Lippmann's Ghost

Darin Mastroianni is now with the Minnesota Twins organization and I'm still wishing him good luck

2012-03-04T16:48:00.001-05:00

This weekend marks the beginning of spring training games for Major League Baseball. For those of us in colder climates, it feels a little unusual to see baseball on television quite this early, but it's a welcome sight. Though from New York originally, I've been living in Toronto for years and follow the Jays.

As a result, I was excited last year to learn that the son of a childhood friend was in the Blue Jays farm system and had a pretty good shot at making it to the big leagues. His name is Darin Mastroianni. His dad is Paul Mastroianni.

Darin is a very speedy outfielder by trade.

Last year before the season I wrote about wishing Darin good luck in his quest to play Major League ball.

Darin Mastroianni

I haven't seen Paul since high school but traded a couple of Facebook messages when I found out about Darin who did play for the Jays very briefly last season, but spent most of the year with the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s. If you're wondering about the strange name, it is taken from Area 51, a spot located about 80 miles north of Las Vegas and associated with extraterrestrials and other outer space folklore. I'll bet that makes for all sorts of special promotions at the ball park. Just guessing.

Anyway, in the off-season, Darin was claimed from the Jays by the Minnesota Twins and immediately placed on their 40 man roster. I would have liked to see him play in Toronto for the Jays, which would have meant only a couple mile walk from my front door to the Rogers Centre, but that was not to be.

Given that the Twins claimed him off the waiver wire pretty quickly, I hope that signals that he has a good shot with the team. If that means I have to watch a Twins away game in Toronto, that's okay.

In the event that you don't know, the 40-man roster in Major League baseball, also called the expanded roster, is composed of all the players in a Major League club's organization who are signed to a major league contract. These are the players who are able to be called up to the 25-man roster at any given time.

Darin had been on the Jays 40-man roster but they removed him and tagged him for reassignment, which, in his case, made it possible for another team to sign him as the Twins did.

I'm sure it's tough being sent hither and yon as you try to stick in the majors, but Darin is clearly a very talented young man and the Twins obviously think he's worth a look.

As for the picture above, since you might be wondering, that would be my second grade class photo at the West Haverstraw Elementary School in West Haverstraw, New York, not far north of New York City. It would have been taken around 1966. Paul Mastroianni, Darin's father, is in the front row at the centre of the shot. I'm too spots to the left of him with the bow tie. That's our teacher, Mrs. McQuade, at the right.

It's remarkable to me how many names in that group I recall, but I won't bore you with that.

As for baseball, I'm still hoping to get a look at Darin play in the majors, but I may have to pay closer attention to the Jays schedule to see when the Twins are in town.

It's all baseball.

From My Collection: Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton

2012-03-03T15:10:00.001-05:00

One of the best reasons to blog, or to write at all, is that it forces you to do a little research and maybe dig a bit deeper than you might otherwise into subject matter that interests you.

I love music and consider myself as much an expert as anyone who doesn't make a living at it. Not to be falsely modest because I play gigs around town in Toronto in a blues band and have a good working knowledge of a number of genre. But there just aren't that many hours in the day to know as much as I might like to know. So I write and pick up what I can along the way.

I don't mind getting things wrong from time to time, so, if I do, please feel free to correct me. Let's face it, most of the information I'm getting is coming from the internet, and we know how sketchy that can be. Books and liner notes provide some other stuff. Anyway, the point is that there is nothing malicious in any errors that might occur. It's just the start of a conversation if you want it to be.

As an exercise, I've decided to look through my own substantial music collection, see what's there, and maybe write a few lines about different recordings and post a relevant video more, again, as a learning exercise than anything else.

This morning I walked over to where I keep my vinyl and pulled out, completely at random, Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. The album was released in the UK on July 22, 1966. Personnel on the record are John Mayall (vocals/piano/organ/harmonica); Eric Clapton (vocals/guitar); John McVie (bass/guitar); and Hughie Flint (drums).

(By the way, it seems that the Blues Breakers name sometimes appears as two words with a capitalized second word, and sometimes as one word. Imagine that, studio marketing departments being inconsistent).

One of the cooler things from my perspective is that a horn section was added to the recording with Alan Skidmore on tenor sax, John Almond on baritone sax and Dennis Healey on trumpet.

The Bluesbreakers was John Mayall's band, and are typically called John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. They went through a ton of band members over the years (complete list on the wiki) with Clapton being the most famous, as a member of the group in 1965-66. He had previously been with the Yardbirds and would form Cream with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker afterwords.

By the looks of things, this was the only album Clapton did with the Bluesbreakers.

Just because these things are never simple, Mayall used the name the Bluesbreakers from 1963 to 1967, dropped it for 15 years, and then started using it again in 1983 and has used it ever since. There appear to be just under 40 albums under that name but Mayall recorded with other configurations between 1967 to 1983, for what it's worth.

As the names suggest, the Bluesbreakers were a blues band.

The album in question here, Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, is about as straight-ahead blues as you can get with several tunes in the pure Chicago style like Otis Rush's "All Your Love" and Freddie King's "Hide Away." Mayall wrote or arranged five of the songs. Notably, Clapton debuted as a lead vocalist on the album with Robert Johnson's "Ramblin on My Mind."

Other offerings are: "Little Girl" (Mayall); "Another Man" (arr. Mayall); "Double Crossing Time" (Mayall/Clapton); "What'D I Say" (Charles); "Key To Love" (Mayall); "Parchman Farm" (Allison); "Have You Heard" (Mayall); "Steppin' Out" (L.C. Frazier); and "It Ain't Right" (Jacobs).

As for the legacy of the album, in 2003, it was ranked number 195 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time and has also no doubt been one of the most influential blues albums of all time.

Here's a clip of a reunion concert of some sort with Mayall and Clapton doing Hide Away.

This day in music - March 2, 1983: The first CDs become available in the U.S.

2012-03-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

Apparently, on March 2, 1983, CBS Records released 16 titles on CD in the U.S. The first CD to be manufactured was The Visitors by ABBA in Germany in 1982. The first album to be released on CD was Billy Joel's 52nd Street, which reached the market alongside Sony's CD player CDP-101 on October 1, 1982 in Japan. I guess that means the ABBA recording was produced before 52nd Street but released after.

And, to confuse things further, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA was the first compact disc manufactured in the United States for commercial release, when CBS opened its CD manufacturing plant in Terre Haute, Indiana in September 1984. Discs previously had been imported from Japan.

I am not entirely sure which 16 titles were released in the U.S. by CBS on March 2, 1983, but 52nd Street was put out by CBS Records, so it stands to reason that it was one of the 16.

For the record, Rolling Stone magazine lists 52nd Street as among the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Here's "My Life" from the album, which, according to the YouTube post, was taken from a November 2006 performance in Tokyo.

Erick Erickson gets it right about Romney

2012-03-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

Erick Erickson

Sometimes in politics the despair of the other side is so palpable that you almost feel sorry for them. Almost. Such is the case with Erick Erickson, noted conservative pundit, who runs the website REDSTATE, as he commented Mitt Romney's candidacy after the Michigan primary.

Go on Erick, share your pain. We're here to help.

When you have a candidate few people really like, whose support is a mile wide and an inch deep, whose raison d’etre (a 4am fancy word) is fixing an economy that is fixing itself without him, and who only wins his actual, factual home state by three percentage points against a guy no one took seriously only two months ago, there really is little reason for independent voters in the general election to choose him if the economy keeps improving.

Seriously, putting it bluntly, conservatives may not like Barack Obama, but most other people do. And when faced with a guy you like and a guy you don’t like who says he can fix an economy that no longer needs fixing, you’re going to go with the guy you like.

If Republicans in Washington are not panicked and trying desperately to pull Bobby Jindal in the race tomorrow, or someone like him, the party leaders must have a death wish. Mitt Romney continues to run an uninspiring campaign only able to win by massively outspending his opponents to tell voters how much worse the other guys are. That may work in the primary, but it will not work in a general election where the President of the United States won’t be outspent 5 to 1.

Well, that was fun.

Davy Jones (1945-2012)

2012-02-29T19:36:00.000-05:00

Live-blogging the 2012 Michigan and Arizona Republican Primaries at The Reaction

2012-02-28T20:36:00.000-05:00

I'm Associate Editor at another website called The Reaction. I usually post my stuff there as well as here. My co-blogger and Editor at The Reaction, Michael Stickings, and I will be live-blogging the Michigan and Arizona primaries at that site this evening because that's what we do. Please check it out here.

Olympia Snowe, Republican Senator from Maine, decides not to seek re-election

2012-02-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

How interesting is it that one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate, Olympia Snowe from Maine, is not seeking re-election?

The Washington Post had this to say:

In announcing her plans, Snowe, 65, emphasized that she is in good health and was prepared for the campaign ahead. But she said she was swayed by the increasing polarization in Washington.

“Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term,” Snowe said in a statement. “So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional six years in the Senate, which is what a fourth term would entail.”

Snowe’s retirement represents a major setback for the GOP’s efforts to regain a majority in the Senate. As a moderate Republican, she may be the party’s only hope to hold a seat in the strongly blue state.

According to the report, her announcement took the Republican leadership completely by surprise, noting that she had hired some heavyweight staff to help her in the campaign and that as late as Monday she had sent out an invitation for a fund-raiser.

Traditionally, Snowe has been one of the most moderate Republicans, though more and more, no doubt to fend off challenges from her right, she has been taking more conservative positions on a range issues. However, according to the just-released National Journal 2011 vote rankings, only her Republican Senate colleague, Susan Collins, also from Maine, voted with the Democrats more than Snowe.

In this strongly blue state, Snowe might have been the Republican's only chance to hold the seat, or as Nate Silver tweets, “We had estimated GOP’s chances of holding Maine senate at 85% before. Maybe 20-30% now after Snowe retirement."

As important as that is, her decision not to run says volumes about how difficult it must be for moderate Republicans to maintain their sanity in the crazy world that is now the GOP. They are a dying breed, these moderates, and her decision reinforces the point that Washington is becoming more polarized by the day.

Perhaps she realized what she would have to become to secure her party's nomination, amidst claims from radical conservatives that she is a RINO (Republican in Name Only). Or maybe she decided that the Republican Party she once knew no longer exists, and it just wasn't any fun banging her head against the wall.

Mitt Romney: Consistently out of touch

2012-02-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

2012 Cadillac XTS

Mitt Romney appeared on "Fox News Sunday" over the weekend and, in an interview with Chris Wallace, was asked about his inability to connect with American voters.

You can find the clip at Real Clear Politics here, in which, in part, Romney had this to say:

You know, I can't be perfect. I just am who I am.

If people think there's something wrong with being successful in America, then they'd better vote for the other guy. Because I've been extraordinarily successful. And I want to use that success and that know-how to help the American people.

The only thing I would say about this is that anyone making a credible run at the presidency of the United States of America has been extraordinary successful in life. There are many ways to be successful. Making yourself a lot of money is certainly one of those ways. So, I don't think that's the point.

But what worries a lot of voters about Romney is that as president his personal experiences would seem to have given him no sense of the kind of lives most people lead.

Now, I don't think one would have to have been poor or even middle class to relate to those who are. For some reason, some people are simply more empathetic. They understand what others may be going through even if it is not, and has never been, their own experience. No one would claim, for example, that FDR or JFK had experienced the kinds of economic struggles common to many, but they still seemed to know what was at stake and how to relate.

Every time Romney opens his mouth he proves he knows nothing, and cares nothing, about those born without his privileges.

When he made the bone-headed comment about his wife's two Cadillacs, I don't think most people cared that they could afford such a luxury. What troubles is that given all the bad press he has received about being out of touch, he wouldn't understand that making such a comment makes him sound like a fool, that he could so thoughtlessly throw gasoline on the fire without knowing it.

Roosevelt and Kennedy notwithstanding, I'd probably prefer that my president have some familiarity with struggling to pay the bills, or worrying about finding or keeping a job or maybe wondering how they might finance their kid's education. That may be unrealistic, but I'd prefer it.

To Mitt Romney I would say that there may be nothing wrong with being successful, but there is something wrong with being so completely unable to relate to the challenges most people live with every day.

That's your problem. You can't seem to wrap your head around it and the clip with Chris Wallace proves the point once again.

And the survey says: sex is still popular

2012-02-26T19:27:00.001-05:00

Alex Castellanos

GOP strategist Alex Castellanos recently offered what I have to believe are some of the truest words ever spoken, which were that "Republicans being against sex is not good. Sex is popular."

Yes, I would have to agree with Mr. Castellanos, on both counts.

I haven't done any scientific research on this myself or polling, but it is my experience that sex is indeed popular and that being against it might not be the smartest political move.

But with all those millions conservatives are spending and all the resources they have to get every nuance correct, they must know what they're doing, right?

This day in music - February 23, 1925: "Tea for Two" is at No. 1 on the charts

2012-02-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Marion Harris in 1924

I am not exactly sure what charts were being used in 1925, but I found this on the web, so it must be true.

"Tea for Two" is a song from the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Irving Ceasar.

I did know, even without looking, that the song also later became a jazz standard pretty much played by everyone at one point or another, people like Art Tatum, Django Reinhardt, and Tommy Dorsey.

One thing I did not know, and perhaps didn't need to know, is that "Tea for Two" was the most played song on the Lawrence Welk Show, having been performed 67 times in the more than 1000 show run. Wow, who was counting?

One thing that a lot of people think they know is that No, No, Nanette was financed by selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, though, apparently it was in fact a show called My Lady Friends, produced in 1919, that had been directly financed by the Ruth sale. But even with this there appears to be some confusion because, it seems, My Lady Friends was in fact a non-musical stage play, which later became No, No, Nanette. Okay.

Whatever show was involved, this sale of Ruth by the Red Sox to the Yankees was called the "Curse of the Bambino," which, according to legend, was the reason the Red Sox didn't win a World Series for 86 years. Then the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and that was that.

According to the aforementioned website, "Tea for Two" was a hit in 1925 for someone by the name of Marion Harris (1896-1944). To be sure, I mean no disrespect to Ms. Harris, who appears to have been quite a star in her day on vaudeville, the theatre and on records.

For the sake of authenticity, the recording below is from 1925, but it is a duet performed, in this case, by Helen Clark and Lewis James, likely as preformed in the production of the musical.

How lucky is Barack Obama? Very lucky

2012-02-22T20:24:00.000-05:00

James Carville

We have been so busy pointing to the utter incompetence of the GOP presidential field or marvelling at the radical social conservatism coming from some of them and how toxic that would be in the general election that we may not have sufficiently considered the other side of the equation. By that I mean the fact that President Barack Obama must consider himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth, to borrow a phrase.

I mean, the economy is still weak and, even though Obama didn't start the fire, he could easily be blamed for not putting it out fast enough, as unfair as that may be. But that's politics. You play the hand you're dealt and are judged accordingly.

While I would never have necessarily said that Obama was going to be the underdog in 2012, the only way he might have been favoured would be if the economy moved off centre stage either because it was improving or because the other guys foolishly decided to focus on something else or even because opposition candidates so lacked basic political skill that the focus of the campaign would be on each of them, and the eventual nominee, instead of the economy.

Well, guess what? The economy may be improving slightly but, perhaps more importantly, the other guys are talking about restricting the accessibility of birth control or whether or not women should be in the workplace or the extent to which the devil has infiltrated American institutions among other crazy things. Okay, only Rick Santorum is talking about these things, but it's pretty much blocking out the stuff Republicans should be talking about and setting the agenda in a very destructive way for them.

The other piece, of course, is that the GOP field is so weak that even with the economy in the shape it's in, they don't have a credible delivery system to carry the message. So, they're off message, and even when they're on message they're screwing up because the supposed front-runner is a rich guy so out of touch with the lives of most Americans that he's a walking, talking billboard for the Democrats' key message, i.e., Republicans are the party of privilege, who want to keep the middle class down.

Democratic strategist, James Carville, always good for a quote, was being interviewed on the "Imus in the Morning" radio program recently, and told Don Imus, apropos of all this, that though it was possible Obama could lose the election because of an event, he would not lose it because of a Republican candidate. Carville, an experienced political hand, knows that in politics things can go wrong, but he doesn't think there is a Republican strong enough to beat Obama on merit.

As he said:

Right now, things are starting to perk up a little bit. Who knows? This is the — no Republican can beat Obama. Events can beat Obama. He’s not going to get beat by a Republican. Now events could come in and cause him to lose the election. But that’s it right now. That was not the case three months ago.

And the quotable quote?

You know what, he is — if this president, if I had anything in the world I would love to do? I would love to go to Las Vegas and stand by him at a craps table. ‘Mr. President, you just throw the dice. I’ve got my money on every roll.' He’s a lucky, lucky, lucky guy.

You can find the full clip here.

James Carville is no fool and he is clearly hedging his bets because anything can happen in politics. But who saw the GOP screwing up this much when this all started?

The worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and, as Carville taught us all in 1992, "It's the economy, stupid."

It's hard to believe anyone could fail to grasp that these days.

Yes, Barack Obama is a very lucky man.

