History Lesson, From Your Friends at Fox News

A Little Churchin' Music

Sort of...

Courtesy of The Chairman, here's Get Me to the Church on Time, recorded live at The Sands in the fall of 1966.

Stifle Yourself, America

I must be nuts...or else everyone else is.

I got home this evening and turned on the news shows and it's now nonstop hand wringing over the Reverend Wright 'controversy' and I'm hot as a pistol over it.

Honestly, the more they talk about it, the more endeared I find myself being towards the guy. If I have any complaint about the candidate, it's that he didn't give the country a big "F-U" when they started hassling him about his preacher.

I'm no Bible thumper, but if Barack chooses to spend his Sunday mornings listening to a Christian guy with a leaning towards liberation theology and a sharp tongue, the rest of us should be careful lest we open ourselves up to what we're doing every Sunday morning and the actions of the institutions we may choose to attend.

Beyond the live-and-let-live argument, I'll posit that the preacher had a point in the 'chickens coming home to roost' argument.

"America, Love it or Leave It" is a clever vote-getting scheme, but it's clearly a bullshit worldview and I wish Obama would step up to the plate and say it.

The Best Site of All Time?

Perhaps.

This has me rolling around here....

The Neocon's Enemy's Enemy...Is Also His Enemy

Bill Kristol, the new kid on the block over at the New York Times Opinion Page, comes through with a winner this morning.

While no fan of Hillary Clinton, he argues that she's actually run a much better campaign than most of us expected her to, wiggling herself out of more than one tough spot and throwing some excellent punches, compared to Barry's Chinese Water Torture approach picking up caucuses and the like.

The press, he points out, has been very unfair to her in not noting her successes and framing everything in an Obamacentric point of view.

Well worth your time if you have it.

Some Bobby Zimmerman to Kick Off a Monday

Here's another great cut of one of my favorite Dylan covers the Dead did.

Desolation Row.

This is from the Ventura County Fairgrounds on June 12, 1987, the first show of a nice little three-show run (before also tooling up the coast to The Greek), helping them to warm up for the summer tour.

I feel kind of dumb because I used to think it was just rather melancholy, like the last verse pasted below. But the song can actually make you think and get you a little down when you read what it's probably about...

Yes, I received your letter yesterday
(About the time the door knob broke)
When you asked how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke?
All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they're quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
Right now I can't read too good
Don't send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row

Some Cool Campaign Photography

Here are two cool black-and-white pictures of the Clintons on election night last week in Pennsylvania.

They're from Time's neato Photo Essay site.

Both these photos are by Diana Walker.

Editorial Cartoon of the Day

Timing is Everything

In New York City the other day, a jury acquitted the cops who shot an unarmed man 50 times outside a club, just prior to his wedding.

Today, Al Sharpton threatened to "shut down" the city and, for one of the first times, I don't quite blame the guy.

I'm all for the cops, but there has to be a point at which we say, "yeah, you have to protect yourself first and foremost, but you also have to exercise at least some self-control."

This brings us to our next story a few miles to the west.

Chicago's Mayor, Richard M. Daley, who just celebrated a birthday the other day, is proposing that his rank and file cops get to start carrying semi-automatic weapons because they're sometimes out-gunned on the streets.

Sooner or later, someone's going to have to pull their collective head out of wherever it's residing and have a sensible discussion about this. I don't blame the cops for wanting to be able to come home alive after their shift, but it's a shame that in a country with this many smart people, we're stuck in a situation like this because of people's refusal to look beyond themselves when it comes to an appreciation of the Constitution.

MSNBC Says the Darndest Things

This can't have been an accident.

I'm simply not clever enough to read something very funny into it that wasn't intended by some smartass in Secaucus.

I was kind of flipping past MSNBC this morning and they were talking about old Bubba campaigning out in Oregon for his doting wife.

He was making the argument that she's tougher than him and ready to answer the tough questions.

So tough, in fact, "that he's challenging Obama to two debates in the Beaver State."

Speaking of Deuces

No, I won't blog about dropping one.

Rather, that's the metaphor that the incomparable Ms. Dowd uses this morning in describing the Obama/Clinton race...they're stuck at deuce!

It's perfect.

Sorry for the lazy postings lately...been a bit busy and the old noggin is drained.

But the weather is warming up here in the rust belt and it's just about time to get the tomatoes growing, so that's got me excited.

