New Enemy of this Site

For whatever reason, I've started to pay a little more attention to Chicago lately.

Could it be nostalgia for the days having lived back there?

Could it be my regularly pulling down the podcast of the Steve Dahl Show?

Or could it be because the Governor of Illinois is a world class jerkoff and that invites commentary?

Now, the idiot who forces you to wonder if the most tasteless thing going on is on top of, or between the ears, is trying to cash in on a little bit of that Northern Illinois murder mojo.

He wants to spend $40M of state money to tear down the building in which the shooting took place to build a new one.

There were 435 murders in the city of Chicago alone last year.

Do we see him wanting to tear down buildings on the west side in order to ease the pain of the black folks out there?

Hell no.

Commenting on this story is pretty much an exercise in overstating the obvious, but Blago gets the award here for idiot of the week...a distinction I believe he'll win often.

The Other Famous Diablo in The News Now that Oscar Fever is Over

this photo is apparently not doctored...

Pie Chart Gone Bad

More Idiocy at CNN

This time, the dopes down in Atlanta have three people who appear to not know a damned thing about the Black Crowes, waxing on about their career.

Seriously, not remembering (or never having known them) is not a sin. But acting like you know something you don't just looks really bad.

My Brother's Keeper?

Been a busy few days here, so not much time or inclination for posting, but I couldn't resist writing something about Barack's moment or two in the hotseat last night.

I guess that Minister Louis Farrakhan offered and endorsement of fellow Chicagoan Barack Hussein Obama recently.

El Timbo asked what Barack thought of this and if he rejected the endorsement.

Barack himmed and hawed about it, offering a nuanced sort of answer before eventually capitulating when blondie piped in about how she rejected the support of a similarly-distasteful group in New York once.

Anyway, Byron York has a clever article this morning fit for the people who found Barack's careful sidestepping of a categorial denouncement of the Minister's support.

Imagine, he argues, that David Duke endorsed a Republican candidate and they offer a namby pamby, itemized list of grievances with Duke, rather than calling him a racist asshole.

Better yet, imagine if they had that kind of problem with a nut like James Dobson.

Oops.

Fun with GI Joe

Will Blago Take Away the Halo?

My gut feel is that this story won't have enough legs to significantly tarnish the Obama magic, but with another tip of the hat to STR in the Chicago office, we have this well-researched piece from the blue collar paper there, the Sun Times.

It can get a little confusing, which can at least slow down a story's mojo, but the gist of it is that the oft-mentioned Rezko (who also has a famous picture with the Clintons, showing the incestuous nature of it all!), among other things, was pushing and extorting people to donate money to the campaigns of Senator Obama and Illinois Governor Blagojevich (seen above, on the left).

From the information we have here, Obama seems to have done the right thing post-hoc in giving the money he knew came from dirty hands away to charities, but could this uncover some ugliness about how he climbed the ladder to the top of Mt. Olympus where he now resides comfortably?

Again, I don't know how much this story will differentiate him from other pols who did not enter politics as self-financed or otherwise financially pure, but it at least gives us a little more understanding about what happened as he came up in the ranks.

Well, I'm getting geared up for the big debate tonight...the snow is shoveled and I have a cannoli from Presti's waiting for desert...yum.

I Should Do This

I got on the email lists of the major campaigns (shoot, need to sign up to be a Nader Raider, now that I think of it) and I got this note from Chelsea.

Of course, it was the subject line, "One on One" that lured me in.

That treacherous siren!

I am tempted to do this and call my fellow Ohio voters and tell them what I think of Hillary.

An Unusual Two-Fer

Just felt wild and crazy, so thought I'd post up one more...

Here's some classic Sam & Dave...enjoy Soothe Me.

(And don't get too dizzy when the camera starts shooting back and forth on you!)

I Bet You'd Like a Little Willie Tonight

One of my favorites by the pride of Austin...

Enjoy Me and Paul...and be careful at that Milwaukee airport!

I Was Wrong

My god, the Clintons really must be the biggest group of scumbags I've seen in a long time...

From their campaign manager:

Enough.

If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.

This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry.

We will not be distracted.

