Epic Presidential Moment

Can't wait to see Mitt Romney trying to one-up the president on this.

Quickies

• Axl Rose refuses his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I'd have to say of all the bands that came out of the late 80s and early 90s, Guns N' Roses might be my favorite.  I was never in to the whole heavy metal-Metallica scene.  I'd take Guns N' Roses any day over them. Appetite for Destruction and Use Your Illusion I and II are three of the best rock albums ever created in my opinion.  And it's not like I'm a huge Roses fan because I'm really not.  What I do know is that there isn't a person between the ages of 20-45 who doesn't know every word to Sweet Child O' Mine, Welcome to the Jungle, Patience, or November Rain.  Their contribution to Rock is legendary.  I wish Axl could enjoy his time in the sun just for one day.  

• Fox News finds its Mole and fires him.  This surely won't be the last time we hear about this story.  My guess is look for Fux News to start a personal destruction tour of the guy to discredit him as much as possible before he's able to get his reports into the media storm.  

• Given all the successes Obama has had in fight against Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan, a majority of Republicans now believe the war isn't worth it anymore. Where were they 8 years ago?  Oh yeah, Bush was our Great Leader then and he was busy waging war in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.  Repubs couldn't get enough of that.

• Josh Tucker says Romney will have no trouble getting the support of Santorum voters.  Tucker is right.  I've said for months now that Republicans will show up to vote for Romney.  No questions about it.  They will come home and vote.  That he really isn't a Christian, that he is the founding father of the individual mandate, that he believes the Garden of Eden is in Jackson County, Missouri, that he loves all the Amendments in the Constitution, that prior to running president was very moderate on social issues will bother Republican voters not one bit.  They will vote for him, end of story.  

• Nutjob Paul Ryan refuses to say what he thinks constitutes "wealthy."  Says we should just call them job creators and leave it at that.  So where are the jobs?  And why doesn't he ask them to start creating?

Latest Round of Birth Control Hot Buttons Became Law Under Bush Administration

Led by the self-labeled Christian Right, Republicans are in an uproar over President Obama's decision to require employers to offer birth control in their insurance programs.  One of the key words in all of this is "offer."  Women won't be forced to use birth control if they don't want to. But if one does, you know want to avoid getting pregnant for whatever reason, their insurance programs will cover it, or at least that's the proposal by the administration.

[Hey, if I want to get a prescription from my doctor to give me endless hours of raging boners my insurance company has to cover it.  But that's okay.  I'm allowed to do this with no questions asked.  It's only when women's health is involved that we are forced to stop, take a breath and defer to what the Bible tells us.]

Doing this is nothing short of shredding the Constitution according to Republicans.  The first thing they bring up are all the religious organizations who employ thousands of people in this country being forced to handout birth control to women; women they demand turn over their reproductive rights to Biblical principles written entirely by men.  Again, the cool thing about all this is if the women who work for religious places don't want to take birth control pills they don't have to.  The whole thing is based on personal liberty as decided individually by the women themselves.  Don't know how much more libertarian that can be.  And no libertarianism has nothing to do with preventing government from telling business that they can't limit the personal liberties of their employees.  Libertarianism is the protection of the individual not corporations or groups of people.

Yet all that is way too ideological or wonkish for most Republicans to understand.  They only want to deal with the hot buttons of their made-up conspiracy behind Obama forcing women to take birth control.  They don't want to have to explain it any further than that.  They especially don't want to talk about the fact that the central mandate behind all of this was law all through Bush's two terms and never did the right wing freak out then.

There's one simple answer for that.  Bush was a Republican.  And that's all the Christian Right really cares about.  His administration enforcing laws forbidding insurance companies from paying for preventive care for women was okay because Republicans are led by God.  They don't have to prove their Christianity.  Even when they host Ramadan banquets and skip out on Christian prayer services it's perfectly fine.  Their faith is never questioned.  Only Democrats have to play by different rules and the media is more than game at enforcing the double standard.

So Long

I could kick myself for forgetting to mention that my favorite blogger, Steve Benen, has called it quits.

He didn't exactly just quit.  He took a better job producing The Rachel Maddow Show.  Can't blame a guy for that.  His blog was really my only daily read.  It's not going to be the same without him.  I hope MSNBC gets him a page to write on real fast like.

RE: Alternative Realtiy

photo courtesy of Atrios

I totally agree with Duncan Black:

It's almost needless to say, but if a bunch of TeaBaggers settled into a park somewhere to protest Kenyan Muslim Socialism then things would be playing out a bit differently. Brooks and Gerson would be writing regular tributes to these heroic Americans who represent the best of us. Nightly on the NewsHour they'd remind us that it had been "X days since President Obama refused to give in to their demands" no matter how kooky or nonexistent those demands were.

