Mr. President, Shut the Hell Up

No, I'm not going Keith Olbermann on you with that title... but I do think that President Bush did more harm than good to the McCain campaign with his speech in Israel the other day. I've had enough time to think about this speech, and I think my original reaction is the one to go with.

Don't get me wrong; I certainly think Barack Obama earns "get over yourself" points for thinking that Bush was talking about him, but Obama (or more precisely, DNC Chair Howard Dean) has decided that this election will be about running against Bush (even though they technically aren't and can't). Therefore, Bush needs to lay low and not provide ammo for the DNC. Yeah, I really don't see how that's possible when pretty much anything he says gets spun for the DNC's benefit these days. Take the recent comment Bush made about cutting back on his golf game. As soon as I heard it, I knew what he meant. He doesn't want any more of those "Fahrenheit 9-11" ("Now watch this drive") moments that can get misedited into something attacking him. However, in this case, it didn't take Michael Moore for the bile to start. It's been almost universally condemned as Bush not caring about injured or disabled soldiers. And looking at that quote again... yeah, I knew what he meant but as has been the case with so many "Bushisms" over the years, the words didn't come out right. Maybe he just needs to stop making public statements until November... nah, the media would say he was hiding from them...

Anyway, back to the Obama/Dean "strategy": It's all about McCain = Bush. Obama, Dean, and all the talking-points-repeating Democrats are declaring that John McCain amounts to nothing more than "Bush's 3rd term." The problem with all of this is that the only people who believe that... are Obama, Dean, and all the talking-points-repeating Democrats. Republicans certainly don't buy that at all, right-wingers especially. If John McCain really was offering us a 3rd Bush term, conservatives would be a lot more eager to vote for him. Instead, they continue to say they are hesitant at best. When Bob Barr announced he was running as the "true conservative" last week, I braced for a string of endorsements from right-wing talk show hosts for Barr, but so far that has not happened.

In a recent Pew Research study, voters saw McCain as centrist and much like themselves in terms of views... which is precisely why the right is so pissed off. They want a conservative, and they're threatening to bolt if McCain picks a VP who is much like himself. If you're still not convinced that McCain is not a 3rd Bush term, let me ask you this... if McCain is so much like Bush, why did Bush and his right-wing cronies go to such lengths to smear him back in 2000?

The real problem for Obama is that by making this campaign be so much about discrediting John McCain, he's not exactly pitching a "new kind of politics", is he? Sounds like the same old, same old to me. But I saw this coming when Dean and the DNC started trotting out this rhetoric well before the nomination appeared to be decided. I wondered how Obama could possibly sell his vision of change and hope when the DNC would be running the same old negative attacks right and left. The answer, apparently, is for Obama to talk out of both sides of his mouth. He dismisses any criticism of himself (or more recently, his wife Michelle) as divisive, while slamming McCain constantly... and isn't THAT in itself divisive? Obama and Dean say we cannot talk about Jeremiah Wright anymore, but Obama says that McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal nearly two decades ago is fair game. They are trying to dictate what we can and can't talk about in this election. Nope, that doesn't sound like the same elitism that brought us the whole "bitter" comment about clinging to guns and religion and prejudice.

Meanwhile, McCain IS offering a vision. He made a speech last week that we would be victorious in Iraq and most of the troops home by 2013 (I know how that can happen, but that's another entry). He also said we will have captured or killed Osama bin Laden, Iran and North Korea will have been persuaded to end their nuclear programs, there will be no more "signing statements" like Bush has done which virtually ignore the bills he is signing into law, health care will be more accessible to Americans than any other time in history, and he will take questions from Congress like the Prime Minister does in Britain. THAT is vision. THAT is hope.

The response from the Obama campaign? Basically, it was "we agree with a lot of your vision, but you're being divisive, just like Bush." Get ready for 5 1/2 more months of "attack, attack, attack" from the left...

Speaking of Olbermann... I understand he definitely dislikes the president. I get that. I wouldn't be caught dead watching his show on MSNBC (and for that matter, neither would most of America), but I was still able to enjoy him on NBC's Sunday night football show because it was the Keith Olbermann who was on ESPN back in the day, and I loved his sports humor. However, when you pretty much play the "baby killer" card with our troops as he has done... I don't think I'm ever gonna get past that with him. I'm usually a "live and let live" type, but no, I lost any respect I had for him...