The Beach Boys Perform Little Deuce Coupe

Little Deuce Coupe was always one of my favorite Beach Boys songs.

I just love the way they harmonize!

Was His Name Naughtius Maximus?

Paul Verhoeven, the director of Basic Instinct, has a biography of Jesus coming out soon.

In it, he hypothesizes that Jesus was the son of a Roman soldier, via rape.

Fox News says that this claim is "incredible" in comparison to the more believable explanation of a virgin birth.

Funny, though, I think I've seen a similar theory about this in a movie...

>> Addendum, earlier, I had only a link to a generic MP Wiki page. Upated it to my original intented landing page.

These Kinds of HuffPo Posts Are Starting to Get on My Nerves

I appreciate a good slip-up catch (like the bit Stern plays when Shepard Smith made a Freudian blow job reference to J-Lo) or the exposing of hypocrisy and irony, but HuffPo is trying too hard to make itself look clever.

Entries about Chris Matthews saying the wrong time or Jenna's skirt blowing up a few inches last week in a windstorm really say more about the poster than the subject.

On to Indiana

Early word seems to be that Barack is looking better than expected in the exits, but if history is any indication, he tends to overpoll there.

So what happens next is anyone's guess.

I do know, however, that Barry has a rally in Evansville within the hour. John Mellencamp will be performing there and I'll use the next week to post him up.

For now, though, we can watch this psycho dude lip syncing the R. Dean Taylor classic, Indiana Wants Me.

I Don't Think Any of You Care...

...but Artie returned to the Stern show today.

I was both surprised and disappointed that they continue to enable his downfall.

And If You Were on the Moon, Bill, You'd be Weightless

It's hard to call anything the biggest Clinton whopper of all time, but this might at least get an honorable mention in the hall of fame.

Today, Bill's quoted by ABC as saying that if Hillary were running in a primary under Republican rules, she'd be ahead by hundreds of delegate votes.

ABC's counting brings it closer to 173 ahead, but regardless, there would be a whole hell of a lot things different if Hillary were running in the GOP.

But again, I have to hand it to him. Knowing that most people don't really think about the fact that Bubba hand-picked the people currently in charge of the party and had ample opportunity to change any structural inequities in the nominating process, it was another slick move.

Good Write-Up on Halperin's The Page Today

The Times had a very favorable review of Time Magazine's The Page, the brainchild of Mark Halperin.

I've mentioned it here several times and was so pleased when he came back onto the web scene.

I was a shameless addict of The Note (despite, as this article mentions, its use of a lot of practically-decipherable inside jokes) and disappointed when he left it.

The Page really is where it's at for a quick catch-up on all things politics.

Some Old Elvis

No particular reason to post this...except that I always dig the old, bloated Elvis Presley videos...

Here he is in 1977 doing Return to Sender.

Political Cartoon of the Day

Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Times put this in their Week in Review and it just tickled me.

The Technician of the Obama Campaign

The New Republic has a cool profile of David Plouffe, who some think is the brains of his outfit (rather than David Axelrod, who should more appropriately be credited with kickstarting Obama's career.)

I don't have a hell of a lot to comment on with this article except that it's really interesting how, when a campaign begins winning, everything down to a strategically dropped fart after Mexican food seems like a genius move, but on the losing side, jumping out of the way of a semi- leads to the "yeah, but what if..." second-guessing.

King of the Casserole

I picked up a really good cookbook some time back that I've been digging into...The Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Casseroles.

I've made a few of the breakfast dishes on weekends (a baked egg/hashbrown/ham/broccolli concoction this morning and a cinnamon raisin baked french toast dish a few weeks ago were both winners) as well as some dinners (the Reuben casserole was easy and just as good as the name suggests).

I recommend this book without reservation...even if you think it should be called HotDish.

Cool Picture of the Day

Barry at a rally in Philly last night.

Ohio Tax Dollars At Work...The Old Glory of Bipartisanship

Just a random, silly news item from the Buckeye State...

This week, a mixed bag of Ohio state legislators started the ball rolling on making it a 3d degree misdemeanor for a retailer to sell a flag that's not made in the United States.

It's almost not worth the effort for me to bitch about this one.

It's easy to go after retailers. If you find it that offensive for one to engage in the practice of flying foreign flags, then why not make it illegal to buy or fly one of these?

