.

"We need this capacity in a time of war. We need the capacity for the president to say, internet service provider, we've got to disconnect the American internet from all traffic coming in from another foreign country, or we have to put a patch on this part of it," Lieberman told CNN's Candy Crowley Sunday.

"So I say to my friends on the internet, relax. Take a look at the bill. And this is something that we need to protect our country.

Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its internet in case of war and we need to have that here too," he said.

Sounds awfully needy...apparently becoming a apologist for communist repression tactics and "rogue nation" behaviors isn't the same sort of career-blasting minefield within American politics that it once was.

Good to know, comrades! And Senator Joe...as one of your "friends on the Ìnternet", congratulations on becoming another of the "many nooses around the neck of U.S. imperialism". That'll show those libs!

Of course, I'm sure I won't be the only 'party' pooper to bring this pesky detail to the fore:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Solidarity!

;>)

Sweet Home Alabama

2010-06-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

But it's so beautiful!
Photographer: Dave Martin/AP

US Rep Joe Barton said today:

"I'm speaking now totally for myself, I'm not speaking for the Republican Party, I'm not speaking for anybody in the House of Representatives, but myself. But I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday.

I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown, with the Attorney General of the United States, who is legitimately conducting a criminal investigation and has every right to do so to protect the interests of the American people, participating in what amounts to a $20 billion slush fund that's unprecedented in our nation's history, that's got not legal standing, and which sets I think a terrible precedent for the future."

Gosh Joe, you say you aren't speaking for the Rethugs!?

Say it ain't so Joe, because in your prepared remarks you echoed exactly the talking points prepared for you by the Republican Study Committee!

So make up your dammed minds rethugs; either the government isn't doing enough or it's doing too much.

It's sure easy for Barton (R-TX_BP) to say, his Gulf coast is up wind and tides and his biggest contributor is the oily industry.

Even rethuglicans disagree:

"The oil spill in the Gulf is this nation's largest natural disaster and stopping the leak and cleaning up the region is our top priority. Congressman Barton's statements this morning were wrong," House GOP leaders John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mike Pence said in a statement.

Little things I should have said and done

2010-06-14T00:04:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to The Sailor for keeping it up here, while I've been dealing with work, a complicated move, in other words, life.

Things are slowly getting back to normal, which means the Right in this country are becoming more idiotic than ever. Witness the magical thinking from Orange County Register columnist Brian Calle about eMeg Whitman:

Meg Whitman's meteoric rise to the top of the California GOP ticket should leave Jerry Brown shaking in his sandals, but her candidacy also ought to cause many of the down-ticket Democratic candidates, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, some sleepless nights. Whitman has proven she is credible, viable and willing to spend as much money as it takes to get elected – and she has enough to do so. Oh, yeah. And after a nearly $100 million knockdown, drag- out primary battle with Republican Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, she is also "battle tested." Democrats beware.

Battle tested my ass. About as "battle tested" as The Donald after one of his "The Apprentice" episodes, where his money and hubris are enough to propel him to the bottom of reality show ratings.

Read the whole editorial, where she is painted as a successor to St. Ronnie, able to connect with moderate Dems. While Reagan did connect with "Reagan Democrats", who were fooled & foolish, that ain't gonna happen now. The only Dem who might vote for Meg is Mickey Kaus. And while I really like Mickey, his political instincts are pretty far right for CA.

No, Meg is that recent breed of MBA, who thinks that a CEO can be a CEO anywhere, and that California needs a CEO who has no clue about the flawed initiative process here that binds & restricts the legislature on spending.

All I can say is that at least she's not the incompetent nincompoop Carly Fiorina is. While eMeg's tenure at eBay was largely lackluster, she didn't nearly ruin the company the way Fiorina almost did Hewlett-Packard. But she'll prove to be an incompetent chief executive if elected the November.

Beware, California, of zealots masquerading as public servants.

For a prescient look at the idiocy that is Whitman, here are some quotes from a March 2009 Fortune article by Patricia Sellers:

She's appalled that California has nearly doubled state spending during the decade through 2008. (See: Initiative process. Voters voting for idiotic propositions)
Although Whitman was Fortune's Most Powerful Woman in Business in 2004 and 2005 (and eBay has christened its San Jose headquarters Whitman Campus), there's no denying that her performance as CEO sputtered in her last three years there. The company's growth hit a wall. Profits fell. The stock, as high as $59 in late 2004, now trades around $12 a share.
Whitman had no interest in a political career until the fall of 2006, when Mitt Romney, her boss at Bain in the early '80s, invited her to breakfast in Silicon Valley and asked her to help him run for President. Whitman became one of Romney's finance co-chairs and helped him raise $12 million in California, out of $72 million he raised nationwide. She also coached him on team building and, as he says, "making my message more clear."
She's pro-choice and anti-gay-marriage but supports gay civil unions. (Really? Really?)
Brown displays a mix of ridicule and respect when he describes candidate Meg's positioning this way: "'I ran a business. I can buy my campaign. I have zero experience in government. I want to take on the most difficult state government job in America. Therefore, make me governor.' That's her campaign."
To talk job creation, which she says is the key lever to lift the economy, she went to see the Texas governor, Rick Perry, last October. (When I think populism, Perry isn't who comes to mind)
To talk education, which accounts for half of California's $100 billion annual budget, she visited former Florida governor Jeb Bush.
Meanwhile, she's aiming to slash the state's workforce at least 10% and expenses an additional $15 billion.

Idiocy, ignorance, ideology. The Holy Trinity for Republicans.

And lastly re laMeg, my friend Robert Cruickshank has this @ Calitics:

Speaking of Meg Whitman, she's apparently well along in her training as a member of the dark side. In 2007, she physically assaulted an eBay employee who was trying to prepare her for a press interview. The employee pressed charges and later settled out of court. Here's the New York Times story:
In June 2007, an eBay employee claimed that Ms. Whitman became angry and forcefully pushed her in an executive conference room at eBay's headquarters, according to multiple former eBay employees with knowledge of the incident. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter was delicate and was deemed to be strictly confidential.
The employee, Young Mi Kim, was preparing Ms. Whitman for a news media interview that day. Ms. Kim, who was not injured in the incident, hired a lawyer and threatened a lawsuit, but the dispute was resolved under the supervision of a private mediator. Two of the former employees said the company paid a six-figure financial settlement to Ms. Kim, which one of them characterized as "around $200,000."

The article goes on to describe how Whitman was reputed to bully her staff, "express[ing] sharp bursts of anger toward employees whose work or preparation she found lacking."

This is the same woman who now wants to be governor of California. Will she shove the Speaker of the Assembly when she doesn't get her way? Verbally abuse her Director of Finance when it becomes clear her "fire everybody" strategy only worsens the budget deficit? It certainly does not speak well to Whitman's judgement or her personality, which appears to be that of a pampered CEO who cannot deal with the rest of society as equals, but instead treats them like indentured servants.

Swell. We now have a governor who plays a tough guy in the movies, and we have a candidate who acts like a bully in real life.

For some relief from the pain, consider this, another perfect piece of music, having nothing to do with today's rant: