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For The “Occupy” Protesters.

I don’t always agree with your methods; I don’t always agree with some of the more extreme views on display; and I can’t stand the whole bused-in and paid-for bodies that are there mixed in the crowd. But, that said, I absolutely understand why many of you truly feel betrayed by the system.

Here are lyrics I wrote last week for my duo project Taylor Martin. It’s not quite complete, there will be a few changes as we mate the words to the tune, as this is not quite a finished project.

Thanks For Nothing

♫ Been working this dead-end job, for too many a year
Got nothing but an empty wallet, and a fist full of tears
You think they’d be grateful for the hard work I’ve put in
Thought they were, now I’m out on my rear

I’ve slaved and I’ve cried
And I’ve bled for the firm
Instead of a gold watch
I got nothin’ in return

You play by the rules, like they taught you in school
Paid all my taxes, they collected my dues
Yet here I am in the unemployment line
Man, I’m the consummate fool

Come into work
But the factory’s closed down
Here I thought I was swimming
But it turns out I’m drowned

In an ocean of debt, not a lifeguard around
And the Riverboat Wall Street with my investments ran ground
My financial house was solid and sound
Till they foolishly broke it all down

Now my eyes are wide open, finally I see
It pays to be dishonest, to lie and deceive
Some thins in life, are just what they seem
So much for the American Dream
So much for the American Dream
Say goodbye to the American Dream
Say goodbye to the American Dream ♫

Yet Another New Lyric….

In response to someone calling me a liberal and Truther for saying the Star Trek DS9 episode “In the Pale Moonlight” is somewhat analogous to the Global war on Terror concerning torture and Gitmo. I was on another thread issued this challenge:

Hey, sf – You could rewrite it to touch upon your crypto-Troofer beliefs and “Boooshitler tortured!!1!” canards. Then, when people point out the indecency of it, you can say there’s no point in discussing it – as if you hadn’t been the one to introduce the subject 🙂

To which I replied thusly:

Don’t Label Me Bro!

♫ I sure wish you would understand,
that some things are not hand in hand
you misrepresent what I believe
and go on to twist and to deceive

The facts that normally are so clear
are distorted based on a thin veneer
of over zealous patriotic zeal
I’ll set you straight here’s the deal

I don’t believe that George Bush lied
or is happy that some people died
I don’t believe that Cheney’s bad
though he often seems to be quite mad

The Truther guys well they’re insane
Mohammed Atta flew that plane
it was islamofascist asshat clowns
that brought those two great buildings down

I’m not a lib not even close
that accusation is quite gross
If you want some written proof
It’s on my blog and that’s the truth

On water-boarding I hold fast
my opinion’s derived from the past
From Nam, Korea, and way back when
T’was considered torture and has always been

If Iran were to catch a guy
and turns out he’s an American spy
Then they went and did the same
your collective heads would be aflame!

Listen carefully to my words
Pidgeon-holing is for the birds
to stereotype me it’s just plain wrong
the folly of blind ideologues!!! ♫

Keep in mind I wrote this on the fly when challenged this morning. I’ve become a lyric-writing machine!!!!!

The Entire Jobs Bill!

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

Today, I am pleased to submit to the Congress the enclosed legislative proposal, the “American Jobs Act of 2011,” together with a section-by-section analysis of the legislation.

The American people understand that the economic crisis and the deep recession were not created overnight and will not be solved overnight. The economic security of the middle class has been under attack for decades. That is why I believe we need to do more than just recover from this economic crisis — we need to rebuild the economy the American way, based on balance, fairness, and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street. We can work together to create the jobs of the future by helping small business entrepreneurs, by investing in education, and by making things the world buys.
Read more »

So, Who Does Our Government Represent Again?

Answer:

Here.

and

Here.

The Volcker Rule, inserted into the Frank-Dodd financial regulations bill, as it turns out, did not have a definition attached to it. It was, as so much legislation has been over the last few year, incomplete and ill-defined. Now, the banks and financial institutions that are supposed to be held in check by this rule are effectively writing the parameters to the rule. The result:

The draft of the Volcker rule released by the four agencies last week runs close to 300 pages and includes the word “exemption” more than 400 times.

This is what happens when it becomes more important to pass something… Anything, to show you’re doing something, than to put your political ass on the line and make tough decisions! They did this with the Patriot Act, the Healthcare bill, and now this. Our “leaders” are more concerned about upsetting their financial donors and winning elections than they are about doing what is right and only voting for legislation that is complete and defined and workable. How many times do we have to hear a legislator or a President tell us “we passed this great bill, and though it is flawed, we’ll fix it later” before we wise up and tell them “NO!”?