Further, we really need to be careful about defining exactly what a flag is. Does a picture of a flag on a newspaper constitute a "flag?" What about a piece of cloth with the colors that look like a flag, but it might be one stripe short or one star too many? Is that a flag?

It really is silly season.

Some Good Friday Music

Todd Rundgren's Bang on these Drums.

Enjoy!

"I'm a God-Fearing, Church-Going, NRA Member and I'm Proud of It"

Hahaha. Just kidding.

But that's what Matt Shaner, an otherwise boring, cookie-cutter Republican in PA is using in a new mailer for his upcoming PA 5th District Congressional primary.

He's trying to cash in on the Bittergate mojo.

Tip of the had to Mark Ambinder for this one.

Picture of the Day

Friends in Terrorist Places...With the Clintons.

ABC's Mix of Jive-Ass Wankery and Lack of Conviction

Funniest clause I've seen so far about last night's debate.

Hillary Clinton...No Dummy

Last night at the debate, Hillary offered her first kind of public apology for repeatedly "misspeaking" about things that never happened in Bosnia in the 1990s.

"I may be a lot of things but I am not dumb," she said.

You can say that again, sister. You're not.

So one's left to wonder if her explanation really proves our point. She actually isn't stupid enough to misspeak this many times...or to hire a full staff, none of whom had read her book and realized that what she was saying never really happened.

One is left to wonder if it's only a coincidence that this misstatement, if true, would make her look much more heroic than she actually is.

This Debate...Brought to You By Vince McMahon

The Democratic debate last night from Philly was a terrible disappointment.

Shame on ABC for putting this on.

I understand that candidates will engage in theater and chicanery to try and get your vote, but the network doesn't have to be an accessory to this.

Did we really need such a good portion of this debate (sorry, I didn't have my stopwatch with me) devoted to Rev. Wright's greatest hits and...what kinds of fashion accessories Barack likes to wear?

I kind of expect that from a hack like John Gibson, but what was little George being such a weasel for? I thought he was a little bit more serious.

ABC Debate is to CNN/YouTube Debate
as
American Idol is to Masterpiece Theatre

>> Erratum...in the interest of good netiquette, I'll post a correction rather than modifying the original post. The co-moderator was Charles, not John Gibson (the idiot on Fox News Talk). Our sincere apologies to Charles for this insult.

The PD Gets it Right

Not that it was a particularly difficult task to find the real truth here, I do have to be even-handed around here and credit the Cleveland Plain Dealer when they get it right.

Their Opinion page today nails the Bittergate issue.

Go back to the basic truth of what Obama said: Neither party has delivered for too many hardworking Americans. They don't need demagoguery about guns, God or trade. They need reasons to hope - and concrete evidence that, at long last, better times are coming.

Remember to tune into the debate tonight!

Grateful Dead Perform Dylan's 'Memphis Blues'

This morning, I was listening to a smokin' Hartford show from the spring tour, 20 years ago.

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again came on just as I was walking into the office and I knew I had to cut this one for you...it's really sweet, even though Bobby goes a bit overboard. The fat man even helps out in the 'Texas medicine' verse.

This is my fave, though, of this totally-out-there masterpiece...

When Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon,
Where I can watch her waltz for free
'Neath her Panamanian moon.
An' I say, "Aw come on now,
You must know about my debutante."
An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

I hope you enjoy it even half as much as I do!

Grateful Dead - April 3, 1988
Civic Center - Hartford, CT

Recording Info:
SBD -> Cassette Master (TDK SA-X90)

I Need to Thnk More About This on the Way Home

...but I wanted to at least get the rough thought out there on the tubes of the internets.

I thik that one of the benefits of this long campaign for the Democrats is that we're getting a good idea of the elasticity of their support.

For instance, Quinnipiac polling says that despite his 'clinging' faux pas last week, Barack's support in PA is virtually unchanged.

On the other hand, when Hillary tears up in New Hampshire, hers goes up.

Have to let it bake a little more, but we might be onto something.

Variation in the Gene Pool

Some apples fall farther from the tree than others.

This week, my brother, the GF and dog begin trekking from Mexico up to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. For those keeping score at home, this is about 2600 miles.

About 300 people attempt it each year and it has about a 60% completion rate.

The only thing more likely than my falling into the other 40% is not being counted amongst the 300 to begin with.

Good luck!

Happy Birthday, Matthew Lehmann!

