Organizing Grievances

One of the foundational purposes of this blog was to be an place for five people currently or formally involved in America's labor movement to comment on the current state of the movement. Much like unions themselves, we have been easily distracted by electoral politics and bright shiny things.

Back to basics.
I don't want to speak for my fellow OGians, but I am a believer in strong membership involvement and control of the labor movement. Whether the goal is to build a vibrant social justice movement centered on union rights or to win better wages and benefits, the membership must lead. They are the union's strength. Not just in terms of a strike, but in the everyday maintaince of the contract, knowledge about workplace issues, and (yes) political news.

Those of us who have spent way too much time debating union-race politics in Detroit in the 1940s know that "the will of the membership" is not always progressive, community-based, or farsighted. One the other hand, at times the union membership can be far out ahead of what is realistic to achieve at a bargaining table or in a grievance hearing. The key to success is to be open in communication, constantly talking, always in touch, and to know that it is the members' union.

As such, regrowing our labor movement will be very difficult. It is a lot of hard work getting the membership involved in a union. People tend to be busy these days. No one has free time. Getting people to make time in their schedule for a union meeting is difficult. And having a meeting with the goal of making sure everyone has a voice and everyone feels comfortable with the decision reached is not easy. But it is this hard work that cements people to their union. People will fight for something they have built.

Unfortunately, our friends at the Service Employees International Union have taken a different approach to unionism. In many areas of the country and in different service sectors, SEIU has negotiated agreements with employers whereby employers allow SEIU to organize certain workplaces, but not others. But "organize" is a misnomer. Before SEIU even enters the workplace, they negotiate the first contract with the employer, setting wages, benefits and working conditions without any input from their future members. Some contracts have provisions that prohibit employees from reporting unsafe working conditions or violations of state and federal laws. These agreements are usually secret and only leak out when disgruntled union members speak out.

Inside Higher Ed has an article on what happened at the University of North Carolina when SEIU signed one of their secret deals and left a motivated workforce with no union.

SEIU routinely denies that these agreements exist, but when presented with overwhelming evidence, SEIU typically falls back on the argument that without these secret deals, workers wouldn't be able to unionize at all, given employer resistance to unions. Better to have a quarter of the workforce in a union with a non-negotiable contract than to not have anyone in a union at all, they argue.

Except that once in the union, SEIU members aren't allowed much of a voice there either. The members of United Healthcare Workers-West have dissented from SEIU's secret deals for nursing home workers in California, so SEIU is attempting to break up that local and put those members in more compliant locals. Even SEIU members who are generally happy with and proud of their union complain that they have little to no say in what their union does.

For his willingness to completely leave the members out of decisions about their union, SEIU President Andy Stern is hailed as a visionary. Mostly he is hailed as such by people outside of the union movement. Mostly he has been hailed as such by people who have a vested interest in seeing a weak union movement. It is no coincidence that he became a media darling right around the time he was dividing the labor movement. When Stern speaks of creating one big labor movement that speaks with one voice, he can sound like a 1930s union radical. He sounds like the kind of powerful labor leader that we look back on with nostalgia. Unfortunately, SEIU operates in a a way that makes it clear that there is only one voice that matters, Stern's. He does not seem terribly interested in building a movement of workers who seek to challenge the power of the bosses.

We must find a way to prevent the SEIU model from becoming any kind of national model. SEIU cannot be the future of the labor movement, only the end of it. While SEIU is rightly celebrated for diversifying the American labor movement, we cannot forgive their efforts to create hollow unions. No lasting structure can be built on such a weak foundation.

So, what'd I miss? Any good sporting competitions? Surely it's been quiet politically...

What's that?

Oh.

New poll up on the right.
Same rules: vote early, vote often!
All findings will be over-extrapolated
and will include incoherent graphics.

I am, like all patriotic Americans, a sucker for receiving "free" trinkets in exchange for giving someone sums of money. As such, I have given the Obama campaign a smallish sum of money in exchange for a free bumper magnet and a free t-shirt. I would like to think that the come-on that these are "First Edition!" Obama-Biden magnets and shits had nothing to do with my decision to donate, but can't, as I made the donation.

If you're like me, you won't want to pass up your chance to make this world a better place by seeing Obama-Biden elected to office and get free stuff which, I understand, would make you the first on your block to possess what will surely become the most treasured item in your house (unless you have kids. Or a dog. Or one of those $150 toasters).

Thirty bones for a t-shirt.

Fifteen turnips for a bumper magnet.

You now, if each one of us true Americans, we little guys, we toilers and workers and kid raisers and guys who make the donuts, gave just a small amount to our preferred political candidate, then maybe we could take our country away from the ~~special interests and labor bosses~~ corporations and lobbyists, and once again make America the greatest country on Earth and earn the right to dominate the rest of the world and have all peoples serve our interests, like under JFK. It reminds me of the heady days of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin, when the world trembled at the sound of our rockets, now let them tremble at the sound of our micro-donations.

Okay, here I am, with my traveling companion, awaiting the whole damned thing.

I have already had enough of the hand-wringing over Hillary, and I should say that EZ would be right at home with a bunch of Baby Boomer women I've met here. My traveling companion says that the Rules Committee headed off a fledgling floor fight over HRC/BHO...but I think there are plenty of histrionics still in store.

On the positive side, there is some amazing wonkishness awaiting me, including this Main Event on Tuesday.

Today? Diss. work/Pool/Schmoozing/and, apparently, an AFL-CIO event. No grievances to organize for a whole 5 days, but plenty of a-nerding to do.

Every Republican talking point from the last nine months distilled into one letter to the editor.

McCain would be best president

I want to encourage people to vote for John McCain for president. He has the maturity, political, military and foreign policy experience needed by a president of the United States.

He supports school vouchers and has the morals for the job. I think McCain’s support for offshore drilling and affordable nuclear energy are good. I also like his wife for her charity work and loyalty to our country.

Barack Obama has none of the above experience. His record is so thin that it barely exists. What record he does have has qualified him as the most liberal member of Congress. He is not loyal or patriotic to the United States. I am thinking about his lack of loyalty in not wanting to wear a flag pin and taking the U.S. flag symbol off his airplane.

He has made major flip-flops on positions during his campaign. I doubt his Christianity, and I think he would say anything to be president. He has talked bad about his white grandmother and threw out his pastor when it was going to hurt his symbolism. When he spoke to the Germans, he sounded like “one worldism.”

After four years of him “remaking” our nation, the people would have lower morals, bad judges would be appointed, we would have higher taxes, the national debt would be higher and there would be more government regulations.

Please support McCain for president.

Carolyn Webb

Corvallis

I think someone missed the takeaway message of Tropic Thunder.

The first ever poll of OGnian thought is closed and I will now present the results:

What does this mean? First, will polls continue? since a whopping 19.6% of visitors to the site expressed a willingness to endure polls, they will continue.

81% of visitors (I have used the average visits per day for the past week) did not vote. They are well known as "the silent majority."

