If you’re going to go after Palin for her inaccuracies concerning history (and I have, oh have I ever)… What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander!!!
Hat Tip: Althouse
History, Politics / Law Stuff | Sonicfrog September 9, 2011 | 
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Now that Obama had laid out the latest clarion call to implement the uninspiring and already proven useless same ol’ same ol’, here is my three point Five… Five plan to get us back on the road to recovery:
Look, we can’t keep doing what we’ve been doing for the last thirty years. The economy is immune to it. We need to do something bold, something grand that will capture the collective imagination of the consumers at large – Something that stirs the economic soul!
Thoughts anyone????
The plan.. or what-ever that was? As far as fixing the economy… I won’t do much. It’s will add a few more jobs, but will do nothing to fix the underlying structural problems that are weighing down the economy like an anchor around the neck.
Politically though, it’s a good move.
By throwing everything and the kitchen sink out there, knowing full well there is no way even half of this can get through Congress, Obama now has his campaign weapon against the Republican congress = That they didn’t work hard enough to implement Obama’s wonderful plan, and if the economy is still in the pits, he’ll be able to blame it on Congress.
After a while…. looking at a chicken would have been more interesting.
In a nut-shell:
“We’re going to have tax breaks for people while we raise taxes on people. Corporations are bad because they take advantage of tax incentives we have given them. We’re offering tax incentives for companies to create jobs. We’re going to do three times as much as we did before, with 4/10th less the money than the last stimulus!…. blah blah blah”
I didn’t hear all of the speech; I turned it off somewhere in the middle. In my defense, you can only get so far down the laundry list before you realize there just isn’t enough money at your disposal to do all the things you promise.
We needed bold.
We got nothing more than the same ideas that have gotten us into this mess in the first place.
This was nothing more than the usual State Of The Union, complete with the empty promises that won’t / can’t be done… Just offered up without the lie that “This Union Is Strong” offered up at the beginning.
Politics / Law Stuff | Sonicfrog September 8, 2011 |
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How On Earth does a wonderful and awe-inspiring song like
End up with comments like this?????
WARNING – SUCKY LANGUAGE BELOW:
*
@MrKaddus Damn…your all on my dick even more than your mother. I’m not acting like I’m tough you cock sucking faggot.
But when someone starts talking shit like you…I won’t back down.
And remember little pussy boy…you wouldn’t say that to my face…I’ll? box your ass out!
I live on: Via Giovanni Grasso, Catania, Sicily….Come get some if you think I’m “scrawny”.
Hands up, chin down mother fucker…come at me!
If not then shut the fuck up and stop talking to me faggot!
thesicilianguitarist 1 month ago
*@thesicilianguitarist Yeah, you’re acting like a child. Telling people they should have cancer and throwing around insults just because they disliked a video. You act so tough but I bet you’re some scrawny 80lb kid behind a keyboard. And for your information, I live in the UK.?
MrKaddus 1 month ago@BigBossInc Hey man… fuck you…fuck your “LOL”, and fuck your? face…you little pussy ass bitch. Where do you live? When I come back to the US we can talk face to face.
thesicilianguitarist 1 month ago
*@MrKaddus
Who the fuck are you?!?! And? why are you talking to me?
The first comment I wrote was “This video is amazing no wonder there isn’t ONE dislike.”
Then some asshole said to me….”I’m going to dislike it just to spite you.” And you call ME a child?!?
Know what’s going on before you open your stupid mouth. I bet you support the Teabagger party…idiot.
Go ahead… give it a thumbs down. Your a nobody…I could care less about you and your family… get fucked.
thesicilianguitarist 1 month ago@thesicilianguitarist I’m giving this video? a thumbs down because you’re acting like a child.
MrKaddus 1 month ago
#@thesicilianguitarist LOL You’re such a goddamn loser dude. I play World of Warcraft and listen to justin bieber? Yeah right. Go fuck yourself with a club covered in razorblades you needle dicked twat.?
BigBossInc 1 month ago
#@BigBossInc yeah yeah yeah…I know you wouldn’t DARE say that to my? face. But my main point is…. is why are you even talking to me?!?! As a guitarist I admire the great Les Paul….So go back to playing World of Warcraft, and listening to Justin Bieber.
And what the hell is “lol”?!? Is that some sort of dork slang?
thesicilianguitarist 1 month ago
Cheese And Rice!!!!!
Man! This article is right on!
And if the contestants were allowed to question each other, and have at least five to ten minutes to respond with detailed, complex, well thought out answers instead of sound bites, I can bet at least four of the current GOP pretenders would have no choice but to drop out out of fear of embarrassment!
I also know of one who would just keep on going in spite of herself…. Make that two of those, because I predict the other “True Conservative” will declare tomorrow that she will announce her intentions to do… SOMETHING!!!!…. There-by sucking all the air out of the room on the President’s night in the spotlight.