And don’t be fooled, with the exception of Ron Paul, if a Republicans wins in 2012, this gets turned up to 12… We’re already at eleven.

Gay Advertizing… Plus, Old Subaru Commercials!

Andrew Sullivan has a link to a Subaru commercial that plays on the emotional connection of marriage and the ideals of the adventure of a honeymoon. Having not been on a honeymoon myself, I have no idea what they are like. But something like the one portrayed in the commercial is what we all would like, or something fanciful and adventurous like it.

But that got me thinking, Subaru has a long history of making lifestyle a part of the brand.

Because they have been featuring 4 wheel or All Wheel Drive as long as any other car manufacturer on the market, they have been able to market themselves as something just a little different. That philosophy of not being the same as the typical cookie cutter car, of occupying a niche market in the automotive world has also allowed the company to branch out and target demographic groups that were passed over by other car manufacturers. They pioneered the practice of advertizing to the gay demographic.

“Subaru has always recognized the importance of speaking to all their customers,” says Subaru brand spokesperson, John Nash. “In the early nineties, market research indicated that many lesbians and gay men had a strong loyalty for the brand, based on the reliability of the vehicles. The company made the decision to speak to their G&L [gay and lesbian] customers in the first person, in the magazines and newspapers they read, with custom creative. Seemingly a simple and smart decision, but given the time period, certainly a farsighted and courageous one.”

They’ve been traveling down this road for almost 20 years. A number of the ads in the early 2000’s featured Martina Navratilova .

They produced a few TV commercials for the gay market as well.

Subaru has succeed in this market because they are a smaller company, and have never thought of themselves as being part of the mainstream. That gave them the freedom to go after this previously neglected demographic in the auto advertizing world. Remember, when Ford tried the same strategy, to cash in on the growing income trend of gay America, they got their hands slapped by the “traditional” American crowd, they were boycotted and ended up pulling the ads. Months later, Ford reversed it’s decision and resumed advertising in gay media.

This was a major step, and today you see many companies now feel free to try and attract business from the gay segment of the population without too much backlash.

A couple of oldies but goodies.

Wish this commercial was of better quality

Now this is some serious OLD SCHOOL!!!!!

Me Playing At The Big BIG Fresno Fair! Pic 1

The Mystery Of EQing… Explained! (presented?)

Through all our lives, we, as both general consumers and musicians, have been using and adjusting an EQ on one gadget or another. It seems like such an easy concept – you turn the treble down, yuo turn the bass up….

OK – Most normal people do that… But I’m a bass player! I’m not normal!!!!

Anyway, there is a lot more to EQing than meets the eye. Here is an article that explain the in’s and out’s of EQ’s.

Marco Rubio – Inquisitor!

I’m not a fan of Tim Geithner by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m going to defend him here. He’s right that that the marginal increase being bandied about won’t have much of an impact on job creation at all (scaling back on onerous regulation would be much more effective). What really gets me are the cheap high school debating trick being employed by Rubio in this exchange. For instance,  Rubio does not let Geithner ever finish an answer before he’s peppered with another question. Also, Rubio keeps asking questions about statements made by his boss, Barrack Obama. Those statements were made made during an election year attempt by the President to try and sway a few Conservative minded voter to the Democrats. It was an obvious ploy, a crass move by the President that didn’t pay off. It wasn’t Geithner who extended the tax rates. I don’t mind the point being raised, but too much time is spent by Rubio repeating this strategy over and over again. Geithner can’t answer it! That decision is on his boss.

It’s obvious the new bill, which is labeled as a jobs bill, is not a jobs bill. It’s yet another crass cynical political joke intended to highlight our political divide vs any remedy for the current recession, trying to be passed off as a jobs bill. Concentrate on that.

“CHANGE: Most Union Households Think NLRB Outdated”.

What… I think their music still holds up pretty well!!!!

…. Oh, the “N”LRB????

Never Mind!

PS. Auto-Tune…. Bite Me!!!! This is how the adults do it!!!! 🙂

Robert Reich Pretty Much Nails It.

Don’t have time to comment on this now, but Reich does lay out the main problem nicely. To summarize, he shows that the “Trickle Down” portion of supply side economics… never actually trickled down. The gains we saw over the last thirty years were due to, among other things, two huge stock market bubble, a mammoth housing bubble, and the over reliance on credit by both consumers and the financial industry.

I’m not against the rich at all… I’d like to be one of them. But Supply Side economics made it too easy to make money with money, too easy to grow capital without actually investing in brick-and-mortar and manufacturing jobs, thus, no trickle down to the middle class. Reich and I will, I suspect, part ways on what to do to fix the system, but that’s fine. We do agree on much of the problem.

PS. Here’s my thoughts on possible solutions to revive the economy.