Sunday, January 29, 2012
Etta James
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
President Obama Addresses Congress
President Obama made a very sensible and clear pitch to congress and the country to mend our country and work toward a true fellowship of citizenry, politics and business. He is living proof that there are still politicians who are serving the citizens of this country over their own selfish gains.
Raiders Hire Dennis "Who-The-Hell-R-U" Allen
Okay, the Raiders new GM Reggie McKenzie has chosen a new Head Coach. The man he chose is Dennis Allen, defensive coordinator for last season's Denver Broncos. Before that he spent four seasons under New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton on their defensive staff. In Atlanta he's been under coaches the likes of Dan Reeves and Jim Mora.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Movie Red Tails
Just watched the movie Red Tails at the theater and came away feeling lukewarm about it. It really was more a feel good movie and less a feel history production. Sure, we get to see and hear the Tuskegee Airmen inspired story presented on a grand Hollywood scale budget, but something just didn't ring authentic.
...though it's tempting to root for Red Tails based on its intentions alone, I fear it would be similar to clapping extra loud for the handicapped child at the little league game, a celebration of effort over execution.
Any movie that makes even one person want to find out more about The Tuskegee Airman makes it an worthwhile effort in my book. I walked in with high expectations, I wanted to love this movie but came away just liking it.
feels like an apology from Lucas for having only one African American character in the original Star Wars trilogy
Does History Repeat Itself?
Chester A. Arthur became the 21st President of the United States following the assassination of President James Garfield in 1881. He faced many issues that modern day President's have faced, including budget balancing, immigration, corruption in government and opponents questioning his citizenship. This bit of information about him on wikepedia I found very interesting:
William Arthur's frequent moves would later form the basis for accusations that Chester Arthur was not a native-born citizen of the United States. After Arthur was nominated for Vice President in 1880, his political opponents suggested that he might be constitutionally ineligible to hold that office.[8]
A New York attorney, Arthur P. Hinman, apparently hired by his opponents, explored rumors of Arthur's foreign birth.[9] Hinman initially alleged that Arthur was born in Ireland and did not come to the United States until he was fourteen years old, which would make him ineligible for the Vice Presidency under the United States Constitution's natural-born citizen clause.[9][note 3] When that story did not take root, Hinman spread a new rumor that Arthur was born in Canada, but this claim also failed to gain credence.[9]
Civil service reform
In the 1870s, the public became aware of a scandal in which contractors for star postal routes were greatly overpaid for their services with the connivance of government officials (including Second Assistant Postal Secretary Thomas J. Brady and former Senator Stephen Wallace Dorsey).[104] This was an example of the kind of corruption that reformers feared Arthur would permit, and reformers grew concerned that the former supporter of the spoils system would not devote his administration's energy to continuing the investigation into the scandal.[104] Nevertheless, the new Attorney General, Brewster, continued the investigations begun by MacVeigh and hired notable Democratic lawyers William W. Ker and Richard T. Merrick in an attempt both to improve the prosecution team and avoid the appearance of political partisanship.[105] Although Arthur had worked closely with Dorsey before taking office, once in office he supported the investigation and forced the resignation of officials suspected in the scandal.[105] An 1882 trial of the ringleaders resulted in convictions for two minor conspirators and a hung jury for the rest.[106] After a juror came forward with allegations that the defendants attempted to bribe him, the judge set aside the guilty verdicts and granted a new trial.[106] Before the second trial began, Arthur removed five federal office holders who were sympathetic with the defense, including a former Senator.[107] The second trial began in December 1882 and lasted until July 1883 and, again, did not result in a guilty verdict.[107] Failure to obtain a conviction tarnished the administration's image, but Arthur did succeed in putting a stop to the fraud.
The New York World summed up Arthur's presidency at his death in 1886: "No duty was neglected in his administration, and no adventurous project alarmed the nation."
Sunday, January 22, 2012
49ers Fumble Away Super Bowl Birth
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Who Wants It More?
So it's come to this; four teams outta thirty-two left fighting for the ultimate NFL prize. Of the remaining four, two won't be invited to Indianapolis to play in that ultimate game called the Super Bowl.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
OPPOSE PIPA & SOPA
Imagine a world without craigslist, Wikipedia, Google, [your favorite sites here]...
News Corp, RIAA, MPAA, Nike, Sony, Comcast, VISA & others want to make that world your reality.
80 Members of Congress are in their sway, 30 against, the rest undecided or undeclared.
★ ★ ★ Please take a minute to tell your Members of Congress you OPPOSE PIPA & SOPA ★ ★ ★
CLICK HERE for MORE INFO & EASY ACTION ITEMS
PS: corporate paymasters, KEEP THOSE CLAMMY HANDS OFF THE INTERNET!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Flogging Molly Coming To Oakland
THE LIGHTS HAVE GONE OUT ON THE WORKING CLASS
Three years ago, hard working men and women the world over were collectively under the assumption that their nest eggs were secure, their homes were the safest of all investments, and that the economy was on the upswing. Then, with virtually no warning, their lives were turned upside down, as an entire generation saw their dreams dashed and plans dismantled. It all happened with the Speed of Darkness.