A Prediction Not Requiring a Degree in Rocket Science To Make

The Hillary "Shame on You, Barack Obama" Clinton campaign will come out today saying that the picture being forwarded around of Barack Obama was not endorsed by the campaign and that they really, really regret it.

I'm Not Known as a Hillary Fan...

...But I loved this clip of her at a Rhode Island rally today.

The more I look at the Barack effect (and I could be wrong), the more I suspect that we might find a few chinks in the armor as time goes on and we may also start to find the self-absorbtion to be a bit much, even for a Presidential candidate.

Maybe these feelings/thoughts will fade, but in the meantime, enjoy a little bit of sarcastic Hillary.

For some reason, this is one of the few times I've watched her and muttered a silent, "right on!"




And shame on Breitbart for not making their videos easily embeddable. I had to pull this down and then upload it back up to Blogger!

The Beauty of Cover Songs Done Right

One thing I hate is when a band decides to cover song X and tries too hard to sound exactly like the band that originally recorded the song or made it well-known.

It seems like kind of a waste to me.

The Grateful Dead, over the course of their years, covered Bob Dylan's music extensively and, in my opinion, helped show what a genius Dylan was. They took his art and reinterpreted it so that you saw its beauty from angles you may have never known existed.

This She Belongs to Me is one of the prettiest versions I've heard. It's a soundboard recording from 1985-9-15 in Chula Vista, California...down by San Diego.

Today's Plain Dealer

The Plain Dealer really is an awful paper. It should be printed on more absorbent paper so that it could be put to more constructive uses.

But they're the biggest game in town for local news, so I have to throw up how they're charactarizing the big Ohio race we're in the middle of. Barack had events in Akron and Cleveland's Public Hall last night. Today he heads out to Toledo.

While I wouldn't bet the farm on it, if I had to make some sort of political prediction for the next few months, it's going to be some increased attention to how self-absorbed the spouses Obama are.

I don't have a hell of a lot of evidence to make the claim myself, but I'm just kind of getting that feeling in y stomach that this wave he's riding can't carry like this forever and the humility thing might just be his Achilles heel.

It Bein' Sunday and All, We're Going to Do a Tune of Spiritual Derivation

Here's a really nice-sounding cut of Down by the Riverside performed by Mahalia Jackson on the Dinah Shore Chevy Show.

Enjoy and have a great Sunday!

Just In Case You Were Thinking of Voting Hillary

Okay, so Barack put out a mailer that was essentially true. He might have played a little bit of literary jujitsu when it comes to who said "boon," but it was not exactly a lie.

It was basically a flip-flop allegation on NAFTA.

Well, after her little valedictory debate closer on Thursday in Austin, The Bitch is Back.

She's out in Cincinnatti today, scolding the naughty boy for not playing nice with her. In fact, she's even decided to use "shame on you" language.

That's just what we need to listen to for the next 4-8 years anytime someone slights her, right?

Just in case anyone was still wondering why she's having trouble with getting men to shake a certain impression they have of her, I thought I'd direct you to this so you can connect the dots yourself.

One More Monty Python Reference for the Week

Thanks, CF...

Gary Brookins, Richmond, Virginia -- The Richmond Times-Dispatch -- Visit the Times-Dispatch for archives of Gary's Editorial Cartoons.

This Looks Really Good

I've seen these horseradish mashed potato recipes before, but never tried. Grabbed some hr this morning at the market and I think I'll try some variation on this recipe today or tomorrow.

For all the preaching some people do about how Yukon Golds are the best for mashed, I dunno about that...I still don't mind a good mashed russet.

clipped from www.epicurious.com

Horseradish Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

Perfect Mashed Potatoes

1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup chopped chives
1/4 cup prepared horseradish
Salt

Preparation

Prepare perfect mashed potatoes (but do not add milk). Whisk sour cream, chopped chives, and horseradish in medium bowl. Fold sour cream mixture into potatoes. Season with salt.

Servings: Makes 6 servings.

I Can Never Go Wrong With a Little Rolling Thunder-Era Dylan

Came across this clip of Shelter from the Storm. The posting doesn't specify date, but this must be around 1976.

I was checking out some of the Tavis Smiley affair mentioned here earlier and will try to find some video of Dick Gregory's moving and hilarious riff later on. You'll love it.