Wonder how long it takes for Wikipedia to catch on to this one. ;-)

John Lennon Rehearses Give Peace a Chance

This is a really cool gem I came across this weekend...John Lennon et al rehearsing Give Peace a Chance, in advance of the One to One benefit concert. It's long and bluesy/jammy!

Beer Goggles

Some people might need one of these to vote for Hillary in the fall, but the former First Lady tooled through the Calumet Region, where I grew up, this week.

Here she is, tipping back what I think would be called a Patrician's Boilermaker...who the hell ever ever heard of having an Old Style with Crown Royal?

Anyway, this was at Bronko's in beautiful Crown Point, Indiana.

Will Candor in San Francisco Get You Votes in Scranton?

As I sifted through the morning newspapers and shows, I knew that Barack's candor this week reminded me of something.

But I just couldn't think of what it was...

Until now...

"Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did."

Minnesota's Fritz Mondale in San Francisco, accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for President, July 19, 1984. Reagan/Bush soon commenced to kicking the ever-living crap out of he and Geraldine Ferraro.

Hillary's Campaign Perks Up

I happened to be listening to this speech that Hillary gave at Valparaiso University (very close to where I grew up, actually) and just about tossed my Oreos.

Now, she's a gun-totin' church goer.

She had this story about her pappy taking her out behind the shed when she was a little girl, teaching her to shoot...conjuring up some kind of Annie Oakley imagry.

On the other hand, they've found something to pounce on and they're taking it for all it's worth. I must have been a bit preoccupied with work this past week because when I started to read up on the 'bitter' comments, I was kind of surprised how much juice the story had.

Now the only question is what its shelf life is.

Russert Gets the Dream Team Again

The spouses Carville, Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy are on MTP this morning.

Tim should just make this a standing arrangement through the (November) election day.

I've never seen a foursome this cute since Dick and Mary paired up with Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie!

clipped from thepage.time.com Sunday, April 13th, 2008 ON THE SUNDAY SHOWS Various Networks Fox News Sunday: Philly Mayor Nutter, Tom Daschle Late Edition: Sens. Lugar, Biden, Casey, Lieberman. Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari This Week: Jimmy Carter, Stephen Hadley. Roundtable with Mark Halperin, Torie Clarke, Donna Brazile and George Will Face the Nation: Defense Sec. Gates, Nancy Pelosi Meet the Press: Strategists Carville, Matalin, Murphy, Shrum

Obama's Catholic Problem?

Marc Ambinder over at The Atlantic was on to something this week.

He had some exit and public opinion polling showing that Barack has a clear deficit amongst those who look to Rome for guidance in matters of faith.

Turns out the campaign was pretty well aware of this as they formed a pro-life advisory council this week, presumably with the aim of making inroads with them.

Guns, God and Gays

The latest hubbub in the Pennsylvania/Indiana primary race might end up being a deal breaker for me.

Barack's getting himself in hot water for having the audacity to make remarks to a crowd in San Francisco that people who are frustrated with their government will end up voting on close-to-home issues like guns, God and immigration.

They do this because they are "bitter," the candidate argued.

Well, goodnight, nurse. This kicked off the chorus from Hillary and Johnboy, telling voters that Barack was looking down on them and that people who believe in God are spiritually rich, not economically poor.

Horse puckey.

While all of us know people who rationally vote their overall self-interest, and part of that calculation involves gun rights, anyone who thinks about it knows that there's a segment of the population who's gotten whipped up in the notion that gay marriage and the rest of these red herrings are the really important things going on in this world.

They're distractions of the variety used by a magician when he prepares to pull the nickel out of a kid's ear.

Shame on Hillary for playing this game and trying to paint him as an elitist.

To return to the way I opened this post, I'm very impressed that, rather than Hillary's tendency to pivot and nuance when she gets in hot water, Barack is not budging from the core of what he said in San Francisco. Good for him. This tells me more about him than his opinion on the 3G voters.

A Song I Always Kind of Dug

I never took a deep dive into Oasis' catalog, but I always liked Don't Look Back in Anger.

Enjoy.

Why Doesn't YouTube Offer This?

I was looking at some video of Dennis Kucinich to post this morning and found YouTube's apparently-extensive sharing functionality...I can Digg, post to MySpace, Facebook and others, but not the Google-owned property, Blogger.

WTF?

This is is kind of surprising that it's not easier to take a video on a site they own and seamlessly put it into my blog. Heck, Clipmarks, which I use here often, is easier!