The will of the silent majority is clear from this poll; They want LAW and ORDER. The polling staff (EZ) interprets this to mean that Obama will pick Biden. (The fact that this already happened is iron-clad proof that this is a valid poll)

As the pentograph clearly shows, we should be moving, "forward, not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom." Kodos 1996

For those waiting with much anticipation the announcement of the next poll, it will be text messaged to you (or just posted on the site) by 3 am tomorrow.

Hopefully my friends at AFT are pissing their pants with joy.

I did some surfing in the comments of the netroots. The funniest comment I saw was largely incoherent, but the gist was that the selection of Biden is a tired selection and indicates that Obama is starting to realize that he just doesn't have what it takes to be president. This is, of course, good news, because it a further proof that he is close to dropping out of the race and givng the nod to Hillary, the only person on the planet who can defeat McCain.

I got my text at 1:03 am, or actually 7:18 am when I got out of bed. After seeing the headline of the paper. The texting was an interesting idea, but was never going to work. I give the campaign credit for trying something new and to give a little something to the supporters. (Looking at that last comment, I realize that unless you were reading comments where people were bitching about getting at text at 4 am when they were "promised" it wouldn't come before 6 am, or that it came after CNN was reporting the selction, my defense of the campaign might seem weird. As if you didn't know, the netroots expect the world.)

Let's see what Biden's got going. I predict that the media wil be so eagar to catch him in a gaffe that they will jump the gun and maybe we'll have a positive bounce from that...I'm thinking the Obama overplaying the "race card" brewhaha.

What do you got? Pumped up? Gonna watch at nooner? All in, we're gonna win!

A different take on NBC's Olymipic coverage. A more demented take.

Possibly the greatest sentence I have ever read:

Add to these proposed new climate change taxes possible gas, tobacco, and statewide property tax increases, coupled with already high federal taxes, the loss of the Bush tax cuts and many new local bond and levy ideas on the ballot this fall and it becomes clear that the overall burden on taxpayers will take its toll on our jobs and economy.

From the Oregon Republican Party's advertisement for their "Hot Air Tour."

In that it makes my head hurt.

The Onion AV Club has an interview with the guy who created Stuff White People Like. The dude pretty much admits to being an over-privileged hipster who just got famous by accident for writing shit that made him giggle. The hipsters who read the AV Club, naturally, have to hate on this guy because this is something that they might actually like, but it has achieved some level of popularity, rendering it unacceptable to a hipster (see Chuck Klosterman, Judd Apatow, or Batman). Not that those that read the AV Club would admit to being hipsters, which is all part of tension, as to admit that you don't like something because it has achieved popularity is the height of hipsterdom, so part of the commentary is a struggle to come to grips with the fact that they, the AV Club readers, are the very people they hate most. Unless they are not.

From the Republican National Senatorial Committee.

Those that live in my head know that I have an active fantasy life. In one of my fantasies, presidential candidates are asked real questions during debates, instead of being lobbied softballs. For instance, I fully expect this question to be asked of McCain at some point in the three debates:

Senator McCain, you have claimed that your experience as a prisoner of war has prepared you to lead this great nation during troubling times ahead. Would you care to pontificate about the qualities you gained during your noble sacrifice for this nation and how they have prepared you to lead this great nation to glory? And if you have the time, please, try to think of anything your opponent may have done that rivals your great sacrifice for this great nation.

The questions I compose are, as you may imagine, different. They are not necessarily original, but I liked to hear them asked. I like to think they are tough, but fair. I try to avoid cheap shots, like asking if a candidate's position on the death penalty might change if his wife was raped, or if a candidate realizes that even running against a sitting president in a time of war could embolden our enemies.

All I lack to make my fantasy a reality is a degree in journalism, experience working in politics, laser surgery, voice conditioning, and your impassioned demand to the networks that they ask these powerful questions. (No links. Just type "networks," "debate questions," and "where can I demand that you ask specific questions written by this guy on the internet?" into Google. I'm sure appropriate links will come up. Is there nothing Google can't do?)

On to my penetrating and disturbing questions:

1. Senator McCain, you have said repeatedly that you would you would follow Bin Laden "to the gates of Hell" if necessary to capture or kill him. You have, however, criticized your opponent for saying that he would launch unilateral strikes into Pakistan, if he believed there was a reasonable chance to capture or kill Bin Laden. How can you pledge to pursue Bin Laden to the "gates of Hell," but not Pakistan?

2. You have repeatedly said that the American economy is on a solid footing, but your campaign is running a commercial on the economy that says, "We're worse off than we were four years ago." Will you name three ways that a McCain administration would differ from the Bush administration on the economy, and where do you see the economy economy headed six months from now?

3. You have strongly opposed any timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, often equating timetables with defeat, and strongly criticizing your opponent for his support of timetables. Now that the Bush administration and the Iraqi government have signed an agreement that stipulates a timetable for troop withdrawal, have you changed your position on troop withdrawal and, if not, do you reserve the right to break our agreement with the Iraqi government if you believe it is in the interest of the United States?

4. On several occasions in the 1980s you opposed and voted against a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and you also opposed the establishment of a state holiday in your home state of Arizona. You recently said that you regret your opposition to a holiday for Dr. King, saying that you were "slow" and "a little late" to recognize King's "greatness." Can you tell us your original rationale for opposing the holiday for Dr. King and exactly what lead you to "realize" his greatness?

With a hat tip to LGM, Jonah Goldberg is actually bragging about an e-mail his mommy got from a family friend praising his book.

My mom told me I was mildly decent looking, so I know that moms will say anything.

It would seem that SEIU members in CA continue to be beset by the administrative, fiduciary and political shortcomings of their leadership. Hopefully someone is writing a political biography of STERN and the last 20 years of the SEIU. How these mishaps in LA relate to: the municipal, state and federal government and current "labor" law; corporate intrigue; SEIU's previous melees with CNA in CA and elsewhere; SEIU's "growth" model; and Sal Roselli's reform movement, is anybody's guess. But only a genius like the guy at LaborPains would extrapolate that this trusteeship is somehow testimony against collective bargaining and/or the democratic rights of all workers to voluntary association.
Themselves 'pro-Secret Ballot' activists of the American Right, the people at NW Republican did a great job finding and posting this long, wind-y video glimpse into both Obama's understanding of EFCA and his willingness to give the same moralistic, finger-wagging "but behave yourself" speech to unions that he gave to working-class and poor blacks on Father's Day. 'Not trying to be too cynical, mind you - but remember I'm going to be at the Convention for the next week, so I am overcompensating by indulging my Trot-ish tendencies. Suffice it to say, it's not FDR we're dealing with here. Or Woodrow Wilson. However....................it's, uh, a lot better than an angry old hawk named John McCain.
Anybody think Andy Stern will take a role in the Obama administration - say, on the NLRB? Or will Stern decide that he wants to use his cult of personality to re-establish "the labor boss" as a subject-position in the political culture?

