Friday Night Music--New Years Edition

Here's to a great 2011. By this time I thought we'd have flying cars and holographic TV. Maybe next year.

Anyway, here's some new years-inspired fun.

First we have Jake and Elwood Blues opening up for the Dead at the closing of the Winterland Ballroom. The night started with Belushi and Aykroyd and ended 8-hours later with Bill Graham serving breakfast to the entire arena after an epic 6-hour show by Jerry and the boys:



Here's the Dead doing Midnight Hour on New Years 1985 with comments by Ken Kesey and Father Guido Sarducci. I believe that was Bill Graham as Father Time:



Next we have Gov't. Mule doing a cover of Sabbath's War Pigs on what I think is New Years Eve 1998:



Next we have the fat, sequined Elvis on New Years Eve 1976 in Pittsburgh:



And finally, Robbie Maddison jumps onto the Arc de Triomphe and then back down on NYE 2008. Down looked a hell of a lot more unnerving. Damn:

Friday Morning News & Notes

Happy New Years Eve day. It's been an interesting year to say the least. Unfortunately, it's been a year where a significant group of American people have sunk deeper into the economic abyss thanks to the failed policies of the Obama administration. Hope and Change: we hoped for a change from Obamanomics and we changed the House to do it so there's an inkling of sunlight.

Anyway, here's what is newsy today:

-Popular Mechanics hypothesizes a Chinese first strike attack on the US. I imagine that we'd see a million North Koreans streaming past the 38th Parallel as soon as the first missiles were launched with the aim of taking out our Marine contingent in the south.

-Those with a stake in the Great Global Warming Swindle see their golden egg-laying goose being eaten and aren't too happy about it. Obama still aims on incorporating this massive redistribution scam on us by ramming it down our throats and will seek to do so by circumventing Congress. I wonder how many Brits now believe in global warming being it may be the coldest winter in 1,000 years there. Or how about Phoenix

-Hell to pay! nannyish mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking serious heat for the inept snow removal operations after last weeks storm. Good, the arrogant prick deserves it. But more damning is the allegations that the slow cleanup was due to a union slowdown and workers actions in trying to get overtime pay. Several people died (including a new-born and toddler) because of their actions and I'm guessing NY'ers won't rest until someone pays with jail time. This could be nearing the last nail in the coffin of public-sector unions.

-Why Do Schools Fire Losing Coaches But Not Bad Teachers? A damn good question. Perhaps it's because coaches aren't in unions, don't get tenure and have a clear metric showing success or failure.

-More proof that governments everywhere can't do anything well. I notice they used lemonade but didn't use Guinness though.

-A huge natural gas find near the Israeli coast could be a game-changer.

If Ezra Klein is a Leader on the Left, We Should Have No Problems Rescinding Obamacare

Ezra Klein is a hard-core lefty first and foremost. He's supposedly the wonkish, young, intellectual liberals can believe in. He's smarter then everyone else by their collective reckoning for no other reason than he rebuts everything conservatives have to say with inane commentary and hazy "facts". Plus, he writes at a major MSM outlet and constantly appears on MSNBC so he's got to be a genius.

They talk about this clown like they talk about Obama being the smartest guy in the room when in reality he's not even the smartest guy in the Op/Ed section of the Washington Post.

Klein is the new liberal who, along with Matt Yglesias and Kos who pump out semi-intelligent screeds on a daily basis that get linked by other, lesser known liberals, which ensures whatever they write is at the top of Memeorandum. He's linked a whole lot so he must be an intellectual dynamo, right? A battalion of unemployed liberals living off the public dole break out their crayons and parrot him to the point that regardless of the veracity of any given Klein post, it become "progressive" fact within an hour.

But put these guys on TV where they actually have to present well-thought out ideas without the benefit of Google or as the awesome Iowahawk says; Wikipedia, they sound like exactly what they are: amateurish ideologues with access to the airwaves provided by a "news" organization that is watched by 10 or 20 people at any given minute.

Listen to Klein lay down some mean, intellectual thinking here:



It's hard to understand the Constitution of the United States because it was written over 100-years ago in language that's difficult to grasp by the great unwashed masses who voted Bush in twice. Got that?

