Saturday, September 30, 2006

It is unbelivable...

I discovered this while look at posts about woodards books and I really could not believe it. I am really getting tired of it. The nerve of some people.

Tammy Duckworth, Democratic candidate for Congress from Illinois and combat veteran. Tammy lost both legs in a helicopter crash. Hearing the charge that she wanted to cut and run, Tammy said:

"Well, I didn't cut and run, Mr. President. Like so many others, I proudly fought and sacrificed,; Duckworth said. "My helicopter was shot down long after you proclaimed 'mission accomplished."

It is really looking like this representative Foley is very similar to the catholic priest scandals...it is possible that many high ranking rebublican house memebers new about the pervert's behavior for over a year. Foley was even in charge of house sub commitee on Missing and Exploited children or something like that...but it is just sick.

I got the Tammy Duckworth Quote off of a blog by Larry Johnson at No Quater
.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Indeed.

Gutless f***ing wonders.

This is the only good that could possibly come out of the passage of the detainee bill.

Un-f***ing-believable.

UPDATE: I'm happy to hear this!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The Daily Show does it again

Last night on the daily show Jon Stewart brought a perpective to the reporting of the Clinton - Wallace/Fox news incident that shows how sad the mainstream media really is and how much they just echo each other matter what the name of the channel is. Tonight he did it again by bringing up that her comments from yesterday to the new york post editorial board stating that they had not been left a comprehensive plan by the Clinton Administration can, infact, be refuted by her own testimony on Aprin 8th, 2004 to the September 11th commision that they were left with a list of actionable targets. I can't find video from the show yet. I can not believe that the research staff of The Daily show is better than CNN's.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Ned Lamont wrote a letter to Lieberman

Here is a link to an open letter Lamont wrote to Liberman reagarding the National Intelligence Estimate. The part of the report that has been leaked reinforces what most people with commom sense already knew. That bullying does not do anybody any good. In schools it leads to columbine's and in countries it leads to insurgancy. Oh, by the way it is not a war or civil war or and occupation anymore....because the prez sez that it is just a comma in history. The invasion of Grenada is a comma, not Iraq after over 2,700 dead service men and women, 150,000 Iraqi's, and 11.5 million dollars an hour.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Senator Reid and Durbin

This exchange on the senate floor is something rarely seen from democrats. I am not sure how many people saw it since it was on C-Span. I know it was not on the main stream media. I found it on crooksandliars. Its funny and sad all at the same time. It basically summarizes that is wrong with the administration. It was a inovatice approach to calling attention to this article which appeared in the Sunday Washington Post. The author was also interviewed on Fresh Air (20min). In both the article and interview he give specific examples and concrete evidence of why Iraq has turned in to such a Fiasco which was destined to go south from the beginning. Sometimes I wonder where we would be if more questions were asked from the beginning. How loud would have been loud enough to break through the "patriotic" silence leading up to the war.

"The decision to send the loyal and the willing instead of the best and the brightest is now regarded by many people involved in the 3 1/2 -year effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq as one of the Bush administration's gravest errors." -Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Saturday, September 09, 2006

the gifted children

for the past month, due to techincal difficulties with my car cd player(i think a paper labeled wedding parting gift cd got stuck and sequestered the last to cd's), I have only been able to play two CD's and I have a weekly commute from Plattsburgh, NY to Albany, NY that takes me through a radio dead zone in the adirondacks that limits me to some evangelical jiber jabber, Vermont NPR ( which plays mostly classical), E-Z listening ( usually Delilah at night...you all must know the show). What are those CD's you ask? one is a cd compilations of some current hip-hop stuff from a white co-worker who wanted to drop some knowledge on me...its OK the only artists i recognize are kanye west and Jay-z. the other is Color fast Anthems by the gifted children. so I have had a chance to listen to this cd alot in the past few weeks...I have to say that at 2 in the morning driving from albany to plattsburgh last night it dawned on me this is a nice nice little disc both musically and lyrically...those of you that have a copy hanging around...take a listen...it takes you back to your college days and i hope gives you a good visceral feeling of how those time were and what we were like and doing back then...i have a few cds that i pop in everonce in while to go back those times good or bad...red house painters- songs for a blue guitar. Radiohead- the bends. REM- Automatic for the people. Ani Difranco - out of range. Barenaked ladies - gordon... i now have to say that i will add color fast anthems to that list...i have no reason to make this assertion or do I? (well maybe I do...as reunion weekend is coming up and i might crash with jeff) i am not sure what the artists think about this cd now...they have definetly evolved since then...i will keep it some where with in reach...definetly as mp3's on my carputer...carputer? yeah, a new project i am working on and will post pictures soon.