Hillary the Underdog

You can click the image to enlarge and read it.

More on one of my favorite, as of late, topics...campaign emails.

Bubba sent me one last night, pushing their ill-fated campaign financing plans (which left them very little to get through this protracted race) as a virtue.

The Junior Senator from Illinois, you see, is now the 'big money' candidate and they need to take him on.

It's not really all that clever of a move and, for the life of me, I don't know who would fall for it, but it's fun to watch.

The Cost of Addiction

Well, since I've become one of those iPod nuts recently, I'm finding the attraction to digitize my music collection irresistible.

There are at least two problems this introduces. First, I need one big honking hard drive to hold all of this.

The next problem is more commonly associated with certain chemical dependencies...paranoia.

I've invested quite a bit of effort in just getting a chunk of it digitized here and now I'm starting to worry about the house burning down or something and losing all this effort and value that's wrapped up in it.

So, I need to start researching some sort of online backup storage options...

Richard Thompson on Campaign Emails

I've blogged here occasionally on emails I've gotten from the Presidential campaigns. I find it interesting what they choose to communicate to us in this new (to campaigning) medium.

Richard Thompson has a nice piece in the current Atlantic Monthly on this very topic.

Read it and you can see why he gets paid for this and I don't.

His take on the state of the electronic campaign is that Barack is much more straightforward and honest with folks, even when it comes down to asking them to volunteer their time to the campaign.

Hillary, predictably, tries very hard to convey some sort of personal connection with people, but it comes off as contrived...something that mimics itself in real-life, too!

Teenagers...Out for Kicks

A friend in Tampa sent me this article about some teenagers down there (jeez, is everyone in the Tampa area some kind of degenerate?) who retaliated against another for dissing them online by beating the snot out of her.

Well now, the Polk County 8, one of whom is a mere 14 years old, are going to be tried as adults, facing life sentences, for their alleged crime.

The dumbest mistake the little imps made, of course, is posting it on YouTube.

Numbskulls.

As in politics, with the Hillary Bosnia-gate story being the most recent example, the availability of video on things can be such a curse if you are involved.

Technology be damned!

The Shoe is on the Hand it Fits

Sorry for the slow posting lately...it's been a really busy past week or so at work, so today I decided to work at home and kind of catch up on a few nagging projects (which can be best accomplished by removing myself from certain nagging people ;-)).

So, the pitter-patter of the rain outside and the plan for a nice homemade breakfast in an hour or so have me in a good mood.

Yesterday on the way home, I listened to a promo CD put out by the Grateful Dead before their 1987 studio release, In the Dark. It was just kind of a playful 20 minute interview session led by then-keyboardist, the late Brent Mydland.

This morning, I'm going back to that album and starting to re-appreciate it. I'm just as guilty as anyone of preaching the line that the Dead's studio albums weren't where it's at and the only way to truly get what they were doing was from going to (or listening to) a live show.

This album, though, introduced a lot of people to the band. Yours truly is included in that mix.

Here's the video of their only Billboard hit, Touch of Grey. It was filmed after a regular show down at the Laguna Seca Raceway in beautiful Monterey, California.

Enjoy!

Splittsville for Artie Lange

Wow, so a friend who comes in to work later than I do gave me the news.

Artie has allegedly quit the Stern Show after an on-air physical confrontation w/ assistant Teddy!

It's odd because early this morning, I was working at home, listening to the replay of yesterday's show and just starting to tire of Artie's act. He's been abusing the hell out of his body and not really contributing to the show very much at all. Falling asleep on-air was funny once or twice, but its continuation is not amusing.

Further, his physical lashing-out today was not the first time in the last few months that this has happened.

I'm guessing that this is not a stunt and it's for good, but who knows.

The guy really does need to clean his act up once and for all. This was a dumbass move on his part.

Gonzo's Music-o-Rama

I came across Gonzo's music blog this morning when I was looking for a Frank Zappa pic to use as iPod album art (for a fantastic recording from the Palace Theatre in LA in 1984).

This site looks really cool and his tastes are right up my alley.

I highly recommend checking him out!

Inside Joke to a Loyal Reader

Rick Springfield is one hot dude. Who can forget Tao?

I Try to Keep the G-Rating Here

But I could not resist this Perez item.

I can't stand Rachel Ray!

clipped from perezhilton.com Fill In The Blank Filed under: Rachael Ray > Fill In The Blank TV chef Rachael Ray at the Food Bank for New York City Annual Can Do Awards Dinner on Monday night. When I look at this picture of Rachael Ray, my first thought is "__________________."