The Communist Manifesto was written more than a hundred years ago by Engels and Marx but I'll be willing to bet that Klein understands that language very well.

The Biggest Political Story of 2010

As happens every year in late December, the various pundits and pundettes run down the Top Ten Stories of 2010 with the smug air of self-importance. Take for instance that irritating bastard Chris Matthews t whom his morning did his version by giving out various awards such as the Chutzpah Award. It was inane and biased but it's Chris Matthews so I'm being redundant.

Anyway, Politico ran down their list and it is missing one really important event. They did not include the election that threw numerous Democrats out on their asses and was a thorough rebuke of Obamacare. They list Manchin shooting the Cap and Trade bill and Christine O'Donnell whining that she's not a witch, dammit. But to not rank the biggest thumping administered to sitting congress in decades the nod in this list is a joke.

When historians look back on this year, they will see it as a year where Americans said "enough!" It will be the year that the Tea Parties made themselves into a political force by not being a huge cohesive unit but by working in small groups and helping push candidates into races who will stand up for what the Founding fathers intended. We now have some true citizen politicians.

We collectively said that we will not stand for the politics as usual approach to dealing with our country's finances. Now we have to hold them to that promise.

The Greatest Sound In the World Is a Whining Yankees Fan

So I wake up this morning and jump into the Jeep for the trek to work. I flip on ESPN radio and what do I hear but the stunning news that Cliff Lee is coming back to Philly.

Until yesterday, all the news was leaning to him signing with the hated Yankees or staying with the Rangers. But Ruben Amaro, Jr. righted a wrong and outsmarted the overrated Brian Cashman by landing the best pitcher on the free agent market for the second straight year (Roy Halladay was the prize last year). Showing that he learned well from his mentor the hall of famer-elect Pat Gillick, Amaro played on Lee's feelings to play in the city that once was a hated destination but now is baseball paradise. Lee likes the city, loves the coach and enjoys the team--a perfect situation.

He smacked the Yankees upside the head by taking less money than they were offering and gave the fans of New York the finger. There were reports that Yankee fans spit on Lee's wife during the playoffs last year and that may have been the final decision maker.

Good job New York, you've just been dissed for being a bunch of classless losers and Philly's gain is your brutal loss. I so enjoyed listening to your bullshit today trying to rationalize the situation by uttering drivel such as "he's not that good" or "he isn't worth the money" or my personal favorite "A.J. Burnett will pick it up this year". Sure he will.

Yesterday he was the greatest thing ever and today he's just so-so. You sound like that dude who thought he was going to score the hot chick at a bar and your rival is now at her place getting busy while you're home playing with yourself watching the last skit on Saturday Night Live all by your lonesome.

Blow me scrubs, the Phillies have the best pitching staff in baseball by far and possibly the best pitching staff ever. Enjoying losing the division to the Red Sox who scored a stud in the outfield and a stud at first while you waited for Lee to sign with you. But hey, Greinke or even Carl Pavano are out there to be you #2.

Posting Infrequency

To those of you who still check in on occasion, I appreciate it. I posted every day for six years and frequently for seven but in year eight things slowed dramatically.

There's a few reasons for that. I still follow politics like a junkie after a fix and start to get the shakes if I don't read Hot Air, Memeorandum and Instapundit every hour or so. I just lost the fire to post daily. I would be driving home and would have a post figured out in my mind and would get home and be either distracted by life and having a family or write the post and not think it was good. I looked at the last several months before this self-induced hiatus and thought it not good quality. Most would say that's a good description of every post since 2003 but I digress.

I have the fire again but can't promise to post every day. I have an 81-mile each way commute and after driving the New Jersey Turnpike for a total of 162-miles every day, I pretty much want to kill someones car with that new rail gun the Navy is perfecting.

I'll try to post more often and thanks for stopping back in to this old establishment.

Can We Get a Speaker Who Doesn't Cry All the Time?

Jeez dude, I don't think Nancy Pelosi ever cried (and I mean ever) and every time I see David Boehner he's sobbing like a little girl. No offense dude, but the GOP is the party of men who handle adversity by steeling themselves while looking at the options that will make things better. Liberals cry about stupid shit.