Even assuming that efforts to erase race and gender privilege have allowed the input of African Americans and women to count as much as that of whites and men (which they have not), greater wealth can be, and often is, transformed into greater political capital or influence. Elections are relatively infrequent and especically in national elections, restricted de facto to a handful of candidates, most of whom are wealthy. Consequently, the bulk of the population must rely on representatives who tend to look out above all for the well-being of business donors, and fail to recognize the problems of the 80-percent of the population who have relatively limited resources and/or face discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity.

Holland, Nonini, Lutz, Bartlett, Frederick-McGlathery, Guldbrandsen and Murrilo, Jr.
Local Democracy Under Siege: Activism, Public Interests and Private Politics

I'll confess right up front, the bank owns a home they let me live in while I slowly pay them enough money that they'll let me keep it.

I got an e-mail from Johnny Mac himself. I was surprised that he took the time out of his busy campaign to write me, so I opened the e-mail immediately. The first three paragraphs have enough grammatical curiosities to lead me to believe that he didn't take much time to write.

I am writing to you today because as one of our Party's closest supporters, we need your immediate help.

With less than three months before the 2008 elections, nothing is more important than for us to raise the funds we'll need to carry out our winning strategy in districts and states all across the country, David.

The RNC has set a goal of raising $25 million in the next 30 days. It is absolutely critical that we raise these funds to counter the huge money generating operation of Barack Obama and the Democrats' liberal special interest allies.

The good news is that I am one of the Republican party's "closest" supporters. I don't know what it means to be a "closest supporter." Is that a real phrase? If the GOP considers me a supporter at all, Barack could be sitting pretty.

Then there's the matter of the capital "p" in "Party." Those who have had to endure me for long, know that "random Capitalization" is one of my pet peeves. But then, so is the phrase "pet peeve."

That whole second sentence needs some serious help. From its run-on nature to "nothing is more important than for us to raise the funds we'll need" to awkwardly ending the sentence with my name. Does anyone talk or write like this?

Lastly, I would like to see a hyphen between money and generating in that third paragraph. "money-generating operation."

/pedantry

[And for Chrissake, of course I am aware of the "irony" of me, the guy who usually has at least eight spelling/grammar errors in each post, criticizing anyone else for sloppy writing. Also aware McCain didn't actually write the e-mail. You can stop e-mailing with these points.]

I am not having the best of days. This perked me up considerably. Thank God for youtube.

subtitled, i went to a "good" college 29

okay, so here's the score. i am confused re: who is and who is not reading Organizing Grievances. more specifically, who isn't reading this blog that used to read my other blog, the Prisonship? why not? is it you, or is it me?

let me explain my confusion (vanity, narcissism), and why it's important that you pay some attention to this matter. i am baffled, looking back and seeing that there were times when the old blog had as much as 380 hits/day, and that the "oh-gee" - which adds a bunch of intelligent, good-looking people into the mix - is languishing at about 56/day.

anyway, i'd like to start with my friends in the Dixie/Vandy/Sewanee/W+L* milieu... are you out there? identify yourself and share your thoughts. seriously, who are you? how?

(*of course i don't actually enjoy membership in any kind of 'W+L milieu,' but i am allowed to dream and desire for social status in this country, no?)

Digby over at Hullabaloo says:

This convinces me that the central problem for the campaign is that nobody knows what Obama stands for. It's a perennial problem for Democrats, but I think it may be an even bigger problem this time. The hope and change theme was galvanizing in the beginning but it isn't enough to sustain full campaign. What was once inspiring has become a fog.

As for whether the campaign is comparable to other great movements in American history, it is obvious to me that it is not. That's not to say a progressive movement doesn't exist, but the Obama campaign is a slightly unorthodox political campaign (more orthodox by the day) with an historic candidate, which isn't the same thing. They may merge at some point, depending on how Obama chooses to govern, but at this point, I think the 21st century progressive movement (such as it is) will work outside the administration and on the edges of the Democratic party for some time. The institutional torpor of the party and the internalization of the belief that conservatism is a default setting of the American political soul means that it's going to take more time than I had hoped. If the professionals can't make a strong and creative case for progressive rule after the spectacular Republican meltdown during the Bush years, then it's clear they have a long way to go.

Any Democrat would be at least marginally better than John McCain and Republican hegemony so I'm not particularly moved by the question of whether we are being led by a savior or a disappointment at this point. I just want to ensure that we don't have another psycho running things. I am interested in whether this nascent progressive movement can actually coalesce into something meaningful by gathering enough political power and cultural heft to actually do something. At this point I have no earthly idea if that will happen but I'm fascinated by the prospect.

I have long argued that BHO was allowed to get through the primaries with the least amount of detail on policy of any of the candidates, and it is now coming back to haunt his campaign. I agree with Digby that he is better than McSame, but I worry that an Obama administration will stiff arm core liberal values.

This has been the latest edition of "what Digby says"...

2(.5) Unconditional Print-Periodical Endorsements.
- The American Prospect houses Dean Baker's essential Beat the Press - but also, so much more! Par example, check out this profile of Obama's (Gang of) 15 staffers, and this really intelligent meditation on Georgia, Russia, the USA and NATO.

- Meanwhile, to say what goes without saying...I read the print Nation AND I subscribe to its many blogs and feeds. Sometimes it's embarassing to feel like your personal politics are being writ large in a single magazine...but most of the time it's just amazing to know you can count on Katha Pollitt, Doug Henwood and sooo many others holding forth in one pretty public space. Here's recent feature's elaborating upon the - i dunno? - crap "organizing" model of MoveOn and the decidedly not crap, almost Michelle Obama-level awesomeness that is Rachel Maddow. (Did I mention that Rachel Maddow is a borderline unconditional endorsee? She'd be the first cable tv personality to win this praise from me.

Although I am getting kinda turned on by this guy:

More Moosic.

We've got some classic, upper-echelon, multimedia music posts coming down lately, folks.
First, ZenandtheArtofFacePunching has made up for my sinful, arrogant dismissal of HeartattaCk magazine in the 1990s. After a really well-written bit, we are treated to really well-designed pdfs of classic original zine reviews, AND download links to the classic albs in question. I am lucky that so many people care about all of this music that means so much to me. The creepiness and nerdiness of this blog's graphic design totally rises to the level of the music it's presenting. Congratulations to you, sir!
Secondly, HardCoreforNerds avails us of the genre-defining 'screamo' outfit and Gravity Records peers, SwingKids. Therein, our narrator engages in some intense debates about emo nomenclature and the state of the canon. I love this game! And more importantly, I think I understand the lay of the land even better now.
Thirdly, no less a rock critic than the Detailed Twang MotherEffer treats us to a Come 7" that even I - unabashed Mr. 'my life was changed by the Grifters and Come' Guy - had never heard. If you've ever wondered about this band or maybe even vaguely remember 'em, check this link out. As mentioned, this guy's multiple writings on Come are very wise, and the band itself is as great as the greatest Slint or Sonic Youth or Son Volt, in my mind.

deep background.
fans of the mighty Bleachy and Earles and Jensen's most vaunted alb, entitled Just Farr a Laugh, will probably want to check out this hilarious Andrew Earles piece for Cracked.

I won't set up a poll, as that is EZ's domain, but I thought I'd take the temperature.