Ed Rendell as Running Mate?

I went through a little bit of a (relative) political lull for a while, but am starting to gear up again for the Pennsylvania primary in two weeks.

Last night, Chris Matthews floated the idea of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell as a running mate for Barry, should he get the Dem nod.

While I have a terrible track record when it comes to predicting these things, Sir Talksalot argues that he could help bring PA, OH and other risky rust belt states as well as balance out Obama's youth and inexperience.

As evidence of Rendell's intentions to get the job as well as of the prediction's plausibility, Matthews cites how Hillary's biggest cheerleader plays it soft when it comes to discussing Obama. He's left himself a nice comfortable nest to fit into should Hillary lose.

MSNBC's Embeddable Content Move Pays Off

It is no surprise at all that MSNBC's video request traffic skyrocketed recently after they decided to make the jump and make all of their online video embeddable.

I applauded the move here in January and I continue to enjoy their high-quality video and 2.0-friendly site.

Foxnews.com has followed suit.

Cool History Channel Ad on Huffington Post

Obviously, there's the part of me that wishes I could use the Internet without ads I don't ask for, but I kind of like this 3-D ad that The History Channel pushed on HuffPo this morning.

Only for the Hardcore Junkie

For the last few weeks, anyone reading the strategy pieces about the Presidential campaigns has seen references to daily 'campaign conference calls.'

Well, I started to get annoyed by this. Surely there must be a recording of these calls and I'd rather here the paid guns talk themselves, rather than what the Times' staff thinks of what was said.

Finding these was a little bit more difficult than I'd have liked, but now it seems that CSPAN's Campaign Network seems to be collecting most of them.

Very cool.

I Wouldn't Pick Rice for All the Tea in China

Today, I heard and read reports that made me want to look out the window to find the pink elephants.

People on the Sunday shows, as well as this item in the LA Times' political blog, talk in a serious way about Condoleezza Rice as a running mate for John McCain.

I was looking for the telltale signs of stray white dust underneath Dan Senor's nose when he waxed on about it on This Week. For one of the first times in my life, I was tempted to whoop out a 'You Go, Girl' to Katrina vanden Heuvel, who was having a fit at the prospect.

I won't dig into nitty-gritty, petty problems I might have with this woman. No, I'll just keep it at a really high level because I'm a pretty simple guy.

She was the National Security Advisor from 2001-2005. That should probably involve various tasks related to security and not getting attacked and stuff. For the chronologically-challenged, September 11, 2001 fell in that period. She stayed on the job for years after it happened.

Since 2005, she's been our Secretary of State. Now from what I can gather, that should involve things like making sure we have good relations with the people we want to have good relations with. Not everyone's going to like us all the time, but I find it hard to believe that the rest of the world just happened to wake up having turned into assholes the morning after Bush became President.

Now, I get why one could argue that she's an attractive running mate, but oh my goodness, what a disaster.

Please don't do this to yourself, John. Suicide is never the answer.

Bob Dylan...Still One Cool Jewish Minnesotan

The other day, I made passing reference on here to a Dylan bootleg I'd been listening to that was taped by a dude named Soomlos.

Here's another tape of his, from the current Bob Dylan tour that's swinging through South America.

I made this slideshow of Desolation Row, from 2008-3-13 in Cordoba, Argentina.

While Dylan's sound now is definitely kind of an acquired taste, I really dig it.

And one can't help but be amazed at the quality of this covert recording...

Political Cartoon for Sunday

R.J. Matson, NY, The New York Observer and Roll Call

"Clickocracy"

That's the term that Jose Antonio Vargas is throwing around in the Washington Post in yet another article proclaiming the supremacy of the Internet as a campaign medium.

He's on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning and that got me to look up this article.

Most anyone who follows the news about the campaigns knows the story:

• Republicans have been slow and resistant to adapting to the Internet. Many still see it as a slick mailer without the postage cost. A one-way information transfer, rather than creating the illusion of exchange or shared control.
• We're starting to see a divergence between what the networks report and what people actually choose to view. A timely example of this is after Obama's A More Perfect Union speech. While the networks were still obsessed with replaying soundbites from Reverend Wright's Greatest Hits, the 37-minute speech video was burning up the tubes.
• The Internet can't turn water into wine. While Ron Paul exceeded anyone's wildest imagination in terms of funds raised and votes cast, it still could not catapult him into an actual lead. While Obama is a highly-successful candidate all-around, one has to resist the temptation to attribute all of his success to his finesse on the Internet.

