September 2, 2012

White straight male at 61 with more in common with inner city single moms than the GOP

More in common with a junkie trying to get straight, a gay person trying to get married, a recent college grad trying to find a job.

More in common with an immigrant trying to avoid being deported, a Muslim owning a store in Dearborn, a Christian at a food bank, an Iraq war vet with PTSD.

More in common with a woman making her own decision about abortion, a young person listening to music that I don't know, a mom or dad with a sick child without health care.

More in common with a peer without a job, a parent with Alzheimer's, a family living near a Koch-polluted river.

I'm supposed to be the GOP dream voter. Not a chance, ever. I don't know what happened to My Generation, but as for me, I'm here at DU for a reason. Peace, love and rock and roll still works.

And I'm voting for President Obama.

August 25, 2012

Where were you when Neil Armstrong stepped off that ladder on to the Moon?

I was a 17 year old stock boy at Federal's department store on Gratiot in Detroit. All of us - customers and staff - stopped what we were doing, and went into the appliance section where it was aired on multiple TVs of the era. As Walter Cronkite said, Wow.



P.S. I am devastated; he never capitalized on his fame. He was a hero to the whole world.

August 19, 2012

45 years ago this week: The Letter and more move up the charts.

This has been popular in the past here on DU, but I haven't posted this in a while. Let's review this week in August, 1967, on the charts, notably WKNR in Detroit, Keener 13:

WKNR/KEENER 13 , Detroit, MI
Survey for week ending Monday August 21, 1967

TW TITLE ARTIST LW
1. Brown Eyed Girl Van Morrison 2
2. Ode to Billy Joe Bobby Gentry 6
3. Society's Child Janis Ian 1
4. The Letter Box Tops 19
5. Heavy Music Bob Seger 15
6. Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie Jay & The Techniques 10
7. Come Back Bobby Vee 11
8. Get On Up Esquires 4
9. Groovin' Booker T & MG's 9
10. Some Kind of Wonderful Soul Brother Six 3
11. You're My Everything Temptations 5
12. There is a Mountain Donovan 17
13. To Share Your Love Fantastic Four 18
14. Reflections Supremes 16
15. Higher & Higher Jackie Wilson 24
16. San Franciscan Nights Animals 25
17. I Had a Dream Paul Revere & The
Raiders 21
18. Cold Sweat James Brown 20
19. Love Bug Martha & The Vandellas 23
20. I Dig Rock n' Roll Music Peter Paul & Mary 27
21. Lovin Sound Ian & Sylvia 28
22. Let It All Hang Out Hombres 29
23. Twelve Thirty Mama's & Papa's 30
24. You Know What I Mean Turtles 26
25. Making Every Minute Count Spanky & Our Gang 31
26. Soulsation Capreez --
27. The Cat in the Window Petula Clark --
28. You Got To Pay The Price Al Kent --
29. Funky Broadway Wilson Pickett --
30. Run Run Run Third Rail --
31. Gimme Little Sign Brenton Wood --

TOP LPs:
1. Sgt Peppers Beatles 1
2. The Doors The Doors --
3. Reach Out Four Tops --

KEY SONG OF THE WEEK:

What Now My Love - Mitch Ryder

Gimme just a little more sign, and our love will surely grow. Woodward Dream Cruise this weekend, for those who remember. I remember those albums, too. Not bad.

August 12, 2012

The "Tea Party" movement in 2010, Romney/Ryan now: It points to a pattern, and it's Ayn Rand.

I don't think this is a conspiracy theory, just connecting obvious dots: The insanely rich Koch brothers formed Americans for Prosperity, which spawned the "Tea Party" of useful idiots. The Tea Party laid the intellectual and bullying groundwork in 2010, with the GOP gains along with absolute refusal to govern our nation in any responsible fashion. The Dems were caught with their pants down as they were blindsided, but they certainly didn't acquit themselves well.

