Sad, So Very, Very Sad Today

Sigh.

I was going to start a pool tomorrow, taking bets on how long it would be before McCain-Palin surrogates started saying "Hussein" again. I was betting on Wednesday.

But they beat me to it.

The Republicans are more on the ball than I gave them credit for. Or more willing to disgrace themselves and their party. Whatever. Same diff.

Sigh.

PS That is a picture of my actual sad face. I think the camera adds ten pounds. And fangs. And bulging eyes. Weird ears. And removes hair. But otherwise 100% accurate.

Addendum I have written and not posted three really positive bits about why we should all vote for Obama, but everytime I get online, I get so dang pissed off that I pitch them. I gotta get help. I've got a problem. (A problem besides the ability to see the world in shades other than black and white, I mean).

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Now playing: Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother Suite
via FoxyTunes

Red Alert! Red Alert!

It's kinda like Kirk screaming, "Khan!" You know it's gonna happen, but you just don't always know when.

Well, as predicted here at The New Disease, the inevitable McCain campaign scream has happened. And the magic word is:

"Commies!"

Yeah, McCain's brother, Joe (who here even knew he had a brother? does he ever talk about family except when he's lying about how and when he cheated on his first wife and that even if he did it doesn't matter 'cuz they're friends now?) - Joe hit the stump for his bro' and made a "joke" about living in "communist country"!

Evidently, Commie Central in the United States is not San Francisco or Chicago, but Arlington, Virginia. Yup. Who'd a thunk it. But that's where Joe has lived off and on for years and I guess he should know. And so should his brother, who owns a condo in Arlington (this is probably the one he spent all of his recent time in while suspending/not suspending his campaign to save the country from economic ruin by making phone calls and hanging at his campaign headquarters when not eating at fancy restaurants - you know, not "phoning it in" like Obama was).

Phew! Got that off my chest. I know it's snarky but no matter how much I wanna be good, I'm finding I can't do it all at once. It's a twelve-step program for me, I guess. Snarks Anonymous? Oh, I guess joining something with the acronym SA is pretty wrong, eh? And I keep using folky Palin-esque talk, too. Dang it! Help me, Raptor Jesus! Save me from myself!I give unto you my left arm and several child-sized cured hams!

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Now playing: XTC - Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)
via FoxyTunes

Dishing Obama (Or, "Here's .... Barack!")

Another reason I'm voting for Obama - he has his own TV channel!

Yeah, the Obama campaign has done an audacious thing, something new that I'm sure every other campaign will copy in the future (if they can afford it). They've paid for an entire channel on the satellite television service DISH Network. I found it by accident Wednesday night when my finger slipped on the remote. Or was it an accident...

Damn. I don't know if this will work for them, but the idea is great. I can imagine the bull-session it grew out of. Some folks probably laughed, but then, maybe slowly, they stopped laughing and started looking at each other. Could we really? Should we? It's never been done? So what! Maybe we should - Hell, yeah - let's do it!

Now I can go to sleep every night with Obama's soothing tones in my ears. It's not as good as Carson, but it'll do.

Vote Obama!

For my less-aged readers: "Carson" is a reference to Johnny Carson's highly popular late-night talk show The Tonight Show which ran on NBC for, oh, decades, from 10:30pm to midnight (Central Time, the only time that matters - that's why they call it Central!). Personally, it was my bedtime safety blanket as a kid. If I was still awake at 10:30 and I heard Carson doing his monologue from the TV in my parent's room, it put me right out. I knew the house was shut up, Mom and Dad were in bed and that all was right with the world. Haven't felt like that for years.

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Now playing: Willie Nile - They'll Build A Statue Of You
via FoxyTunes

Gracias, GOP!

I was gonna write about the programs Obama plans to fund and the initiatives he intends to kick-start today. I'm feeling the need to be positive after going so negative lately. In fact, I pulled a post a few days ago that went up in a fit of rancorous spleen I've never achieved on this blog before. I was ashamed of myself. I'll try and go a different direction for a while. But if I stray it's gonna be that old man's fault, I tells ya! If he yells at me to get off of his lawn one more time...

Anyway, back to my original idea. I was gonna do this...but the GOP did it for me. Check out the Obama Spend-O-Meter! From their perspective, this is a damning list intended to paint Obama as a tax-and-spend liberal of the worst kind.

From my perspective, this is a dream list. A good start on the America I want to live in. A blueprint for a better America, a better world, a better future.

So, a tip of the hat to the Grand Ol' Party today. Heckuva job, white men, heckuva job!

Vote Obama!

Note to Self: In reading the above, I can see I've still got a long way to go before I get all nicey-nice. Given the state of our infrastructure these days, I probably can't even hope that it's paved.

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Now playing: The Jesus & Mary Chain - Here It Comes Again
via FoxyTunes

44: Why I'm Voting for Barack Obama

Obama supports our veterans.

Obama has rarely wavered in pushing for greater financial, medical and educational benefits for members of our armed forces. This is contrary to veteran John McCain's stance. He has repeatedly voted against bills designed to give increased support and aid to our veterans.