Who do you have for VP? Kaine, Bayh, Biden, or surprise fourth candidate?

Vote in the comments.

I'm on the Oregon Republican mailing list, so this was waiting for me in my in-box.

LATEST CAMPAIGN NEWS

Oregon State Treasurer Candidate, Allen Alley, just received the endorsement of one of the most influential agriculture groups, AG-PAC. The AG-PAC organization supports candidates committed to a healthy agriculture and forestry based [sic] economy.

Not only is Allen Alley getting the backing of the agriculture community, but also with the bankers! Alley just received financial support from the Oregon Bankers Association.

To keep up with Allen Alley’s campaign, visit www.friendsofallenalley.com.

That's right, the Republican has picked up the endorsement of big agriculture, big forestry, and the bankers! That's triangulation my friends.

Neil Halstead Oh! Mighty Engine Halstead is the vaunted ex-Slowdive guy, as well as a longtime singer/writer for 4ad's absolutely gorgeous Mojave 3. This is his second solo album, and it's effortlessly conversant with your Jansch and Chilton references. Also, it's released on Jack Johnson's label?

I cannot say enough about Halstead's entire body of work, and this is a great new installment. That said, deep down I yearn for some more sonically diverse, electric installments from Mojave 3. Sort of like the Thurston and Gary Louris' recent records, tho, I think I'm embarassed to have presumed to release a solo acoustic album when there's stuff this good out there that totally sassifies my listening needs. This is not my job. My job is to write incoherent screeds about ballot initiatives.

Breeders Mountain Battles Recorded by Albini at Electrical, thank you. The best moments on this album have the same creepy, lilt-y dynamics as those displayed on the Breeders' totally crucial, totally underrated Pod. The second-best moments have Kim Deal belting out nicotine and wine-flavored bubblegum over brilliant, self-evident power chords. The third-best moments come when Kim carries slim songs off on the back of her own, ineffable persona. She continues to grow as a frontperson/protagonist in my mind, which I cannot say for Robert Pollard, for example... Some of the "songs" on this aren't much, but Kim and the amazing band interplay and the creepy vibes and Albini sounds are enough to transcend that small problem.
And some of the songs are just wonderful. Like "we're gonna rise," for example. For example, ...

Also, I cannot get over the album art. I love it.

Walkmen You & Me

Last time I mentioned my love for this band, I mentioned fugazi and faces; well today I wanna mention royal albert hall-era dylan/hawks AND late-Cale/early-Yule-era velvets.

Pitchfork is right to name the "cavernous" guitar tone as a definitive Walkmen thing - as a long time believer in bass-y Fender tube tones, i must admit to wetting myself upon hearing the opening, muted gtr notes of the album-opener, 'Donde Esta La Playa.'

It will take a while to see if the highs of this alb match those of my beloved 100 miles off, but rest assured this is Top 5 of 2008 - i can tell that much now, and the thing isn't even officially released yet, except over here on mp3!

Electro Group A New Pacifica Most exciting, melodic indie guitar band i have discovered since Giant's Chair! This is the music that I need to survive: sonic youth-y, shoegaze-y, unwound-y gtr punk. Also this album features the most interesting, melodic and tough bass playing of its kind since Barlow on You're Living All Over Me. Mebbe that's hyperbole but as you can tell I'm excited.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow Scribble Mural Comic Journal This is a very, very damaged 'pop' record featuring a very fractured combination of digital/analog sounds and euro-punk-y, chanted sloganeering by an Icy Lady Duo on vocs. The vocs are what I would've figured''d've turned me away from this, but in fact the vocs have really captivated me. It's not as offputting as Dagmar Krause or anything, mind you - but this is plenty weird. I like this record, I think. Very dense, further proof of the worthiness of (some) laptop music that my Doubting Thomas nose needs.

(okay, download a mini-tape. walkmen aren't included because you should be downloading that whole alb for a meager $5 as part of their benefit.)

It would seem Barry Obama has done something to anger the vaunted, sage states-peoples over at NW Republican.

Here in Oregon, we loves us some citizen initiative process for the expression of the "peoples" voices. Got an issue? Gather some signatures on a petition, get that issue on the ballot, and let the people have a say! No more tyranny from the fat cats in Salem! Democracy!!!

Of course, this is not how it works. Rich men with a political ax to grind pay young people to gather signatures on initiatives that everybody agrees to -- "Sign my petition to save kittens, sir?" -- and then they copy names and addresses on to completely unrelated petitions. Then millions are spent convincing the Oregon voter to vote in the interest of a very few rich men and/or corporations. Or for God. The Oregon voter loves having God's back when it comes to abortion, gays, or (Heaven forbid) marriage between gay abortionists.

This year the Oregon voter faces a bevy of ballot choices. The one most near and dear is Measure 64, which would cripple Oregon's unions. The initiative would prevent public employers from using payroll deduction for collecting union dues that could be used for political purposes.

As it works now, a public employee union member signs a dues deduction card, the employer deducts the union dues from the employee's paycheck and sends that money to the union. The union uses the money in any way it legally sees fit. If this measure were to pass, then a member would still sign a dues deduction card, the employer would deduct dues and send it to the union, but the union could not use that money for political purposes. If the union wanted to be involved in politics, then they would have to collect all that money on their own.

The measure basically seeks to fuck with Oregon's public employee unions.

As the days approach, I imagine that I will be writing frequently about this campaign. We have been getting better about forming coalitions to fend off these attacks from the right. Unfortunately, these coalitions tend to run to the center and at times advance tropes that are troubling for those of us on the left. (Perhaps Lips could favor us with a few remarks about "progressive nativism"). I imagine that I will find places to critique my own coalition as well as alerting you and all to the scurrilous propaganda of our enemies.

For instance, the powers that be have decided on the slogan "Don't Silence Our Voice." Not much different than the "Oregon Families Need a Voice" that Lips and I came up with, which is kind of scary given the state we were in when we thought up that slogan (hint: It wasn't Idaho). I'm not in love with the fact that they have chosen to make the main web address for this campaign http://dontsilenceourvoice.com which is hardly intuitive. http://noon64.com seems available, so I am not sure why they went with the more-complicated-to-remember address. (Although http://noonmeansure64.com redirects to dontsileceourvoice.com). And I know that Google magic will eventually happen, but right now searching for "no on 64" or "no on measure 64" on Google doesn't get you anywhere near this website, even if you add the word Oregon.

Anyway, first of many, I suppose. Since one of our authors is a ballot initiative expert, one is a local politics expert, and one of us deals with state legislatures for a living, we should be able to have a nice little discussion, no?

$5 version.

I would like to announce the roll out of a new "recurring" feature to the OG. This site weighs in on some of the most pressing ideas and issues of the day (and night), and I think it would be helpful to be able to "boil down" or "distill" the opinion of OGnians as a group. We could then know for sure whether we can refer to France as crap...etc.

Towards this end, You may notice (momentarily) a poll on the right side of the page. Please add your opinion to the "pile."

Wait you say, polling sucks. You are probably right, but so do mean people and yet they still exist.