A Bit of a Cheapshot, But Funny Nonetheless

From politicalpartypoop....

clipped from politicalpartypoop.com

Yum Yum

From the always-funny and edgy BigheadDC. I was just going to take a nap, but this may have been to disturbing to sleep after seeing.

clipped from bigheaddc.com

Another "Mayor for Life?"

Ray Nagin (seen here playing dress-up like he was in the military...was this some kind of Honore joke?) is up to his old tricks and keeping pace in the race to be the goofiest urban mayor in the country.

New Orleans is on the political radar this weekend because it's hosting Tavis Smiley's annual State of the Black Union convention and Nagin decided to take advantage and give an extended TV interview.

In it, he threatened to basically go medieval on the ass of anyone who dares mess with him.

While we should all practice this brand of self-defense, speaking this way to a news outlet seems both unfitting of a civilized person to talk about and fitting of him at the same time.

Weatherunderground Introduces Cool New Graphics

I know, I know.

Weather is just weather.

That said, weatherunderground, which I find to be far superior to weather.com in the mapping views they present, has upped the ante a little bit with a new graphical interface. This shows storms in motion, too...

They Can't Do That To Our Pledges! Only WE Can Do That To Our Pledges

It was true in Animal House and it's true in politics...

Now the so-called conservatives are Rushing to the defense of John Wayne McCain.

Maybe the Times delivered him a favor.

This is too funny.

Does God Give a Rat's Ass?

As much as I hate to risk being categorized as a Secular Pr0gre$$ive by old BillO, the annual stupid articles about St. Patrick's Day have started coming out again.

If it's not whether out-of-the-closet gay people (who are not priests) are still God's children, then it might be whether Jehovah will rain down on the faithful with sulfurous fire for nibbling on a corned beef sandwich when this holy day falls on a Lenten Friday.

I mean, honestly.

I sometimes look down my nose at people who tune into Monday sports talk radio to reshash the decisions some football coach made on Sunday, but I have a feeling that the religious people might just have beat them to the bottom of the beer barrel for having the stupidest shit to argue about.

Now the debate is whether God thinks it's OK to have a St. Patrick's Day parade when it happens to fall during Holy Week.

Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch, but the amount of wasted thought put into this debate reminds me of the classic scene from one of my favorite movies, Monty Python's Life of Brian.

BRIAN: Are you the Judean People's Front?
REG: F**k off!
BRIAN: What?
REG: Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk.
FRANCIS: Wankers.
BRIAN: Can I... join your group?
REG: No. Piss off.
BRIAN: I didn't want to sell this stuff. It's only a job. I hate the Romans as much as anybody. …
REG: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the f**king Judean People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah...
JUDITH: Splitters.
P.F.J.: Splitters...
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
LORETTA: And the People's Front of Judea.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
REG: What?
LORETTA: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG: We're the People's Front of Judea!
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG: People's Front! C-huh.
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He's over there.
P.F.J.: Splitter!

Sir Elton John in Moscow

Today, I thought I'd put up something really cool (for a change?)...it's from a tape of Elton John in Moscow, 1979. The recording quality is pristine...

Enjoy Crocodile Rock--> Get Back--> Back In The USSR

According to some show notes, Elton was warned not to perform BITUSSR, and held to the Party's wishes...until this, his final show of the run.

Recording Info:

Elton John - A Single Man In Moscow (1979) Flac [2cd]
The Rossiya Hotel Concert Hall
Moscow, Russia
28th May 1979
Excellent Soundboard Recording
Lineage: TradeCDR--> EAC(secure)--> Flac(level.8)-->

McCain's Babe?

Wonder if the story has, uh, legs...

Hizzoner...Throwin' Down a Little 'Streets and San' on the Council!

With a tip of the hat to STR, I give you the occasionally-honorable Richard M. Daley, Mayor of Chicago.

As a native of the greater Chicagoland area and a proud graduate of Loyola University Chicago, I look back fondly on listening to him on the news when he got all fired up over something.

He's got his boxers in a wad this time over a budget to keep the CTA running.

Just remember...the policeman isn't there to create disorder.

This is the Only Time I've Ever Seen Old Tubby Look Comparatively Smart

The Clintonista in this video (not Chris Matthews, but the woman) is, unfortunately, my Congresswoman.