We finally get the House back and we elect a guy who even Barbara Walters thinks is a friggin' pussy. Even the feeble-minded Joy Behar's going to have a blast picking this bawling bastard apart.

I get it congressman, you've come from humble beginnings and worked your way up to number two in the list of succession but for crying out loud, that's the American story. Ask the private fighting the Taliban what he thinks about seeing a leader break out in tears for no good reason while he hasn't seen his kids in months and nearly got killed in a fire fight last night.

Finally, enough with the Obama disrespected me crap. He's the president and he's from the opposition that has no problem labeling anyone who disagrees with them as racist, a Nazi or worse. Get over it, every Democrat thinks every Republican is a moron that can't read without pictures and can't come up with a thought without someone else feeding it to them.

We finally won back leadership of part of the government and we're stuck with a man who's more of a woman than the woman currently serving in the position. To paraphrase Sarah Palin: man up, dude!

Offer No Quarter on Taxes

One month ago, Conservatives won a mandate and injected new blood into the dying body we call Congress. The American people said enough is enough; enough spending, enough entitlement programs rammed through without even reading the bill and enough of the arrogance that permeates Congress both sides (three if you include whatever side Denis Kucinich (D-Uranus) is from).

Here we stand with a large axe hanging over the head of the economy. In 19 days, every productive American will see their taxes rise to levels that will be unmanageable and the fragile economy can't sustain. I would take a $4,000 hit or more than $300 per month that I currently spend on clothes, food, beer and restaurants. I won't spend that and the stores I frequent would lose business from not just me but all the others like me who work hard and spend within the community (especially the liquor store).

The Obama plan is a sham; it's larded up with pork for the ethanol industry (an industry even Al Gore bailed on) and dozens of other idiotic handouts. Democrats are currently trying to savage it and Conservatives are starting to crow about the insanity of raising deficits when we should be cutting them.

Put it to an up or down vote in the next few days: one on whether or not to let the tax cuts lapse--including the estate tax--and in essence raise taxes on those who actually can save the budding recovery, one on the extension of unemployment insurance, one on ethanol subsidies and ane on all the other garbage thrown in. Make people put their name on the line and act as if they work for us and not the opposite.

We own the House and the Democrats who lost are squatting in it. Let's hit them upside the head and say hell no, we are not going back to the same old bullshit we saw last time the GOP held the reins. Keep up the phone calls and e-mails and let them know that we're paying close attention to how this is handled. If they start to buckle or waver, we push harder. If no deal is reached in which we get everything we want, we let the tax cuts lapse and tell the American people it was purely the fault of lame duck liberals who want to push one last steaming pile of deficit-laden bullshit onto our children. We'll re-instate them under better terms come January.

Wikileaks Explodes Obama Foreign Policy Image

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here but the Wikileaks saga has brought me out of my self-induced hiatus.

When Obama came to power, he was the man who was going to undo all the wrongs perpetrated by the Bush administration with regard to our image around the world. He was going to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stop global warming, stop Iran from producing nukes and get us out of the two wars Bush stupidly got us into. His was going to be a way that placed diplomacy at the top and sneaky tactics at the very bottom.

So much for that empty rhetoric.

When the vile Julian Assange released the first leaked documents concerning the war on terror, Obama did nothing because the documents made the military look bad and by extension the Bush/Cheney junta. Now that Assange is embarrassing the Obama administration, he's on Interpol's wanted list and is an avowed enemy of The One. But that's a discussion for another post.

The Wikileaks cables leaked over the last week and a half paint a picture of a conniving administration that has run amok. From Hillary Clinton ordering essentially a smear dossier on the Argentina leader's wife (now leader herself) to the ham-fisted way they schemed to save face in climate change negotiations, the Obamacons have shown themselves to be petty and way out of their league. Their collective actions have given America a black eye that will take ears to repair.

The list of inadequacy goes on and on with a clear illustration of how the administration operates on a daily basis with regard to our allies and enemies. It paints one ugly picture--especially from the Hillary-led State Department where the embarrassment has been the greatest.

Once all the cables have been leaked, we will have an even clearer picture of an administration that is what those of us who were paying attention said it was; insular, ideological, sneaky and inept. Thank the good Lord that we have at least begun to put a check on their arrogance and incompetence.