Now we're at 2012, with the worst empty suit/flip flopper in American presidential candidate history as the GOP candidate. Plus, with Karl Rove et al - not necessarily in philosophical agreement, but with Power as his only priority - ready to turn loose Diebold and advance voter ID to assure a win. State after state has followed the voter ID pattern (I would say orders, but that would be too strong for some).

Now Ryan is the VP candidate, an Ayn Rand acolyte of the first degree. He's way, way further right than most think - check him out on social issues. But it's more than that. I probably shouldn't go further with what I can foresee, but I sense a pattern here. We have always thought of the Kochs as Birchers like their father, but all of this has led to Ayn Rand's insane philosophy being enacted, not Birch's creaky insanity.

We'll see. Bottom line is that there is a pattern that has brought us to where we are, and there is great power behind it, including the Citizens United decision. Those of us who know me here know I am not a tin foil person, but I don't like the pattern I am seeing.

August 4, 2012

The Sermon on the Mount? The single most ignored part of the Bible by the Right?

They are too busy finding an obscure quote in Leviticus to acknowledge the heart and soul of Christianity.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

August 2, 2012

So, when did you know you were a heterosexual/homosexual?

The reich wing and Fox News believe this is a choice. Or part of an environmental thing, like growing up without a Dad. OK, I grew up without a Dad as did my brother, who has been married to a woman for 35 years. Me, I think I made that choice when I checked out my first grade teacher in 1957 with those legs in those heels.

Of course the point is that it's not a choice, as all DUers know. But it does bring up an interesting question: When did you know your sexuality?

August 1, 2012

A shout out to . . . Long Time DUers, too.

No exclamation point, because none needed. All the credit and agreement in the world with Canuckistanian for that post, who rightly recognizes the quiet DUers who read and recommend, and are the backbone of DU. This post is NOT to detract from that one in any way. Their recognition is long overdue.

That post reminds me, however, of those of you who have lifted me up, have shared your personal pain, have cheered when we have won, have hurt together when we've lost, and shared losses far more profound than political.

And when you've posted screwy stuff, or great music or movie videos, or historical memories, or cartoons or stories about your friends, family and pets (but then I repeat myself about the latter), I've enjoyed them. And of course, pulling Skinner's tail - well, that's been a decade of fun. Or mentioned sports. (Go Green!)

We've shared our unshakable opposition to an awful war in Iraq, our losses of those who have mattered to us, and our appreciation of those that are still with us, and those we hope to be with for years to come (writing this as the Traverse City Film Festival begins, and I'm here).

And for all the quiet DUers, and those who have made a joyful and righteous noise over the past decade, I can only quote the late Ted, who puts it best. However, before doing so, have an ice cream cone for all of us and yourself as we enter August. Quiet or not, everyone deserves one here at DU.

July 15, 2012

They - Kochs, Fox, Rove, etc. - have the wealth and power. We have this, from today

The People.

The people yes
The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
They will be tricked and sold and again sold
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,
You can't laugh off their capacity to take it.
The mammoth rests between his cyclonic dramas.

The people so often sleepy, weary, enigmatic,
is a vast huddle with many units saying:
"I earn my living.
I make enough to get by
and it takes all my time.
If I had more time
I could do more for myself
and maybe for others.
I could read and study
and talk things over
and find out about things.
It takes time.
I wish I had the time."

The people is a tragic and comic two-face: hero and hoodlum:
phantom and gorilla twisting to moan with a gargoyle mouth:
"They buy me and sell me...it's a game...sometime I'll
break loose..."

Once having marched
Over the margins of animal necessity,
Over the grim line of sheer subsistence
Then man came
To the deeper rituals of his bones,
To the lights lighter than any bones,
To the time for thinking things over,
To the dance, the song, the story,
Or the hours given over to dreaming,
Once having so marched.

Between the finite limitations of the five senses
and the endless yearnings of man for the beyond
the people hold to the humdrum bidding of work and food
while reaching out when it comes their way
for lights beyond the prison of the five senses,
for keepsakes lasting beyond any hunger or death.
This reaching is alive.
The panderers and liars have violated and smutted it.
Yet this reaching is alive yet
for lights and keepsakes.