See her look smart for once.

Clinton Logic

So the Hillary campaign has a new website up to inform people about the delegate rules in the ongoing Democratic campaign.

I scrolled through it and kind of get where they're coming from. It's spun in a way you might not want on your regular campaign site, but they do take responsibility for by claiming ownwership....

Sorta.

This is what's on the bottom of the front page.

Timing is Everything

Sometimes it benefits you, sometimes it doesn't.

When you can control the timing, it's perfect.

I turned in right around the time the heads were calling Wisconsin and Hillary was coming on to give her speech in Youngstown last night.

(Side note...picking one of the most depressed areas in the state to give her talk should give you an idea of who she's got her sights set on.)

Anyway, after she was on for 10 minutes giving a nice, calm speech, the networks cut over to Barack who was partying like a rock star in Texas. He totally cut her airtime.

Nice move and more on last night's events later on...

Mr. Bad Example

Hunter S. Thompson left his brains on his desk 3 years ago today.

I don't have too many new and interesting observations on the good doctor, except that I bitterly regret not being able to read what he would think of the current crop of has-beens, wanna-bees and perverts running for the WH in 2008.

I threw together a short slideshow of another Zevon song, Things to do in Denver When You're Dead, recorded live.

Rest in Peace, Doc.

Band/Artist: Warren Zevon
Date: December 11, 1991
Venue: Bearsville Theater
Location: Woodstock NY

Source: FM
Lineage: FM > ? > CD-R > EAC (secure, offsets) > Adobe Audition > FLAC (level 8, sectors aligned, shntool verified)

How Did You Find Me?

I have a Google Analytics bug on the site just to monitor traffic on occasion.

Honestly, I don't pay a hell of a lot of attention to it, but every once in a while, I look through search terms that people come in on.

This one tickled me...I guess this individual was looking for this post?

New Go To Political Blog

A year or two back, my lunchtime reading every day was ABC's The Note.

Its editor was Mark Halperin and it had such a nice mix of information about the day's events mixed with just the right amount of pithiness to put it over the top for me. It was required daily reading.

Much to my chagrin, Halperin left as ABC Political Director and the site moved off my radar. I blogged about it last spring.

Well, after some here and there assigments, Halperin has re-emerged and put together a really nice site over with Time Magazine.

While not a copy of The Note (they don't seem to have a regular publication schedule like The Note does, but rather meet the needs of the 24-7 junkie by updating constantly) he does maintain a pretty good-natured atmosphere both in his choice of stories and they way they are presented.

Much as I'd like to think that I tell you everything you need to know about the world, the fact is that there's only so much of the Danimal to go around.

Check out The Page!

(He's now posting exit polling (and a nice screenshot of Megyn Kelly) that seems to say BHO is on his way to a big win in Wisconsin, yah hey dere.)

Why I Hope the Democratic Race Goes to the "Fifth Quarter"

I'm just about as close as I've ever been to praying for a political outcome.

Aside from the fact that it will give me a few months of entertainment to watch the Democrat Party duke it out, I have a bit of a larger interest here.

During the 2000 Presidential post-election ruckus, all I heard was this talk about how the Republicans would do anything to get elected and they engaged in all kinds of immoral shenanigans during the election season.

Now I don't dispute the plausibility of those assertions, but I do question the presumption of complete innocence on the part of the Democrats.

If you believe their pitch, they just ran some grassroots campaign originated in union halls and kitchen tables. Then along came the Republicans, who happen to be unique in choosing to run their campaigns on money and influence from powerful people.

If this thing goes the way I hope it does, we'll see yet again that this country has no shortage of sleazeballs who want to live on Pennsylvania Avenue and one's propensity to engage in bad behavior is associated with their point on the politial spectrum as it is to with posession of testicles.

Selah.

Abject Piffle

It's the phrase that's now burning up the right wing blogosphere....

And it's how Jonah Goldberg aptly describes the plagiarism charges against Obama from your good friends in Camp Clinton.

I happen to agree with them. While nothing they claim is factually wrong, it's dumb on a few levels.

