( 11:51 PM )
Wreckid 'O Da Week
Just trying to keep up on what I've been listening to, but nothing is dominating. Nas' "I Can" is way up there. I haven't played the White Stripes, but the latest has been running through my head for the past week. Orcutt made me a New Order compilation that I'm spending some time with. Jana Peri told me about a very cool sounding Tennessee band called The Shazam that makes pretty good garage pop music. Brendan Benson slipped into the disc player for a bit. And I just saw the Hummer "Happy Jack" commerical during the Sunday night football game that's putting me in the mood for some Who.
But there's nothing that could really qualify as #1. And I don't want to hand out prestigious Wreckid's 'O Da Week just to front and try to get cool points. So it's a tie and we're sending it to the 2nd Circuit Court of Southern New York to break this tie and bring some sense to this nonsense. I'll let you know how they rule next week.
Later
( 11:23 PM )
Too Much To Think About
There's entirely too much on my mind to write about in this here blog. From Lieberman having the unmitigated audacity to question Wes Clark's Democratic bonafides to Condi Rice's convenient use of "I don't recall," to "K Street," my panties are all in a bunch. But I'm going to save that stuff for the Reconsidering All Things column instead of this blog.
But that brings me precisely to the point of this "blog." On my paying job, I was notified by a true blogger that real weblogs are 1) updated more than once a day, 2) have links to other blogs, and 3) have space for comments or a discussion board. Anything that doesn't meet those qualifications are merely the rants of columnists that true bloggers laugh at. So you're not really reading a blog right now, and I have no idea what (or why) you are reading.
All I know is this here is my little spot to grab a megaphone and shout at the world. It's written, not clearly thought out, then re-read and posted - simple as that. Who gives a damn if it's a blog, a column, a rant, or something to print out to use as substitute for toilet paper? So to the blog facist I say - get a life cause no one's reading your blog either.
( 11:26 PM )
Band Wagon
So Gen. Wesley Clark jumped into the race today, and I'm jumping on the band wagon. I saw him on Meet The Press a few months back, and I kind of liked where he stood on many issues. I also saw him on CNN getting a hard on about the war effort (although his excitement seemed to be about troops looking good and doing a good job), and I started to get the hibeegeebees because you military guys are a different breed.
But I'm in. And since I'm officially supporting Wes Clark now, I'm going to offer him some advice. Give no details about your agenda. No specifics. No 10 point plans. Just go out there and talk in large broad themes. Plain, southern, everyday language about making America great again.
We'll need a few ideas about where you stand on he big stuff, but just your "general" thoughts on war, civil rights, choice, and boxers or briefs kind of stuff. You'll need to talk about the economy too, but all you should say is something like we need to get the economy going again and put people back to work. I think a lot of people will be able to get behind a vanilla program like that.
The left will pull you this way. The DLC will pull you that way (but they'll probably tell you not to offer any details either. Of course, they'll expect you to be a suck up to the corporate bully boy interests, and you seem like the kind of guy who realizes, what's the point in being prez if you have to suck up to anyone?). So the left will have to give you a pass because we realize this may be the most important presidential election since the 1860s, and if winning without really telling us what you're gonna do is what it takes to get the job done - then shush up. Hell, Michael Moore has more or less given you his blessing, so I'm pretty sure we'll put up with the bullshit, headstrong temperment of a military man.
Good luck Wes. The world is counting on you.
PS - Just saw that Bush (and Rumsfeld) distanced themselves from Chaney (and Wolfowitz's) perpetuated lies about a Saddam-9/11 connection. Maybe Shrub has realized that you can't keep making shit up and shoving it down people's throats. Dick - you've been bitch slapped in public by the President's correction. Now it's time for you to go home.
( 8:59 PM )
I’m Free
Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) dropped by our magazine office yesterday and spent some time speaking with our staff. I went up to Mr. Brown and told him I used to work for the OH Attorney General when Brown was the Secretary of State back in the ‘80s. Realizing we were both stuck in Columbus, OH for a portion of our lives, we bonded and had a nice chat.
During Brown’s remarks to our staff, he mentioned that everyday he and some of the other reps try to read letters from constituents who were opposed to the war in Iraq into the Congressional Record. He said they do it because when the Reps make critical comments about the war it’s seen as being partisan, however, when the words come from citizens the effect is less politicized. Frankly, I don’t know if I buy that, but Brown struck me as a smart, hard-working, blue-collar kind of guy, so if he says that’s the view in DC, I believe it.