What are the rules? There are no rules. vote early, vote often, encourage your friends and family to do likewise.

I will post a new poll every (sure I will) Sunday (as it is my day off) and close the poll by Saturday, leaving sat. afternoon to "digest" the results before the craziness begins all over again on Sunday.

As you may have noticed the first poll will determine if this is truly recurring or not.

I was checking online to see if the cheap cat food that I purchased for the 2 strays outside the new homestead had been recalled, and I came across this example of public policy excellence:

Notice that they never mention that they do not have statutory/regulatory authority to recall any product(for pets or humans). They also can not force companies to change any procedures.
No steps before the pets mysteriously become "ill"
Can France boast a bureaucratic response to rival this?

Never could find out if the cheap food had been recalled...

Top 5 Actors in a Film(ic) Role:

Which 5 males have captivated you at the cinema/on your television/in yr mind just by doing the 'theatrical' work that they do? Which 5 performances (by men*) never fail to electrify you?

For me, it's these:

5) Orson Welles, The Third Man
4) Michel Piccoli, Contempt
3) Roy Scheider, Jaws
2) Ben Gazarra, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
1) Elliot Gould, The Long Goodbye
Honorable Mentions include Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed, Robert Shaw as Quint, Jack Nicholson as the Chinatown guy, Jean-Pierre Leaud as Truffaut, etc. - every role Joe Spinnel ever played!

(* why 'by men'? because this way we can do the 'by women' topic separately, sometime soon.)

I'm not so much concerned that I, being a West Coaster, will not be able to see Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal live, but I would like to object to NBC thinking that 12:30 am is an acceptable time to end their coverage.

If an event happens at 12:30 am on the East Coast because it is live that makes some freakin' sense, but how 'bout cutting to the chase when you can for those of us on the West Coast? I know, I know, there are ad dollars to be considered, but I'd be just as happy to watch the semi-final heat for the women's 400 IM at 6 pm the next day. Happier even. Then you could hype the hell out of the final that night. Instead, we get the main event of the night, say women's gymnatsics, starting at 10:30 pm and ending past midnight.

I'd also like to mention that synchronized diving is no more a real sport than anything happening in the X games. We have had to watch an s-load of synchronized diving. But as long as we are watching it, why can we not get that strobe motion replay on every dive? I mean, you have a really cool, powerful tool to show the audience exactly how in sync [insert Timberlake reference here] the divers were, but you don't use it. Why?

Lastly (for now), I know the beach volleyballers of both sexes are sexy with a capital S-E-X!, and maybe we need to see the Americans dominate every single team they face in the prelims, but couldn't we slip in some badminton or something every once in a while. It's pretty freakin' hot action and it's a sport we're all familiar with. Ping pong? Anything other than volleyball (beach), swimming, diving or gymnastics? No? Okay.

Okay, really lastly, if I have to watch one more Mary Carillo "Isn't China Awesome" segment, I will puke. I'm not some wingnut who thinks that every mention of China should involve a discussion of human rights abuses and the dangers of communism, but jeebus.

With that I leave you with the Spanish men's basketball team and their publicity shot for the Games. For the record, they didn't mean to offend anybody and they meant it as an "affectionate gesture."

In case you can't read the text, these are word clouds formed from the campaign websites of McCain and Obama. McCain at top, Obama on bottom.

The spouse of my mentor is currently vying for the local title that is "Slug Queen," and as part of that campaign l'advisor and i'll be playing tomorrow night at New Zone Gallery, in conjunction with Constance's juried Art Exhibit - or 'salon' - re: Slugs.

Consider yourself forewarned - there will be ELO, Big Star and pre-disco Bee Gees covers. We're talking about a 5pm start time, mavens.

So last night I was organizing the hell out of some grievances (after going and seeing Pineapple Express again, an experience I "highly" recommend) and I ordered up some South Asian food from the Pony Express Delivery --

-- Digression #1. I am big into ordering food on the internet and having it delivered to me. Two drawbacks, it costs money and food delivered is fattening. Nobody delivers salad. Okay, they do, but who orders salad in? Delivery almost requires that the food be bad for you. The thing is, I can't order from all the places on the menu, because something in my brain tells me that it is "ridiculous" to get delivery from a restaurant within, say, a 15-block radius. Completely arbitrary boundary. Getting delivery from campus, perfectly fine. Getting delivery from South Willamette? Bespeaks laziness. --

I ordered some chicken curry, under the self-impression that chicken curry is better for "me," by which I mean my weight, than, say the lamb curry. But then I also ordered the Keema Nan, which is nan stuffed with spiced ground lamb. For some reason, the nan is listed under "Tandoori Bread" on the Bombay Palace menu. --

-- Digression #2. Is there a world where your average Eugeneian is familiar with the properties of the word "tandoori" but can't handle the word "nan"? Is there someone asking "What the hell is 'nan'?" Only to have it explained to them that it is "tandoori bread," at which point enlightenment occurs? "Ohhhh, tandoori bread. Why didn't they just say so?"

-- Digression #3. Does "Keema Nan" actually exist in India? Or is this something invented for Americans, who love meat stuffed in anything, especially fried bread?

I ordered the curry ★★★ spicy. Two bites made me realize that I never want any part of ★★★★ curry. I'm not a guy who loves the hot stuff, but jeebus, I can't imagine wanting food hotter than this was. I know that eating the spicy is supposed to help in the heat, as it makes you sweat, but it wasn't working. Now I was just hot and sweaty, laying on the couch trying to watch tv without drinking too much water, as I was bloated as all get out from the large quantities of popcorn consumed during the movie and the rice consumed to make my chicken edible. In other words, I was miserable. Only one thing can help a man out in such a situation...ice cream sandwiches.

As it happened, Ginger was leaving the house to go pick up Amber from a friend's house. Now, I am not the kind of guy who is going to ask his wife to go out of her way to get him ice cream sandwiches, especially when I have rendered myself unable to drive to get my own ice cream sandwiches and am trying to avoid having it pointed out that walking to the store could do me no harm. I am not that guy. I am a guy, however, that is perfectly willing to remind his wife, while she is in the car about to pull out of the driveway, that the household is running dangerously low on toilet paper, and, if she felt like it, stopping at the store might be a good idea. I am also not above slipping in the point that she and our daughter use a disproportionately high percentage of the toilet paper in the house, so her getting the toilet paper would only be fair.

Having secured Ginger's agreement that the household needed toilet paper and that stopping at the store on the way home would not be out of the question, I then moved on to the suggestion that maybe, just maybe, since the toilet paper aisle, at Albertson's at least, is not that far from the ice cream section, maybe some ice cream sandwiches might be in order.

By asking, even tentatively, that my wife stop and pick up some ice cream sandwiches for me to consume, I have opened myself up for all kinds of counter-attacks. She could come back with

1. "Ice cream sandwiches are the last thing you need to be eating, you fat pig." Now she might couch this more gently by reminding me that I had consumed a large popcorn already that day. Or that I had eaten fried bread earlier. Stuffed with meat. But the message would be the same. And it would hurt.

