Friday Morning News & Notes

A ton of things to do today so here's the must-reads:

-Bob at Black & Right is starting a nice new gig next month. Good for him and keep fighting the good fight. On a personal note, I am also starting with a new employer on Monday. It's a nice step for me but posting will most-likely be at different times and possibly less frequently.

-The health care debate rages on. The WaPo and CBO threw about twenty gallons of gasoline onto the fire yesterday. Read the links as the spin is making the liberals look like dervishes.

-I'm sensing a serious tax revolt in the next year and looking at these numbers we'd be highly justified. Pelosi and Reid are not the leaders to stop the coming backlash.

-The Blue Dogs bare their collective teeth.

-California is not holding back on any means of bumping up revenue to balance the budget. This was bound to happen.

-Prominent business men were among those killed and wounded in the Jakarta terror attack. The War on Terror continues unabated even if Obama is sticking his fingers in his ears and yelling "I'm not listening..."

7 Reasons Why Blogs are Important

here's a shout out to all those who I don't link to nearly enough but are very good at what they do:

Black and Right
Excellent commentary and thoughtful opinion all in one place

The 46
Daily opinions on world events

The Long War Journal
Roggio and staff fight the good fight every single day

I Think, Therefore I Err
Terri blogs what she feels and that is the essence of the new media

Jammie Wearing Fool
Pound for pound among the very best on the web.

Gateway Pundit
See previous. Dude finds stories no one else does.

Mudville Gazette
The grand daddy of the Mil-Bloggers and still the best.

Friday Morning News & Notes

A rainy Friday but it's the weekend so it's all good.

Here's what's new:

-David Paterson yuks it up about raising taxes. I've spent alot of time in his state lately and the way they are imploding, he shouldn't be laughing at anything.

-The dirty fingers and corruption of Congress and Big Labor.

-Met the new boss, same as the old boss... Remember, it's not hypocrisy, it Hope and Change...or not.

-Someone explain to me why Obama would need 500 people to accompany him for his one week European junket? What the hell are 500 people doing for the week, carrying the teleprompter? Not only that, they all flew via military transport and that's hurting our military support in Afghanistan. Hell, Obama could have stimulated the airline industry into profitability if they would have flown commercial like the rest of of dumb schmucks.

-Ward Churchill wins and gets about all he deserved.

-Terri has a nice new look. The site still has that great new car smell.

Friday Night Music--Aussie Edition

In honor of this site bringing in an Aussie, we dedicate tonight to Aussie music.

The Aussies have given us good, bad and so-so. I'll show all three types.

Welcome Dan.

First we have a great band that melded blues with metal and had a singer whose voice sounded like he gargled with broken glass. I've always loved Angus who never was the greatest but made great music with the abilities he possesses. Bon Scott was a one-of-a-kind rock singer who flamed out way too early.



Next we have a song that any guy of my age remembers fondly. When the The Divinyls I Touch Myself came on MTV, a testosterone-filled boy would definitely stand up and pay attention. We just prayed that Mom wouldn't walk in the room while it was on and doubly prayed she didn't actually make us get up and take out the garbage if you know what I mean:



Next we have a video that essentially introduced many Americans to Australia rightly or wrongly. Men at Work, a band I'm sure that Aussies regret:



Finally, a band that rocks and is the new sound of Australia. Jet makes a gaggle of music for the amount of dudes in the band and will have a long career I suspect. They remind of Blink 182 with the energy they project. I've never seen Jet but friends have and they say live they are an amazing bar band that has to be seen to be appreciated. Here's a 2004 live edition of Are You Gonna Be My Girl from Japan:



I couldn't bring myself to post Peter Garrett and Midnight Oil. Garrett jumping around always made me think his friggin' head was going to pop off. Judging by his politics, it might not have been such a bad thing. I also will not post other noted Aussie acts like Helen Reddy and the Bee Gee's. Why embarrass our new friend?