Mitt Romney vs. Rick Santorum: Choosing between a fraud and a relic

2012-02-21T22:09:00.000-05:00

As we liberals watch Rick Santorum's perhaps unexpected rise in national polls among Republican voters, we are in many ways thrilled that this is happening. His ridiculous ideas, which we politely call "social conservatism," would surely make him a sitting duck in the general election against President Obama. Polls tell us this much as does common sense.

But many of us, who share nothing of his politics, have been, in a sense, charmed by the man.

Up to this point, it has been easy to give him his due as a relatively competent performer particularly because so many of the other GOP contenders are so incompetent at the craft of politics. It has been possible to almost respect Santorum's charm and abilities as a political force, particularly when we contrast him to Mitt Romney, an absolute disaster of a candidate. Yes, he got to be governor of Massachusetts. I have no idea how that happened.

We have been complementing Santorum for at least appearing to believe what he says in contrast to Romney, who clearly has no center, no core beliefs that define him. It's now official. The only thing for sure we know about Mitt Romney is that he wants to be president. Everything else about him could be and likely will be redefined at a moment's notice depending on the circumstances.

Rather than focusing our attention on Santorum's radicalism, we have been giving him a bit of a free pass because it is at least easier to respect someone who has some ability as a politician, and who seems not to be lying ever time he stands in front of a microphone.

Okay, Romney is a fraud, and Santorum is some kind of "real thing." It is now past time to better understand what kind of real thing we are dealing with.

Significantly, it is the right who are beginning to be most insistent on smoking Santorum out on his radicalism because they know what a problem his candidacy would be should he win the nomination.

In that vein, I turn it over to Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, who writes this:

A number of social conservatives, sensing that Rick Santorum has hit a trip wire, are complaining that he’s being skewered for being a social conservative. That’s demonstrably wrong. The nonstop flaps (some of which concern past episodes that now have come to light) over the last couple of weeks have nothing to do with Santorum’s pro-life views or even his opposition to gay marriage. They have to do with his desire to uproot decades-old trends (e.g. women in the workplace, women in combat, use of contraception) and to use religious terminology and judgments to cast aspersions on his opponents (e.g. “phony theology,” the devil has infiltrated American institutions). In short, Santorum on social issues is not a conservative but a reactionary, seeking to obliterate the national consensus on a range of issues beyond gay marriage and abortion.

A reactionary is one who seeks to return to a previous state of affairs. It is not a conservative outlook, which in the Burkean sense looks to people as they are, prefers modest over the radical solutions and builds on the existing morals and habits of the society. It is conservative to argue the president should respect and accommodate religious institutions; It is reactionary to go on a quest against contraception and pre-natal testing, both of which the vast majority of Americans utilize or approve of.

Santorum is reactionary in his discomfort with women working outside the home (other than his own working mother, presumably), who he claims were bamboozled by greed or “radical feminists” into seeking fulfillment and equality in the workplace. He is reactionary in declaring that women in the military are fit only to “fly small planes” but not take on the duties they have been assuming under battlefield conditions for years. He is reactionary in telling women (married ones, even!) that contraception is harmful to them.

Whatever one thinks of the nuances of Rubin's case, she captures something essential about consistent conservatism and the fear that many Republicans have of Santorum's recent success.

I haven't changed my mind that Mitt Romney will be his party's nominee. I think, to use that over-used term, Rick Santorum is just about ready to jump the shark. There was very little doubt in my mind that this would happen eventually and recent events are surely setting the table for that.

My best guess is that, in the long battle that is the GOP nomination process, Santorum's reactionary perspective on social issues will bury him. I know that there are those in the party who will applaud much of what he says, but I don't think it will carry the day.

I don't know if this counts as irony, but Rick Satorum's need to be true to himself, to be true to his radical, reactionary social conservatism is as much his Achilles' heel as is Mitt Romney's inability to be true to anything.

I am glad that, as a Democrat, I don't have to make a choice between a fraud and a relic.

Rediscovering Jean Shepherd

2012-02-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Jean Shepherd

A lot of people know who Jean Shepherd was or at least know about his best known work, A Christmas Story, which is by now a seasonal classic. The film features the exploits of a little boy in the Midwest, Ralph Parker, during the Depression, who wants nothing more than to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.

Jean Shepherd (1921-1999) wrote this feature film and provided the voice of the adult Ralph. It's one of my favourite holiday movies, something I won't miss at that time of year.

Fewer people are likely aware of other works by Shepherd, who worked in radio, television, movies, wrote books and did his own version of stand-up.

In fact, when A Christmas Story first aired in 1983, I was very proud to tell anyone within earshot that I had been a fan of Shepherd's since at least the early 1970s when I began listening to his nightly radio program on WOR Radio in New York City.

Obviously by then television was the thing, and, though I was barely in my teens, my father suggested I actually turn on a radio to listen to Shepherd's quasi-factual tales of growing up in Indiana in the 30s and 40s. Much to my surprise, I loved it. He just talked. In a lot of ways the stories were really about nothing, so I wasn't surprised to read that Jerry Seinfeld credits Shepherd as one of his most significant influences. You know, Seinfeld's sitcom focused on, as the Wiki entry states, "minutiae, such as waiting in line at the movies, going out to dinner, buying a suit or dealing with the petty injustices of life." I suppose one could say Shepherd did much the same. I even recall one radio program from years ago in which he talks about how much his father loved traffic jams or at least loved to brag about the longest ones he had been in.

I guess you'd call them "slice-of-life" vignettes. I don't know. But he was so good at painting a picture of that time and place that it grabbed me.

I mention this only because this past weekend I happened to take a book off my own shelf, something by Shepherd given to me by a friend probably twenty years ago that I read at that time but hadn't looked at since. It's a collection called In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, which was originally published in 1966.

Some of the short stories from this book like "Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid" and "My Old Man and the Lascivious Award that Heralded the Birth of Pop" provide source material for A Christmas Story. And, if I am not mistaken, Grover Dill in the book morphs into Scott Farkas in the movie. No matter.

It was some of the best time I have spent on the couch with a book in a while.

I don't know if the old radio programs are still available, but if they are they would be well worth finding. I remember the theme song that introduced each show and while I'd like to tell you I didn't have to look up the title, that would not be true (It's "The Bahn Frei Polka" by Eduard Struass). When that song began, played by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, it was time to settle in for 45 minutes of radio bliss. Great stories about growing up with his friends Flick and Schwartz and his brother Randy and his old man and mother with her Chinese red chenille robe. Hard to explain, but it really is great stuff.

Other books by Shepherd, which still seem to be in print, are: Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories, and Other Disasters; The Ferrari in the Bedroom, and A Fist Full of Fig Newtons.

I also came across a reference to a biography by Eugene B. Bergmann called: Excelsior, You Fathead: The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd, which was published in 2005. I may have to pick that one up.

If you are not familiar with Shepherd's work, I think it's pretty clear I'm recommending it. If A Christmas Story is all you know, there is so much more to enjoy.

Here's a clip of him doing some stand-up work at a 1972 concert, just to give you a flavour, though there is something about the radio experience that I actually prefer.

(Just a little footnote and a question: I notice the short story about the Red Ryder BB gun takes place during the Depression, though the movie about the same episode is supposed to take place in the 40s. I'm not sure why that was changed, but it seems to have been. If anyone can enlighten me, please do).

Photo of the day: Winter in Restoule, Ontario

2012-02-20T18:12:00.001-05:00

About four hours due north of Toronto is the very small town of Restoule, Ontario. It's a beautiful place this time of year, or any time of year really. That's our cottage in the distance taken from the frozen lake. Even there, in what is called the Near North in the province, winter has been incredibly gentle. Temperatures were mostly hovering just around the freezing mark this past weekend, which is almost balmy at a time of the year when the lack of a heating block in your car could be real trouble.

Bruno Mars at the Grammys and the spirit of James Brown

2012-02-16T13:00:00.000-05:00

I spent a couple of hours watching the Grammys last weekend. I am neither qualified nor interested in providing a critique of the show or the winners or much else to do with the program. The one thing I really liked was Bruno Mars. Maybe that's because, to my mind, this guy and his band were seriously retro, and, as I told a friend, I hope the James Brown estate got paid. It's all good. Great to see.

Like I said, I really like what they did: the energy, the style, the tightness of the act, and especially the super cool dance steps coming from the horn section.

This is the clip from the show.

Football season is over, baseball will soon be upon us

2012-02-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

Jose Bautista

Football is my sport. Baseball is in second place, but it is, I must admit, a distant second, though I like the game and the promise of spring that comes with a new season.

A few weeks ago, my beloved New York Giants won the Super Bowl. I will be months coming down from that, but it is over and baseball is around the corner so I better start thinking about it.

I grew up a Mets fan in New York but have been in Toronto for so long that I am now mostly a Jays booster. I was here for the two World Series championships in the 90s and still hope they can return to former glory one of these days. In 2011, they were 81-81, perhaps something to build on.

With the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays likely in a position to outdo the Jays again this year in the division, it may take some real effort to get all that interested in the proceedings in 2012, but I promise to try. Yes, I am a fair weather baseball fan

For those who follow such details, the Jays' pitchers and catchers report on February 21st and the full squad on February 24th. The first spring training game is against the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 3rd and opening day is an away game against Cleveland on April 5th (3:05 p.m.).

To friends and family all over Canada and U.S. who support different teams, I say good luck. Good luck to Rob who suffers with the Cubs and Keith who lives and dies with his Astros (and hates the Mets); all the best to my relatives from out east in Canada, who probably cheer for the Red Sox and Sean, who follows the Tampa Bay Rays, and the other Sean, the Phillies fan, and my relatives in New York, who have been Yankee fans forever, and to the old gang from my childhood who probably still have hopes for the Mets, sad as that is these days.

Did I forget anyone? Probably.

Time to play ball, almost.

Behind the Ad: Romney strongly (and wrongly) suggests Obama caused the auto sector crisis

2012-02-15T19:43:00.001-05:00

Who: Mitt Romney in an ad called "Growing Up"

Where: Michigan

What's going on: In the ad, Romney is driving around in a car on a street somewhere in Michigan. He is narrating the scene himself as various scenes are shown depicting the Detroit auto show, workers at a Chrysler plant and the General Motors tower in downtown Detroit.

The Washington Post provides this analysis, which is bang on:

Mitt Romney clearly wants to remind Michigan voters that he grew up there and his ad, the first one designed for the state’s Feb. 28 primary, is an explicit home-town appeal. He reminisces about his father, a popular former governor and auto executive, name-checks the renowned auto show and uses imagery designed to remind voters of the Motor City’s glory days. If that’s not enough, he concludes by asserting that the state’s fate is “personal” for him.

The ad comes at a delicate time for Romney. While he recovered somewhat by winning Maine’s caucuses last weekend, he’s still nursing wounds from Rick Santorum’s sweep of nominating caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, and Missouri’s non-binding primary. Santorum’s momentum has pushed him ahead of Romney in a handful of national polls and in early Michigan surveys. If Romney is to regain momentum before the potentially decisive Super Tuesday primaries on March 6, when 10 states vote, he badly needs to win in Michigan.

But the part about the ad that really stinks is the strong suggestion that President Obama is somehow to blame for Detroit's woes.

Again, the Washington Post:

He also implies that Obama’s policies played a role in the auto industry’s collapse, which is not the case. After noting the industry’s decline in one breath, Romney then says Obama “did all these things that liberals have wanted to do for years.” Regardless of the merits of Obama’s policies, they didn’t bring about Detroit’s ills. The auto industry in general, and Chrysler and General Motors in particular, were collapsing before Obama took office in 2009. The decision to continue the bailout of GM and Chrysler, which Romney doesn’t mention, was one of Obama’s first major decisions in office. Romney publicly opposed the bailouts and reaffirmed his stance this week in an opinion piece published in The Detroit News.

I don't know if I should give the ad grudging respect for creating a grossly false impression without actually lying or if I should be disgusted by yet another example of bullshit coming out of Romney's mouth to support his run for the GOP nomination.

Well, actually, I do do know. This is pathetic.

Hard to believe anyone could actually lower the level of political discourse coming from the right, but Mitt has.

The GOP: Taking a hard right turn over a cliff

2012-02-13T21:36:00.001-05:00

What the hell. Let's look at a poll that's telling us how well Rick Santorum is doing at the moment. I still can't imagine that Romney will lose the nomination, but recent events sure do have pundits writing articles about brokered conventions and other scenarios that could point to a Romney epic fail.

Yesterday, the Pew Research Center published results that found Santorum in a virtual tie with Romney among Republicans nationally.

Here's a bit of their overview:

Rick Santorum’s support among Tea Party Republicans and white evangelicals is surging, and he now has pulled into a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. In polling conducted Feb. 8-12, 30% of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters favor Santorum while 28% favor Romney. As recently as a month ago, Romney held a 31% to 14% advantage over Santorum among all GOP voters.

Santorum is now the clear favorite of Republican and GOP-leaning voters who agree with the Tea Party, as well as white evangelical Republicans. Currently, 42% of Tea Party Republican voters favor Santorum, compared with just 23% who back Romney. Santorum holds an almost identical advantage among white evangelical Republican voters (41% to 23%).

If you're wondering, Gingrich is at 17% in the poll and Paul at 12%.

No surprise that Santorum's success is being driven by committed conservatives like Tea Party types and white evangelicals. No surprise that this is the group with which Romney will continue to have problems. And no surprise that Gingrich is fading fast, phony bastard that he is.

As long as Romney could sustain the fiction of inevitability, he was fine. Now that he's lost that, it will be hard for him, though I still think he'll get there because of an imbalance of resources if nothing else - and maybe there is nothing else. Thing is that he'll have to spend a lot of that money proving how severely conservative he really is instead of how good a president he might make.

The poll also took a look at how Obama would do against various GOP challengers and found this:

Obama leads Santorum by 10 points among all registered voters (53% to 43%) and his lead over Romney is nearly as large (52% to 44%). Romney ran about even with Obama in November and mid-January. Obama has a larger advantage over Newt Gingrich than over Santorum or Romney: Obama leads the former House speaker by 18 points (57% to 39%). Obama has made gains among independent voters. Today, 51% of independents favor Obama in a matchup against Romney, up from 40% a month ago.

These polls will come and go, but Democrats are clearly having a pretty good week.

I suppose it's possible that Gingrich can stay in a while longer, but I'm not sure how long. My guess is that his numbers will continue to tank. If he gets out, a showdown between Romney and Santorum could get interesting as polls have suggested that most of Newt's support would go to Santorum.

A long time ago I said that no matter who won the GOP nomination, that candidate would have to tack to the hard right to win the Republican nod and in the process become less and and less acceptable to the mushy middle - those independent voters who tend not to be very ideological. And you can't win without independents.

It wasn't clear exactly how the dynamics would play themselves out. And, in truth, if Romney had been able to lock things up early, he might not have had to go so far to the right. Now Santorum will force his hand and Obama's team couldn't be happier about that.

Not a brilliant analysis or unexpected outcome, but we didn't know how it would happen and maybe now we do.

Things were quiet for a while, but all of a sudden this is fun - if you're not a Republican.

February 13, 2011: Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" wins Album of the Year at the Grammys

2012-02-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

Arcade Fire is an indie rock band based in Montreal. Their success has been big news for us Canadians (or Canadian-American dual citizens, in my case). Not only did they win the Grammy for Album of the Year for The Suburbs in 2011, but they also won the Juno for Album of the Year. You may have to follow the link to figure out what that means, but I'll let you do that.

In Canada, it's okay to recognize your own artists as long as the Americans tell you it's okay.

With friends like Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney doesn't need enemies

2012-02-12T18:54:00.000-05:00

Sarah Palin and Chris Wallace

On Fox News over the weekend Sarah Palin said that she was not convinced Mitt Romney was a conservative.

In an interview with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" she had this to say:

I trust that his idea of conservatism is evolving. And I base this on a pretty moderate past he has had, even in some cases a liberal past.

I am not convinced. And I don't think the majority of GOP and independent voters are convinced, and that is why you don't see Romney get over the hump.

She added that "he has spent millions and millions and millions of dollars and hasn't risen yet."

Palin implied similar things during her CPAC keynote speech in which she also expressed her preference that the GOP presidential nomination process continue because it would give each contender the chance to hone their strengths and deliver a more concise message.

Typically, I don't pay a lot of attention to Sarah Palin, but in this case she really does appear to be speaking for a sizeable segment of the conservative electorate.

Did she really say that despite the fact that Romney has been running for the GOP nomination for five years, she doesn't truly know where he stands on the issues or trust his judgement as a conservative?

Well, yes she did.

At the risk of saying the same thing over and over and over again, committed conservatives really don't like Mitt Romney and it doesn't appear that he'll ever be able to do much to change that.

For Romney it's not so much that Palin is off side. That on it's own is probably not that big a deal. It's that Palin, a person who gets a lot of face time on a network like Fox, is feeding the narrative that is damaging his campaign. In football it's called piling on.

If you care, you can watch a clip of Palin rating the GOP field here.

Rick Santorum's culture war and Obama's victory in November

2012-02-11T16:36:00.000-05:00

Perhaps not surprisingly, Public Policy Polling just released a survey that has Rick Santorum opening up a wide lead over Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in their newest national poll. He's at 38% to 23% for Romney and 17% for Gingrich.