2. "How much have you spent on food already today?" What with lunch, the movie, popcorn, a drink, and the the South Asian food, I had spent approximately $46 on food and entertainment that day. Sweet jeebus, could I be more selfish?

3. "Does you getting high actually mean that you are incapable of providing yourself with anything? You've become some sort of baby?" Given that we had already had this conversation that night (in a joking manner), it was just sitting there. Living with a non-smoker is not the easiest thing in the world. There's a delicate balance that must be maintained because at any moment your partner can bring the entire weight of societal condemnation and judgment down up on you.

Anticipating these counter-attacks I offered these pre-emptive disclaimers, "No, don't. I don't need them. Well, maybe. No, we don't need to be spending money on snacks for me. Would be good, though. I guess I could just walk my ass down to the store to get them. But you're going there anyway. Maybe those Lean Cuisine ones you bought that one time. Alright then, see you later."

I returned to the house already savoring the delicious sweetness of American chocolate cookie surrounding even sweeter and possibly even more delicious vanilla ice cream. As Rachel Ray would surely say, yumm-o!

Of course, anticipation only breeds ~~apathy~~ the munchies, so I ventured into the kitchen where the snack bowl is kept to retrieve the Starburst brand fruit snacks I had purchased the previous evening. I bought two packs because they were on discount. I had eaten a half-a-pack the night before while watching the gymnastics, so you can imagine my shock and surprise to find the snack bowl devoid of Starbursts.

--Digression #4. While it should probably be said that beef jerky is my go-to snack of choice, it has many draw backs, most notably the price. Trying to avoid the preservatives, I tend to go for the Market of Choice house-brand jerky, and it runs $20 a pound. Which is not out-of-line with regular jerky, but it is so much more palatable at $5 for 4 oz than $20 a pound. I mean, that's some freaking expensive meat. Market of Choice has, however, been featuring their "Teriyaki" flavor pretty exclusively and that's a flavor I just can't seem to get down with. As a back up choice, Starbursts, while completely different flavor-wise, also bring the chewiness to the table and have a decently low calorie and fat count. If I can't go salty, I am happy to go citrusy.

Having a tweener in the house, I figured it was good bet that AB had consumed a lunch made up exclusively of a pack-and-a-half of Starbursts. And who could blame her, really? They are tasty and there really is no way to explain to her how imperative it is that she not eat the snackables I have purchased. How do you explain to her that at times, one certain nights, her father will have a need to snack that amounts to a physical imperative and she must not consume the snacks he has purchased, as their sudden disappearance can actually do him harm. You can't. These are the things that I have to put up with.

-- Digression #5. I'm not saying that I deserve any kind of father-of-the-year award or anything.

So I get on the horn to call Ginger. I'm thinking maybe she can give AB some grief for her poor food choices. But, not being the kind of guy who hurls wild accusations, I open the conversation with "You didn't happen to eat any of the Starbursts I bought last night, did you?" If you guessed that Ginger did, in fact, eat my Starbursts, then you are still reading this.

I hurled the accusation that she had betrayed me on the snackular level. Not so much an accusation as an observation, as she had already admitted to the foul deed. I must admit, she handled my (faux) outrage with a nonchalance that secretly impressed me as much as it outwardly (faux) devastated me.

-- Digression #6. I decided long a ago that my wife was more important to me than snacks. I love her way too much to be really upset with her for eating my snacks, whatever form they take. I'm not saying I deserve any kind of husband-of-the-year award or anything.

-- Digression #7. I was reading a crime novel recently that was a bit of a whodunit, but the author used the power of the foreshadowing a bit too casually and I was able to deduce the culprit in the first 50 pages. Foreshadowing is a tricky bit of business that must be done carefully, so as heighten the suspense, but not give the entire game away.

But this would not be the biggest betrayal of the evening!

So there I was, watching the Olympics snack-free, in anticipation of ice cream sandwiches. Every car that passed by the house was torture and I live on a busy street. Every time the dog moved at all was a signal that Ging was in the driveway. Every commercial break brought me one moment closer to those sandwiches. I sat pondering which would be sweeter, the ice cream or the delicious anticipation.

When Ginger and Amber finally did get home, I bound off the couch and ran to the door. But wait! Let's play it cool. Back to the couch, casually throw the foot over the back of the couch. "Oh, hey girlies" when they come through the door? No wait, excitement over seeing AB for the first time that day! AB is more important than ice cream sandwiches! "Hey baby AB, how's it going?" I asked in my best cool dad voice. I'm not sure what her response was, I'm sure she was fine, look at her, she's fine. My focus had, of course, shifted to whether I was going to be required to get off the couch to get my (first) ice cream sandwich or whether Ginger would bring it to me. That's when Ginger said something I did not expect, "I got you some Starbursts."

Starbursts? What good were Starbursts to me now? Were Starbursts cold and chocolaty and ice creamy and delicious? I ventured tentatively, "Um, what about the ice cream sandwiches?" "They didn't look good." They didn't look good, she said. Now, I know my wife and I don't see eye-to-eye on everything, I'm not even sure that we live on the same planet some times, as I sure as heck do not live on a planet where it is possible for ice cream sandwiches to exist, but not look good. "What do you mean, 'they didn't look good,'" I asked, quite reasonably. "They just didn't look very good," she replied.

Now, I recognized that I was the altered one here and I know that Ginger is a sharp cookie, but I literally could not comprehend how ice cream sandwiches could "not look good." Were they all smashed up? Covered in freezer frost? Neither of these seemed like reasonable explanations. As I was pondering, AB offered up that "They were really expensive." How expensive? I inquired, while trying to come up with a sum of money that would plausibly require passing the sandwiches up. Twenty dollars? Twenty-five? That's not how much they cost. Ridiculous. AB says, "They were five dollars!" My brain is unable to process this information any more than it was able to grasp the idea that they might not "look good."

"Five dollars?"

"Yeah, we thought that was too just too much for ice cream sandwiches."

"I would pay $40 for someone to hand me an ice cream sandwich, right now."

"Really? 'Cause I'd go get you some, if you'd really pay that much."

"Nevermind."

I was pretty devastated. Ginger wasn't having any of it, though. "You said not to get them." She was right, I had said that, but I thought I had said it in a way that made it clear that I wanted them, but couldn't be seen to be actually asking for them, but that she was supposed to get them because she loves me and she'd be giving me permission to eat ice cream even though I'm a fatty, had already spent too much money that day, and/or am a baby. I tried not to mention how disappointed I was, but I did let on a little. It was quickly made clear to me that any further discussion of ice cream sandwiches or disappointment regarding the lack thereof would result in a discussion of my shortcomings listed above. So I dropped it, put on a happy face, and ate my Starbursts. Because I love my wife way more than snacks. Even ice cream sandwiches.

-- Digression #8. I, again, am not trying to say I should win husband-of-the-year or anything.

Lips?

Not that you owe us an explanation or anything. But if you care to share, I, for one, am curious...

i'm still enthralled by the Clinton memos -in particular, how unprepared Team HRC was for life after February 5th. please see Josh Green's synopsis of the whole entire helicopter crash, and let's sort through the detritus ensemble, non?