First, it doesn't exactly establish or even begin to establish a pattern of behavior on Obama's part. While one instance of, say, murder is enough to brand one a murderer, the standard is a little bit higher when it comes to calling someone who spends a great deal of time talking "a plagiarist."

Next, and again knowing that Hillary has spoken a lot in the last few years, does she really want to run the risk of having each phrase she's uttered in the last 9 months plotted against all speeches ever given?

Finally, it just looks cheesy. It's so inconsequential that anyone except a complete moron would see through it.

Maybe that's the genius of her plan.

More Music from My Vaults

Maybe I'll take a liking to this whole thing of posting things that I've been listening to rather than the exclusively-lazy path of putting others' music up here.

Hmm....

Anyway, what better way to kick this off than a little early Grateful Dead?

This cut is a Betty Board recording of Second That Emotion from 4-8-1971 at the Boston Music Hall. This song was only played during 1971 and gave them a chance to get as close as they're going to get to harmonizing.

It's a really pretty song and what you gain in coolness, you might lose in fun things to look at...I'm not inspired enough at the moment to put a whole lot of time into the video editing.

This is function over form.

For the purists...

Grateful Dead
April 8, 1971
Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA

7" Betty Board Reel > PCM501ES analog out >
Dolby A Decoder > Analog in PCMF1 PCM501ES analog out >
Fostex D5 optical S/PDIF out > disk
Transferred by Tim Deibert 9-16-02

I Didn't Have to Come to Maui to be Treated Like a Jerk

I was disappointed that I was unable to find a cut of this song on Youtube, so made a quickie video from my own recording to post up.

Hula Hula Boys was allegedly Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's favorite Zevon song...probably because of the despair theme. ;-)

This comes from a soundboard recoding of a live performance, December 8, 1990 at the Chestnut Cabaret in Philadelphia. The whole show has this ultra-laid-back sound to it and I hope to get some other songs up from it at some point.

I'm listening to Things to do in Denver When You're Dead as I type this up. This might be a bit more appropriate later in the week when we hit the anniversary of Thompson's checking out.

John Edwards Was Right

I was looking over how the GOP primaries had gone by state to confirm what I already knew...and you did, too. There are two Americas.

Comparing the clusters of Romney, McCain and Huckabee wins, you see that, while not perfect, they pretty much show that the people who found Huck and Romney to be solid men capable of leading this country are citizens of Dumf**kistan.

This is more a state of mind(lesness) than something that can change when one moves, but we are starting to suspect there is something in the water in them parts.

(click to enlarge)

Editorial Cartoon of the Day

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com

You Look Like a Monkey, And You Act Like One, Too!

Well, as I glanced back, I realized that today is actually a momentous day.

It's the one year anniversary of this blog!

It started not-quite-on-a-whim (LY had been telling me to do one for some time, so this is partly her fault), but then when I was snowed in one afternoon last winter, I decided to start messing around, looking for a place to host one for free and...voila!

It's been a fun little creative outlet for me to put up things that I find amusing, maddening, interesting or thought-provoking, and the back-and-forth with the non-lurkers adds so much to it for me.

I hope you enjoy reading it, too.

Here's the Beatles Birthday, with the visuals coming from Metropolis.

Morning Funny Papers

I'll probably post something up about the speeches that Hill and Barack gave last night at the Founders Day event in Milwaukee, but I had to giggle at their local paper up there this morning, the Journal Sentinel.

Anyone think that the picture of the Lieutenant Governor is not just a little bit unflattering?

I don't know if there's a history between the paper and this woman, but holy smokes!

So anyway, being the cruel prick I am, I had to add a little salt to it this one...

Really Cool Blues Programming out of Seattle

Hats off to the folks at KEXP, a public radio station in Seattle associated with the University of Washington.

Last week, I stumbled across the station, as well as their most excellent Sunday Blues (and a bit of Gospel) show, Preachin' the Blues, hosted by Johnny Horn.

They keep the most recent episode archived for streaming and I'm jammin' to it now as I start to do some tidying up around the crib.

The rest of their programming guide looks cool, too, so I plan to give them a spin! Of note is a very user-friendly playlist functionality so I can scan back to get listings of all the songs they're playing as well as links out to iTunes, Amazon and other music sellers if a particular song strikes my fancy. Nice job on that, webmaster.