And, no, the cops would not have gone in and started bashing heads.

I've stayed out of the OWS conversation, for the most part.  I haven't come down for or against in any classic sense of taking sides.  I support anyone's right to protest peacefully.  Just like I supported the tea baggers right to protest.  I don't agree with them but I do agree they have the right to protest and voice their concerns.

With that said, there's no doubt in anyone's mind that if a tea bagger protest was broken up with police beating people it would be portrayed as a giant infringement on patriotic citizen's rights.  It would be Big Government Obama enforcing his tyranny.

There's also one point I want to make clear.  I keep hearing people, mostly the same people who walked around with boners when the tea baggers were in the streets, saying that the OWS protesters need to go find a job.  Duh!  That's why they are there.  They want to work.  They are mad that they've played by the rules and have lost out.  They didn't get bailed out like Wall St. did, who by the way did not play by the rules.  That's not saying everyone protesting is an upstanding citizen or even entirely passionate about contributing to society.  You don't have to support the movement.  You don't even have to like it.  But at least concede the point that they are not just worthless hippies who hate America.  These are people that are demanding their fair share, their Dream.  Take it or leave it

Adam Levine Has a Really Huge Set of Balls

I'm no Maroon 5 fan by any means.  But I do think Adam Levine is one of the best singers alive today.  He's also one of my new favorite people.

ESPN Boots Hank

I'm a Hank Jr. fan.  Listened to him almost all my life.  I probably know almost every word to all his songs.  So it's with disgust that I watched him make a fool out of himself on Fox News by comparing the president to Hitler and calling Democrats enemies.

Hank would have been the first person to call someone a traitor for saying such stuff about Bush and the GOP.  He would have questioned anyone's patriotism for doing any such thing just two years ago.  And it's totally within ESPN's rights to pull him from their Monday Night Football intro.  They simply don't want to partake their programming with an idiot.  That's their decision to make.

Hank used to stand for a figment of country music known as an Outlaw because he bucked the establishment.  He blamed them for forcing his father into second-class status because he didn't always act the way the old white geezers running the program wanted him to act.  Now as he sits there on the most watched news organization in America, especially by old white geezers who don't want anything to change, Hank has become the embodiment of everything he claimed to reject.  He is officially a crusty old white man that yearns for the days when no one questioned old crusty white men.

To their credit, Fox News has disowned and disavowed every word Hank said.  Good for them.  Now quit portraying the president as a socialist enemy of America and maybe this country can advance past such idiotic rhetoric and the mindset that caused Hank to say what he said.

Deep Thought

If you don't know who Sunny Ledfurd is, it's time to learn.

Bob Dylan at the White House

Last September I linked to a Rolling Stone interview of President Obama. In it he described the performance Dylan gave at the White House.

He didn't want to take a picture with me; usually all the talent is dying to take a picture with me and Michelle before the show, but he didn't show up to that. He came in and played "The Times They Are A-Changin'." A beautiful rendition. The guy is so steeped in this stuff that he can just come up with some new arrangement, and the song sounds completely different. Finishes the song, steps off the stage — I'm sitting right in the front row — comes up, shakes my hand, sort of tips his head, gives me just a little grin, and then leaves. And that was it — then he left.

As not to be tainted by the rubbing of elbows with those who muck it up for the little guy, Bob Dylan did what he had to do.  He left.  That's who he is.  Somehow mixing it up with the people he's been writing songs about still doesn't fly for Dylan. Wouldn't you think, some 50 years after he literally changed America forever, Dylan could allow just a little bit of intermingling?  No.

The reason I bring this back up is because I have finally found video of Dylan's performance.  I had watched on PBS the concert at the White House but it did not show Dylan.  It showed everybody else but for some reason it ended without him.  I figured he didn't even want it recorded.  Nonetheless, what I find most amazing about Dylan at the White House is that this is his first performance ever at the executive mansion.  I would have thought Clinton would have brought him in but I guess not.



I must also give a full disclosure on this.  I am not really that much of a Dylan fan. What he did is nothing short of amazing.  But his music never swayed me one way or the other.  What he does draw attention to for me is the fact my generation does not have a Bob Dylan.  I went to high school in the 90s, a time when someone who was a product of Dylan occupied the White House.  There was no need then for a counterculture antiwar movement.