Anyway, I was just flipping the boob tube toward the Yankees game and I came across C-SPAN. I’m one of the 12 or 13 geeks in America that actually watches C-SPAN every now and then (one of the reasons I do so is because I often find myself saying ‘I hadn’t heard anything about such and such candidate supporting such and such issue. When I remembered that you never really hear about candidate positions in the mainstream media – just their standing in the polls – I realized the only way to ‘hear’ about a candidate’s position was to watch C-SPAN). Um – where the hell was I?
Oh yeah – so I come across C-SPAN and guess who’s on and what he’s doing? That’s right – Sherrod Brown is reading anti-war letters into the Congressional Record. What made me write about it was as soon as Brown finished, whoever is chairing the proceedings said, “I will remind you that no disparaging remarks should be made about the President.” Which in effect means, even citizens of the United States of America – land of the free – are not allowed to speak out against the great appointed, service-skipping, non-soldier-funeral-attending, truth-bending, money-grubbing, deceitful misleader who sits in the White House. Hey Georgie (and the censorious rat chairing the House at this moment) – here’s to democracy rearing it’s beautiful head and smirking you both back into the holes you crawled out of. Geez.
MW
PS – if you don’t find a new blog here next week, please send a search party as I’ve probably legally been rounded up under some made up pretense of the Patriot Act. I’m not the paranoid type, but don’t kid yourself if you think it can’t actually happen….
PPS – I promised myself I would stop writing about the war, but this was just too good of a coincidence(?) to pass up.
( 6:34 PM )
Potpourri For $200 Alex
After Steinbrenner's tirade yesterday, Joe Torre, Mel Stottlemyre, and Don Zimmer should quit the Yankees after this season and offer to coach the Red Sox next season.....The Steelers definitely looked like a playoff team yesterday. Dominating defense and Maddox's on target passing against a supposed great D shows me these boys could be playing in Houston next year....But Tennessee looked good and Steve McNair is my top candidate for league MVP.....While we're on sports, the OSU Buckeyes did not look very good. Defense might win championships, but the offense needs to score a TD or two.....Spent the weekend in Columbus and it's insane what they're doing to Maurice Clarett. Sure the kid screwed up big time, but you're talking about a 19-old-kid. He's going to make mistakes. He should definitely be punished for breaking the rules, but taking away his ability to play football at all is over the top. Beyond that, the University asked stores to stop selling his No. 13 jersey. As much as the Bucks will miss him, I really hope he goes to Grambling to play.....No Wreckid 'O Da Week this week. To be truthful, I don't think I played a single minute of music over the past week, so I'd be making it up if I picked something. Jane's Addiction wasn't strong enough to keep me listening and I haven't been able to find Cafe Tacuba, so music merriment has been at a minimum.....Can't believe that Bush actually intimated that the terrorists could actually come walking down the streets of America. His scare 'em schtick gets more and more pathetic every week....Thought it was kind of funny the world told Bush to wait before he went into the snakepit, but he went anyway. Now he tells the world it's their obligation to come help round up the snakes. Frankly, if I were the leader of one of the countries he wants to help, I'd tell him to fuck off......I'm reading the Tipping Point right now because: a couple of months ago a co-worker kept throwing the words around, I read that Al Franken was reading it because he wanted to get some ideas on how to market his book (turns out he didn't need it - he just needed Fox News), I'm more or less in marketing and want to do a good job, so why not read it, and my friend Jon made a reference to some of the theories in it and I'm wise enough to pick up on the signs to go out and buy it and read it.....Damn Arthur Ashe's widow is hot!.....Fettucine Alfredo beats Veal Parmagiana everytime.....and on Larry King tonight....
( 2:31 AM )
In Defense Of Carl Marks
Jim Bigrig made me betray one of my best friends.
You see, that wedding I went to a couple of months ago featured one of my best friends as the best man. His name is Carl Marks and he's one of the funniest human beings I know. I've always assumed his named sort of forced a quick wit upon him, but it worked and the guy sees humor in everything that happens. My first encounter with Carl Marks was at an Ohio University freshman sociology class that had about 200 students in it. Since it was the first day of class, the prof had to see if us dumb frosh were in the right place so he read off everyone's name that was supposed to be there. Pretty normal and boring until he said, "Carl Marks." A guffaw erupted through the room as most of us got the irony of Karl Marx and sociology.