When Ted Comes to Town

Hope you had yer daughters locked up.

Senator Ted Kennedy was just up the street from me this morning at the Fairhill Center in Cleveland campaigning for Barack Obama.

I'm guessing it was just a run-of-the-mill rally but I'll check to see if they post up a video over at C-SPAN's wonderful resource, Campaign Network, later on.

I also have a friend at work who's one of these activist types, so she may have brought her kids out there to be indoctrinated, er, educated this morning.

Either way, it gives me an opportunity to shamelessly post up a joke that seems to get recycled every election cycle since the Internet has been big.

Take a look at a sneak preview of the closing day of this summer's DNC convention in the Mile High City...

7:00 pm Opening flag burning.
7:15 pm Pledge of Allegiance to the U.N. in Spanish.
7:20 pm Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
7:25 pm Nonreligious prayer and worship with Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton.
7:45 pm Ceremonial tree hugging.
7:55 pm Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
8:00 pm How I Invented the Internet — Al Gore.
8:15 pm Gay Wedding — Barney Frank presiding.
8:35 pm Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
8:40 pm Our Troops Are War Criminals — John Kerry and John Murtha.
9:00 pm Saddam Memorial Rally — Cindy Sheehan and Susan Sarandon.
11:00 pm Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
11:05 pm Collection for the Osama Bin Laden kidney transplant fund — Barbra Streisand.
11:15 pm Free the Freedom Fighters from Guantanamo Bay — Sean Penn.
11:30 pm Oval Office Affairs — William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton.
11:45 pm Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
11:50 pm How George Bush Brought Down the World Trade Center Towers — Howard Dean & Rosie O'Donnell.
12:15 am ' Truth in Broadcasting Award' — Presented to Dan Rather by Michael Moore.
12:25 am Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
12:30 am Satellite address by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
12:45 am Nomination of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Nancy Pelosi.
12:50 am Speech and toast by Hugo Chavez to the departure of 'The Great Satan', George W. Bush.
12:55 am Hillary proposes a toast to our 89 million new Democratic Mexican voters.
1:00 am Ted Kennedy proposes a toast to the extinction of the Republican Party.
1:05 am Coronation of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
1:30 am Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
1:35 am Bill Clinton asks Ted Kennedy to drive Hillary home.

Flags of Our Fathers

I won't pretend that this is any sort of substantive issue, but it's just another amusing example of what happens when candidates start to gain mass appeal...they pick up from all parts of the political and moral spectrum.

There's a chunk of people getting irritated about this picture taken in an Obama field office in Texas...note the picture of good old Che Guevara in the background.

As some have noted, imagine the outcry this would cause if McCain's field office had the stars and bars hanging...

Si se puede!

Hey, Where are the White Women At? Or the Black Ones? Latinas?

The Politico, which I hope is proving to be a viable long-term press outlet, has an article today that lays out what you would already suspect.

For all the high talk about how "diverse" the Democratic party is, and how they provide such a nice contrast to the lilly-white GOP, when push comes to shove, they're pretty old skool over there, too.

While the voting base of the Democratic party admittedly looks more like the quilt that makes up our country, that's the bottom of the pyramid.

The top is still inhabited by white men.

70% of the perhaps-crucial superdelegates just happen to be white men.

This not-surprising finding doesn't really need a whole lot of pontificating on my part. It's what you already knew if you'd taken a moment to think about it.

Bill Clinton used to like to talk about diversity, opening his cabinet up to African-Americans and the like, but he got backed into a corner, he wasn't at all scared to call them uppity if it meant hanging on to what was his.

I Hear You Knockin'

I was watching a wonderful older tape of the incomparable B.B. King playing on the German television show, Rockpalast, and needed to go out and find you a cut of one of his classics, Nobody's Home.

Here's one of the three Kings performing it at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1997.

Enjoy!

Now I Can't Get the Themesong for "The Monkees" Out of My Head

Today's PD on the attention that Northeast Ohio is going to get from the Prez candidates.

And...another issue of local interest below that. Some other local company should have worked harder to get him, don't you think?

Old News is Good News

Roger Simon has a nice opinion piece in The Politico today.

One of Hillary's main claims in this primary process has been that she's 'vetted' and that any attacks on her would, at best, be just a rehashing of old news.