As the poll indicates, a big part of the reason that Santorum is doing so well is his high level of popularity as 64% of voters see him favourably to only 22% who have a negative view of him.

But the other, and maybe more important, reason is that Republicans are significantly souring on both Romney and Gingrich. Romney's favorability is barely above water at 44/43, representing a 23 point net decline from [the PPP] December national poll when he was +24 (55/31). Gingrich has fallen even further. A 44% plurality of GOP voters now hold a negative opinion of him to only 42% with a positive one. That's a 34 point drop from 2 months ago when he was at +32 (60/28).

Santorum is now completely dominating with several key segments of the electorate, especially the most right leaning parts of the party. With those describing themselves as 'very conservative,' he's now winning a majority of voters at 53% to 20% for Gingrich and 15% for Romney. Santorum gets a majority with Tea Party voters as well at 51% to 24% for Gingrich and 12% for Romney. And with Evangelicals he falls just short of a majority with 45% to 21% for Gingrich and 18% for Romney.

One other rather devastating detail found in the poll for Romney is what would happen if Gingrich were to drop out, which is that 58% of Newt's supporters say they would move to Santorum, while only 22% would go to Romney and 17% to Paul.

I realize that we've seen this all before. All of the GOP contenders have had their day and once at the top they almost immediately start falling back down.

I get all that, or maybe this is just the strangest contest we've ever seen and Santorum, being the last candidate standing in this apparently never ending contest of "Not-Mitt," will win the nomination for no other reason.

On the other hand, it's a little surprising that Republican voters took so long to get around to Santorum at a time when conservative bona fides are the order of the day. Many of us wondered if the Tea Party movement would have enough influence to do for the presidential nomination process what they did for Sharon Angle in Nevada and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware in 2010, which is to pick with their hearts and not with their heads - to pick based on some perverse notion of ideological purity over any chance of winning an election.

We all assumed that Mitt Romney, with the money of the conservative establishment behind him, would be able to beat back the wacky right, but maybe we were wrong.

So, while it is true that Rick Santorum's radical social conservatism will make him unattractive to swing voters in the general election and ensure an Obama victory, it might be precisely what is required to win the GOP nomination this time around, as some of the polling data above would suggest.

Romney and Gingrich are opportunists. Santorum is a true believer, and that is the difference. Much as Mitt and Newt have tried to fake sincerity, it has not been possible. Santorum is the real deal, and I don't mean that in a good way.

It seems clear that very few pundits, professional or amateur, know what's going to happen with the Republican nomination, having all gotten it wrong so frequently, but there is one thing we do know: when someone as radical as Rick Santorum is doing this well so relatively late, the GOP is in trouble and the intelligent few in their ranks, the ones who really understand politics, know it.

Main point here is that if the GOP makes the 2012 election about the economy they have a shot. If they make it a culture war, they're done. The Obama campaign could not have built a better candidate from scratch than Rick Santorum to help them frame the general election as a culture war.

Keep in mind, as well, that even if Romney wins the nomination, he will have had to go step for step with Santorum on the culture war front for longer than it will do him any good.

This day in music - February 8, 1945: Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters are at No. 1 on the charts with "Don't Fence Me In"

2012-02-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Andrews Sisters

To be technically correct, the song spent eight weeks at No. 1 from December 17, 1944 to February 10, 1945. It was then replaced at No. 1 by the Andrews Sisters' own "Rum and Coca-Cola."

For students of history, it's interesting to note that much of this period coincides with the Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945), the last gasp of the Nazi regime at the end of WWII.

While Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters were singing their hearts out, American GIs were experiencing some of the worst fighting of the war.

As for the song, "Don't Fence Me In" was written by Cole Porter and based on text by a poet and engineer with the Department of Highways in Helena, Montana, Robert Fletcher. Apparently, Porter bought the poem from him for $250 and then wrote a song around it. Although Porter wanted to give Fletcher credit, it required a bit of a legal battle before that happened.

Anyway, the song became very well known, recorded over the years by the likes of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Ella Fitzgerald, Willie Nelson, and, of course, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters.

I'm not going to bother introducing Crosby, but the Andrews Sisters were a wildly successful sister act, who sang close harmony in the swing and boogie-woogie eras. One of their best known songs was their 1941 hit "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," and over their long career they sold well over 75 million records.

Here's "Don't Fence Me In."

Mitt Romney: Flip, flop and fail

2012-02-07T19:18:00.000-05:00

I know the pundits are still talking like there is some doubt about who the GOP presidential nominee is going to be. Of course, there isn't. Republicans are stuck with Mitt Romney and the funny thing is that the majority of them probably know they're stuck.

But whatever your politics, how could you possibly vote for a guy who has taken such well documented public positions on both sides of so many key issues?

Somebody went through the trouble of stringing together a bunch of clips of Romney contradicting himself on climate change, abortion, and health care - three issues fairly important to the conservative base, I'd say.

Again, left vs. right aside, how could anyone want to vote for this guy? How could anyone trust a word?

Mitt Romney stands for nothing but getting elected. Jon Huntsman was right. Romney is a well-lubricated weather vane shifting in the wind depending on the needs of the moment.

I know this is nothing new, but it's kind of jarring now that we know Romney is the one.

This is the best you've got? I don't imagine the GOP brain trust is getting a lot of sleep these days.

The 1966 New York Giants: A long way away from any Super Bowl

2012-02-05T13:37:00.000-05:00

By 1966 I was already a huge New York Giants fan and had exactly another 20 years of disappointment to look forward to. Neighbourhood kids used to knock on my door on Sunday afternoons to see if I would come out and play or, they used to ask, was I going to stay inside and "watch the Giants lose."

Yes, it was that bad.

But stay inside to watch the Giants I did, and it's something I've been doing ever since.

But 1966 was a special year for the New York Giants, sort of.

A Bleacher Report article this past summer listed this group as number 26 of "The 30 Worst Team in NFL History."

So, what, you may ask, is the relationship of that woeful season to today's Super Bowl? Well, as the Green Bay Packers were finishing an impressive 12-2 regular season record and on their way to beating the Kansas City Chiefs in the very first Super Bowl, the Giants were going 1-12-1.

What made this even more difficult was the fact that the Giants previously had two assistant coaches, Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry, who would face each other in the NFL championship game that season as head coaches when the Packers beat the Cowboys.

My guess is that the 20 lost years for the Giants would never have happened if they had been able to hold on to either one of these legends.

Just to add a little insult to injury, the Giant's quarterback during that stellar 1-12-1 season was Earl Morrall, who left the team two years later to go to Baltimore where he stepped in for the injured Johnny Unitas and proceeded to lead the team to a 13-1 record and an appearance in the Super Bowl (albeit to lose to the Jets).

And then Morrall went to the Dolphins in 1972 and played a pivotal role in their undefeated season.

Just some fun facts to think about.

Here's the entry from the Bleacher Report on that terrible 1966 season for the Giants:

The 1966 season got off on an indifferent note for New York. But any indecision one had about how the Giants were going to do that year would be solved after watching the remainder of the regular season.

A 34-34 tie on the road in Week 1 against the Pittsburgh Steelers was followed by a 52-7 thrashing at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys one game later. Big Blue then broke through with a victory against the Redskins on Oct. 16. That was followed by an eight-game swoon to end the season.

The defense, once the pride and joy of Giants football, was awful. They gave up 501 points in 14 games, including allowing 72 to Washington on Nov. 22.

I mean, the Giants were so bad they even tied, then lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers that year, who were 5-8-1 (inside joke).

Long time ago, but interesting to remember it all.

Here's to hoping for better things for the Giants at today's Super Bowl.

This day in music - February 3, 1959: the day the music died

2012-02-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

J.P. Richardson

Ritchie Valens

"The day the music died" is what Don McLean called it in his song "American Pie." February 3, 1959, in a small-plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, Buddy Holly, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens, along with the pilot, Roger Peterson, died.

The plane went down and three pioneers of rock and roll perished.

Richardson was a D.J., singer and songwriter best known for his recording of Chantilly Lace.

Ritchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist and although his recording career lasted only eight months, he had several hits including "La Bamba" and "Donna."

And Buddy Holly was, well, Buddy Holly, one of the most innovative and influential forces in early rock and roll with an incredible list of hits to his credit including: "That'll Be the Day," "Words of Love," "Not Fade Away," "Everyday," "Oh, Boy," "Peggy Sue," "Maybe Baby," "Rave On," "It's So Easy," "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," and "True Love Ways" just to name a bunch.

His influence on The Beatles, Elvis Costello, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton is well documented. He was in the first class of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and in 2004 was ranked by Rolling Stone as #13 among "The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time."

Imagine if he had been allowed to live a normal life span. Incredible that he was only 23 when he died.

Photo of the day: Winter in Toronto (not this year)

2012-02-02T20:32:00.000-05:00

We're not having much of a winter in Toronto this year, not that this bothers me that much, but maybe a little. I've been here over 30 years and can't remember a season with so little snow. Anyway, just as a reminder, I found this shot of one of the city's iconic streetcars from a winter past.

This day in music - February 2, 1927: Saxophone great Stan Getz is born

2012-02-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

This is just an excuse to post a clip by Stan Getz, one of my all-time favourite musicians. As a sax player myself, I've always loved the guy and loved the stuff he did over the years.

The is apparently a bossa nova medley recorded live in California in 1983.

Will I ever learn to trust the success of the New York Giants?

2012-02-01T20:59:00.002-05:00

Y.A. Tittle

Well, my New York Giants are in the Super Bowl this weekend. I have been living and dying with the team for more than five decades and, as much as I think they are a good team right now that can win the big game, I'm sceptical. That's the way it is with me and a lot of Giants' fans. We haven't expected a lot over these many years and haven't usually been wrong.

I know that if you started watching the Giants in the mid-1980s you might think I'm crazy. After all, the G-Men have been in the NFL championship game four times and won three of them. If they win on Sunday, that'll make them four for five over a 25 year stretch, which is nothing to sneeze at.

But if you started watching the Giants in the early 60s, as I did, you would have had to live through 20 years of some of the worst football ever played anywhere. From 1964 to 1978 that means they had only two winning seasons and made no playoff appearances. Sure, things got better with the arrival of Parcells and Taylor and Simms. Sure, they've been a mostly respectable franchise for a long time now. But I can't get those 20 years out of my mind.

I'll be thrilled if they win on Sunday, but won't expect it. Years of watching players like Joe Pisarcik, Jerry Golsteyn and Randy Dean led the team through the lean times has ruined me. And then when they did have a decent QB over that time like Norm Snead, Craig Morton, Fran Tarkenton or Earl Morrall they never seemed to be able to do for the Giants what they did elsewhere.

I'm not bitter. I just have really low expectations.

Remember, when I first started watching Giants' football, they just finished a run as a very good franchise with players like Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, Roosevelt Brown and Alex Webster. But that was mostly over by the time I was old enough to pay attention.

To be fair, I vaguely remember when quarterback Y.A. Tittle came to New York in 1961 from San Francisco. He's was already an accomplished QB by then and proceeded to lead the team to three straight Eastern Division titles. To give you an idea of how good Tittle was, in 1963 he set what was then an NFL record by throwing 36 touchdown passes.

But I barely remember Tittle, what I remember is my father talking about how good Tittle was. And then Tittle was gone and the first 20 years of my life as a football fan were spent rooting for a really bad team. Over that time it never occurred to me that the Giants could win anything, that they might be in playoff games or fight for championships. It was just a given that when the regular season was over, the team went home and I watched teams that I really didn't care about continue on.

It's taken me a long time to get used to having anything at stake in post-season play.

Don't get me wrong. I love my Giants. It's just that I will always see them as loveable losers no matter how good they get. It's burned in my brain that way. I just don't trust their success. Never have. Never will. That's just the way it is with me.

This day in music - January 31, 1968: The American Breed's "Bend Me, Shape Me" is certified Gold

2012-01-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

I remember this song. Can't say that I really remember the group, though. Well, sort of. To be fair, they did chart with a few other songs, though "Bend Me, Shape Me" was their biggest hit. If you were a fan, you will know that other efforts by the band that charted include "Step Out Of Your Mind" and "Green Light." Okay.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the group is that they eventually morphed into an R&B/funk band with the name Rufus featuring a singer by the name of Chaka Khan, and in 1974 had a top ten hit with "Tell Me Something Good." That I remember.

Anyway, The American Breed was a Chicago-based group that lasted from 1966 to 1969 before going in a different musical direction. And in their first incarnation they even got a gold record out of the deal.

I love the general grooviness of the video of "Bend Me, Shape Me" and, what the hell, you'll find a clip of "Tell Me Something Good" just below it featuring Chaka Khan.

By the way, "Tell Me Something Good" was written by Stevie Wonder and is among the earliest songs to make use of a guitar talk box. If you know the song, you'll know what that means.

Obama connects better with Americans than GOP contenders

2012-01-30T20:08:00.001-05:00

Swiss francs, in case you didn't know

Here are some interesting polling results worth passing along. According to a Pew Research Center/Washington Post poll, 55% of those surveyed say that President Obama connects with the needs of average Americans very or fairly well. This contrasts with 41% who told pollsters that the president doesn't understand the people's problems too well or at all well.

As for the two leading GOP contenders, only 39 percent say that Romney understands the problems of average Americans very or fairly well, and just 36 percent say the same for Gingrich.

As Politico reports on the survey:

Slightly more than half of independent voters, or 53 percent, say Obama is empathetic, while only 38 percent and 37 percent, respectively, had the same positive rating for Romney and Gingrich.

Along party lines, a whopping 84 percent of Democrats say Obama does connect with the concerns of average people. Among Republicans, 61 percent told pollsters Romney does connect well, and 60 percent say the same for Gingrich.

I suppose one could say that the lower numbers for Romney and Gingrich amongst Republicans have to do with the fact that the GOP nomination race is in full swing and these numbers will consolidate around the eventual nominee whenever he is chosen.

But the percentages among independents are interesting. That's a pretty big gap between swing voters who think Obama understands their situation vs. the number who think leading Republicans do.

It may be a simply calculus, but I tend to think people would rather vote for someone to whom they can relate and who can relate to them. After the dust settles and Romney becomes the GOP nominee, there is little doubt in my mind that most American will see the former Governor of Massachusetts as clueless when it comes to the challenges faced by most citizens.

Want to make a $10,000 bet on that or maybe we could make the wager in Swiss francs?

Some jokes never get old

2012-01-28T16:37:00.000-05:00

Behind the Ad: Gingrich assails Romney's character

2012-01-28T13:09:00.000-05:00

Who: Newt Gingrich attacks Mitt Romney

Where: Florida

What's going on: There have been so many twists and turns to the GOP presidential nomination process that I'm not quite ready to say it's over. Polls in Florida are still settling and I suppose it's still possible Gingrich could pull it out and keep this thing going for a while longer. He certainly seems to be thinking that way, based on his most recent ad airing in Florida.

The money line is this: "What kind of man would mislead, distort and deceive just to win an election? This man would: Mitt Romney."

It begins with a comment by Governor Mike Huckabee: "If a man's dishonest to get a job, he'll be dishonest on the job."

Wow. Not that it hasn't been personal before this, but now it's really getting personal. I still think Romney wins the nomination, but attack ads like this that impugn Romney's reputation as a true conservative are going to have an impact once Romney finally emerges as the candidate.

In part this is the stuff professionals like to call voter suppression. In other words, even if Romney wins the nomination, the feeling that he can't be trusted may well make it less likely that Tea Party or other hard-core right wingers will bother to come out and vote for him. They won't vote for Obama, of course, they just won't vote.

It's pretty effective stuff.

And, among swing voter, repeating over and over that Romney will say whatever it takes to get elected is not going to make him an attractive candidate. As I've said many times, I just think Mitt Romney is a lousy politician, that he doesn't understand how it's done, doesn't understand that voters need to trust the person they vote for, need to believe that the candidate stands for something.

This ad feeds into the feeling growing numbers of people have that Romney is a fraud, that the only thing he stands for is winning because rich privileged people like him, he'd like us to believe, ought to be running the country anyway. Everything else for a guy like Mitt is background noise.

Newt Gingrich doesn't care about the success of the Republican Party. This is scorched earth politics at its best and, as a Democrat, I love it. More of this please.

This day in music - January 27, 1970: The Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You" hits No. 1

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Partridge Family

When I decided to have some fun with this feature, I told myself I wouldn't impose my own opinions about what was good music and what was "less good." For all sorts of reasons, different artists and songs mean things to other people beyond the understanding of some of the rest of us. Clearly the fact that The Partridge Family had a No. 1 hit with "I Think I Love You" means that a lot of people went out and bought the record. I can respect that.

The Partridge Family was a television sitcom that aired between 1970 and 1974 on ABC and has lived on in syndication for a long time after that. The basic idea for the show was that a widowed mother and her five children would embark on a music career. This allowed for normal family-type hijinx, with a couple of pretty teenagers (David Cassidy and Susan Dey) in the cast to occupy the hormones of any peers who might be watching.

