Open Thread: Quitting and Jim Neal

Found this obituary:

“Conservative economic policy is dead. It committed suicide.

Its allegiance to market solutions, tax cuts and spending cuts, supply-side nonsense, manipulative and corrosive ties to industry and the rich, have left it wholly unable to cope with the challenges we face. Its terribly limited toolbox simply cannot address the economic insecurities and opportunities generated by today’s global, interconnected, polluted, insecure, dynamic, bubble-prone economy.

What’s more, progressives have developed an alternative policy set with the flexibility to combine market forces with the necessary regulation and redistribution to address these challenges. Whether that agenda will ever see the light of day is another question.”

Read the whole thing.

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I keep on clicking around and keep finding cool stuff…

Cecil Bothwell, author of the just-released The Prince Of War, Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire, has posted a survey asking who he ought to investigate next.

Click here to check it out.

And Errington Thompson interviewed Rachel Maddow on his show at 880 AM (Saturday mornings 9-10am). Click here to listen.

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Melissa,

Thanks for listening!

The Rolling Stones continue to put out new material and continue to amaze with their endurance. I like all those bands you mentioned, and I like Traffic, too.

My current faves are anything with Sam Macy on guitar.

It’s cute that you’re now defending Jan’s record collection (and going after mine!). I know you support him, and I respect why.

Reading the comment I made, it doesn’t really make sense. Some of my favorite bands are pretty old. I guess that if someone came up to me and asked me my all-time favorite band, I might rattle off some older stuff. But when it was mentioned to me about Traffic being Jan’s fave band, what sprung into my head were analogs like “What band do you listen to the most often” or “What band do you listen to when you want to feel cool”.

And, lastly, ask anybody who knows my collection. It is broke-ass as broke-hell. I wouldn’t try to go up against anyone’s, even Jan’s, record collection.

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“Heath Shuler is a top draft pick in Washington — again. And this time the former Redskins quarterback, now a freshman House member, is trying to lower expectations.

“A tie would be just great,” says Shuler, who will quarterback and coach a team of lawmakers when they take on the Capitol Police in a flag football game Oct. 22.

Shuler’s colleagues were quick to draft him, even though the North Carolina Democrat’s short-lived NFL career fell short of expectations — to put it kindly.

“It’s a little easier than playing for the Redskins,” said teammate Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., who will be holding the position of wide receiver.

After shattering records at the University of Tennessee, Shuler was the Redskins’ 1994 first-round draft pick. He threw for 15 touchdowns and 33 interceptions before repeated injuries ended his four-year NFL career.
But Wamp, who’s still smarting from the trouncing the congressional team took from the police squad last year, is convinced that Shuler can help deliver a win. So sure, it seems, that he’s already boasting of the touchdowns he and Shuler will put up as the “Tennessee tandem.”

But it may take more than the Tennessee tandem to pull off an upset. So, this year’s congressional roster also includes freshmen Jason Altmire, D-Pa., who played for Florida State, and Michael Arcuri, D–N.Y., who played at State University of New York, Albany.”

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I’m not defending Jan’s taste in music. (I don’t even know if he really does like Traffic. That’s just what Barry told you…)

I was defending my love of the old-school.

And when I go to a Stones concert, I, like 90 percent of the people in there, don’t care much to hear their new stuff. Give me the jams from before I was born and the stuff from when I was a kid. That’s what I paid $85 and up to get a nosebleed seat for!

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Melissa: yeah, we do tend to be a freaky lot, us Rush fans.

Years ago – this must have been 1987 or 1988, I can’t remember the dates, but Geddy Lee was wearing a mullet at that point – when Rush played @ the Forum in Inglewood, CA, the guy in the seat next to me was a virtuoso “Air Geddy”. He not only played air bass, but also air synthesizers AND air Moog Taurus pedals! THAT was probably the biggest Rush fan I’ve ever encountered.

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Most prog rock didn’t exactly embrace the lyrical themes that political campaigns are looking for – singing about spaceships and dragons or clumsy metaphors for racial harmony involving chessboards (ref. “I’ve Seen All Good People”) won’t exactly win the hearts and minds of most voters period, regardless of ideology. They’re always looking for something a little more, oh, I don’t know, populist and anthemic (a la Clinton using Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop”).

ELP’s version of Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” would work great thematically, but as far as the execution goes it builds into this huge ball of disco cheese. I remember when I played it for my wife for the first time – she looked at me like I was the devil.

If Romney or Giuliani get elected, they can always use “Karn Evil 9 (First Impression, part 2)”, if only for the opening lyric – you know, “Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends…”

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Microwave or oven?

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I used a regular oven. I couldn’t fathom microwaving a Nathan’s – they’re supposed to be grilled.

There will be video later.

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