Even during the Bush years, when we had a hugely unpopular president and America drastically went from peace and prosperity to war without end and fiscal insanity, no Dylan emerged.  Even worse, the closest we have today to an American singer motivated by the political happenings of the day is Lady Gaga.  So, yeah, nostalgia for Dylan at the White House is intrinsically linked to the void of today's patheticalness.

Happy Birthday Howard Stern

The Fold Blog extends its warmest wishes of Happy 56th Birthday to the legendary Howard Stern. The world wouldn't be the same without him.

Probably Should Go Find Something Else To Do

If as executive commander of a nuclear powered aircraft carrier when the country is fighting two wars and you have enough time on your hands to make immature videos, I'd say there is a misplace of priorities somewhere.  But hey, I'm no one to judge another's immaturity or lack or discipline.

*Update:

And he's gone.

Country Music Has Plenty of Democrats

Here's a take on country music singers that goes against the conventional stereotype: Very few of them are hard-lined right wingers. In fact quite a few of them are left of center, liberal, or just good ol' Democrats.  One of the most famous country music singers in the world, Johnny Cash, was a self-described liberal.  One of my favorite quotes from him is "let's just say I didn't vote for George Bush," from 2005.

I've been a fan of country music pretty much more whole life.  I know way more about country music than any other genre.  So I've always found it odd that more people don't realize country music is more than just right wing Republicans.  One of the biggest stars in country music today, Toby Keith, is a Democrat.  Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are huge Democrats.  Arguably one of the biggest names ever in country music, Garth Brooks, is also a Democrat.  Willie Nelson, yep a Democrat.  Todd Snider, Steve Earle (a personal favorite) and Kris Kristofferson are all Democrats.  Let us not forget, either, Merle Haggard, pure country music royalty, is a Democrat.

Speaking of Merle, he tells Rolling Stone the media gets very little right about President Obama and the lying is abundant.

It was also nice to meet Obama and find him very different from the media makeout. It's really almost criminal what they do with our President. There seems to be no shame or anything. They call him all kinds of names all day long, saying he's doing certain things that he's not. It's just a big old political game that I don't want to be part of. There are people spending their lives putting him down. I'm sure some of it's true and some of it's not. I was very surprised to find the man very humble and he had a nice handshake. His wife was very cordial to the guests and especially me. They made a special effort to make me feel welcome. It was not at all the way the media described him to be.

The whole interview is a good read and worth a few minutes.(H/T TPM)

Gaslight Anthem Still Rocks

I didn't realize Brian Fallon was this tatted up.

Circle Jerk

Matthew Yglesias uses "circle jerk" in his post today. Yet more proof The Fold Blog is having a positive impact on modern society.

Everything Changes But Bob Dylan

The best part of President Obama's interview to Rolling Stone magazine is not that he slaps around Fox News for being a Republican outlet, but when he describes when Bob Dylan came to sing at the White House:

Here's what I love about Dylan: He was exactly as you'd expect he would be. He wouldn't come to the rehearsal; usually, all these guys are practicing before the set in the evening. He didn't want to take a picture with me; usually all the talent is dying to take a picture with me and Michelle before the show, but he didn't show up to that. He came in and played "The Times They Are A-Changin'." A beautiful rendition. The guy is so steeped in this stuff that he can just come up with some new arrangement, and the song sounds completely different. Finishes the song, steps off the stage — I'm sitting right in the front row — comes up, shakes my hand, sort of tips his head, gives me just a little grin, and then leaves. And that was it — then he left. That was our only interaction with him. And I thought: That's how you want Bob Dylan, right? You don't want him to be all cheesin' and grinnin' with you. You want him to be a little skeptical about the whole enterprise. So that was a real treat.

Pearl Jam Turns 20

Great way to make yourself feel even older early in the morning.

I'm not the biggest Pearl Jam fan ever, but I have always liked them.  I was in 7th grade when I first heard them.

I Found a New Sound

 Gaslight Anthem rocks. 

Had to go to Jersey to find the sound I wanted to hear.  And I like the change.

I Need a New Sound

iPad Chronicles

Just received word that my iPad has arrived. FINALLY!!!

iPad Chronicles

It's still not in yet. I just checked the tracking information and it said it was in Memphis, TN. I hope it arrives tomorrow seeing how Memphis is about 2.5 hours away. If not maybe by Tuesday. Something I thought was interesting was the iPad was built in China. I thought Apples were built in Cali??

The only reason I ordered it online was because it said it ships within 7-10 days.  It's already been 14 I think.  Geeeez I'm just ready to try it out.