And then there was the obligatory song in each episode always somehow woven into the plot. As for the music, only David Cassidy, who sang lead, and Shirley Jones (the mother), who sang backup, were featured on the recordings.

One of the more obscure pieces of information about the song "I Think I Love You" is that it made the Partridge Family the third fictional group to have a No. 1 hit (after The Chipmunks and The Archies). To give the man his due, "I Think I Love You" was written by veteran American songwriter Tony Romeo, who also wrote for a lot of other people.

I remember watching The Partridge Family as a kid. It seemed to pass the time as well as anything else. I doubt the show ever did anyone any real harm and as pop music goes, it wasn't the worst.

Behind the Ad: Gingrich super PAC attacks Romney on health care

2012-01-26T19:59:00.000-05:00

Who: Winning Our Future, Newt Gingrich's super PAC, has said they will spend $6 million on ads to draw attention to Mitt Romney's health care law in Massachusetts.

Where: Florida, prior to next week's primary

What's going on: Despite the fact that Romney seems most vulnerable on the issue of his wealth and record at Bain, the whole RomneyCare thing has hardly gone away. Gingrich is at least smart enough to know that seeing how it plays on top of everything else may not be a bad strategy.

The ad, no surprise, depicts Romney as a Massachusetts moderate in lock step with President Obama, which will surely be red meat for Gingrich's growing base of Tea Party support.

As we know, Romney did a pretty effective number on Gingrich in Iowa with his super PAC money, so it seems obvious that Newt will push back with whatever he can find in Florida and beyond, now that he has another $5 million from his casino mogul friend, Sheldon Adelson, to play with.

Elizabeth Warren needs to relax

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

That's more like it

I'm a big fan of Elizabeth Warren, who is running for a Massachusetts senate seat for the Democrats against Republican incumbent Scott Brown. I like her message. She articulates the plight of the middle class very well and understands what has to be done to improve it. She's obviously really smart and an asset to the party. But, she is clearly new to this whole "politics" thing and it showed in her interview with Jon Stewart a couple of nights ago.

It's much better to be calm and apparently in control on television. Something about it being a "cool medium." Ms. Warren was vibrating in the interview, way too excited and, to be truthful, it was a little hard to watch.

I don't mean to be hard on her. As I said, I think she's terrific, but someone needs to work with her to help her get more of the optics right. Hey, politics is performance art.

Behind the Ad: Pro-Romney super PAC says Gingrich is no Ronald Reagan

2012-01-25T19:56:00.004-05:00

Who: Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

Where: Florida

What's going on: The super PAC is taking issue with Newt Gingrich's frequent mentions of Ronald Reagan. According to the New York Times' Nate Silver, Gingrich has actually dropped Reagan's name 55 times in the various nomination debates. As the Washington Post describes it, it is sometimes to honor one of the leading figures of modern conservatism, but also to claim that he, Gingrich, had worked closely with the former president.

On the latter point, the ad takes aim at the claim that the two men were at all close stating that Reagan only mentioned Gingrich once in his diaries and there only to criticize him for his ideas that would "cripple our defense program."

Given how much Newt likes to present himself as a student of history, it seems rather sweet that the ad portrays this sanctimonious twit as little more than a footnote of the Reagan years. My guess is that poking fun at Gingrich's self-importance is not a bad approach. The more we see of him, the more this is likely to become his Achilles heel. Is there any conservative "success" for which he won't take credit? I give the ad two thumbs up.

This day in music - January 25, 1964: The Beatles score their first No. 1 U.S. single with "I Want To Hold Your Hand"

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

A nice clip of the lads playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" with an intro by their producer, George Martin. What more can I say? (I think you have to click through to the YouTube site to get it, but that doesn't appear to be too difficult).

Mitt Romney's continuing problem with the truth

2012-01-24T20:35:00.000-05:00

Ask Mitt anything. Just don't expect the truth.

On the theory that when lies are told we all bear responsibility for pointing out the truth, I want to repeat the substance of a helpful post that Steve Benen put up yesterday. It concerns Monday night's GOP debate and Romney's continuing problem with telling the truth about pretty much anything.

Here's one of Romney's claims about President Obama:

We have $15 trillion of debt. We’re headed to a, to a Greece- type collapse, and he adds another trillion on top for Obamacare and for his stimulus plan that didn’t create private-sector jobs. This president has failed.

And here's Benen's response:

It’s true we have $15 trillion in debt, but the biggest chunk comes from Bush-era tax breaks. Romney wanted to make them permanent.
Anyone who seriously believes U.S. fiscal challenges are in any way similar to Greece is a fool.
The Affordable Care Act doesn’t add to the debt, it cuts the debt by hundreds of billions of dollars.
The stimulus created millions of private-sector jobs. Since March 2010, the U.S. economy has added 3.1 million private-sector jobs. Even playing by Republican rules, that’s 3.1 million more than zero.

The final point that Benen makes is that "Romney's penchant for dishonesty in high-profile settings deserves to be a story unto itself." He's quick to add, however, that he's not expecting that to happen.

It's been clear to me for some time that Mitt Romney is not a very good politician. It should clear to everyone by now that he lacks fundamental integrity. Not only does he change his own position on any number of things to meet the needs of the moment. He also grossly misrepresents the views of others without compunction.

This guy is creepy. That's the only word for it.

The rush to disown George W. Bush

2012-01-23T19:51:00.001-05:00

One of the more amazing bits of nonsense that comes out of the mouths of Republican presidential candidates is their claim that President Obama is responsible for the poor state of the economy. We've all heard them say it time and again. It's as if they really think we all forgot the kind of shape the country was in when Obama took over from George W. Bush.

You remember George W. Bush? Or maybe you don't. If you've been watching the GOP debates you can be forgiven if the name of the man who ran the country before Obama is becoming a distant memory.

Yes, for those who count such things, George W. Bush's name has been uttered a mere 56 times by all candidates in the 16 major debates that have happened thus far.

President Obama's name has been mentioned a whopping 560 times.

But, what's even more interesting, as the Washington Post reports:

Remember me?

That’s not to say that the candidates didn’t have a Republican president at the tip of their tongues. Ronald Reagan, dead these last seven years and whose White House tenure ended nearly a quarter-century ago, by contrast, is a favorite topic--surprise, surprise--of the GOP debaters.

They invoked his name 221 times.

Even George H.W. Bush got only two mentions in the debates meaning that Republicans have to go back over 24 years to find a GOP president they are willing to talk about publicly.

I recognize that there is no upside for Republicans to hitch their wagon to the pathetic legacy of "W," but do they really think the rest of us will just forget simply because they are all hoping we will choose to pay no attention to the man responsible for the current fiasco?

As H.W. would say, "not gonna happen."

The electorate may have a short attention span, but I'm assuming that Obama and his campaign team will have no difficulty reminding voters how we got where we are, who was driving the bus at the time and how hard it's been to get back on the road to recovery because of previous GOP incompetence.

You can count on it.

This day in music - January 17, 1990: the fifth class is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

2012-01-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The class included Hank Ballard; Bobby Darin; The Four Seasons; The Four Tops; The Kinks; The Platters; Simon & Garfunkel; and The Who. It also included Louis Armstrong; Charlie Christian; Gerry Goffin and Carole King; Holland, Dozier and Holland; and Ma Rainey.

I like to tell the story about the time I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland or, I should say, the time I walked past it. A good buddy had invited me down to see a Cleveland Browns game and, to get to the stadium, you have to walk right past the Hall of Fame. I do love football, but I could just as easily have made the right hand turn and spent the day checking out Rock and Roll history.

It was a beautiful day at the stadium and a good time was had by all, though I haven't been back to Cleveland since. Some day.

From the class of 1990, I'll pick a clip of The Platters doing "The Great Pretender," performed in 1955.

Though there were many personnel changes for the group, the most successful line-up was lead tenor Tony Williams, David Lynch, Paul Robi, Herb Reed and Zola Taylor.

Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren demand a cease-fire on 3rd party spending in Mass. Senate race

2012-01-16T20:33:00.000-05:00

Hard to know what to make of this, but it seems that Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown and his Demcratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, agree that there should be a cease-fire on third-party spending in the state's senate race.

As Politico says:

Elizabeth Warren

Senior officials from Brown’s and Warren’s campaigns will soon meet to try to craft an unusual pact to curtail the influence of so-called super PACs that have grown in power since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United case loosened campaign finance rules in 2010.

Warren has indicated that she would like to be able to run her campaign and, presumably, be responsible for the content of the ads run in her support feeling, perhaps, that voters might start to punish her if they got tired of the mudslinging.

For his part, Scott Brown has stated that:

Scott Brown

I think by sending a joint message to stay out, I'm hopeful they'll (the super PACs) accept that message. This is going to be decided by the people of Massachusetts, not by the tens of millions of outside interest dollars coming to our state.

While federal law doesn't allow campaigns to coordinate with outside groups, it may be possible, as Warren has said, "to agree on a common response if third-party groups become active on the airwaves and ignore their demands."

The problem, of course, is that outside groups would have little incentive to listen to the very candidates they are supposed to be helping, unless they can be convinced that their unwanted intervention is helping their opponents.

This is one of the, perhaps, unintended consequences of the Citizen's United case, that it would be almost impossible to fully coordinate message discipline in a campaign. The supportive super PAC may have one agenda or strategic approach and the candidate another, which may not work well together. For example, if a candidate wants to run a fairly positive campaign but a super PAC wants to sling mud, most voters won't make the distinction about the source of the attacks.

Maybe this is all bullshit on the part of both Warren and Brown, who might just want to give themselves distance from some of the uglier things said in their names, and I don't wan't to be too naive about how closely all of this is coordinated. I'm simply saying that it raises issues.

Campaigns used to be about message discipline and this really could screw that up in unexpected ways.

Newsflash: Social conservatives don't like Mitt Romney

2012-01-12T20:06:00.001-05:00

It seems that 150 or so social conservatives are going to get together in Texas over the weekend to consider presenting a united front in the race to crown a Republican presidential candidate.

In one report, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins says that:

Tony Perkins

many of the evangelical, Catholic and fiscal conservatives are looking for an alternative to Mitt Romney, but fear their influence will be diluted if they remain divided.

Surrogates for all the campaigns will speak to the gathering before, according to Perkins, conservative leaders discuss whether or not they should get behind one candidate.

While Romney certainly has the momentum coming out of Iowa and New Hampshire, it is amazing how ambivalent so much of the conservative base remains about his candidacy.

I don't know how many times we can say this, but just the fact that social conservatives are getting together this late in the campaign would suggest that, even should Romney get the nod, there won't be a lot of love for him from this key constituency. In fact, for someone most people think is going to win the nomination, he's not very popular.

Good thing for Romney so many of his opponents are too pig-headed to get out or he might actually have real difficulty securing the nomination against a challenge by one credible conservative. But, as we know, that person doesn't exist.

This day in music - January 10, 1997: James Brown receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

James Brown (1933-2006) was referred to by himself and others as "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business," "Mr. Dynamite," "Soul Brother Number One," and the "Godfather of Soul." And I'm sure it was true in every case.

He was in the first class of those inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards, in addition to his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And that just scratches the surface.

Can't do any better than the allmusic entry on James Brown, which has this to say:

Other singers were more popular, others were equally skilled, but few other African-American musicians were so influential over the course of popular music. And no other musician, pop or otherwise, put on a more exciting, exhilarating stage show: Brown's performances were marvels of athletic stamina and split-second timing.

Through the gospel-impassioned fury of his vocals and the complex polyrhythms of his beats, Brown was a crucial midwife in not just one, but two revolutions in black American music. He was one of the figures most responsible for turning R&B into soul and he was, most would agree, the figure most responsible for turning soul music into the funk of the late '60s and early '70s.

Here's a discography, if you're interested.

Let's go with the obvious clip: "I Feel Good." If the information accompanying the YouTube clip is accurate, this is from a 1989 concert in Italy, which brought together a number of pioneers of rock 'n' roll in addition to Brown including: Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and B.B. King. Now, that would have been a show.

White House Chief of Staff William M. Daley to resign, finding no deals to be made

2012-01-09T20:22:00.000-05:00

With all eyes on tomorrow's Republican New Hampshire primary, it was almost possible to miss the news that William M. Daley, President Obama's Chief of Staff, will be stepping down after what most people are calling a frustrating year. He will be replaced by Jacob J. Lew, the budget director.

The New York Times had this to say about Daley's departure:

William M. Daley

Mr. Daley, an affable former banker who is the son and brother of legendary Chicago mayors, proved to be an awkward fit on the Obama team. Recruited largely for his deal-making skills and ties to the business world, he failed to help his boss strike a huge budget deal with Republicans in the House.

After that failed negotiation, which led to months of acrimony between the White House and Congress, some of Mr. Daley's duties were transferred to Pete Rouse, a low-profile former Congressional aide with closer ties to the president.

That Mr. Daley was frustrated by Washington was no secret. In October, he told a Chicago TV station that he planned to leave the White House in January 2013, at the end of Mr. Obama’s first term. It was not clear what precipitated his decision to leave now.

Is the obvious comment that a man with "deal making" skills was not the best fit for the current dynamic in Washington? Old school politics, with good faith bargaining, which involves getting some of what you want in return for giving up some things is not where we are at the moment.

We know that the Republican agenda is to ensure that Obama fails. The way they see it, nothing is supposed to happen. In that context, a deal maker like Daley really had nothing to do.

Now that the election is in sight, different skills are required. Best advice for Obama may be in the immortal words of the late owner of the Oakland Raiders, Al Davis, who famously said "just win baby."

Just win, Mr. President, with majorities in the House and Senate, then jam it down their throats in a second term, if that's how they want to play. It's not my first choice, but it's all they're likley to understand.

This day in music - January 7, 1955: Marian Anderson becomes the first black singer to perform at the Met

2012-01-07T15:52:00.000-05:00

Marian Anderson

While I will claim a decent working knowledge of a number of musical genre, Opera is not one them. I have been to a couple of performances. I am always in awe of the talent on display. It's probably a class thing. I didn't grow up with it, can't relate to it, though at some level I still grasp the beauty of it.

Marian Anderson (1987-1993) was an African-American contralto and one of the most important singers of the twentieth century.

She was also a significant figure in the civil rights movement, having once famously performed at an open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after having been refused permission by the Daughters of the American Revolution to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall.

Later, on January 7, 1955, she became the first black person to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. For the opera buffs among us, she performed as Ulrica in Guiseppe Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Machera” (The Masked Ball). In one reference it was stated that she was "the first black singer as a regular company member." Perhaps someone could explain the difference.

Anderson was an important presence throughout the civil rights movement having, for example, sung at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, which also featured Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Among honours awarded were the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

Below is a clip of the aforementioned performance at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. Still powerful.

Ron Paul supporters attack Jon Huntsman's loyalty to America

2012-01-07T11:43:00.000-05:00

Ron Paul

I can't imagine that I will have been the first to say this, but the best argument against Ron Paul may be the idiots who are supporting his campaign. While not entirely fair to judge people by the company they keep, in politics, it's an indicator that shouldn't be ignored either. At a minimum, a candidate should disavow comments made by supporters if, in fact, they disagree with those comments. If they don't, they wear them.

A group calling itself NHLiberty4Paul has just put out a very poorly made video, which attempts to raise questions about Jon Hunstman's ties to China. It shows him speaking Chinese and also with his two adopted daughters, one Chinese and the other from India. I guess the implication is that Hunstman is not a real American due to his supposed "foreign sympathies," that he is a Manchurian candidate. Whatever. I love the Chinese music in the background, by the way. Really cool.

To his credit, the Ron Paul campaign is distancing itself from the attacks, and that's fine.

I guess it's even possible these ads were done and distributed by people who want to hurt Ron Paul given the fact that they are so unseemly. I mean, most reasonable people would probably think proficiency in a foreign language and the willingness to open up your family to children in need would be good qualities in a president. On the other hand, I've seen little evidence that Ron Paul supporters are reasonable people.

Here's Jon Hunstman's response. Talk about a softball opportunity.

What I object to is bringing forward pictures and videos of my adopted daughters and suggesting there is some sinister motive there. I have a daughter from China who was abandoned at two months of age in a vegetable market, picked up by the police and sent to an orphanage. No future, no hope, nothing to look forward to. Now she’s in my family, and she’s one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever known. She’s also, at 12 years old, my senior foreign policy adviser.

Again, I can accept the fact that the Ron Paul campaign is not behind the ad. And I do want to be careful about suggesting that significant numbers of Paul supporters would be okay with this sort of thing. But it's a fair question. Is this a lone nut job, or is this what Paul brings to the campaign? Is this the type of character motivated by his brand of politics?

Politics in the big leagues is as much about how you manage your friends as it is about how you address your enemies. What say you, Congressman Paul?

This day in music - January 6, 1958: Gibson Guitars launches its "Flying V" electric guitar (see Albert King below)

2012-01-06T18:21:00.006-05:00

I'm not much of an electric guitar player. Give me my Martin D-28 acoustic, but I do have a couple of electrics around the house and can play a blues scale if absolutely forced. But none of my guitars are as groovy as the Gibson "Flying V," meant to suggest a futuristic theme by the maker.