But I will post this other Aussie who gave a whole generation of us young Americans a woody:

A New Addition

Note on the right that we will have a part-time contributor. He'll tell you who he is and you'll like his commentary. Make him feel welcome.

Update: You'll note that Dan is from Australia so he does everything backward. It's amazing how the advent of blogs has brought Oz and the US closer together, hell, I even know that the Australia Liberal Party is the right-wingish party. I just can't figure out that crazy-assed game of cricket.

Anyway, welcome Dan to the fold as he has great insight and can keep us up to date with events on his side of the planet. Australia has risen to be one of our most-trusted allies and one who will grow in stature over the years. Event in that Island nation now have a direct effect on us and Dan can give us the decidedly off-kilter Aussie view whenever he finishes scraping that kangaroo off the grill of his car.

My first question is this: Dude, what the hell is vegemite?

5-Year Blogiversary

Yikes, five friggin' years.

That would be more than one-eighth of my life to be exact. I've been posting to this blog for that long.

So let's look back to why I started this thing, shall we?

Five years ago, we were at the precipice of invading Iraq and we had a year plus to contemplate what happened at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, PA. Now, I've always been a political animal and would send letters to the editor on occassion but this new blogging thing was a revelation. You could post your thoughts and people could respond and tell you what an idiot you are. Pretty cool. Kind of like a bar debate sans the punches, blood and, more importantly, spilled beers.

I originally was a hybrid of Glenn Reynolds and Tim Blair but eventually found my own voice. Until you have your own voice, you're just a parrot like the Monkees copying the Beatles. we remember Davy Jones and Peter Tork but not even remotely as reverently as John, Paul, Ringo and George. So, I developed my own style. I'm no Beatles, more like a Grateful Dead Scarlet-Fire jam that kind of goes off the rails and then somehow pulls back into the present.

Anyway, many thanks to those who've linked including Glenn and Tim numerous times, Charles Johnson, Jeff Goldstein, the dudes at Hot Air and the myriad other great sites that I visit daily and pilfer nuggets from.

I also want to thank those of you who actually read my mindless drivel, without you I would be writing for the ether. My father-in-law, the guy I trained in D.C., a girl I worked with years ago and a lady named Terri who checks in and lets me know when I'm right, wrong or just, well, an idiot.

I've written to this site nearly daily over the last five years except when I didn't have the time and when AOL actually paid me for my opinions in 2006-2007. Getting paid to do what I love was indeed sweet and the $500+ a month, plus a bigger audience was ego-building to be sure. But the money left and I returned home.

Since then I've had some link success and have gotten more than 28,000 hits over two months. Startling to me but a pittance to the aforementioned Glenn, Tim and Charles. Still, it's good to know that my words have been read by many who either agreed, disagreed or didn't have an opinion.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Thanks to everyone who has made this site what it is. My wife deserves just as much of the thanks because she hasn't divorced me...yet. I guess I should do what Glenn did, get my wife to blog.

I think all who read my writing are great if somewhat off-kilter but respect and think all of you are pretty damn cool. I guess what I want to say is THANKS.

Update: Thanks Tim and cheers. I would have no problem with Malkovich but that dude in the Pope hat just may cause my Akita to attack as he's not seen anything like that. I should have mentioned when i said I mimicked Tim and Glenn that I have less than half the wit of the former less than half the brains of the latter.

Not sure when Tim linked, Aussie time throws me off. I think it's somewhere around a week from next Thursday there as we speak.

A New Addition

Note that the excellent blog No More Spin was added to the blogroll at right. As always, please check out the myriad opinions of those on the roll, they have a lot to say.

Note also that I have included lefty blogs as well in the interest of the free flow of ideas, look at the major liberal blogs and tell me how many you see that link to right-wing blogs. I'll save you the trouble...none do. That's because liberals know that their beliefs don't stand up to scrutiny and the righty blogs scrutinize the hell out of them.

Sunlight is a great disinfectant so I'll continue to keep those "progressive" blogs on my blogroll. Today it's the additon of a good conservative blog, tomorrow it may be a good nutroots blog on the off chance I find one.