Hey, it worked for Perry against his GOP competitors in Iowa. So politically, it’s been proven a smart move…. Distasteful… But smart.
PS. This would go for liberals too if the shoe were on the other foot and they were trying to choose a candidate.
Huge Hat Tip: New KYNO Radio Host Michael Smercornish.
Politics / Law Stuff | Sonicfrog September 7, 2011 |
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A list of the musicians who play on legendary artist Glen Campbell’s swan-song album “Ghost on the Canvass”. There are some stellar artists on this. I’ve bolded the ones that caught my eye. Without looking them up on-line, how many do you recognize right off the bat?
* Glen Campbell – acoustic and electric guitar, vocals
Additional musicians and composers
* Kim Bullard – keyboards
* Shannon Campbell – vocals
* Chris Chaney – bass guitar
* Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
* Katie Cole – vocals
* Billy Corgan – electric guitar on “There’s No More Me… Without You”
* Dick Dale – electric guitar on “In My Arms”
* George Doering – acoustic guitar, banjo, and mandolin
* Eric Dover – vocals
* Jakob Dylan – composition
* Jason Falkner – acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar (from the Jellyfish)
* Josh Freese – drums
* Jessie Green – violin
* Justin Grey – composition
* Peter Holmström – electric guitar on “Strong”
* Steve Hunter – electric guitar
* Chris Isaak – vocals on “In My Arms”
* Corky James – acoustic guitar
* Danny Levin – trumpet
* Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. – keyboards, vocals (also from the Jellyfish)
* Wendy Melvoin – electric guitar (Prince, Wendy & Lisa, Neil Finn)
* Rick Nielsen – electric guitar on “There’s No More Me… Without You”
* Tim Pierce – acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin (studio musician – plays on everything – Tim Finn, Toy Matinee)
* Robert Pollard – composition
* Zac Rac – keyboards
* Julian Raymond – vocals, arrangement, production, co-writing
* Marty Rifkin – dobro and pedal steel guitar on “There’s No More Me… Without You”
* Brian Setzer – electric guitar on “In My Arms” and “There’s No More Me… Without You”
* Eric Skodis – vocals
* Aaron Sterling – drums
* Courtney Taylor-Taylor – keyboards on “Strong”
* Teddy Thompson – composition
* Keith Urban
* Michael Ward – electric guitar
* Paul Westerberg – composition
* Todd Youth – electric guitar
Band Stuff, Music / Video | Sonicfrog September 4, 2011 |
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Last night, Acoustic Highway had one of the best gigs we’ve had in the four years we’ve been together. We played up in Oakhurst at the Sky Ranch resort for a Ren-fair. It’s not that the crowd was huge… It wasn’t. There were only about twenty people there. But we sounded GREAT! It wasn’t just that Chris got a new drum set, which sounded so crisp and alive. It wasn’t just that we played a few songs from scratch that we’ve never played as a band before, and those songs came out great! It wasn’t just that Steve started playing a riff he came up with, i added some lyrics I recently penned… er… texted to myself…. No. It was all this and more. But the creation of a new song right there and then, something in which my input mattered, it’s lit a spark!
It’s time to start laying down and recording the songs I’ve been writing for the last thirty year.
Yes friends…. It’s time to start recording my forever delayed solo album…. Or whatever you want to call it.
The impetus to get this in gear started a little over a month ago. Then a couple of weeks ago, when I went to Dallas for a vacation, an old friend gave me the Carter Albrecht solo album. It is a fine piece of work. Tragically, Albrecht, an alum of the 80’s band Edie Brickel and the New Bohemians, died before the album was finished and never got to see his work completed. Listening to the album weighs on me a little, as does the situation with Glen Campbell’s Alzheimer condition, both reminders that we are all finite. Those more negative thing are not the main motivation for my commitment, but I can’t deny they are not there. No, it’s the great feeling of making music that is stirring my soul to take these steps to a new unfamiliar place.
Anyway, after I woke up this morning, and got on the road to drive the 45 miles home, it all hit me like some divine sugar rush! Every fiber in my body is telling me that this IS the time!
Here is a lyric i wrote back in 89 that I think captures my new direction, my change in course onto a new exiting path!
Yeah, This is my story….
I’ve done what I had to do
Now it’s time to move onThere’s untouched places just a-waiting to be found,
These feet are gonna shadow new ground…
Yeah… it’s time to move on.
PS. I have two pieces of equipment I need to get to get the best sound I can. A direct box in to help beef up the guitar and bass inputs, and an eight channel firepod, or something like it, so I can get a good mixable set of drum tracks. The mix and clarity of the drums and percussion are very important to me – it’s one of the aspects I hone in on when I’m listening to any record. I know, given my non-existent budget, I’m limited in what I can do to produce “The Ultimate Sounding Record”. But I can at least do what I can to get the best sound possible for this thing….