And as long as I'm passing out "get over yourself" awards, I will give one to the New York sports media for their treatment of Billy Wagner's remarks last week. You really do have to wonder why the press is interviewing Wagner after a game he didn't play in... gee, could it be because he just gave them a great remark not too long ago and they need to have something controversial to write about? So he goes off on them, but since the New York sports media is above criticism, they decided someone else needed to be criticized. So first they went after Carlos Delgado... except the reason he wasn't in the locker room was because of a family situation... so then they inferred that Wagner was criticizing his teammates who don't speak good English... but someone must have told them that was racist... so then they decided it's all Willie Randolph's fault and he needs to be fired. Bob Klapisch even went so far as to say that the Mets players don't say they admire Willie. BS. Ask ANY of them and they will tell you they do... just because they don't go out of their way to say, "Hey, he's the greatest," I guess that translates to lack of respect. Whatever. So to the New York sports media, I end this entry the way I began it, and tell you all to SHUT THE HELL UP...

A Handout is a Handout

Right now in Congress, they're debating a pair of bills that have something in common, and it may not be apparent at first, so I'll just point it out right up front: Both bills involve giving federal assistance to industries that don't need them.

The first one is pretty obvious: the oil industry. We're set up to give the oil industry $17 billion in tax breaks over the next 10 years... the same industry racking up record profits amid $4 a gallon gas prices. Now, hear me out: I am NOT opposed to oil companies racking up record profits. If you're ExxonMobil, and you can make $40 billion a year, more power to ya... especially since the federal government takes in $30 billion in taxes from them each year. And to those who say that this is a piddling amount compared to the $400B in revenue ExxonMobil takes in, let me just remind you of something: yes, a corporation spends money on supplies and bills and expenses just like any average person does, but on top of that, the corporation then PAYS SALARIES TO ITS WORKERS. Average Taxpayer doesn't have a payroll to support. Therefore, I would say $30 billion in taxes is a fair amount for this corporation to pay.

However, when you ARE making $40 billion a year, and when adding in Hess, Shell, Chevron, Occidental, Marathon, and ConocoPhillips, you all combine to make $128 billion a year, YOU DON'T NEED $17 BILLION IN CORPORATE WELFARE!!! Especially when the federal government is running a half-trillion deficit. If we need to find a place to cut "wasteful government spending", this is a great place to start! So the Congress is currently working on a new energy bill, and one of the parts that is gaining traction is dumping this $17 billion. This is one time when I will back the Democrats and say go for it, just PLEASE don't do the stupid "windfall profits tax" on top of that, because THAT is unnecessary. You already have your own "windfall profits" known as the taxes you're already collecting on the oil companies. I'm always for cutting spending first, raising taxes never.

And speaking of which... bill number two that is currently being debated is one that unfortunately will pass but shouldn't. They're debating farm welfare again. I call it "farm welfare" because it's the federal government giving money to an industry... no different from what we call "corporate welfare." The federal government is the body that made the pioneering move to pay farmers NOT to grow certain crops. Talk about wasteful spending. So now in the midst of an international food crisis, the Dems are set to lavish another $40 billion in farm welfare, plus $30 billion to "idle their land"... otherwise known as "to NOT grow anything." All told, that is $70 billion, or 4 TIMES what is given to the oil industry. President Bush is right to want to veto this, and the international community says this bill will do little to help efforts around the world to ease the food crisis. But the Congress is confident that it can override Bush's veto; after all, it's an election year. We've been conditioned to feel that if we don't support a bill like this, we're hurting the small family farm... but a farm is a business. If we're going to help small business, that's one thing, and if there's a way to only help the small farms (without paying them NOT to grow something), let's do it. But giving rich farmers a handout makes no more sense than giving one to ExxonMobil. Let's be consistent here.

And now some random thoughts that didn't make it in the batch that made up my last entry:

Hey Flagstaff... how'd you like that "global warming" on Tuesday? Several inches of snow... in mid-May... State College, PA got 4 inches of snow on Monday. Yeah, global warming is really happening...

The best Alternative station out there (well, I should say best terrestrial Alternative station, because Sirius Alt Nation is the best station ever) is the Edge in Toronto. Beyond the fact that they feature an eclectic and wide-ranging playlist, they go even further than American Alternative stations because they have to play 30% Canadian artists. So you hear stuff like Sam Roberts and illScarlett that will never get played in the States even though they should be. Just one more reason to love our neighbors to the North...

Only in Central New York would people be fighting a community center being proposed for their community. Residents in Radisson (a planned community near Baldwinsville) don't want the new YMCA to be built in their neighborhood because it's zoned as residential, and they think it will affect their quality of life and lower their property values. Okay, first of all: given that people are complaining now more than ever about their property taxes and that people go ballistic every time a new round of increased assessments comes out, one would think that lower property values would be a GOOD thing. And secondly, yes, YMCAs do affect quality of life... in a GOOD WAY! These things are supposed to be built in residential areas so that people have easy access to them! But then again, these are the same people who flip out when one of their neighbors overdoes it on the Christmas lights, so there may just be no getting through to these people...