Who could blame them? It was 1958. The promise of spaceflight was all around. Lots of Hollowood B movies to fuel the imagination. One could almost imagine Robby the Robot kicking back with one of these in between missions. It's kind of a cool guitar in its own space nerd, trying too hard, Big BangTheory kind of way. I like it.

The model originally sold poorly and was discontinued by 1959 but after some better known players like Lonnie Mack and Albert King starting using it, some interest was generated, which may have been why the company reissued the instrument in 1967 in mahogany. After that a whole bunch of "Guitar Gods" like Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Billy Gibbons, and Lenny Kravitz decided they just had to play one too. And that's generally all it takes.

Lest you think this is all trivia, I draw your attention to the fact that the 1958-59 korina "Flying V" is one of the most valuable production-model guitars on the market, ranked at No. 5 on the 2011 Top 25 published by Vintage Guitar, and worth between $200,000 and $250,000.

So if you see one at a garage sale, shoot the guy a few bucks and take it home very quickly.

Here's Albert King with what looks like a "Flying V," unless someone can tell me different. Maybe an expert can also tell me what year the guitar was made and if it's modified in any way. Anything like that. I'm willing to learn. The tune is called "Blues Power."

And if you're really into the guitar thing, check out this link with numerous Gibson "Flying V's" on display. Go nuts!

Scott Brown: Massachusetts moderate

2012-01-05T20:46:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama nominated former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Of course, a bunch of Republicans feigned outrage with Obama for sidestepping the Senate with this recess appointment, as if such manoeuvring hasn't been the approach taken by presidents of all parties over the years. But who needs fact when you are mostly all about being indignant?

The most interesting part of all this is that Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown decided to support Obama, much to the annoyance of his own party. As he said:

I support President Obama's appointment today of Richard Cordray to head the CFPB. I believe he is the right person to lead the agency and help protect consumers from fraud and scams. While I would have strongly preferred that it go through the normal confirmation process, unfortunately the system is completely broken. If we're going to make progress as a nation, both parties in Washington need to work together to end the procedural gridlock and hyper-partisanship.

Gee, I wonder if this had anything to do with the fact that the Democratic challenger for his Massachusetts Senate seat is Elizabeth Warren, the president's first choice to lead the agency?

Sen. Scott Brown

That's what you get when you're a Republican trying to hold onto a Senate seat in a generally liberal state going into a presidential election cycle that will surely bring out a lot of Democrats on election day. You try to out-progressive your progressive opponent.

Could Brown be one those "Massachusetts moderates" Newt Gingrich likes so much to talk about? Why, those people will say anything!

Everywhere else in the country the GOP panders to the right. In Massachussets it panders to the left.

Give him credit, his campaign spokesman is spinning hard as he said this about Brown:

Scott Brown promised to be an independent voice when he ran in 2010, and he is keeping that promise. He looks at every issue on the merits and does what he thinks is best for Massachusetts and America regardless of partisan politics.

I'm just not sure this is the election for independent minded Republicans to be hawking their wares. More like, "be a true believer or be gone."

Like the old joke: "The only thing you get by standing in the middle of the road is run over." Truer words were never spoken for Republicans this time around.

'Bye, Scott.

This day in music - December 30, 1942: Frank Sinatra performs solo for the first time

2011-12-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

Apparently, for the first time as a solo act, Frank Sinatra stepped out at the Paramount Theatre in New York City on this date in 1942 to throngs of screaming bobby soxers, no doubt. Follow the link if you don't know what bobby soxers were. I'm not making this up. What, you think this started with the Beatles or Elvis?

I must admit I didn't exactly grow up listening to the music of Frank Sinatra. A bit before my time. But I like him. And love that jazz standards / Great American Songbook stuff.

My favourite of his has always been "It Was a Very Good Year," though I couldn't find a great YouTube clip, not one that was in sync anyway. I always thought this one was interesting because it was originally recored by Bob Shane of the Kingston Trio, having been composed by Ervin Drake in 1961. In fact, I discovered one performance in which Sinatra refers to it as a folk song.

So many great songs to choose from, though.

Here's a nice version of "Fly Me To The Moon," a song written in 1954 by Bart Howard. It seems that the Apollo 10 astronauts played Sinatra's 1964 recording of the song on their lunar-orbital mission and Buzz Aldrin played it again on the moon itself during the Apollo 11 landing. I guess we could have seen that one coming.

Robert Reich says it will be Obama-Clinton in 2012

2011-12-29T19:38:00.000-05:00

Okay, rest is over. Back to politics.

Former Secretary or Labor under President Bill Clinton, Robert Reich, says that the Democratic ticket in 2012 will have Hillary Clinton as the vice presidential candidate. He's quick to point out that it's based on absolutely nothing, which reminds me that, also based on absolutely nothing, I suggested many months ago that Hillary would run for the top job in 2016. Hey, why not? It's all idle speculation, though, to be fair, there is some logic to Reich's musings.

Here's his thinking:

Obama needs to stir the passions and enthusiasms of a Democratic base that’s been disillusioned with his cave-ins to regressive Republicans. Hillary Clinton on the ticket can do that.

Moreover, the economy won’t be in superb shape in the months leading up to Election Day. Indeed, if the European debt crisis grows worse and if China’s economy continues to slow, there’s a better than even chance we’ll be back in a recession. Clinton would help deflect attention from the bad economy and put it on foreign policy, where she and Obama have shined.

The deal would also make Clinton the obvious Democratic presidential candidate in 2016 — offering the Democrats a shot at twelve (or more) years in the White House, something the Republicans had with Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush but which the Democrats haven’t had since FDR. Twelve years gives the party in power a chance to reshape the Supreme Court as well as put an indelible stamp on America.

I think we have all heard it said that Joe Biden covets the Secretary of State gig. I'm not sure where that comes from, but we've heard it, which means a job swap could work. And no matter what Hillary Clinton says, if offered an opportunity to position herself to become President of the United States of America, she won't say no.

Robert Reich is not the kind of guy who just says stuff. I think he may have a point. Bottom line is that this will all hinge on the extent to which Obama and his team think they need the help. If this is the only way they can get themselves comfortable with their re-election chances, I see no reason to dismiss the possibility.

And now that the GOP has finally stopped fooling around with the idea of nominating the gift to Obama that would have been Newt Gingrich, it does look like Romney. And if it's Romney, it will be a race. And if it's a race, all hands will be on deck for Democrats, maybe even Mrs. Clinton's.

Could happen.

Judy Garland singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

2011-12-25T18:35:00.000-05:00

Christmas is almost over. Almost everything that's supposed to happen has happened: presents, trees, music, children, etc., etc. My wife and I are still about to have a quiet dinner for just the two of us, the family having been here earlier in the day. And then it's done for another year.

I said a few days ago that I would post my three favourite Christmas songs, and have already put up Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" and Nat King Cole singing "The Christmas Song."

So, number one in my book is Judy Garland performing, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." As you may know, it's from the 1944 MGM musical "Meet Me in St. Louis."

It was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, and is undoubtedly one of the most performed Christmas songs each season.

I was able to catch the movie last night on the American Movie Channel and thoroughly enjoyed it. The host of the presentation cited the old story about the original lyrics being rewritten because they were deemed too depressing by Garland and the director of the film, Vincent Minnelli. They were probably right when you consider that the original words included these gems: "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last. Next year we may all be living in the past." Yeah, thank you for that. Okay, in the context of the movie I guess it worked. But it sure wouldn't have become a Christmas classic if it remained as it was.

Anyway, beautiful song in its final version, and over the years recorded by everyone under the sun, including Kermit the Frog.

Hope you had a great Christmas, or whatever it is you celebrate, if you celebrate. And if you don't, that's fine too.

Nat King Cole sings "The Christmas Song"

2011-12-23T18:48:00.000-05:00

In keeping with my promise to list my top three favourite Christmas songs, I give you number two: "The Christmas Song."

I think most people know that vocalist Mel Torme co-wrote this one. They may not know that his collaborator was Bob Wells. In any case, the legend associated with its composition has received a fair bit of play, but I'll repeat it.

Mel Torme

It had something to do with the fact that Torme and Wells were trying to think cool thoughts on a very hot summer day and in the process of writing down things that might remind them of a less sweltering time, they came up with "The Christmas Song" in something like 40 minutes. Good story.

The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded it in 1946. A while later a second recording was done with strings, and redone a couple more times after that, again, with strings. Apparently, the 1961 version, the fourth recording, is the one with which most people are familiar.

A lot of artists have, of course, recorded "The Christmas Song" including Torme himself, several times in fact. The Wikipedia entry lists about a hundred who have taken a shot at it including: Bob Dylan, James Brown, Hootie and the Blowfish, The Jackson 5, and The Partridge Family. Really sorry I'm not familiar with that last one.

It's a Christmas classic, one of the best loved. I'm partial to the Nat King Cole version, but like Torme's take as well as versions by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. It's just not Christmas without those chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

Somebody went to a lot of trouble to pull together some great stills of Nat King Cole. Nice Job.

Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" performed by the Boston Pops

2011-12-23T16:00:00.000-05:00

Leroy Anderson

Just for something to do, I thought I would post my three favourite Christmas songs leading up to the big day. Who knows if these really are my three favourites. It's a fairly arbitrary exercise when it comes right down it. A mug's game, as they say.

Maybe it's from my years in a high school band, but I have a real soft spot for light orchestral pieces, and Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" is one of my best loved, which I'll say comes in at number three for me as Christmas songs go.

Anderson finished writing it in 1948 and the orchestral version was first recorded by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1949.

In 1950, lyrics for the song were written by Michael Parish. Check out the Wikipedia page for a comprehensive list of those who recorded it. I always liked Karen Carpenter's version.

Curiously, the song's original lyrics don't mention Christmas at all, though it's probably considered by most to be a Christmas song. And, if there is any doubt, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), in their annual review of Christmas music, report that "Sleigh Ride" consistently ranks in the top 10 of most performed songs written by ASCAP members during the holiday season worldwide.

Many works composed by Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. In the clip below, John Williams, who led the Orchestra from 1980 to 1993 conducts them in this rendition of "Sleigh Ride."

Matt Damon's leftier-than-thou rant against Obama

2011-12-23T07:30:00.000-05:00

Yeah, well, I like Matt Damon. I think he's a smart guy. I usually like his movies. I generally like his politics, but I don't think much of his "leftier-than-thou" rant about Obama's performance in the White House.

In an interview with Elle magazine, Damon had this to say:

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, ‘Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician.’” He then added, “You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.”

Referencing the Occupy protests, Damon said the Democrats have received a mandate from people who are “just wandering out into the streets to yell right now because they are so pissed off.” He wondered aloud, “Imagine if they had a leader.”

Here's a little piece of important information for you, Mr. Damon. Social movements are not the same thing as electoral politics. They can work well together to achieve spectacular results, but they are not the same thing. Movements can often send a clear and important message about what needs to happen. Politics is the art of compromise that sometimes gets some of that done.

I understand that a lot of people don't like politics because you are always in the process of finding the votes to make good on your promises. It requires compromise and it's easy to get shut down when your opponents are able to use or even abuse the rules of the game to make your life difficult.

So, you say that Democrats have received their marching orders from Occupy protesters and all they need to do now is do it, whatever the "it" is.

Mr. Damon, you have no idea what political leadership is, how hard it is. I'll bet making movies is a lot easier. You get to write down how things come out and that's exactly what happens. Not so much in real life. But thanks for coming out.

I liked what Obama had to say about an earlier instance in which Damon criticized the president:

“I’ve even let down my key core constituency: Movie stars,” he said. “Just the other day, Matt Damon — I love Matt Damon, love the guy — Matt Damon said he was disappointed in my performance.”

Obama then threw in a zinger of his own, saying “Well, Matt, I just saw ‘The Adjustment Bureau,’ so … right back atcha, buddy.”

The U.S. Navy embraces the end of DADT

2011-12-22T19:37:00.002-05:00

Here's a great story for the holidays, reported by the Associated Press:

A Navy tradition caught up with the repeal of the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" rule on Wednesday when two women sailors became the first to share the coveted "first kiss" on the dock after one of them returned from 80 days at sea.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta of Placerville, Calif., descended from the USS Oak Hill amphibious landing ship and shared a quick kiss with her partner, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell of Los Angeles. The crowd screamed and waved flags around them.

Both women, ages 22 and 23 respectively, are fire controlmen in the Navy. They met at training school and have been dating for two years.

Navy officials said it was the first time on record that a same-sex couple was chosen to kiss first upon a ship's return. Sailors and their loved ones bought $1 raffle tickets for the opportunity. Gaeta said she bought $50 of tickets. The Navy said the money would be used to host a Christmas party for the children of sailors.

For the record, the picture was posted on an official Navy website, so they are obviously good with it. And, apparently, this happened a year to the day that Obama signed the bill that repealed DADT.

I'd like to think I'll live long enough that this sort of thing won't stand out as extraordinary, but until then, I'll enjoy watching progress wherever I find it.

This day in music - December 22, 1958: The Chipmunk's "The Chipmunk Song" hits No. 1

2011-12-22T07:30:00.000-05:00

"Christmas Don't Be Late" may or may not be the better known name for the song, but it's formally called "The Chipmunk Song." Whatever the name, for those of a certain age, this is one of the worst ear worms of all time. If you don't know what an ear worm is, it's a song or melody that you can't get out of your head, no matter how hard you try.

The "Chipmunk Song" was written by Ross Bagdasarian (a.k.a Dave Seville) in 1958. You may recall that Dave was the name of the Chipmunk's adoptive father who, strangely enough, was a human cartoon character, while the Chipmunks were cartoon chipmunks, if you know what I mean. I'm sure there's a backstory, I just don't really care.

I assume that most people are familiar with the Chipmunks, or at least the remake. Although Bagdasarian wrote and sung the song, credit is given to the Chipmunks, a fictitious singing group consisting of Alvin, Simon and Theodore, who are the chipmunk brothers. The sound of the Chipmunks was created, as you might imagine, by speeding up the playback.

Although the song was produced as a one-off novelty number in 1958, the Chipmunks was later made into a cartoon of its own, airing from 1961 to 1962. This would have been where I was introduced to them. Although it only lasted one season on CBS, it went into syndication and lived on from there.

As for "The Chipmunk Song," it won three Grammy Awards in 1958: Best Comedy Performance, Best Children's Recording, and Best Engineering Record (non-classical).

Like I said, it's an ear worm. I apologize ahead of time for what this might do to your day.

Francisco Franco is still dead, and Mitt Romney is still a lying liar

2011-12-21T13:51:00.001-05:00

Well, we can't say that Romney didn't warn us. We can't say that he didn't tell us that he would try to lie his way to the White House. But, I'm a little surprised at this one, if only by its magnitude.

The man is so desperate to secure the GOP presidential nomination that he is now engaging in Glenn Beck levels of hysterics. Exhibit A is a speech by Romney delivered in New Hampshire last night, and posted earlier today by Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly. Here's what Mitt had to say:

How big was it again, Mitt?
Just a couple of weeks ago in Kansas, President Obama lectured us about Teddy Roosevelt’s philosophy of government. But he failed to mention the important difference between Teddy Roosevelt and Barack Obama. Roosevelt believed that government should level the playing field to create equal opportunities. President Obama believes that government should create equal outcomes.

In an entitlement society, everyone receives the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort, and willingness to take risk. That which is earned by some is redistributed to the others. And the only people who truly enjoy any real rewards are those who do the redistributing — the government.

The truth is that everyone may get the same rewards, but virtually everyone will be worse off.

Here's Jon Chait's take on Romney's turn towards the dark side, although I suspect Romney has always had this kind of bullshit in him.

This isn’t just a casual line. In eight sentences, Romney asserts over and over again that Obama wants to create “equal outcomes” and give everybody the "same rewards." This is nuts, Glenn Beck–level insane. Restoring Clinton-era taxes is not a plan to equalize outcomes, or even close. It's not even a plan to stop rising inequality. Obama's America will continue to be the most unequal society in the advanced world — only slightly less so. The alternative proposals accelerate inequality even further.

Steve Benen makes a point, though, that I would like to emphasize, which is that anyone who has even a passing interest in reality or civil discourse needs to be outraged by Romney's statement. If those who imagine themselves in leadership roles in their respective parties aren't even going to make a passing effort at integrity, what does this leave us with?

We have all come to expect this kind of thing from Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity and even Palin, but from the guy who bills himself as the sober voice of Republican reason?

I know I shouldn't expect any better, but if the general election ahead ends up being full of this kind of rhetoric, this kind of lying, it will be a very dark time for democracy in America.

Hey PolitiFact, this is what a real fucking lie looks like. And the year isn't even over, so maybe it's not too late to change your mind.

This day in music - December 21, 1966: The Beach Boys' Good Vibrations is certified Gold

2011-12-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

And what, you may ask, is involved in certifying a record "Gold?" Well, the wiki on this offers the following:

Presently, a Recording Industry Association of America-certified Gold record is a single or album that has sold 500,000 units (records, tapes or compact discs). Originally, the requirement for a Gold single was one million units sold and a Gold album represented $1 million in sales (at wholesale value). In 1975, the additional requirement of 500,000 units sold was added for Gold albums.