Now… What the hell am I going to call it????
My blog-pal Dan at Gay Patriot has glowing praise for John Huntsman’s economic plan, published in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Dan writes:
Jon Huntsman has taken a lot of grief from conservatives as being a RINO while winning acclaim from the left-of-center media establishment as a “grown-up” type of Republican. On Sunday talk shows, he has taken potshots at his more conservative Republican challengers for the party’s presidential nomination and signed on to the theory of anthropogenic global warming.
Sometimes it even sounds like he’s planning to endorse the man who tapped him as the nation’s ambassador to China should he (as polls indicate he will) fail in his bid for the Republican nomination. I had been skeptical of his bid for said nomination until I read the Wall Street Journal’s praise yesterday of his economic plan.
This plan, as summarized by the Journal, is pretty close to the type of plan I would promote were I running for national office.
Yep! I’ve written of the need for something similar to really stimulate economic growth. But here is the very first comment out of the block:
His economic policies have always seemed attractive, however my problem with Huntsman has usually centered around his character. I’m Mormon, and I watched him in an interview bob and weave in response to a very direct question about whether or not he was Mormon. He parsed his words and wouldn’t really confirm or deny it.
OK. Here you have the ONLY candidate who has laid out a very fiscally sound economic policy, something that you all SAY is THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE of our time…. Yet you won’t vote for him because he gets skittish about discussing his religion, something that he feels is a private matter.
This just confirms what I have said all along… That Social Conservatism is actually THE MOST IMPORTANT item in the movement today, and you guys still, in this horrible economy, will chose that over fiscal soundness every time! Huntman’s fiscal record as governor IS BETTER than either Rohmney’s, Bachmann’s, or Perry’s, yet he trails all of them by a wide margin! And Huntsman had the guts to reject No Child Left Behind via legislation! Even “Mr Real Conservative” himself Rick Santorum voted for it! Huntsman didn’t just talk about how flawed the policy was… He banned its implementation in his state! With the exception of Ron Paul, who voted “No” on the bill that created it, no one else in the field can claim that either. As I noted before, though all the candidates enjoy harping and deriding the last Republican President for his spendthrift ways, not ONE, save Huntsman and Paul, will actually go on record to repeal any of the programs that make Bush such a bad President in their opinion.
Because you still weigh social issue over fiscal ones, you’re going to end up picking another George W Bush… And you don’t even see it!
PS. At Gay Patriot, it was pointed out to me that I misinterpreted the intent of the original comment. Point taken.
Economics, Politics / Law Stuff | Sonicfrog September 2, 2011 |
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Due to the brain-washing that goes along with politics, some people just have these blind spots when it comes to certain topics, driving them to mental paralysis when it comes to recognizing problems. For both Liberals AND Conservatives. the effect of government regulations on businesses is a sticky wicket. I can hear some of my Conservative friends friends heads exploding upon including them in this post!
“We’re for LESS regulations and SMALLER government” I can hear them screaming!!!!
We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, lets just focus on liberals… Because they are an easier target concerning this topic! (just kidding of course… or am I?). First, lets look at something very close to my heart….. Guitars! The recent raid by the Feds on Gibson Guitars is kind of mind boggling! It’s not due to smuggling cocaine in guitar bodies or anything like that… It’s about WOOD!!!!
Gibson Guitar Corp., a big user of ebony and other scarce woods, for years has allied itself with Greenpeace and other environmental groups to show it was serious about preserving forests.
That didn’t stop the Nashville-based company, whose guitars are used by such musicians as B.B. King and Angus Young of AC/DC, from running afoul of U.S. authorities over allegedly illegal imports of wood. Though no charges have been filed, Gibson factories have been raided twice, most recently last week, by federal agents who say ebony exported from India to Gibson was “fraudulently” labeled to conceal a contravention of Indian export law.
Henry Juszkiewicz, chief executive officer of the closely held company, said in an interview that a broker probably made a mistake in labeling the goods but that the sale was legal and approved by Indian authorities.
Gibson’s predicament, which raises concerns for musical instrument makers and other importers of wood, illustrates the pitfalls of complying with U.S. law while dealing with middlemen in faraway countries whose legal systems can be murky.
The law ensnaring Gibson is the Lacey Act of 1900, originally passed to regulate trade in bird feathers used for hats and amended in 2008 to cover wood and other plant products. It requires companies to make detailed disclosures about wood imports and bars the purchase of goods exported in violation of a foreign country’s laws.
Leonard Krause, a consultant in Eugene, Ore., who advises companies on complying with the Lacey Act, is telling clients they should hire lawyers in countries where they obtain products. “How many people know the statutes in India?” Mr. Krause said. “The net effect is that it raises everybody’s cost of doing business.”….