Eh, It's Something to Do

So I'm on break now, and I feel like there should be a lot of pressing issues that I feel the need to tell you all my opinions on, but oddly enough... I got nothin'.

Nothing that would fill a typically-too-long edition of this blog, anyway. So I decided that I'm just gonna toss in some random thoughts about things that are on the usually-occupied mind of an academic like myself when it suddenly becomes unoccupied by a semester break. Hey, it works for Larry King...

As I missed the final season of "The Sopranos", I'm loving the fact that A&E is showing these episodes now on Sunday nights and reruns on Sunday mornings. Yeah, it's edited but I can get past all the "forget yous" that should have a different f-word in there, so I'm pretty happy about that. However, during these episodes, they run tourism ads for California. One of them was kinda cute, saying that the life is soooo hard out there and it's all these celebrities on the golf course or in the hot tub. The other one almost made me physically ill. I honestly don't remember anything about it, other than the fact that it ends with The Governator and his wife at an outdoor cafe table, and Schwarzenegger laughs and says, "You'll be back..." Enough. We get it. You were the Terminator. Quit being a caricature of yourself...

Reading the NY Daily News today... there's a nice story about how economic times are so tough right now that a family making $135,000 a year can't make ends meet because they have 7 kids and, well, NYC is an expensive place to live. While I certainly feel bad for the plight of this family, I wonder if they know how much tougher it will get for them if Obama becomes president and their taxes go up because their $135,000 income makes them "rich" in the eyes of Democrats...

Aaron Heilman sucks. I'm just sayin'...

Speaking of baseball pariahs... the MLB Players Association is actually considering accusing baseball owners of collusion because nobody will sign Barry Bonds. They DO know he's been indicted, right? Who wants to sign a guy who will get booed everywhere he plays (including at home) for half a season before he has to go to court and (hopefully) from there straight to federal "pound-me-in-the-ass" prison? At a time when most baseball fans believe that the union is tainted with their "look the other way" policy regarding steroids, why would the union suddenly stick up for the poster boy for steroids like this? This just PROVES that they don't care. Obviously the union's next move will be to sue the Giants for ridding AT&T Park of any sign that Bonds ever played there. And them I'm sure the NFL players union will sue for collusion if nobody signs Michael Vick upon his release from prison...

The Raconteurs have a new album out. Haven't heard any of it aside from the lead single yet, but I take it on faith that Jack White is a friggin' genius so this will soon be in my expansive CD collection...

Saw a couple trailers for "The Dark Knight" last night... this is gonna be GOOD...

Stephen King was giving a speech at the Library of Congress last week and he said that if you can't read, "then you’ve got, the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that.” Am I offended by this remark? Yeah a little bit, considering my brother-in-law is both in the Army and most certainly LITERATE. But am I gonna flip out and tell you all to boycott buying or reading Stephen King books? Nah. To each his own; if a remark like that pisses you off to the extent that you wouldn't buy one of his books, that's cool, but we have more pressing problems in this world. And besides, I've never read any of his books and I'm not really interested in doing so in the future, regardless of what he says about our troops...

And lastly, went to the new Quaker Steak and Lube tonight for dinner. It's a little bit out of the way (past the mythical hamlet of "Lakeland"), but it was well-recommended by a classmate of mine, and it lived up to its billing. They make their own lemonade (or Lube-a-nade), and although it doesn't have the "Kiwi/Crack" flavor that Charley's has, it was damn good. Now I'm not usually a wing guy, but I had their honey mustard (boneless wings, makes them so much better... thank you, "Mr. Boneless Buffalo Wing Inventor") and they were amazing. And that's about as far as I'll go with chicken wings as far as hotness. Even a timid amount of heat bothers me, so you're never gonna see me asking for the Atomic wings that you have to sign a release form to eat because they are ridiculously hot. All in all, nice place... I highly recommend it.

And that's all for this time around. Maybe soon enough I will have one solid topic to rant about...

You Don't Mess With the Chronicles of the Dark Summer in the Kingdom of the City: The Movie

Now that I've teased you with a title that reads like a "Highlights" magazine (find the movie references and circle them), let's jump right into the now-underway summer movie season as I review all the new movies I haven't seen yet... and in the case of most of them, will not see...