The people know the salt of the sea
and the strength of the winds
lashing the corners of the earth.
The people take the earth
as a tomb of rest and a cradle of hope.
Who else speaks for the Family of Man?
They are in tune and step
with constellations of universal law.
The people is a polychrome,
a spectrum and a prism
held in a moving monolith,
a console organ of changing themes,
a clavilux of color poems
wherein the sea offers fog
and the fog moves off in rain
and the labrador sunset shortens
to a nocturne of clear stars
serene over the shot spray
of northern lights.

The steel mill sky is alive.
The fire breaks white and zigzag
shot on a gun-metal gloaming.
Man is a long time coming.
Man will yet win.
Brother may yet line up with brother:

This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers.
There are men who can't be bought.
The fireborn are at home in fire.
The stars make no noise,
You can't hinder the wind from blowing.
Time is a great teacher.
Who can live without hope?

In the darkness with a great bundle of grief
the people march.
In the night, and overhead a shovel of stars for keeps, the people
march:
"Where to? what next?"

Thank you, Carl Sandburg. Abe, too. We must win this election.



And visit here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002949146#post28

July 7, 2012

At 105, D.C. closes in on all-time heat record

Source: Washington Post

It has been truly exceptional,” said Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman for the National Weather Service. The high by 3:35 was 105 degrees at Reagan National Airport.

That breaks the previous record for this date, 102 in 2010, and this is only the 5th time on record that the temperature has hit 105 in DC. The all-time record is 106 degrees.

“We continue our record-setting stretch of days at or above 95 degrees,” Vaccaro said. Today is the tenth consecutive day, and tomorrow will likely be the eleventh, he said.

“We made a quick run for the for the triple-digit mark: The temperature hit 100 degrees before noon,” he said. It will be triple digits all afternoon and into the early evening hours. . .

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/regional

---

We're not alone, I know. Ran errands this morning and staying in like everyone else today, in the (thankfully) up and running air conditioning. For now.

Only one man could possibly describe how hot it is today.



It was so hot today that Burger King was singing, "if you want it your way, cook it yourself."

It was so hot today I saw a robin dipping his worm in Nestea.

It was so hot, musicians were snorting ice cubes.

It's so hot, your Odor Eaters have sent up a white flag.

It’s so hot I saw two trees fighting over a dog.

May 26, 2012

Joe Biden's from-the-heart remarks to families of fallen troops. Must see.

He is the Real Deal.

"It was the first time in my career, in my life, I realized someone could go out -- and I probably shouldn't say this with the press here, but no, but it's more important, you're more important. For the first time in my life, I understood how someone could consciously decide to commit suicide," the vice president said at the TAPS National Military Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp in Arlington, Va., according to Politico. "Not because they were deranged, not because they were nuts, because they had been to the top of the mountain, and they just knew in their heart they would never get there again."

Biden then gave a painful account of the day of the incident, which took place just weeks before his swearing in as a first-term U.S. senator.

"I was down in Washington hiring my staff and I got a phone call, saying that my family had been in an accident," he said. “And just like you guys know by the tone of the phone call, you just knew. You knew when they walked up the path. You knew when the call came. You knew. You just felt it in your bones: Something bad happened. And I knew -- I don’t know how I knew, but the caller said my wife is dead. My daughter is dead. And I wasn’t sure how my sons were going to make it. They were Christmas shopping and a tractor trailer broadsided them.

"In one instant, killed two of them and, well..." Biden said, his voice brimming with emotion.

After completing his own chronicle of grief and dealing with tragedy, the vice president ended on a positive note, encouraging listeners to stay strong and understand that the darkness cast by the death of a loved one will lift.

"Folks, it can and will get better," Biden said. "There will come a day -- I promise you, and your parents as well -- when the thought of your son or daughter, or your husband or wife, brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57441915-503544/biden-recounts-personal-loss-shares-anguish-with-military-families/