Federal agents first raided Gibson factories in November 2009 and were back again Aug. 24, seizing guitars, wood and electronic records. Gene Nix, a wood product engineer at Gibson, was questioned by agents after the first raid and told he could face five years in jail.
“Can you imagine a federal agent saying, ‘You’re going to jail for five years’ and what you do is sort wood in the factory?” said Mr. Juszkiewicz, recounting the incident. “I think that’s way over the top.” Gibson employees, he said, are being “treated like drug criminals.”
Really?… REALLY????? And here is a fun bit…..
The federal government seized wood, guitars and electronic records from Gibson’s Nashville warehouses in 2009 and again last week. According to Juszkiewicz, that’s when the Feds made an unusual request from the American manufacturer.
On KMJ airwaves, Juszkiewicz revealed that representatives of the US government told Gibson that their legal issues would “disappear” if they used Madagascar labor instead of American labor.
Here is the link. Listen to the CEO interview. This is bizarre!!!! God… I hope they have records of this!!!! If Gibson was a smaller company, due to the losses of material confiscated by the Feds (stuff they bought and can’t sell) and costs of hiring attorneys to deal with this, they would have been driven out of business after the first raids!
Gibson has filed…… 80,000 legal documents in this case…
Yes, you read that right! 80,000 documents… Over WOOD!!!!!!
This is just stupid!!!!! I love Chris Daniel’s reaction to this. Here is the official statement from Gibson Corp.
Bringing things to a local level, Twist, a tavern here in the Fresno / Clovis area is closing it’s doors… Not because business is horrible – it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible – but because it got too expensive and convoluted to deal with the regulatory hoops they had to deal with to stay in business. Here is how one of the co-owners describes the convoluted process of trying to run the business:
“Our original business plan was to have a restaurant and late-night lounge with dancing,” said Costa, but from day one “we were forced to close at midnight.”
After battling with the city and winning their request to stay open until 2 a.m., Costa says the next hurdle came when they sought permission to include dancing at their establishment.
Considering Mayor Ashley Swearengin not that long ago heralded the prospect of “letting people dance” at local night spots, Costa couldn’t understand why they had to struggle to garner city approval for a dance permit, “We had to tell our customers they can’t dance, so they were leaving,” Costa noted.
Twist was finally granted a dance permit in 2010 with a sunset clause, which means the permit would expire this year.
Costa says he and the other owners went before the City Planning Commission and won their request for a full Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to include dancing, but there were even more issues like their ABC liquor license.
“One of the conditions of our ABC license is we were not allowed to sell more alcohol than food, ” says Costa.
Considering the makeup of their establishment as a late night eatery and night club, Costa says they were consistently in violation of the license because of that one provision because “we were successful in the alcohol department, you know, we’d sell 60% alcohol and 40% food.”
He says they have been battling with Fresno Police to have the provision removed, but have been unable to reach a compromise.
Instead, Costa says they were only met with more roadblocks so they decided to close up shop under increasing attorney’s fees, and a still struggling economy.
Now, this is where I address Conservative contributions to overzealous regs… The police in this town are VERY Conservative (I know the police chief and have worked on his pool and spa). These alcohol rules are supported by Conservatives. All of this is due to the blind over-reaction the “Tough On Crime” mentality brings out the worst in all politicians! And Conservatives have NO PROBLEM over-regulating if it serves their political desires:
On Friday evening, Virginia’s Department of Health issued a strict new set of rules for abortion clinics—and women’s health advocates fear that facilities that can’t comply could be shuttered.
The regulations require Virginia’s 22 clinics to meet strict new physical standards; pre-op rooms, for example, must measure at least 80 square feet, and operating rooms must measure 250 square feet. Hallways must be at least five feet wide. The requirements are based on the state’s 2010 guidelines for new outpatient surgical facilities.
Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, told Mother Jones on Monday that the new rules may actually be the most strict regulations in the United States. “It would be challenging for the majority of our facilities to continue offering first-trimester care,” Keene said. “These are designed to really cease first-trimester abortion services in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
The president of Washington, D.C.’s Planned Parenthood chapter has already told the Washington Post that she doesn’t believe that a clinic in Falls Church, Virginia, will be able to meet all of those requirements. Keene said that many other clinics in the state won’t be able to meet them, either—which she thinks is exactly the reason the Department of Health wrote them that way. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this is an attack on Roe,” said Keene. “You can ban abortion by making it inaccessible.”
As is demonstrated in the Gibson case, Liberals do this same type of thing when it comes to environmental issues. You may not agree with the pro-choice philosophy, and that is not the point here. When you factor in the resistance to end subsidies for Conservative favored industries, and support of laws like this, there is no denying that Conservatives play the Big Government game just as readily as Liberals do!
PS. Gibson makes Fine Guitars!!!!!!!
Bass's And Guitars, Economics, Stupid Government | Sonicfrog September 1, 2011 |
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