"Iron Man" opened things officially this weekend (and since my semester is over, technically for me, it is summer so for once this super-long "summer movie season" concept works). I'm not really a fan of the comic book movie, but I inevitably go to see at least one per summer. With so many of the genre coming out ("Iron Man", another Hulk movie, "Hellboy 2"), I'm putting my money down for "The Dark Knight." I thought "Batman Begins" was an awesome movie and I was intrigued by Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker before his tragic death earlier this year. Of course, there's going to be a lot of morbid types wanting to see the movie because it's Ledger's last movie, but I think anyone who goes will be impressed with the movie as a whole.

Another genre that tends to get the overkill treatment during the summer is the "recycled TV show as movie" category. This year, we get "Speed Racer" (seriously, "Speed Racer"?), another "X-Files" movie, and the "Sex and the City" movie that I will talk about later. I'm not gonna see any of those, despite the fact that I did see the first X-Files movie (I thought it was eh). I will go see "Get Smart", despite the fact that I really don't get Steve Carell, and this is for two reasons: 1) I'm a fan of the original Don Adams 1960s TV show, and 2) Anne Hathaway.

So like I said earlier, "Sex and the City" has also been made into a movie. My ex-roommate (who I should note is female) loves "Sex and the City". When this movie idea first started being floated around, I heard a lot of people upset that this ruins what they thought was a good ending to the TV show, but now people have forgotten that apparently, because the buzz is becoming huge, and the opening is still 3 1/2 weeks out. I could care less for the show or this movie, but I have a feeling it will make a lot of money.

"Indiana Jones" makes his return to the big screen as well. Since the first 3 Indy movies are the stuff of cinematic legend, I'm sure this will do quite well, but for me it begs the obvious question: Why is it that when Sylvester Stallone brings back a 60-year old "Rocky" and "Rambo", everyone laughs, but a 65-year old Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is okay? By the time this movie comes out, we'll already be in week 2 of the latest "Narnia" installment, and I'll be intrigued to see how the two movies do head-to-head... although I will not actually be seeing either movie.

Meanwhile, it appears that we've run out of good ideas for animated movies for a while. When the best we can do this summer is "Kung Fu Panda" and "Wall-E" (which I liked the first time, when it was called "Robots"), you know Pixar and co. have pretty much shot their collective wad. Also, we seem to be lacking in quality comedies compared to last summer. We're asking Ashton Kutcher ("What Happens in Vegas") and Chuck Norris ("Foot Fist Way") to carry the genre that used to be home to stuff like "Rush Hour" and "American Pie"... this is not good. Mike Myers' "The Love Guru" might prove to be the savior of the summer; if not, then you'll have to wait until late July when the next Will Ferrell movie hits.

And then there's Adam Sandler's movie... "You Don't Mess With the Zohan." Apparently, he plays a former Israeli intelligence agent living underground in NYC, and Rob Schneider is in this because Rob Schneider is in EVERY Adam Sandler movie (it's the only way he gets work). All I know is you can start the meter running on the number of times the title of this movie will be twisted into "You Don't Mess With the Lohan" to reflect the latest bit of nothing news about Lindsay (there, that's one).

And once the major blockbusters of the year have all had their turns battling it out, the world will be safe once again for stuff like this year's musical-turned-movie ("Mamma Mia") and the usual late-summer dreck (Another "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", another "Mummy", and last out of the box, another Vin Diesel vehicle... thank god!) Of course, by then, the studios pretty much presume that you'll be out of money (which in today's economy is a genuine possibility) or so overwhelmed by all the CGI special effects that you'll need to spend August on the beach in order to get your senses back. Happy viewing, everyone!

...and in case you didn't get all the movie references in the title, here you go:
- YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE Zohan
- The CHRONICLES OF Narnia: Prince Caspian
- THE DARK Knight
- Indiana Jones and THE KINGDOM OF the Crystal Skull
- Sex and THE CITY: THE MOVIE

Where Have You Gone, Don Geronimo?

So I did indeed have a nice long layoff from here in the month of April, so I missed the chance to talk about what was (for me) the biggest event of the month. On April 11, I had to say goodbye to an old friend. Well, we’ve never actually met, but it felt like he was my friend. He made me laugh, he inspired me, he entertained me and taught me things about radio, about how to be funny, about life. Don Geronimo retired from radio.