Nothing has mattered more to Flogging Molly than their new record, Speed of Darkness. "It wasn't the album we set out to write," vocalist/guitarist Dave King says. "It became the album we had to write." Musically and lyrically, Flogging Molly has never sounded so mature or rousing, nor have the messages of alienation and hope behind their songs ever been so relevant. Speed of Darkness was written over several months when the band would descend into the basement of King's Detroit home—a home he shares with his wife, Flogging Molly fiddler, Bridget Regan (they maintain dual residences in Ireland and Detroit, where Bridget was born and raised). As the country struggled to stay afloat, the songs evolved into odes to the working man and battle cries against the elite establishment that so quickly and callously cast him aside. "I write from my surroundings," King says. "I wanted people who've lost their jobs to know I was paying attention. We're singing for them, all of these good people brought to their knees." Nowhere is this more apparent than on the charging and bluesy track "The Power's Out." ("The power's out, there's fuck all to see/The power's out, like this economy/The power's out, guess it's par for the course/Unless you're a bloodsucking leech CEO").
Sunday, January 15, 2012
New Orleans Saints Bad Day In The Bay
Friday, January 13, 2012
10-Year-Itch
Yeah, Raider Nation, it's been 10 years since the NoFumbleLeague shafted us in the playoffs, launching Tom Brady and the Pats dynastic rise. 10 years since the infamous "Tuck Rule" was called in a playoff game. Just 10 years ago, the Oakland Raiders were embarking on their return to greatness, winning the AFC West division for the second year in a row and on their way to a second straight AFC Conference title game.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Shout Out To Warrior Nate Robinson
Few athletes past and present have defied our conceptions of what makes a star professional athlete. It takes a specially gifted individual to convince us that size doesn't matter in a game where the average player height is 6 feet, seven inches, and the average weight hovers around 222 lbs.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Unto This Last - Sarvodaya
Social theory
Ruskin attacked orthodox, nineteenth-century political economy principally on the grounds that it failed to acknowledge complexities of human desires and motivations (broadly, "social affections"). He began to express such ideas in The Stones of Venice, and increasingly in works of the later 1850s, such as The Political Economy of Art (A Joy For Ever), but he gave them full expression in the influential essays, Unto This Last.
At the root of his theory, was Ruskin's dissatisfaction with the role and position of the worker, and especially the artisan or crafstman, in modern industrial capitalist society. Ruskin believed that the economic theories of Adam Smith, expressed in The Wealth of Nations had led, through the division of labour to the alienation of the worker not merely from the process of work itself, but from his fellow workmen and other classes, causing increasing resentment. (See section, "Stones of Venice", above.)
He argued that one remedy would be to pay work at a fixed rate of wages, because human need is consistent and a given quantity of work justly demands a certain return. The best workmen would remain in employment because of the quality of their work (a focus on quality growing out of his writings on art and architecture). The best workmen could not, in a fixed-wage economy, be undercut by an inferior worker or product.
"Nay, but I choose my physician and my clergyman, thus indicating my sense of the quality of their work. By all means, also, choose your bricklayer; that is the proper reward of the good workman, to be "chosen." The natural and right system respecting all labour is, that it should be paid at a fixed rate, but the good workman employed, and the bad workman unemployed. The false, unnatural, and destructive system is when the bad workman is allowed to offer his work at half-price, and either take the place of the good, or force him by his competition to work for an inadequate sum."[200]
In the preface to Unto This Last (1862), Ruskin recommended that the state should underwrite standards of service and production to guarantee social justice. This included the recommendation of government youth-training schools promoting employment, health, and ‘gentleness and justice’; government manufactories and workshops; government schools for the employment at fixed wages of the unemployed, with idlers compelled to toil; and pensions provided for the elderly and the destitute, as a matter of right, received honourably and not in shame.[201] Many of these ideas were later incorporated into the welfare state.[202]
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
McKenzie Gives Coach Hue Jackson Pink Slip
Please, Someone, Anyone, Create A Better Cap Logo
When the Florida Marlins joined major league baseball as an expansion team in 1993, I thought the team name (Marlins) was very catchy; almost as catchy as the San Jose Sharks.
Monday, January 09, 2012
Bama Bowls Over LSU In BCS Championship
It was sweet revenge for the Alabama Crimson Tide as they rolled over the #1 LSU Tigers 21-0 for the BCS Championship.
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Friday, January 06, 2012
GOT GM!
Thursday, January 05, 2012
Ecuador Wins Judgment Against Chevron, Again!
Fake ad: Oil companies should clean up their messes.
Last year, the company persuaded a U.S. federal judge to issue an order blocking the plaintiffs from enforcing the verdict in the 18-year lawsuit, closely watched around the world for the precedent it could set. But the lawyers suing Chevron questioned the judge's authority to prevent enforcement outside the United States, and an appeals court lifted his order.
So when will the world courts say to this corporate monster, BASTA! Enough is enough. Stop using the international courts as your personal get out of jail free card and own up to "your" mess.
Unfortunately, as long as those who pass legal judgments can be influenced ($$$), justice will be cleanly compromised.
Price of Chevron Gas In California Today: click
Monday, January 02, 2012
Chargers Bless Tebow With A Gift
"I'm pissed at my team," Jackson said. "At some point in time as a group of men, you go in the game ... Here's your time. Here's your time to make plays. ... You've got to do it, and we didn't do it."