And, if you're a lawyer and have the patience, you may want to check out the RIAA website here. They'll be happy to confuse you.

Bottom line is that a Gold record means a lot of sales and a lot of cash for someone, probably the record company.

Here's "Good Vibrations" from a 1967 performance.

In Obama we trust, at least more than the other guys

2011-12-20T22:32:00.000-05:00

Yes, according to a new CNN/ORC international poll out a couple of days ago, the President's approval rating is nearing 50 percent.

According to the survey, 49% of Americans approve of the job Obama's doing in the White House, up five points from last month, with 48% saying they disapprove, down six points from mid-November. The 49% approval rating is the president's highest since May, when his number hit 54% thanks to a bounce following the killing of Osama bin Laden. Since then, in CNN polling, Obama's approval rating has hovered in the mid-40s.

"President Barack Obama's approval rating appears to be fueled by dramatic gains among middle-income Americans," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "The data suggest that the debate over the payroll tax is helping Obama's efforts to portray himself as the defender of the middle class."

Obama's gains have come at the expense of the Republicans in Congress and the GOP in general. By a 50% to 31% margin, people questioned say they have more confidence in the president than in congressional Republicans to handle the major issues facing the country. Obama held a much narrower 44% to 39% margin in March.

One of the most consistent political themes for some time has been that Americans are not as critical of Obama for the weak economy as we might think. If they were, his approval ratings would surely be a lot lower than they are.

The GOP strategy was always going to be to attempt to paint Obama as a weak manager, incompetent and clueless. I suspect that what we are seeing is a significant and perhaps increasing number of Americans coming to the realization that no one was going to do a better job with the mess left behind by George W. Bush and that middle-class voters and others without a silver spoon up there ass would be better off sticking with Obama, who is clearly more concerned about their interests than are the Republicans.

On that point, the survey also says that:

The Democrats do particularly well among middle income Americans, while the Republicans win support only from the top end of the income scale.

It is worth noting that the President remains personally popular with three-quarters indicating that they like the guy.

This has to be driving Republicans crazy. They need voters to see our economic difficulties as Obama's fault. They need to voters to believe that the best way out is a return to the same unchecked market principles that got us into trouble in the first place.

Lawyers sometimes say that jurors, untrained in the law, will frequently be able to break down a very complicated case and offer the correct verdict. Voters, at their best, are often able to do the same thing.

Obama didn't start the fire, but he's doing his best to put it out and start building again. Republicans want him to fail for the sake of narrow political gain, not for the good of the economy or the country.

Few people, even those who make a living trying to understand, fully grasp how we should manage the myriad forces at play to get the economy going again, but they know who they would rather be at the helm to try.

Under almost any other circumstance, the current employment numbers and other economic indicators would be a big problem for Obama, which would be true if the meaty part of the electorate thought the other guys had any answers that addressed their interests - their middle-class interests.

Like the old game show, this election may come down to one question: Who do you trust? If that's the question, Democrats may end up liking the answer.

The Big Trouble Band at the El Mocambo, just like the Stones and Marilyn Monroe

2011-12-17T20:30:00.003-05:00

Wayne Smith, Richard Barry, Rosemary Bennett

A couple of weeks ago, our band, The Big Trouble Band, got to be a part of a benefit concert at the El Mocambo in Toronto.

In addition to being around forever, the "Elmo," as it's called locally, is probably best known for hosting two Rolling Stones shows on March 4th and 5th, 1977 that were recorded for release on the band's Love You Live album.

The website for the bar lists a number of acts that appeared there over the years, including Marilyn Monroe in the 1958. I have no idea what that would have been all about. Other acts listed include: April Wine (1977), Elvis Costello (1978), DEVO (1978), Lou Reed (1979), U2 (1980), Duran Duran (1981), Stevie Ray Vaughan (1983), and The Guess Who (1984). A few jazz greats are also on the list like Grover Washington Jr. and Charles Mingus.

You won't be surprised that a club that's been around since the 19th century has had its ups and downs, but it's not every band that gets to say they played the same bar as The Rolling Stones.

The benefit was a fun thing to do and for a worthwhile cause, the United Way. For what it's worth, and it's not worth much, we won the "Battle of Bands" that night, which was a "battle" among bands some of whose members are employed by the Ontario Public Service, as I am. I'm in the middle of the horn section above on tenor sax.

Hey, we're all a bunch of people with day jobs, but you've got to take these moments when they come. So we did, and it was fun. This is the whole group taking a bow after our set.

The Big Trouble Band
Dave de Launay, Frank Rooney, Jonathan Ison, Chris Watson,
Wayne Smith, Richard Barry, Rosemary Bennett

And here's a clip from that night's performance, an original called "Homeless Man."

This day in music - December 16, 2007: American singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg dies in Maine at the age of 56

2011-12-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

I went through a period in my twenties in which I loved Dan Fogelberg's music. I discovered him while away at college at Oswego State University in up-state New York. He was very popular among the student population at the time.

"To the Morning" is still one of my favourites. "Part of the Plan," "Run for the Roses," "Longer" - so many great tunes.

Fogelberg died of prostate cancer at the age of 56 in 2007. As I recall, he didn't have much of a chance for survival once diagnosed. Apparently, it was caught late.

I've always loved his songwriting. It may not be your cup of tea, but it's really not easy to write good lyrics. I know. I've tried. But Fogelberg always seemed to be able to do that. The opening lines of "Go Down Easy," for example, are, to me, so lovely and painful.

Linda lost her lover in the early part of autumn

And she moved out to the country, hoping all would be forgotten.

The last time that I saw her, she was making sure that winter

wouldn't come through that old door frame

where the door is several inches from the ground, the cold hard ground.

Love of certain artists can be so situational. As I came upon Fogelberg's music while first away at college, it holds a special place for me for that reason if no other. I guess the senses are open to new things and the music that's all around becomes memorable. Something like that.

For whatever reason, I still love his music. He captured something for me. I was sorry to see him go.

This day in music - December 15, 1984: "Do They Know It's Christmas?" enters the UK chart at No. 1

2011-12-15T16:00:00.000-05:00

I cross-post most of my stuff to another terrific blog called The Reaction. The editor there, Michael Stickings, has been begging, literally begging, me to post as much Christmas music as I can this season (well, that's not exactly true). Anyway, I'm going to put up the truly awful "Do They Know It's Christmas?" - the fundraising production for famine relief in Ethiopia recorded in 1984.

If you're old enough, you will recall that it was pulled together by former Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof. He gathered together some of the biggest names in pop music at the time to record a one-off single, raise some money and, I suppose, do some good.

Featured are: Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Paul Young, Culture Club, George Michael, Sting, Bono, Phil Collins, Kool and the Gang and others.

Maybe it's me and the fact that I hated so much of the music of the 80s, but this doesn't do it for me. Maybe you always loved it.

Hearing the title, "Do They Know It's Christmas (in Africa)?" always made me wonder: if they knew, would they care? Just a tad Eurocentric, don't you think? And the line "and there won't be snow in Africa?" A bloody good thing, I'd say. Do they really need that headache too?

Proving radical right-wing bona fides will be the undoing of the GOP presidential nominee

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

Many months ago I made a point about how the Tea Party would drag GOP presidential candidates to the far right as these hopefuls battled it out to curry favour with this activist hard-core right-wing of the party. Conventional wisdom is that in nomination races you have to prove you are worthy of the party faithful who can have some pretty rigid views about what it means, in this case, to be a conservative. This is even more the case with the Tea Party.

In the general election, you typically have to moderate these ideological views to appeal to independent or swing voters who are more pragmatic and less impressed with your supposed purity as a standard-bearer for your party.

It wasn't clear how this would all work out back then for the GOP, but now we know and so does the Obama campaign.

As Talking Points Memo pointed out recently:

The rise of Gingrich has forced Romney to take stands that Democrats are quite thrilled with, such as his new embrace of the Ryan Budget, which polled poorly back when the Republican House approved it. Months more of trying to win over conservative voters away from Gingrich could force Romney into more less-than-general-election-ideal stances.

David Axelrod

That’s assuming Romney wins. If the long primary results in a Gingrich nomination, well, the Obama campaign thinks more exposure for Gingrich is a good thing for them, too.

Now, those with four year memories will recall that the epically long primary that resulted in Obama’s nomination was widely seen as strengthening Obama and turning him in to a general election force to be reckoned with. Obama strategist David Axelrod said there’s no danger of something similar happening to the GOP nominee that emerges from a long Gingrich-Romney slog.

“The difference here is that we weren’t being tugged to a pole in our party, we weren’t being tugged to the left,” Axelrod said. “They’re being tugged to the right every day.”

It seems likely that this Romney vs. Gingrich dust-up is going to take several months to resolve itself, which, if nothing else, assures less time for the eventual Republican nominee to focus his attention on Obama. But as least as important is all of the radical right-wing positions the GOP nominee will have blathered all over the country, which it will be really hard to walk back.

As Axelrod says,

The agenda that the Republicans are embracing in order to win the nomination, I think they’re mortgaging themselves for the general by tacking as far as they are now. I think the longer the race goes the more they’re going to do that and the harder it is to scramble back.

Yes, that's the point and it wasn't hard to see coming. The Tea Party may not be force it once was, but it set all of this in motion and now they will reap what they sowed. Democrats everywhere are grateful.

Mitt Romney: progressive, non-partisan, moderate

2011-12-14T12:30:00.000-05:00

Earlier, I posted comments made by Mitt Romney, which were intentionally presented out of context, just to make a point. I thought it was only fair to post comments he made undeniably in context, which, at least for a lot conservatives, are probably fairly damning.

Ed Morrissey, over at Hot Air, a well respected conservative website, seems to take issue with Mitt on this. He writes:

Hey, we get it. Republicans don’t win office in Massachusetts by proclaiming themselves as Ronald Reagan conservatives. When running for governor in 2002, Romney needed to sell himself as a Republican that represented the mainstream of liberal Massachusetts, which is why he told reporters in this clip that he was a “moderate” Republican who was “not a partisan,” and that “my views are progressive.” He told them what he needed in order to win the election.

The question is whether that was his strategy then and he was a secret conservative all along, or whether that’s his strategy today and he’s really a progressive.

Just want to do my bit to turn potential Republican voters off of Romney. The quicker they nominate Newt, the quicker we can get this whole Obama re-election thing done and get to the work that needs doing.

Romney's not a flip-flopper, he's an opportunist. Let's get our political nomenclature right, shall we?

MItt Romney's own words, taken out of context because turnabout is fun

2011-12-14T06:30:00.000-05:00

You may recall the Mitt Romney campaign ad in which he takes a quote by President Obama out of context to make it look like Obama is saying "if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose." Those words were in fact spoken by a strategist for Sen. John McCain during the 2008 campaign and Obama was simply citing something his opponent's team had said.

To make matters worse, a Romney aid defended the ad, claiming that this is standard practice in politics. It's only standard practice if you're a liar, of course. What Romney's campaign did was to lie by misattribution. A lie is a lie.

Just for fun, the folks at ThinkProgress strung together a bunch of quotes by Romney taken out of context in much the same way. It's a silly little exercise, but it makes a point. How do you like it, Mitt? Is this okay with you?

This day in music - December 13, 1975: Chicago IX - Chicago's Greatest Hits goes to No. 1

2011-12-13T16:00:00.000-05:00

The album started a five-week run at No. 1 on the US charts on this day. This really is one of my all-time favourite albums. When you're a young sax player, and most of what you hear on the radio is guitar-driven rock, you gotta love Chicago, a group that described itself as a "rock and roll band with horns."

I was a little too young to get caught up in the Blood, Sweat & Tears thing, a fabulous horn band, and was told by older friends that Chicago was a pale imitation of BS&T, but Chicago was my generation, and I loved them. I came to love BS&T later.

In truth, this album came out during my senior year of high school, and it's hard not to be crazy about music that came out during that period of one's life. Is it because teenage romance is usually in the mix? Probably.

Because I can't help myself, I'll list the tracks.

Side one

1. 25 or 6 to 4

2. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

3. Colour My World

4. Just You and Me

5. Saturday in the Park

6. Feelin' Stronger Every Day

Side two

1. Make Me Smile

2. Wishing You Were Here

3. Call on Me

4. Searchin' So Long

5. Beginnings

The last one, "Beginnings," is probably my favourite track, though "Searchin' So Long" is up there.

Mitt Romney is not a professional politician - and that's not a compliment

2011-12-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

Romney at the Madison Lumber Mill in New Hampshire

Like a lot of people, I bought into the Romney inevitability thing. I smuggled my bias into an analysis that simply would not accept that Republican primary voters would choose a candidate who could not beat Obama. Since it seemed obvious that Romney was the only one who could do this, it was "obvious" that he would be the nominee.

I am still having a hard time believing they will throw it all away on Gingrich, but it looks like they might do just that.

In my defence, I have always had tucked away in the back on my mind the perception that Romney was a bad candidate, that there was something whiny and insubstantial about him, that he seemed like the proverbial empty suit, who didn't have the stuff.

I'd like to think I have a sixth sense about the ability of a politician to connect with voters. I may be flattering myself, but I think I'm pretty good at it. I know everyone is saying this, but, after watching a clip on the news tonight in which Romney was talking about how much he cares about people, it almost made me ill. I'm not even saying it's not true, it's simply that he is incapable of saying these kinds of things in a way that makes you feel he believes it.

I never noticed it before, but Romney has this little giggle that comes out after he says things that make him uncomfortable, which makes me uncomfortable. He giggles when his humanity is in danger of showing.

Yesterday, speaking at a lumber mill in New Hampshire, Romney told about 200 people, while perhaps trying to channel in inner Bill Clinton, that he understands the difficulties they are facing in the current economy. He never actually implied that he felt anyone's pain, but he did say this: "I care about business, because I do care about people." Okay, not exactly Clinton-esque, but as good as it likely gets for Mitt. Doesn't exactly get you all choked up.

But that's the problem. You may recall the Mario Cuomo quote - "You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose." There is no poetry in Romney. It's as if the idea of poetry would make him very uneasy, wouldn't be a serious enough pursuit.

This is not a Democrat vs. Republican thing, it's a human thing. I'll even be kind to Romney. He might connect very well with people, but it simply does not come across on the stump. I've always believed that you really can't teach this. It's there or it's not. It's certainly one of the many reasons I'll never be a politician. I don't have it.

You might say that Romney got to be Governor of Massachusetts so he must have some of these skills. And I might agree. I'm just saying that I see a profoundly uncomfortable man on the hustings right now, who is not relating to the people he is trying to court.

Unfortunately, I can't find a clip of Romney's comments yesterday in New Hampshire, but it told me all I needed to know about why he isn't resonating with folks.

Since I'm not a Republican, it's not my problem. But Mitt Romney is a disaster as a politician. He's not suited to the role, and now that we are all starting to pay attention, it's becoming clearer.

Here's the folk wisdom: For voters to be comfortable with a politician, a politician has to be comfortable with him- or herself. That's not Romney.

And here's a joke I might have made up. I'm not sure. It goes like this: When some conservative hack running for office proudly says, "I am not a professional politician," I would like to respond, "then go get me one, this is not a pursuit for amateurs."

Elizabeth Warren ahead in Mass. Senate race

2011-12-11T13:52:00.001-05:00

Elizabeth Warren

Late last week, the Boston Herald reported on a new poll in Massachusetts showing Democrat Elizabeth Warren now ahead of Republican incumbent Scott Brown for the first time in their contest to grab a U.S. Senate seat in the 2012 election.

In the University of UMass-Lowell/Boston Herald poll, Warren leads Brown by a 49-42 percent margin, which is outside the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points.

The poll of 505 registered Massachusetts voters was conducted for UMass-Lowell by Princeton Survey Research from Dec. 1 - Dec. 6, and shows Warren with her largest lead yet in the campaign. A UMass-Lowell/Boston Herald poll taken in late September showed Brown ahead by a 41-38 percent margin, so the new poll represents a 10-point swing in Warren’s favor in less than two months.

It's early days, but this is the first lead for Warren against Brown. The survey also indicates that the barrage of attack ads from both sides is having an impact with the negatives for both candidates inching up.

Less than half of Massachusetts voters - 48 percent, now say they have a favourable view of Brown, down from 52 percent. Those who say they have an unfavourable view of the incumbent has increased from 29 to 35 percent.

But Warren has also apparently suffered from a Karl Rove-led TV attack ad campaign, which focuses on her stated support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. Just 18 percent of voters had an unfavorable view of Warren in late September, and that number has now jumped nine points to 27 percent. Warren’s favorable numbers have increased only slightly, from 30 to 34 percent.

Warren right now appears to be winning the battle of campaign messages. Asked who would do a better job of looking out for middle class families, 43 percent of voters cite Warren and 33 percent identify Brown. Nearly half of Massachusetts voters also say Warren would do a better job of regulating Wall Street institutions.