I didn't meet him in class, but I eventually got to know him because he lived on the same floor of my dorm, and we kept bumping into each other at the local college radio station. We also had similar taste in music, played guitar, and had a strong liking for beer. Carl, Quaterson and Butler (my dorm room neighbors who also worked at the radio station) became fast drinking buddies and we developed a ritual of playing various metal songs, Deep Purple's "Lazy" and Parliament's "Maggot Brain" every weekend. Carl and I even started doing the "Coffee Underachievers" morning show where my favorite bit was to call someone who lived in our portion of the campus (you could only hear our station through the pipes of the dorms) and wake them up and tell them to tune in WSGR Radio 590AM so that they could hear themselves talking to us on the air. It always amazed me that people would actually go along with us instead of hanging up. Even though we didn't know what we were doing, we did some good schtick like listening in on other radio stations and explaining to our listeners (the one we woke up and the other one in the cafeteria that was forced to listen) why those stations sucked so bad, or celebrating celeb birthdays ("Hey Carl it's Eddie Van Halen's birthday - do you think he's gonna 'Jump'?" "Yeah," Carl would say, "Jump on Valerie." - Heady stuff for a morning show).
Anyway - through the next four years of college, four years in LA, visits to CO Springs and NYC, we stayed pretty tight. He's a smart guy who always makes me laugh, so I was looking forward to having a good time with him at George's wedding. When I got there, he told me about the toast he wanted to make as the best man. He wanted to stand up, pull out $20, and say, "Webb, I guess you were right - George isn't gay." Juvenile, but I'm laughing as I type it. When we went to get our tuxedos, we noticed that one of the other groomsmen was named Jim Bigrig. We literally got 20 minutes of laughter out of that thinking about what a great porn name that was and how would it would work when you tried to meet chicks ("Hi, how ya doing? My name's Bigrig. Wanna go for a ride?"). In fact, we were all hoping that we wouldn't break out in tears when we finally met him.
Well having so much time go by you don't even think about Carl Mark's name anymore. So I was a little taken aback when Jim Bigrig came over to me and whispered something about Carl Marks being a funny name and how people must have made fun of it. I just didn't have the balls to say, "you should know Bigrig" or anything else smart alecky. It just totally took me by surprise and I was tongue tied. So I said yeah, as if what's so funny about Carl Marks, and went about my business escorting the guests.
But as I think about it today, I get mad that I didn't let Bigrig have it. How dare he of all people make fun of someone else's name? And since Carl is the funniest guy I know, any kind of snappy comeback would have been appreciated and talked about at future gatherings for years to come. But I blew it. I betrayed a good friend. I let him down. Damn you Jim Bigrig - damn you and your alleged large unit/truck/amp/tractor trailer/whatever all the way to hell.
( 10:22 PM )
Corrections Officer
About a month ago, I blogged about John Kerry being the most liberal candidate in the race. That was way off. What I really meant was of the actual candidates who stand a chance of winning, Kerry was the most liberal. But the Washington Post recently reported that Dick Gephardt is offering the most activist Democratic prez platform. Dickie wants to cancel the Bush tax cuts and throw money at every problem we have. And God I love that about him (although his being a graduate of Michigan law school is a major problem for this lifelong Ohio State Buckeye fan, but sometimes you gotta go against instincts). So out of respect for Kucinich and Sharpton, I had to correct that Kerry bit.
I also forgot to mention that my little cousin Erin told me the Foo Fighter’s “Everlong” was her favorite song ever, so that might be why she’s so high on my likability meter.
Next – my actual blackout purchase was 3 candles, Doritos, Fritos, Gatorade and a popsicle.
Turns out the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity might have ties to some leftist organizations. If true, that does not change my feelings about them, and the facts in their open letter requesting the resignation of VP Cheney.
Beyond that, I can’t open past blogs to see what else needs correcting. However, we were supposed to do a wrap on our 2002 election predictions and never did. So I’d like to come clean about a couple of incorrect guesses. First, in all but 2 midterm elections since 1900 (I think – I’m too lazy to check it right now), the “opposition” party won seats during a mid-term election. Why Bush bucked the norm has something to do with the “opposition” party, and a better job of Republican voter turnout. But also note that my Senate predictions were only off by 1 seat and I can attribute that to the Wellstone-Mondale lost seat (who can know if people will vote for a dead person’s replacement or not?!), and I NAILED the Gray Davis/California governor’s election (http://www.2walls.com/politically/politically_move_over_tim_russert.asp). I was also WAY off in the FL gubernatorial election, but the Bush hater in me got in the way of the visionary prognosticator in me. Sue me – I’m human.
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