Friday, September 08, 2006

I rode the dragon's wing!

For you Rochesterians who missed out (and you know who you are!) on the Asia show at the Water Street Music Hall, you totally missed out! They played at Avalon last night, and totally rocked, a bunch of progrock fogeys having a terrific time. Here's my review:

Walking past Avalon on my way to meet my friend Blake, I notice that there's a growing line of older, balding, fat, geeky looking men (and a middle-aged woman) streaming out of the club door. Oh my god, I think to myself, this could end up being an absolutely horrific experience. At the very least, though, it will be interesting!

Arriving at Avalon laer on with Blake, we see that the male/female ratio at the show is something like 4 to 1. The over-30/under-30 ratio is probably like 9 to1, with the 1 being a Berklee guitar student who wants to take a gander at Legendary Guitar God Steve Howe. Finding myself among a crowd as different from me as when I saw Helmet at Axis, I giggle a little and start wondering if this is going to be disastrous show.

Prog-pomp classical music belts out of the speakers. Literally, seeing as how the tune is "Pomp and Circumstance" by Elgar. It's good to see these guys have a sense of humor (it's generally true that the older prog musicians get, the more they understand how pompous a lot of their music is. But they still revel in it). The band gets on stage to cheers and applause - Steve Howe as rail thin and ugly as ever, sporting a very 70s flowery shirt, John Wetton fat and drunk looking, Carl Palmer in amazingly good shape for his age (I guess that probaby goes with drumming), and Geoff Downes looking like he never left the 80s. John Wetton wore a shirt that read "ALEA JACTA EST," which upon investigation I found to mean "the die is cast," as said by Julius Caesar at some point in his career.

The first song begins - I'd been guessing with Blake what would be the opener, we were both wrong - and I can't remember what it is, but it sounds familiar. It turns out that it's one of my favorite tunes from their first album that I've totally forgotten about, "Time and Time Again." The mix is really bass and drum heavy, the guitars get a bit louder, but the keys are lost in the mix unless it's a solo (the mix was fixed later on, not perfectly, but good enough).

They were all rocking, and it was pretty fantastic. John Wetton played like a bass ace who'd had one drink too many. Carl Palmer was crazy on the drums. Steve Howe made his funny faces during his guitar solos. They were all a bit rusty and having a good time of it.

They played every single song off of their debut, and just a couple from their second album. During "Sole Survivor," John Wetton kept on raising his index finger in the air as if to indicate, "Just one, single, sole survivor," in case we were confused about that. It was pretty funny. One of the tunes they played, "Cutting It Fine," I had again totally forgotten about, and it totally rocked. So many arpeggios and riffs to fit into a 4 to 5 minute tune!

And then there were the non-Asia tunes they played. "Roundabout" was a predictable choice, and they did an OK job with it. Steve Howe got 2 old tunes to play, as he did "The Clap," also, which of course everyone clapped along to. Carl Palmer's tune was "Fanfare for the Common Man," which made for a surprisingly entertaining prog-jam. It really rocked. John Wetton's bass shook the place. In a strange move, they played "In the Court of the Crimson King," which is a huge mystery since Wetton didn't even play on that; Greg Lake did. Who knows? The 80s Moment of Zen came when the band played "Video Killed the Radio Star," which was a surprise, though I guess it shouldn't have been. It was one of those audience bonding moments. Good Times. John Wetton sang through a megaphone, and Geoff Downes brought out his Synthaxe. Brought the house down. They hadn't had this good a time since 1982.

Not surprisingly, they ended with "Heat of the Moment," which the crowd of course went totally nuts for. The concert was well worth the money, and my only regret is that I wasn't able to meet up with John Wetton for a pint after the show. He seemed half in the bag already.