It may have occurred to you to ask why it is such a huge deal that John Edwards cheated on his wife, but not a huge deal that McCain cheated on his first wife. You may have asked this question, perhaps rhetorically, over dinner with your wife or at a ballgame with a conservative friend.

Fortunately, the Republicans have answers.

1. John McCain was a prisoner of war for five and a half years.

2. Edwards' wife has cancer, whereas McCain's wife was merely crippled in a car accident.

3. Five and a half years. Beatings every day.

4. It was thirty years ago.

5. Senator Byrd used to be in the Ku Klux Klan.

6. Five and a half years of beatings every day.

7. John Edwards condemned Bill Clinton for having an affair. (He voted "not guilty" twice, unlike McCain, who voted "guilty").

8. You try being a POW for five and a half years and see if you don't cheat on your wife.

Don't believe me? Watch the video here.

I have thus far avoided blogging about my offspring in this space for a number of reasons. I maintain a separate momblog, mostly for the amusement of the fam. And I have this hangup that goes something like this: when a man blogs about his kid, it's touching and sensitive; when a woman blogs about her kid, it's "jeebus, WTF is all this girly crap?" Not that I think any of you are thinking that. This is strictly internal dialogue coming from my own pathologies (and one too many run-ins with fellow feminists who are anti-mom.) Anyway, that said, I am putting all that aside for today because it's my wee one's second birthday. I am home today celebrating and, while he's napping, pondering how this little guy:

grew into this little monkey:

Happy birthday, Baby R.!

The Chinese forging passports so that underage gymnasts can compete? Completely believable, a huge deal, and international disgrace!

The Bush administration forged a document linking Iraq and Al Queada and made it part of the rational for the war? Not credible, not a big deal even if true, and who cares?

could it be? could it really be? it'd certainly make me happy. and as jerobaim pointed out, watching him debate romney'd be priceless.

Wow, Mel Reeves has a nice response to the recent NYT Magazine bit on an Obama victory somehow signifying the end of black politics on BlackAgendaReport. There's also a related, cool BAR editorial here.

This "post-racial, post-partisan, post-political" wishful thinking of neoliberal organs like the NYT is as much an example of "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" pedantry as the mudslinging and handwringing betwen six-comrade Trot factions. We can't get there, and we shouldn't, because ultimately there is no reason to believe a "post-racial" political culture would be any less racist than this one. But as a guiding light and utopian precept, this "post-everything" outlook needs to be interrogated.

Who among us desires a post-political social organization? Wouldn't it be necessarily post-democratic? Is their a capitalist myth-dream out there in which the market's foreclosure upon the social (i.e., infrastructure, civil society, welfare) is a mere prelude to foreclosure upon the political? Not a lessening of elections, but a lessening of electoral impact - less distinction between parties, lessened state authority vis a vis the market - and a subsequent, fundamentalist reduction of legitimate democratic activity from free association AND the right to organize to simply voting as such (think about the EFCA 'secret ballot' debates.) At what point does voting become indistinguishable from consumer "choice"? How much of this has already happened?

Either the authorial fallacy, as in "did you know that the Evangelist Mark was actually three men in Galilee, born some some seventy years after His Majesty?"

or a 'new criticism' approach a la "maybe it's just the blank verse translation of Psalms hitting me here, but I feel as though a certain leitmotif of shadow and light, sort of, i dunno, undergirds this section of scripture. subsequent authors pick up on it, and gain moral (read: rhetorical) authority merely by maintaining a thematic consistency."

or, "careful study of competing Messianic texts made available after the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls allows us to understand perfectly the ellipsis between early tales of Christ as a child and his subsequence emergence as a thirtysomething."

that sort of thing. is it "crap"?

congrats to Evo Morales, Alvaro Garcia Linera, and the 55-60% of the Bolivian polity that reaffrirmed their support of the indigenous, socialist government. However, while this referendum was helpful in shoring up popular support against the entrenched, white oligarchy - even expelling two anti-Evo prefects - the Right has already done its damage through 'autuomony referenda' which empower provinces rich in natural gas to avoid nationalization and profit-sharing and perhaps to sink Morales' ConstituentAssembly. Gramscian sociologist that he is, Linera has an interesting view on the political work ahead for the Bolivian Left. But I'd turn you to this analysis by Andrew Lubyarsky for the best intro into to the situation. Why are initiatives and referenda everywhere tools of the Right?

Why was I up until 12:45 am last night watching the US men win a bronze in an event I don't even acknowledge as a legitimate sport?

Damn you Olympics! Damn you!

I know it's not fair to pick on every wingnut who starts a blog, but this woman is actually published in a wide variety of places, including the MSM (at least according to her mini CV at the bottom of her webpage).

In a column about the dangers of drinking on the public - liberal, secular - college campus, Marie Jon wrote this paragraph, which I thought was the most hysterical hysterical paragraph I have read in a long time.

Binge drinking — excess for its own sake — is encouraged by other students. As a result, hospitalization of their peers for acute alcohol poisoning is becoming practically epidemic. It is not unusual for some students to down as many as twenty-two shots of vodka while in a dorm room waiting with their friends to start a weekend of partying. Poisoning resulting from the intake of such massive quantities of alcohol in a short span of time has become widespread on campuses across the nation. Approximately three hundred students die each year.

Twenty-two shots just pre-funking (as we called it in my day)? Not unusual? That's amazing. It's amazing in both the "I don't believe it for a second" sense and the "why 22 shots?" sense. Depending on how you measure a shot, that's either 86% of a fifth (1 oz), almost a whole liter (1.5 oz) or 1-1/3 liters (2 oz) of vodka. Not unusual. Before you go out partying. If this is the case (it is not), then I tip my hat to the college student of today. Thank God He made it so that one need not fear, if one has consumed the liquorous spirits before one partakes of the beer.

I'm sure Marie would like to cite her sources on this, but how to you link to Pastor Tim's lecture about the dangers of alcohol at the last youth fair at the church?

As for the Wii beer pong game, I want one and wouldn't this be a lot more sanitary than actual beer pong? But what the hell happened to quarters? I imagine as the economy continues to sink and money tightens, we'll see a return to a less equipment-intensive drinking regime.

Follow the link for McGovern's anti-EFCA interview on Fox News. This is what a union-buster looks like.

(ps - for some reason youtube's having momentary issues with posting clips to blogs. otherwise you'd be watching said video minus all the unnecessary clicking.)

i am transfixed before the Clinton campaign memos. woah.

i relish the opportunity to do surveillance on fascinating weirdo Harold Ickes, and to stand around somebody else's burnt ground. somebody else's mistakes, campaigns.

this is a strenuous piece of self-criticism from a genuine badass. if only he were our U.S. senator.