This is mostly true, but its relevance might be underestimated according to Simon.

"That's old news" has been a refrain we've been hearing from the trailer trash twosome since the early 90s when it came to allegations of public and private immorality on their part.

Furthermore, even if the story is old, that doesn't mean that it still has no juice.

He refers back to Willie Horton as a good example of this. Lee Atwater was not exactly the first person to ever be aware of this situation.

Recall what makes the story of Lazarus to titilating...

Elvis Costello Performs Veronica

I've never taken too deep a dive into Elvis Costello's catalog, but I always like what I hear.

Veronica was a song he had a while back that got mildly high positioning on the charts for a brief time.

I found this clip of him performing it in the Warner Brothers parking lot, for employees, in 1989.

Enjoy!

Take Me To Your Leader

I'm still working through my fascination with others' fascination with candidate Obama. The energy I see in his crowds continues to blow my mind.

In my travels, I came across an interesting little write-up (which draws on an even more interesting linked article about "undecided" voters...something that infuriates me to absolutely no end and I'll have to post on later) on what the Junior Senator from IL is up to.

They argue that Democrats, for years, have run on the issues (John Kerry is a classic example of someone who tried to explain to people why he should be President) while Republicans have made it their habit to run national campaigns based on the personality of the candidate and generalities (God, Mom and Apple Pie sorts of things).

Obama might be the culmination of Democratic lessons-learned over these last 20-some years and coming back with a vengeance. He's tapping into our emotions while prior candidates only tried to appeal to our brains.

He also starts to touch on how this can be a dangerous thing when the wrong hands are running the show, something I've openly worried about here.

It's one of the more appealing explanations/arguments I've read on this so far and it's well-worth the 5-minute scan if you can.

Random Thoughts on Why I Might Vote Barack

Burning off some music for the day (Cheap Trick in 1979 at the Int'l Amphitheatre and John Lee Hooker, 1990 at the Chicago Blues Fest) and thought I'd jot down some randomness here before heading out and trying to icepick my way to the street.

As all of us have read, and some found out, the fortune-cookie definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.

What's the worst thing that can happen with my voting Obama? He doesn't strike me as some kind of imperial president and I can't see the wisdom in voting for one more person who runs on the same old lines their research says will help them win.

Obviously they can't use, "Vote Barack...Why the Hell Not?" (in part because I think that was Kinky Friedman's slogan) but you get my drift.

The other reason I might vote for him, at least in the primary, has to do with living in Cleveland.

Ohio is shaping up to quite possibly be Hillary's last stand.

Since 1991, I've been listening to this insufferable wench lecture, scold, lie to, whine and pander to the American people. Can you imagine how good it will make me feel, for the rest of my life, that I may have cast a vote that helped seal her fate as a failed presidential candidate forever?

Now I feel better...

Arnold Gets Married!

Courtesy of Perez, of course!

clipped from perezhilton.com Just Married Don't you love crazy people??? Diff'rent Strokes alum Gary Coleman has married some loser by the name of Shannon Price. He's 40. She's 22. It gets better! The pair have only known each other just over FIVE MONTHS. And it gets even better still!!!! Gary tells Inside Edition that this is his first-time-ever romantic relationship. "I never got the opportunity to be romantic or feel romantic with anyone," he says. "I wasn't saving myself, she just happened to be the one." As for the 18 years between them, "I don't have issues with age, I have issues with intelligence," says Coleman. "She's more intelligent than I am, and that's what matters to me." "We may go a week and not speak to each other," he says, while she claims, "He lets his anger conquer him sometimes. … He throws things around, and sometimes he throws it in my direction." This is a reality TV show waiting to happen!

Obama Makes a Serious Move to the "Right"

Wow, I just read an article in Politico over lunch (a nice Reuben sandwich, if you must know) about Barack Obama and education that kind of floored me.

He's talking openly about wanting to explore charter schools and some kind of merit pay for teachers.

For a Democratic Presidential candidate, by my recollection, this is kind of a big deal. He's just taking a wiz right on the third rail for the NEA and other "education" groups.

Personally I've always been a little offended by their strong aversion to trying things like paying for performance, but what do I know...Teachers must be the only people in the world who believe that their on-the-job performace is imperfectly measured. The rest of us dolts just create widgets and get payed exactly accurately for what we do.