Scott Brown

Yes, it's early days, but one of the keys to the 2012 election, both for the White House and for Senate and House races, will be the extent to which the unfairness of the growing gap between rich and poor resonates with independent voters. If the right is successful in blaming Obama for the sluggish economy, that's trouble for him. But if enough people understand, despite some populist sleight of hand, that the GOP has always embraced its role as mouthpiece for big money, the Democrats benefit.

If the ballot question in 2012 is: Who will best stand for the middle class against Wall Street, Warren wins and so, maybe, does Obama. Because Elizabeth Warren has been such an effective voice as a critic of wealth and power in America, it will be interesting to see how this argument plays out not only in Massachusetts, but across the country.

But as the impact of political ads from both side shows, it will be some time before we know how the American people are likely to see the election. Karl Rove would like to frame it as a campaign about stopping dirty hippies and other supposed slothful sorts from getting money for free. Democrats would like to frame it as about the grossly unfair distribution of power in the country and the impact it has on the ability of most hard working America to get a fair shake.

Massachusetts could well be a testing ground for competing messages.

Rick Santorum still hopeful in Iowa -- and why is that again?

2011-12-10T10:10:00.001-05:00

Rick Satorum

My favourite headline of the day is "Rick Santorum predicts last minute surge." You almost never see headlines that read, like "Rick Santorum says he's 'whistling past the graveyard in Iowa' and may drop out soon," although Pawlenty's wife pretty much said that kind of thing about Tim's campaign just before he went away. I thought that was refreshing at the time.

I have a bit of a soft spot for Santorum and Huntsman, who are the only two candidates not yet to have actually had a national breakout moment. Even undeclared posers like Trump and Palin have had those. (You might say that Ron Paul has also languished, but his consistent group of true-believers at least gives him something to work with).

It's true that Santorum got the best news of his campaign a few days ago when Iowa Secretary of State, Mark Schultz, endorsed him. Speaking of his preferred candidate, Schultz said, "I tend to like underdogs, and slow and steady wins the race." If Schultz likes slow, he's got to love Santorum, whose campaign has also been steadily weak.

Just to pick one survey for the sake of illustration, The Washington Post and ABC News conducted a poll between November 30th and December 4th, with a random sample of 858 potential Iowa Republican caucus-goers.

Among likely caucus-goers, Gringrich leads with 33%; Romney and Paul are tied for second with 18%; Perry is at 11%; Bachmann at 8% and then comes Rick Santorum at 7%. He is ahead of Huntsman, but only Huntsman, who is trailing the pack at 2%. Huntsman does beat "none of the above" (barely) but trails "no opinion" by a point.

As I've commented previously, there are many reasons candidates with no realistic chance of getting a presidential nomination choose to run. It's always interesting to guess when each might drop out, or who is going to be next. Just guessing, but are Bachmann and Santorum out after Iowa and Hunstman after New Hampshire? Paul will stay in because he is a zealot with a message, and I have no idea what to make of Perry. They say he can always find money, so maybe that keeps him in past his due date.

Then again, they are all so addicted to seeing their names in the paper, there is no telling how long we'll have to suffer the larger pack.

"The Weight" by The Band

2011-12-09T16:30:00.000-05:00

Artwork - Music from Big Pink

This is just a cheap excuse to post a tune by The Band, one of my favourite all-time groups. Yes, Rick Danko was a member of this, mostly, Canadian group. He played bass, Garth Hudson was on keys, Richard Manuel on piano and drums, and Robbie Robertson on guitar. Levon Helm, the only non-Canadian, played drums, mandolin and guitar. And with the exception of Hudson, they all sang. Many of them also played different instruments, which I'm neglecting to list.

The group was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked them #50 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and in 2008, they received the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award.

I guess you would call them a roots music influenced rock group. Close enough.

Their 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink, contained the single, "The Weight," which was ranked, in 2004, as the 41st best song of all time in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.

I have no idea what the Rolling Stone lists are worth, but it's a great song, with a chorus that makes it incredible to sing with other people.

The clip below of "The Weight" is taken from the film The Last Waltz. Just because it's getting late, I'll rip the Wiki entry on movie, which states:

The Last Waltz was a concert by the The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The Last Waltz was advertised as the end of The Band's illustrious touring career, and the concert saw The Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, Bobby Charles, and Neil Young.

Yes, that's all true. Here's "The Weight."

Yes, Rick Perry is still running - bet you forgot

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Have you seen Rick Perry's new ad criticizing President Obama for his "war on religion?" Oh yeah, you might have forgotten. Perry is still running for the GOP presidential nomination, despite the fact that most people stopped paying attention a while ago.

It's an ad designed to appeal to Christian conservatives in Iowa. It's one of those dog whistle things meant to suggest that Obama is not a Christian, not an American, because to be a true American, in Perry's world, you have to be a Christian. Yes, he is still going with the "Obama as Muslim socialist" thing. So clever, and original.

You know, I don't even have the strength to make fun of Rick Perry anymore. Watch and roll your own eyes.

This day in music - December 8, 1980: John Lennon is shot outside the Dakota building in New York City

2011-12-08T16:48:00.000-05:00

As we all know, John Lennon died of his wounds at 11:30 that evening. I was walking into a kitchen/commons room at a student co-op housing unit I shared with about a dozen others in Toronto when I was told. I arrived in the city three months earlier from New York to begin graduate school.

I remember it as a sad event, not necessarily life altering, but sad. Maybe by 1980 we were starting to think it wasn't all that remarkable that famous people sometimes get shot.

Not to make light, just trying to remember what I was thinking at the time. Perhaps if I had actually been a child of the 60s, I'd have felt it differently. It did feel like the end of something. Not sure what.

Maybe my mood was influenced by the fact that Ronald Reagan was elected president a month before.

John Lennon's "Imagine" is still probably my favourite of his.

Nasty Newt, the choice of the Republican Party

2011-12-08T11:30:00.000-05:00

Here's an entirely unscientific thought about Newt Gingrich's chances of winning the GOP presidential nomination. Up until now I really thought Romney could not lose it, but he has proven himself so consistently unpopular as the Republican base has tried out just about every other credible option. We know this, which begs the question, what are they looking for? It's not simply an aversion to Romney. It's a quest for something specific that Romney lacks.

We know that Gingrich has massive negatives, even for conservatives. But Republicans are running out of time and they know it. Gingrich's past is no secret. It's out there. GOP voters understand the problem with him. I am just starting to think they won't care.

They want someone they think vicious enough to take on Obama and see Gingrich as the person who can get in the President's face. I think this is the key. In the first instance, there is no one else left. In the second, having a pit bull for a candidate who will, they think, be able to tear at Obama, is more important than all of the transgressions that dot Newt's past.

They are looking for someone to embody their anger, holding aside for now precisely what the object of their anger is.

I guess part of what I'm saying is that it isn't just that Romney is perceived as too much of a centrist, though he is, but that he is perceived as too milquetoast. Conservatives want blood and they have run out of options as to how to get it, so they are turning to Gingrich.

In a way, he was always the best option if this is what is being sought. They think he is smart and they think he is nasty, and they are half right.

If they go with him, they will surely lose the general election. But they are blinded by hatred, and are not thinking clearly.

At this point, I still call this even odds between Gingrich and Romney, but I'm starting to think the momentum is with Newt and that the Republican power brokers won't be able to do anything about it. The very thing that makes Romney attractive to the GOP establishment, his perceived reasonableness, is the thing that damns him with the rank-and-file.

(As a footnote, it's what knocked Pawlenty out so early.)

Okay, I'm just riffing here, but I could be right.

Harry Morgan dies at 96, Colonel Sherman Potter of MAS*H - the good boss

2011-12-08T06:40:00.000-05:00

Harry Morgan died Wednesday morning. He was 96 years old. Many would remember him as Colonel Potter from the long-running television series M*A*S*H. Of course there were many other roles for Morgan including Officer Bill Gannon, partner to Sgt. Joe Friday, on the updated Dragnet series that aired from 1967 to 1970.

And then, as the obit in the New York Times put it,

In more than 100 movies, Mr. Morgan played Western bad guys, characters names Rocky and Shorty, loyal sidekicks, judges, sheriffs, soldiers, thugs and police chiefs.

But to a generation or two, starting in 1975 and running to 1983, and then in reruns forever after, he was Colonel Sherman Potter, commander of the 4077 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit in Korea.

It's a very corny thing, I know, but there are certain television shows that actually feel like they are a part of our lives. Watching Bonanza on Sunday nights at my grandparent's house in the 60s when I almost inevitably fell asleep lying on the floor in front of the television; the entire family gathering together to watch All in the Family in the early 70s; and Mash seemed to be around for all sorts of life's changes.

Given the fact that it premiered on September 17, 1972 and ended on February 28, 1983, it was there from the beginning of my high school years to my mid-20s - a fairly good stretch of time.

As circumstances would have it, though, the most significant experience watching the show that I recall is gathering with half my college dorm every day at 4:00 p.m. to catch reruns in the late 70s. That this stands out as a significant memory from my undergraduate days might make you think I wasted some time at Oswego State University, and you wouldn't be wrong, but there it is.

After a while shows like this are just comfort food, you watch them because they are familiar and we gravitate towards the familiar. Colonel Potter was always a cool character, though. Serious, because somebody had to make sure the important things got done. But he wasn't an asshole. Maybe we hoped that, in our final days of university, before having to get a job, it was possible we might have a boss who was serious enough to make sure things got done but who could also be cool about it.

That was Colonel Sherman Potter.

I suppose a lot of people will post the clip from the final episode of M*A*S*H in which the Colonel rides his horse off into the sunset. And so will I.

This day in music - December 7, 1987: Harry Chapin is posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work

2011-12-07T14:25:00.000-05:00

In addition to his successful music career, Harry Chapin was engaged in humanitarian efforts to end world hunger. In 1977, he played a key role in establishing the Presidential Commission on World Hunger.

In 1987, he was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal for that work.

Chapin is best known for songs like "Cat's in the Cradle", "Taxi", "Circle", and "W*O*L*D."

He died in a traffic accident on July 16, 1981 at the age of 38 having dedicated much of his life to various philanthropic endeavours. The title of the Washington Post obituary at the time was "Harry Chapin's Riches: The Troubadour Who Laughed at Fame & Gave Away His Fortune."

Ron Paul goes negative on Newt in Iowa

2011-12-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

Well, this is fun. Ron Paul is the first of the GOP contenders to go negative on Newt in Iowa with an ad purporting to show what Paul's team is calling Gingrich's "serial hypocrisy."

Jesse Benton, a Ron Paul advisor, had this to say about the ad:

We wanted to ensure this ad reached as many voters as possible, to debunk the myth that the Newt we are seeing on the 2012 campaign trail is the conservative he has been touted to be all along.

The voters are looking for authentic conservatives who are able to show a decades-long career of consistently walking the walk of Constitutional principles, limited government, and promoting sound economic policies. Ron Paul is the only Republican presidential candidate with that record.

Ron Paul may be whack job libertarian, but he's not going to be pushed around by some poser like Gingrich. No, sir.

You know, politicians are just like other people. Some of them are generally well liked, even by their opponents, and others not so much. Which camp do you supposed Newt fits in?

Dave Gunning, singer-songwriter from Pictou County, Nova Scotia

2011-12-06T16:54:00.001-05:00

The Canadian Folk Music Awards weekend finished up on Sunday night in Toronto. It's an annual event to honour those who make and produce folk music in Canada, a genre that is alive and well but rarely gets the recognition it deserves.

I happen to be on the board of directors of the organization so I do have a bit of a bias about the importance of the endeavour, but it is important. If you're interested, you can find a list of winners of this year's awards here. There is so much fantastic music being made and if you make just a little effort, the rewards are many.

One of the finds of the weekend for me was a guy by the name of Dave Gunning from Pictou County, Nova Scotia.

A nice little blurb from Greg Quill, entertainment writer for the Toronto Star, captures it nicely. He writes:

Dave Gunning is the next big thing in the True North of Song, an artist as compelling, as assured and attentive to every nuance of the writing process as Lightfoot, Coburn and Stan Rogers.

Dave is a great songwriter with terrific stage presence. He is a very real talent who I hope will get more exposure. If he does, he could do very well.

Here are a couple of his songs. The first is a fun little Christmas thing I thought I would post on account of the season. The second gives you a better sense of his songwriting range. And check out his webpage to get a broader idea of what he can do. I think you'll be impressed.

"Hard Working Hands" was co-written by Newfoundland songwriter Ron Hynes.

Both of these clips appear to be taken from a performance in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia in 2007.

Romney's fair warning that his campaign will continue to lie

2011-12-06T13:28:00.001-05:00

You'll recall the recent Romney campaign ad that so obviously took President Obama's words out of context that nearly everyone in the media called them on it.

The New York Times describes the backstory like this:

On October 16, 2008, campaigning in Londonderry, New Hampshire, Obama cast his opponent, John McCain, as out of touch with the problems facing the country – a month after the financial collapse that saw the American economy crater. Obama was expressing his incredulity at McCain’s lack of understanding of the full import of the world-engulfing fiscal crisis: “Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’ ”

Romney's ad was constructed on the lie that the words actually spoken by the McCain campaign were spoken by Obama. It is in fact an old trick, but no less disgusting for that fact. When you draw attention to what someone else said, it doesn't mean you said it yourself, or that you hold the same views. Pretty clear, right?

It got a lot of press at the time, so no need to go into it again.

What's new is the Romney campaign defending the tactic. Here is what a top Romney operative had to say about it:

First of all, ads are propaganda by definition. We are in the persuasion business, the propaganda business…. Ads are agitprop…. Ads are about hyperbole, they are about editing. It’s ludicrous for them to say that an ad is taking something out of context…. All ads do that. They are manipulative pieces of persuasive art.

Chew on that for a moment. Romney's team is saying that in politics everyone lies so it's not a big deal, in fact, we should expect it.

Apparently, whenever Romney or his campaign says something, we should assume that we are being manipulated. We should have no expectation that they have any respect for the truth. By their own admission, we should expect that their statements are hyperbolic and out of context.

This is what they are telling us about how they are and will continue to run their campaign.

Thanks for the heads up, Mitt.

As Greg Sargent argues:

Between this new quote and their boast that the ad’s mangling of context was strategically brilliant because it won reams of media attention, it almost seems as if Romney advisers are trying to persuade political reporters and commentators to abandon any standards they might use to judge tactics and rhetoric throughout this campaign. Of course, one would hope this will have the opposite effect.

Let's hope.

Final word on this is that as Gingrich continues to surge, we can expect Romney to get more and more desperate. Much as we were all being told that, among the GOP presidential hopefuls, Romney was the adult in the room, it seems that he is also a lying and manipulative adult. Isn't that wonderful?

This day in music - December 6, 1975: Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years goes to No. 1 on the US album chart

2011-12-06T06:57:00.000-05:00

Still Crazy After All These Years was Simon's fourth studio album. It was a great effort that produced four US top 40 hits: "Gone at Last (#23), "My Little Town (#9, credited to Simon and Garfunkel), "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (#1), and the title track (#40).

It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1976.

As a saxophone player, I have a special place in my heart for recording artists who know how to make use of the horn. David Sanborn, Michael Brecker and Phil Woods played on the album, which is a pretty serious bunch of people to be wielding Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax's invention on one recording.

This is really a good record. The title track is fabulous, but I've always been partial to "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." Great use of percussion. And it did get to No. 1 as a single, arriving on February 7, 1976.

Newt and Mitt - a sad choice for the GOP

2011-12-05T18:43:00.001-05:00

Politico ran a post recently by John Breshnahan, Jonathan Allen and Johnathan Martin with the title "GOP's anti-Newt chorus holds its tongue."

This is the lead:

Newt and Mitt
Newt Gingrich's critics within the GOP are legion, but for the moment they're something else: quiet.

They all remember the last time Gingrich held power, as House speaker: the bombast, the reckless personal life, the arrogance and lack of discipline that bordered on dangerous.

But in the face of Gingrich's surge in the polls, most Gingrich critics are keeping it to themselves. Part of it is because, recognizing that Gingrich is connecting with the GOP base better than anyone else in the field, they have little desire to get cross-wise with their own party. Put more bluntly, there is a dawning realization they might have to make peace with Newt the nominee.

There are at least two takeaways here that fascinate. The first is the sense among some very serious conservative political insiders that Gingrich could win the nomination, and the second the recognition that there is so much out there with which to attack him that it would be a disaster if he did.

According to Guy Molinari, a former congressman who had a falling out with Gingrich in the 1980s:

There are so very many stories out there about his failings, moral failings, that he certainly would be a bad pick to bear the title of the president of the United States. .....I think there is a huge element of risk involved.

Up until very recently Gingrich has been widely considered a joke. It hardly seemed worth the effort to regurgitate so much of the sordid past of the guy who was just on the stage to generate profile for his personal brand. But now he's leading in the polls, it's getting very close to the Iowa caucuses and all this stuff about Newt is going to be coming out piece by piece in the short and long term because there is so much there.

On one level I am truly amazed that the best the GOP can do is come up with only two realistic options for a nomination: Romney, who is disliked by broad cross-sections of his own party and Gingrich, whose own "failings" are so very well known by anyone who cares to pay attention.