Check it out if you're interested.

Anyone Can Be Reformed

While former US Rep. Bob Barr still has some 'splainin' to do in my book for some of his time in Washington...namely a devotion to the "War on Drugs"...one of the biggest snowjobs ever pulled over on the American people, he could just play a relevant role in the November election.

Since leaving Washington in 2002 (his district got gerrymandered by the Democratic-run Georgia legislature), the former darling of the religious nuts has had a conversion in the healing waters of common sense and come around on the Iraq War, the War on Drugs and The USA PATRIOT Act.

Today, he announced at a Libertarian meeting in KC that he's seeking that party's nomination for President.

With the potential for a close election in November between the two major parties, it's not inconceivable that even though Barr refuses to shave the mustache that makes him look like an aging porn star, he could trim into John McCain's already-tenuous grasp on Barry Goldwater-style conservatives.

Here's to you, Bob!

Forty Years Ago Today

Hizzoner, The Late Mayor Richard J. Daley, made headlines when he told reporters how he instructed his Top Cop to deal with the post-MLK-assassination rioting in the city of Chicago.

"I said to him very emphatically and very definitely that an order be issued by him immediately to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand, because they're potential murderers, and to shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting."

He later claimed that the 'shoot to kill' line was a fabrication.

Now Playing at Chicago's Annoyance Theater

I came across this when skimming a fine blog dedicated to Chicago's Uptown Neighborhood and had to chuckle.

Those gay people sure can tickle your funny bone!

Bear Force One

The Annoyance pays gay homage to the classic Harrison Ford thriller “Air Force One” with “Bear Force One.”

After a series of unexpected assassinations, Buck Marshall, Secretary of Agriculture, and ninth in line for the Presidency, finds himself the first gay “bear” President of the United States. Like his chest, the world he steps into is quite hairy. The Pope has just been taken prisoner after his crack terrorist organization, the CCD, assassinated the last 8 Presidents in order to bring a message of decency back to the world.

All Buck wants to do is escape to Key West with his “First Cub,” daughter India-China, and his newly assembled queer cabinet. But as he boards “Air Force One” for some R & R, the CCD have plans of their own!

“Bear Force One” is directed by veteran director of Boston’s Improv Assylum, Leah Gotcsik. The show was written by the cast. The cast includes veteran performers from the The Annoyance, iO, GayCo, and The Second City.

Friday | 8:00PM | $15

Campaign Carl's Really Stupid Blog

I appreciate that blogging should allow one to be free of New York Times Manual of Style standards, but Carl Cameron's blog over at Foxnews.com is something you should keep your children away from.

I know that I take certain shortcuts here from time to time, but I at least try to refrain from excessive use of redundant punctuation (???), intentional misspelling in the place of punctuation (or a post-fifth grade vocabulary), non-sequiturs and the mentioning of sites that I don't have the courtesy to hyperlink.

While I don't have hundreds of regular readers, I at least try to keep up my end of the bargain, given than you've taken the time to indulge me and my hobby.

In just the last few posts, Campaign Carl has committed these and other offenses that make his blog painful to read.

Pictures Really Do Say 1000 Words

Photo from Reuters.

That Obama is Pretty Uppity

clipped from www.rollingstone.com “Arrogant”: The New “Uppity” 4/2/08, 5:08 pm EST A week after Obama’s race speech, and we’re back to speaking in code. Take it away, Karl Rove: “You can tell that he is arrogant, and you can tell that he’s a little bit angry, and you can tell he’s very dismissive.” Lee Atwater would be proud. (A special tip of the cap to, Ron Fournier of AP who birthed this meme.) Tim Dickinson More National Affairs, Barack Obama, Race

One of the Signs of the Apocalypse

Politicians like the Clintons and their taxes have a habit of 'throwing out the trash' on Friday nights and it seems I am, too.

That this tour will even make dollar one is disturbing to me.

Will the Children Throw Flowers at Him?

General Tommy Franks has been elected to the board of directors at Chuck E. Cheese.

Truth be told , I have nothing but respect for people like him who have served the country honorably.

I just found the juxtaposition of his job now, with his role then, to be amusing.