This can be seen as nothing but a serious move for those disenchanted GOP voters who have been hearing about this Barack guy and just need a good reason to go over and vote for him.

If nothing else, cheers to Obama for what could be the play of the month!

I Should Know Better By Now...

...than to predict the end of the Clinton campaign, but this Times splash this morning by Patrick Healy claims that there's a whole lotta worrying going on in Camp Clinton.

While conventional wisdom is that the Clintons won't quit easily, one has to wonder if she's starting to sound Rudy-esque in tying all her hopes to the Super Tuesday II, on March 4, when Ohio and Texas vote.

There seems to be too many plausible losses in between for her to keep the money flowing in.

The Modern Conservative Movement

I'm kind of liking this posting of cool editorial cartoons.

So much, in fact, that I may just do it again.

Mike Lester, Rome News-Tribune, Rome, GA

Does Barack Have the Mo'?

Yes, another cheesy tie-in, early on this morning of the Potomac Primary. In truth, I've been wanting to post something from the late Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown for some time, but just didn't come across anything that fit into this well-oiled machine to my liking.

But here's a late-era cover of Got my Mojo Workin'. I believe it was filmed over in Germany somewhere, but I could be a continent or two off on that.

Don't Cry, My Love. God Will Look After Us.

Along with, "this really pisses me off," "This is one of my favorite songs by..." must be one of my most thought and blogged phrases.

But when it comes to Bob Dylan's Romance in Durango, I'll have to throw it down again.

It always produces some kind of physiological reaction in me when I hear it and I don't know why. I got it first on some kind of compilation I picked up in college and this live cut is from the magnificent Rolling Thunder days.

Enjoy!



"Hot chili peppers in the blistering sun
Dust on my face and my cape,
Me and Magdalena on the run
I think this time we shall escape.

Sold my guitar to the baker's son
For a few crumbs and a place to hide,
But I can get another one
And I'll play for Magdalena as we ride.

No llores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango.
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango.

Past the Aztec ruins and the ghosts of our people
Hoofbeats like castanets on stone.
At night I dream of bells in the village steeple
Then I see the bloody face of Ramon.

Was it me that shot him down in the cantina
Was it my hand that held the gun?
Come, let us fly, my Magdalena
The dogs are barking and what's done is done.

No llores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango.
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango.

At the corrida we'll sit in the shade
And watch the young torero stand alone.
We'll drink tequila where our grandfathers stayed
When they rode with Villa into Torreon.

Then the padre will recite the prayers of old
In the little church this side of town.
I will wear new boots and an earring of gold
You'll shine with diamonds in your wedding gown.

The way is long but the end is near
Already the fiesta has begun.
The face of God will appear
With His serpent eyes of obsidian.

No llores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango.
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango.

Was that the thunder that I heard?
My head is vibrating, I feel a sharp pain
Come sit by me, don't say a word
Oh, can it be that I am slain?

Quick, Magdalena, take my gun
Look up in the hills, that flash of light.
Aim well my little one
We may not make it through the night.

No llores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango.
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango"

Sometimes It's Not Worth it Trying to Come Up With a Clever Caption

The Broads at Work Will Love This One

Click to increase size.

Why Are We Fighting?

Note to self...when having a big rock concert, inviting the HAMC to do security could lead to undesirable consequences.

This is one of the most famous pieces of rock history ever put to video and you can see why.

This cut of Sympathy for the Devil is from the famous Gimme Shelter movie about the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont in 1969.

I used to live a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from there in beautiful Pleasanton, CA...where it's a hell of a lot warmer than the balmy minus-14 degree windchill I woke up to today in Cleveland!

Follow the wiki-link to the Pleasanton entry and check out the picture of the interesting traffic lights they have out there. It's definitely something unique!

Who's Your Messiah Now?

This Obama as Messiah thing seems to be quite the phenomenon. If anything, I'm late to the game!

There's at least one nice-looking site out there dedicated to the proposition that he is, in fact, the savior.

They have plenty of convincing pictures, too. These people are much more passionate than anyone I ever saw at St. Joseph's Church.