And, here's the thing, people will start to pay attention. In our current 24-hour news cycle and blog-soaked universe, Newt Gingrich can't survive this. There is just no way. Certainly not in the general election.

He's gotten a relatively free ride in the short term, but this gets very ugly very quickly.

The story of the 2012 campaign, when the books are written, will be about how the Republican Party failed to present a reasonable alternative to an incumbent president who should have been easy to knock off given, if nothing else, how badly the economy is performing.

Even if Gingrich fails to win the nomination, the fact that he is doing this well so late in the process tells us all we need to know. The split between the radical-right and the pragmatic right is going to yield a candidate no one wants: "the immoral-arrogant-prick candidate" or "the guy-nobody-is-passionate-about-but-will-have-to-support-anyway-because-there-is-no-other-choice candidate."

Talk about unintended consequences.

This day in music - December 4, 1965: The Byrds' "Turn! Turn! Turn! hits No. 1

2011-12-04T16:10:00.000-05:00

Pete Seeger

"Turn! Turn! Turn! was written by folk music icon Pete Seeger, who recorded the song before The Byrds covered it as a follow-up to their hit "Mr. Tambourine Man."

In a book called Songwriters on Songwriting by Paul Zollo, Seeger says the following about the lyrics of the song, which are based on a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes:

I don't read the Bible that often. I leaf through it occasionally and I'm amazed by the foolishness at times and the wisdom at other times. I call it the greatest book of folklore ever given. Not that there isn't a lot of wisdom in it. You can trace the history ofpeople poetically.

I got a letter from my publisher, and he says, 'Pete, I can't sell these protest songs you write.' And I was angry. I sat down with a tape recorder and said, 'I can't write the kind of songs you want. You gotta go to somebody else. This is the only kind of song I know how to write.' I pulled out this slip of paper in my pocket and improvised a melody to it in fifteen minutes. And I sent it to him. And I got a letter from him the next week that said, 'Wonderful! Just what I'm looking for.' Within two months he'd sold it to the Limelighters and then to the Byrds. I liked the Byrds' record very much, incidentally. All those clanging, steel guitars - they sound like bells.

"Turn! Turn! Turn!" became an international hit in late 1965, when it was covered by the American folk rock band The Byrds, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #26 on the UK Singles Chart.

The Byrds went through a number of changes in personnel from the time they formed in 1964 until they disbanded in 1973. The lineup at the beginning was Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Michael Clarke, and then Chris Hillman joined them shortly thereafter.

Although The Byrds managed to attain the huge commercial success of contemporaries like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones only for a short period of time (1965–66), they are today considered by critics to be one of the most influential bands of the 1960s, particularly in their early influence in the folk-rock genre.

Huntsman and Gingrich to debate in New Hampshire

2011-12-04T07:29:00.000-05:00

Although GOP hopeful Jon Huntsman isn't interested in a debate moderated by professional goofball Donald Trump, he does have to find other creative ways to get himself into the game. So Huntsman has decided that it makes sense to go one-on-one against the most recent candidate to take over the lead position in the race - Newt Gingrich.

As Tommy Christopher reports at Mediaite:

In an email to reporters, the Huntsman campaign announced it had accepted an invitation to a Lincoln-Douglas style debate with current frontrunner Newt Gingrich, to be held in New Hampshire. Huntsman campaign manager Tim Miller also twisted the knife into Trump and rival Mitt Romney a little more.

This certainly is a significant gamble for Gingrich, who has tried to paint himself as the smartest person in the room amongst Republican candidates, and a significant coup for Huntsman, who needs to find a way, any way, to get noticed.

Huntsman is putting all his eggs in the New Hampshire primary basket, and this debate will likely be such an oddity that all eyes are likely to be on it.

Don't really know what's in it for Newt, beside the fact that he's so full of himself he will take any opportunity to prove he is "the" serious contender in the race. And a debate with Huntsman, a guy a lot of people think is intellectually substantial, may help him make the case assuming he does well.

It would be great to see Newt brought low by his own hubris. I'm just really not sure Huntsman can get the job done.

Here's the press release from Huntsman's campaign announcing the event. Nice shot at Romney.

Manchester- Jon Huntsman for President today announced that Governor Huntsman will be participating in a Lincoln-Douglas style debate with Newt Gingrich in New Hampshire this month. Details pending negotiations with the Gingrich campaign.

In addition, our campaign is declining the invitation to participate in the Donald Trump Apprentice Debate on December 27th.

Campaign spokesman Tim Miller issued the following statement:

“We look forward to discussing the issues that matter to the American people in a serious, substantive debate with Speaker Gingrich later this month. It is telling that Governor Romney has declined to participate because this substantive format makes it hard for him to hide from his record.

In addition, we have declined to participate in the ‘Presidential Apprentice’ Debate with The Donald. The Republican Party deserves a serious discussion of the issues so voters can choose a leader they trust to defeat President Obama and turn our economy around. We are confident that leader will be Jon Huntsman.”

At last, something to write about Huntsman. It's been a long time.

The Cain campaign is apparently over - So long, Herm

2011-12-03T15:48:00.001-05:00

Unlike some people, I have a lot of respect for the political process and for politicians. I would prefer that good candidates make themselves available. I recognize that the task is a difficult one, but I am pleased that so many good people still present themselves to the American public for approval.

It saddens me when so many fools show up, when so many unqualified candidates insist on embarrassing themselves and us by their antics and shameful pasts.

Herman Cain, one of the bigger fools to grace the national stage in a long time, seems to have had enough, as the New York Times reports:

An unapologetic and defiant Herman Cain suspended his presidential campaign on Saturday, pledging that he “would not go away,” even as he abandoned hope of winning the Republican nomination. Instead, Mr. Cain announced what he called a “Plan B,” continued advocacy of his tax and foreign policy plans.

“As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign,” Mr. Cain said. “Because of the continued distractions, the continued hurt caused on me and my family, not because we are not fighters. Not because I’m not a fighter.”

Herman, what happened here was done by you to yourself. What hurt came to your family is of your own doing. And I think Americans everywhere have heard enough about your tax policy and uninformed views on foreign affairs. Hell, I think you've proven yourself too stupid for Fox, and that's saying something.

It's over. Please don't come back.

This day in music - December 3, 1966: The Monkees make their stage debut in Honolulu, HI

2011-12-03T13:36:00.001-05:00

Tork, Nesmith, Dolenz, Jones

I was a kid when The Monkees were big. I had no idea what good music was then. So, of course, I loved them. I watched the weekly television show when it originally aired and then on Saturdays when it went into re-runs. I apologize. I really do.

As the story goes, the group was created for an NBC television show. 437 young men auditioned for the roles - mostly struggling musicians and actors. Steven Stills and John Sebastian both auditioned and were turned down.

The Monkees were: Mickey Dolenz, Peter Nesmith, Davey Jones, and Peter Tork. And I can assure you that I did not have to look those names up. I still remember them.

58 episodes were made and it lasted only 2 seasons from 1966-1968. It's not hard to imagine that the idea for the fictional group came from the 1965 Beatles' movie A Hard Day's Night.

At first, the group did not play their own instruments - their vocals were recorded over tracks recorded by a group of session musicians who played on many hits from the '60s. A turning point of sorts came in 1967 when they insisted on playing their own material and getting producer credit as well.

The Monkees were the object of scorn among some music fans who felt they were a product of deceptive corporate entertainment, taking up airspace that would be better suited to more authentic musicians. And they also kind of sucked.

Still, I loved them when I was eight years old. "Day Dream Believer," "Last Train to Clarksville," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Mary, Mary." On the last one, "Mary, Mary," I'm pretty sure the Paul Butterfield Blues Band recorded it.

Okay, to be absolutely fair, Monkees band member Michael Nesmith wrote "Mary, Mary," but mostly they didn't play their own instruments or write their own songs. Now we just call that American Idol.

In truth, I can still listen to The Monkees. Must be nostalgia blinding me or deafening me.

This day in music - December 2, 1957: Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" hits No. 1

2011-12-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

Sam Cooke

Cooke had 29 top-40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1964. Major hits like "A Change is Gonna Come," "Cupid," "Chain Gang," "Wonderful World," and "Twistin' the Night Away" are some of his most popular songs.

Cooke died at the age of thirty-three on December 11, 1964, at a motel in Los Angeles. Bertha Franklin, manager of the motel, told police that she shot and killed Cooke in self-defense because he had attacked her. Police found Cooke's body in Franklin's apartment-office, clad only in a sports jacket and shoes, but no shirt, pants or underwear. The shooting was ultimately ruled a justifiable homicide.

A strange death of one of the great talents in popular music.

"You Send Me" was one of his best.

This day in music - December 1, 1987: The Supreme Court upholds the sacking of a Kentucky teacher for showing her class Pink Floyd's The Wall

2011-12-01T13:03:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you come across these little bits of information on the web, and you really have to make sure it's not an Onion-type send up. But, no, this appears to be real.

In December of 1987, A Kentucky teacher lost her appeal in the US Supreme Court over her sacking after showing Pink Floyd's film The Wall to her class. The court decided that the film was not suitable for minors with its bad language and sexual content.

I found a very interesting discussion of the case at a website called The First Amendment Center. This concerned the Sixth Circuit ruling on the case, but the same legal principles no doubt applied for the Supreme Court.

The comment below was in response to a question asking if a teacher could be punished for teaching subjects school officials or parents deem unsuitable.

Probably. Teachers must remember that most courts consistently rule that teachers do not have a First Amendment right to trump the curriculum mandated by the school board. Furthermore, some courts take a narrow view of what constitutes "communicative conduct" that implicates the First Amendment.

For example, the Sixth Circuit ruled that school officials did not violate the First Amendment rights of a teacher when they fired her for showing the R-rated movie Pink Floyd -- The Wall in her classroom. Even though the Supreme Court has determined since the 1950s that movies are a form of expression protected by the First Amendment, the Sixth Circuit determined that the teacher's conduct in showing the R-rated movie was not "expressive or communicative, under the circumstances presented.

And beside all that, we wouldn't want students exposed to themes like alienation, social isolation, drug use, marital infidelity, and violence. Best to keep shit like that out of the classroom and leave it on the street where it belongs. Better they should muddle their way through the really big questions in life without any help. They don't need no education like that.

President Obama's match-up vs. Romney and Gingrich

2011-12-01T06:32:00.000-05:00

At the Hedgehog Report, a site dedicated to political polls, David Wissing took a shot at what a general election match-up would look like between Romney and Obama, and then between Gingrich and Obama.

Based on the most recent state-by-state polling data, electoral college tallies look like this. (It takes 270 to win).

Romney – 256
Obama – 256
Tie – 26

Obama – 451
Gingrich – 76
Tie – 11

As the website Race for 2012 warns:

Of course, the usual caveats apply: most of these polls are from PPP, since they are the only outfit polling a lot of these states, and so the results should be taken with a grain of salt. Also, some of the polls are older (Obama v Gingrich in Colorado hasn’t been polled since February, for instance).

Still, it does give us a sense of how difficult it will be for the GOP if Gingrich somehow prevails.

This day in music - November 30, 1977: Big Crosby and David Bowie perform "Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace on Earth" on Crosby's Christmas special

2011-11-30T16:00:00.000-05:00

I am well aware of the danger of getting totally sick of Christmas before we even get into December, but please indulge me on this one. I love that Bing Crosby-David Bowie duet that we have all seen so many times. For the record, this unusual performance was part of Bing Crosby's annual Christmas special in November of 1977 and, I'm sure you would agree, has become a classic.

I'll try to keep the Christmas music posts to a minimum - or maybe I won't. I haven't decided.

Gingrich surges in Florida

2011-11-30T12:38:00.001-05:00

In Florida, a new poll from the Florida Times-Union shows Gingrich outpacing the Republican presidential field with 41% support. Mitt Romney is well back with 17%.

Newt Gingrich is the current favorite in Florida’s Jan. 31 Republican presidential primary, picking up supporters who fled Herman Cain to claim 41 percent in a poll conducted Tuesday night for The Florida Times-Union.

Gingrich has as much support as the next four candidates combined in the telephone survey of 513 registered voters who say they’re likely to cast ballots in the primary. The poll, conducted by InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research, has a margin of error of 4 percent.

As I noted earlier, Cain's loss is Gingrich's gain. And Romney continues to stumble.

Cain's support would go to Gingrich

2011-11-30T11:00:00.000-05:00

Public Policy Polling (PPP) has just gone into the field in Florida and Montana and early indications are that New Gingrich is likely going to have a double digit lead in both states. They also say that his support has not peaked.

Significantly, they indicate that with Herman Cain perhaps poised to drop out of the race, Gingrich's surge should continue for a while, assuming he doesn't shoot himself in the foot, which is a big assumption.

A key piece of information from their polling is that Cain supporters love Newt and hate Mitt.

Our last national survey found that Gingrich's favorability with Cain voters was 73/21. Meanwhile Romney's was 33/55. That's the same basic trend we've seen in every Republican primary poll we've done in the month of November. On average in 7 polls we've done this month Gingrich's favorability with Cain voters is 69/22. Romney's average is 31/57. In other words Gingrich's net favorability is 73 points better with Cain supporters than Romney's.

This gets us into that all-important second choice dynamic so essential in nomination battles. Not only is Romney stuck at fairly mediocre levels of support, but his opportunity for growth, once lesser candidates either bail out or become less viable, is limited.

Gingrich is coming on anyway, and, if Cain goes away, Newt will get much of that support.

I know many of us have been beating this point to death for months, but this Republican nomination race is not political business-as-usual. Voter preference does not appear to be motivated by a rational calculation of who can best take on Obama. The level of ideological fervour in this election may mean that many right-wing voters will be incapable of supporting a relative centrist like Romney.

And, after shopping around for months, they could be coming around to Gingrich, a candidate they believe to be consistently on the right who doesn't misspeak every second time he opens his mouth.

Once again, we are seeing evidence that Romney could be in more trouble than most of us thought.

This day in history - November 30, 2004: Long-time Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings finally loses

2011-11-30T08:24:00.001-05:00

Jennings preparing to fire

I am not entirely convinced that a game show contestant finally losing truly qualifies as a moment in history. I suppose anything that involves winning a lot of money counts as an important event in our culture. And it even had something to do with knowledge and skill, unlike, say, winning millions in a lottery.

Ken Jennings left the show with US$2,520,700, television's biggest game show earnings.

I used to watch Jeopardy regularly and enjoyed seeing people test their general knowledge. It's also always a bit of an ego boost to get a few answers right. We all like it when that happens.

What Jennings was able to accomplish was impressive. And, on balance, I'd rather we applaud someone who knows a little something about Roman emperors, or chemistry or literature than that we get too excited because someone was or wasn't voted off the island. You know I mean.

So Ken Jennings won a lot of money by having a broad base of knowledge. I'd love to see how the current crop of GOP presidential candidates would do on the show. Can you imagine Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann all in a row? It would drive Alex to drink.

By the way, I notice that Jennings has his own website and that he does personal appearances and even blogs. I guess he's trying to stretch his fifteen minutes as far as it will go. Go for it, Ken.

Mitt Romney: To know, know, know him is to dislike him

2011-11-29T19:50:00.001-05:00

Professional politicos will say that polls come and go and that the only poll that counts is the one on election day. Yes, we've all heard them say that. But what really matters in polling is trending. I'm no expert in the dismal science of public opinion surveys, but I know what tracking polls are. They plot performance over time. And that tells you where things are likely headed, which is a very useful piece of information in politics.

On that point, Public Policy Polling (PPP) released an analysis of polling they have done over time on Mitt Romney's favourability rating, which is basically the extent to which people like him. Here's what they had to say:

Wave goodbye Mitt

You want to know the biggest reason Mitt Romney hasn't surged at any point in the Republican Presidential race this year? It's because the more GOP primary voters across the country have been exposed to him, the less they like him.

There are 13 places PPP has polled the Republican race in October or November where it also did a poll sometime between January and March. In those places Romney's net favourability has dropped by an average of 15 points over the course of the year.

They also note that as all the other pretenders have risen and fallen over time, Romney hasn't seen any increase in his support. In fact, just the opposite. When GOP voters have gotten tired of Trump or Bachmann or Perry or Cain, they have not shifted their support to Romney, as one would assume given how often most of us talk about the fact that he simply has to be the nominee. The Republican segment of the electorate, it seems, disagrees.

Romney's support has been moving away from him and then moving to a variety of candidates over time never to return to the former Governor of Massachusetts.

Does this mean he won't win the nomination? I don't know. I still can't imagine Newt Gingrich as the nominee, although I'd like to because Obama would kick his ass. For Romney to win, Republicans will have to hold their noses and vote for him anyway, though they have made it clear they would rather not.

In any case, when the most remarkable feature of your so-called front-running candidate is in the fact that the more voters see of him the less they like him, it's time to make a change. Of course, Republicans have done nothing but change horses and to no avail.

It remains to be seen where Gingrich's votes will go when his support tanks, as it inevitably will. Odds are it won't be to Romney.

My favourite pastime of the past several weeks has been to game scenarios in which Romney fails to win the GOP nomination. Guess it could happen.