“The Don and Mike Show” is the reason I got into radio. I had been interested in the medium before, I had been attracted to how much fun the people on the radio were having, how they could channel information to you and make it entertaining. I enjoyed listening first to Bill Baker, then Rush Limbaugh (before I wised up and became more moderate, but I’ve always respected him as an entertainer), then Imus. And so it was that one afternoon in February, 1994, during my Winter Break from high school, I was visiting my grandparents in Belmont, and I found the Rochester station that broadcasted Imus, WHTK, “Hot Talk 1280.” I was tuning the radio there so I could listen to Imus the next morning, but then I listened to the show that was on the station at that moment, and was blown away by how much fun they were having, how funny and fast-paced and crazy they were. I immediately became a fan of Don and Mike.

Although I’m sure they never intended it, 1280AM in Rochester managed to come in, static-laden but good enough, in my house in Camillus. Don and Mike were on vacation, so it was a “best of” episode, and I listened for a little while but I made sure I’d be listening when they came back from vacation the following Monday. When they did, I grabbed my old microcassette recorder, the facilitator of quite a lot of juvenile mayhem during my days growing up, and I taped part of the show. I played it back over and over again. I loved it so much, I started taping on a regular basis. I’d dub them onto regular cassettes (with my old microphone stereo setup… not knowing a thing about levels, they were horribly overmodulated) and listen to them on the way to school, on the way to road football and basketball games when I wrote for the Advocate. I loved how they were just living their lives on the radio, especially Don. He talked about the trials and tribulations of being both a radio guy and a suburban middle-class husband and dad. They made fun of everything and everyone and sometimes they would get a little too cruel for my taste, but I always came back. Before Don and Mike, I was going to be a sportswriter, live life on the beat of a beloved sports team. But soon… I wanted to be on the radio.

So I decided to do that as a full-time professional after college. Yeah, there was politics and scumbags and it was work as well as fun, but there was nothing better than being in that studio, running the board, making it sound good, and talking to the people. Then, 9-11 happened. They were in New York City that day, as they had just started on WNEW, and they were on all day as things unfolded. I was too wrapped up in the events of the day to listen that day, but the next day and for the rest of that week, I listened. People called and vented their hatred at the evil forces that committed these acts, expressed their sorrow for the dead, and had their chance to release. So did I. That was my release, that and the trip to Susquehanna that weekend.

Well… then I was out of radio. The dream was over. I came back here to Syracuse. One day while scanning the radio websites, I found out that Don’s wife had been killed in a car accident. I was stunned. She was so much a part of that show and of course, Don’s life. Don came back (too early, as he repeatedly admitted), and life went back to normal. Soon WJFK (their flagship station in Washington) finally started streaming the show live, and I started listening on a semi-regular basis again. It was just as good as ever. I loved the quick comic wit of Don, which combined with modern technology to create a situation where there was a perfect audio clip to play for every situation. I wished I had a soundboard in life so I could throw in the occasional Larry King or Chris Hanson soundbyte whenever I needed it.

Then came the day when Don announced he would be retiring. I had a feeling he hadn’t been the same since Frieda died, and indeed he felt that the show carried too many memories of her for him to continue, and he wanted to start a new life. I told my radio friends (whom I had willingly put Don and Mike up against their Howard Stern and Opie and Anthony all the time), and they understood my sadness over it. I started listening to the show everyday. It was “appointment listening” again, just like in the old days; I didn’t want to miss a single minute. When Don and Mike went on their March vacation, I had this feeling that Don wasn’t going to come back, and I was right. After a week of extra “best of” shows, there was an announcement that all this week, they would play retrospective shows, followed by Don’s final show on Friday. Thanks to podcasting, which had allowed me to catch at least parts of shows the previous couple months, I downloaded every minute of every show this past week. I heard stuff I’d never heard before, and I heard stuff that I remembered hearing when it happened, including the second half of a show that I had taped the first half of (before lack of tape and signal strength caused me to stop) way back in that summer of 1994.

I thought Don's last show was a fitting end. He had the chance to say goodbye to everyone on the show, say some thank yous to everyone who influenced and helped him. He also thanked the listeners, and we thanked him as well. 14 years is a pretty long commitment to make to anything, even if it’s just a radio show, even if it wasn’t much of a commitment at times. But this was my raison d’être… Michael Sorce (Don’s real name) left an impression on people all the way from average everyday people to his closest co-workers and friends to people like me who heard him and wished to do what he could do. In 14 years, I went from shy high schooler through college, into the world of radio and now to where I am today… still a lover of radio (and gainfully employed part-time in the business once again) and now a studier of the medium.

I wish him well. I also wish luck to Mike O'Meara and Rob and Buzz and the rest of the gang with their new show, and I still will listen to them whenever I can. They're still having fun on the air, still doing a good show, and that's great to hear.