Now I've never been in any branch of the service - I don't think either of us would survive the encounter, honestly - but I've never not supported the troops.
Growing up outside radical Madison, Wisconsin in the 70s, I was highly influenced by the anti-war movement and its raggedy remnants, while at the same time spending several years of grade-school wearing surplus Army jackets to school. (I think my Mom bought them because they were cheap, but we thought we looked pretty cool in them). But I never bought into the kind of blame-game that hurt the troops. That seemed plain stupid, just illogical to me. I may wholeheartedly disagree with their commanders - especially that one who calls himself "In-Chief" - but the troops are the guys who do the work. Sometimes they screw up because of a lack of moral or ethical leadership, but they never asked to be put in situations so outside the norm of human behavior that things like that could happen. They deserve everything we can do for them while in the service and afterwards.

So I was thrilled by Obama's support of the 21st Century GI Bill, which both McCain and Bush opposed for being too generous to our troops, as it echoes my own thoughts so closely. We need legislation like this, our soldiers need legislation like this. The previous GI Bill was one of the smartest things our government ever did. It took a generation to college and kick-started decades of national prosperity and advancement. We need to think about the future again when we are planning legislation. I won't even call this "progressive" because it's not. It's "regressive" if anything, turning back the clock on decades of general neglect. But Obama's whole-hearted support for this bill tells me that he thinks about what this country will need five, ten, fifteen and twenty years from now. Not just what it needs in the next five minutes.

So, for the troops and for the future, vote Obama!

You can compare each candidate's voting record on dozens of issues at Project Vote Smart.

Here's Obama's and here's McCain's. Scroll down or search for "Veterans" to see where each one stands on this issue.

UPDATE: Read about Gen. Wesley Clark's excursion for Obama in Florida. He has some specific things to say about Obama and our veterans.

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Now playing: The In Crowd - Blow Up
via FoxyTunes

Our Founding Fathers, Seventh in a Series

John Cale - Live in Stockholm, Sweden (1975)
John Cale - Live at the Rockpalast, Essen, Germany (10-14-84)

I think of one thing immediately when I hear the name of John Cale - fear. Sorry, I mean "Fear Is a Man's Best Friend," the song. It was the first song I heard by him, sitting dopily in our kitchen on a darkening Saturday winter afternoon, watching the sun set early behind the mountainous piles of snow either side of the road at the end of our driveway and pretending that I was doing my homework. But really listening to Harry Rag's tribute to John Lennon on WORT. This would have been probably January or so, 1981. I dunno why Harry threw that song in there - he jams mysterious playlists sometimes - but he had his reasons. It was a couple two or three years before I finally scored a copy of the album. And longer yet until my brother taped it for me because I didn't have a turntable, only a boombox, putting Jeffrey Lee Pierce's mindblowing Wildweed on the flip.

So, I was a John Cale fan before I was a VU fanatic. I didn't have my life-changing introduction to Lou and Company for about another year after that. Damn. I always remembered it as the other way around before this. Funny thing, memory. We rearrange a lot of stuff in our heads to suit our later preconceptions of ourselves. Was I never really the first man on Mars, then?

Two great short concert selections from the coolest Welshman in the world. Got Welsh blood in my mongrel-American veins myself, going back to a John W___ who snuck into Canada back in the 1780s. The family ashes didn't get hauled south to Wisconsin until about 70 years later. There's a big cemetery full of dead people who share my last name in a really nice little town in southwestern Wisconsin. Spent a lovely afternoon there a few years ago, chowing at the local diner and walking amongst the marbles. Good times.

Before I get all weepy about graveyards, one of our favorite trip destinations for some reason, I wanted to talk a little more about the subculture of bootlegs. These two shows come from one pirate CD, released in Europe as Down At The End Of Lonely Street. Very common for audience recordings and radio broadcasts to become "legitimate" releases in Europe due to differences in the copyright laws. Especially in Italy - pretty much everything goes there! (If my info is out of date, somebody correct me, please). You can buy the same Pink Floyd concert packaged a dozen different ways, cut up and rearranged to make it look like a different show, songs added or left out, inferior versions used, etc. Prime example - there's one song here that's from neither concert but was tacked on to fill out the disc. Don't worry - I've labelled it for you because I love you. These kind of releases create a discographical nightmare that only true weirdos relish the sorting of.

Thank god for weirdos.

Remember, kiddies - buy shit!

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Now playing: Luna - Crazy People
via FoxyTunes

Coming Attractions

I've got more music this week and further political folderal, but I couldn't keep this one to myself. From the network that brought you fair and balanced! Enjoy.

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Now playing: Feedtime - Fractured
via FoxyTunes

I Should Have Saved That Last Picture for This Post

Raptor Jesus is sooooo going to bite her.

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Now playing: Red Red Meat - There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight
via FoxyTunes

Nero Fiddles...

Elitist wealthy pig John McCain and sniveling co-hort Joe Lieberman dined sumptuously with their respective spouses while hardworking (if blind and ignorant) Congressional colleagues tried to bail out Wall Street's fat, bloated corpse.

Vote Obama!

Screw John McCain.

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Now playing: The Long Ryders - Looking For Lewis And Clark
via FoxyTunes

Best SNL Sketch Ever

What? This isn't a bit from Saturday Night Live? That's not Tina Fey? No freakin' way. I mean, really, the way the camera keeps cutting to that dumbfounded "I cannot believe what I am seeing and hearing" look on Katie Couric's face (I just assumed she was the Guest Host this week!) - that has to be scripted, right? Right?

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Now playing: Plan 9 - Frustration
via FoxyTunes