(Help yourself confidently to the tape. I've been listening to great bands throughout this hectic time of living i've had for so many weeks now. I believe this will have to be remembered as an all-time great playlist in terms of customer satisfaction. In this case, the "customer" is me. Sure, I need to get off the computer. Sure, I could probably stand to take some walks. But I'm listening to good records while I work myself into middle-age.
Unfortunately, copyright minutae and private property as such have intervened in the inclusion of Leon Russell's "Tight Rope:" make a point of experiencing that for yourselves, tho. also absent is "She's Crazy for Leaving", from a Guy Clark alb that I love despite it's crappiness.)

st johnny 'i give up'. when i heard of these guys back in them early 90s, they were always shrugged off as young sonic youth proteges with a yen for drug references. well, they somehow got signed to geffen! and the resultant record, while hardly "great," is nonetheless really good. it sounds like siltbreeze-y Crazy Horse standing in an empty field, trying to play music that's somewhere equidistant from sonic youth and dinosaur.

ida 'lovers' prayers'. fantastic title cut from a fantastic record, recorded with Levon Helm in Woodstock, by a band that has a sensibility towards album rock that betrays their East Coast, 'hc' pedigree. i will follow this band, from here on out. already bought three records from them this year. beautiful, haunting, a la the good Elton John albums like honky chateau. is it sometis okay to be sentimental, so long as you're in the right company and never, ever sentimentalist?

karate 'cherry coke'. from the split with crownhateruin. i have come full circle on this band, who, not unlike st johnny, were maligned en masse among at least the sort of wankers i once knew. the guy is a fantastic guitar player. and i've always associated them with ida - not sure why.

the baseball project 'past time'. my favorite song of 2008? it's not just the baseball references - it's the steve wynn swagger, dumbass! - and it's the paul muldoon-like decision that, yes, i will unleash a sea of non-sequitor namedrops for the sake of a sonorous-er afternoon! poetry needs to continue to exist, sis. even oscar gamble, bobby wise and joe pepitone are hip to that.

electro group 'la ballena alegria'. now we're talking - this is my new band, here. i just swallowed them up whole, after builtonaweakspot dropped them in my face. this is your bleed-y post-shoegaze that also retains weird polvo elements. very float-y, but a lot tougher than most of the wannabe mbv-type bands. i love this band.

faces 'if i'm on the late side'. god, we never talk about how great Faces' ballads are, cuz we're so busy talking about how hard they rock.

toshack highway 'i thought i saw my ship a-coming'. this is the solo outing by adam franklin, another 1990s badass from 1990s badasses swervedriver. this is really sedate, scott walker-y pop with tastey tones and advanced songwriting. placid. why did nobody never send me the memo about swervedriver? that's franklin's old group, too. recommendations?

bruce springsteen 'silver palomino'. i must confess that i have no idea how the Boss got from being a guy who reads Steinbeck to being a guy who alternates between writing b-grade Nelson Algren genre scenes and Horse Songs like this. but it's so, so idiosyncratic - the Jersey Guy dreams of Horses! - that i'm ready for it. his version of "the street" was always a little contrived, too. but since when was this thing we do ever about verisimilitude?

the walkmen 'lost in boston'. soon i will have more to say about the walkmen's new album, which is really cool....but this joint is a deep cut from 100 miles off, which is one of the only rock records of the 2000s that i really love. as i was saying to my friend with the new, cool blog
the other day...the walkmen are my dream hybrid of the faces and fugazi. 100 miles off is the closest we'll ever get to having guy picciotto front the highway 61 band.

beauty pill 'the cigarette girl from the future'. wow. the guys from infamously-obscure dischord geniuses smartwentcrazy have emerged in this format, like a 'pop'(/'Pop'?) june of '44. this record is, of course, 7 years old by now.... where have i been?

drive like jehu 'good luck in jail'. this joint is from the self-titled, a colossal part of the guitar canon that rules all over the polvos, pitchblende's et. al. if you like the guitar playing on "Down by the River" or "Death Valley 69" than you have to love this, even tho it's also more punk rock than either.

make believe '(i can't understand) satisfaction.' one of two recent releases from tim kinsella, make believe's going to the bone church is, among other things, home to the most dominant guitar performance of 2008, that of sam zurich. (i can't understand) satisfaction is both a godard-y, situationist-y derive of the stones' legendarily sexual single, and the platform upon which zurich and the really, very downbeat-y rhythym section can really wreak havoc. this music is like a slow, intermittent tornado.

the crownhate ruin 'lesson in thread'. this is righteous terrain - the bass-driven post-hoover outfit considered by many to be the highwater mark of their family tree. mixed metaphors do no justice to this weird, smart, angular power trio. find out about it at hardcore for nerds.

curtis mayfield 'freddie's dead'. and now let's get a little deeper inside the pocket. vamp city, drum land.

garden variety 'harbored'. a punishing, grating, chugging, math-y battery from an overlooked power trio who made one amazing pop/core record a la jawbreaker, and then one very mathy, ploddy art record. guess which this comes from? check out builtonaweakspot's profile of 'em, and help me find whatever 7"s of there's're out there.

shipping news 'untitled with drums'. it's weird when they're balladeers. this song is a sleepless, overcaffeinated, exhausted wooden roller coaster.

wayne shorter 'ana maria'. getting weird with you again: this is from wayne's collaboration with milton nascimento, entitled 'native dancer'.

joan of arc '9/11 2'. the other side of tim kinsella circa 2007-2008 - a much-maligned track from this new, seemingly 'confessional' joan of arc release. and personally, yes, i think the song lives up to the promise of the title. i think 9/11'll be a full-functioning metaphor for loverly relationships by 2009, if it isn't already.

Cokie should have taken Bob Roberts' advice and stayed off of the crack.

These are the things you think up while high. Going on vacation to visit your grandmother is not something real Americans do. Just because Hawaii is a state, doesn't mean it's not foreign. Myrtle Beach, SC is real America where real Americans go on vacation.

Please, someone, tell me more about the liberal media.

This is some hot Olympic action.

For those that don't know, the Frogs pledged to "smash" the Americans.

In my immediate post-high school years ('90-'94), I picked up the nickname "Loser" as in "Loser Dave." Nominally, this nickname distinguished me from the 5 other Daves that flitted in and out of the social circle, but was also indicative of the twin facts that I didn't go to college and worked fast food for a living. Of course, these were the grunge years, so the appellation "Loser" had some positive cache. Anyway, the Descendents' "I'm Not a Loser" became my unofficial theme song, at least until Beck's "Loser" came along and I moved to Baltimore. That said, I was never a big fan of the homophobic message at the end of the song, although I think I recognized that the Descendents were making a statement about how the pain and anger of socital rejection can lead one to lash out randomly at something everyone hated more than you.

On the three occasions I was able to see either All or the reunited Descendents, this was the song I enjoyed moshing to the most. It kicks ass. Back then, I had that skater haircut where your hair was shaved aroung the sides and you let it grow long and wore it in a ponytail. Looked like a coonskin cap. Unleashed, my hair hung down about 6 inches past my chin. About the same length as my goat. I enjoyed flinging my hair around as I banged my head to "Hurtin' Crue." Go ahead, undo the ponytail and fling your hair around now.

This is simply my favorite song of all-time.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Friday, August 22, 2008

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

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