Woodstock's Cranky Aftermath

Talk of “Freedom” was in the air at Tea Party Express rally for Steve Lonegan’s Senate campaign at the New Egypt Speedway on Saturday.  Add Richie Havens and some Jefferson Airplane and you are close to a veritable Woodstock, minus the idealism, marijuana and thankfully, public nudity.
Many of the people at Saturday’s rally in Plumsted Township were part of The Age of Aquarius, but they’ve traded weed for Lipitor, worry about fiber intake and sometimes need a good place to sit.  Their folk singer at the rally is lamenting government spending, high taxes and Obamacare.
The Tea Party likes to think it challenges the establishment and conveys much of the rhetoric of getting government off our backs and challenging the system.  They’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore, to borrow the phrase from Howard Beale in “Network.”
The Tea Party is the product of the politics of disillusionment.  They make an easy target for their opponents who write them off as “kooks” and “crackpots.”
Tea Party members have some legitimately overlooked grievances about President Obama and the federal government.
·         Is the government’s ability to gather my text messages a good use of resources in the name of fighting terror?  Why should they be entitled to breach our privacy?
·         Is the mandate to buy health insurance fair?
·         Why should the government bail out big businesses?
·         Do we have any business bombing Syria?  (Diplomacy may carry the day here.)
·         Why should our country continue to compound additional debt beyond the $17 trillion outstanding?
Politicians have capitalized on this disillusionment with great effect.  Saturday’s rally had its share of political double talk.

Sarah Palin, Alaska’s former governor and Sen. John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 Presidential election, lamented the disservice to our veterans by closing national landmarks and a few breaths later urging the House to hold the line on the government shutdown.
Steve Lonegan, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senator, speaking about maintaining our nation’s strong defense and the importance of the navy to protect shipping lanes and warned about the mounting debt.   Nothing was said about how defense spending – as well as entitlement spending – fuel the deficit.
To be fair, liberals have their own share of opportunists and double talkers that fail to account for the cost of expanded programs or new taxes to pay for them, when on the stump.  Also, political rallies are the last place where you’d expect candor about solving the nation’s problems, since the tone of political discourse has as much coherence as a pro-wrestling rant.
If conservatives -- or any politician in the political spectrum -- wanted to be honest and steer us away from a “socialist path” and tame the biggest risks to our government’s solvency, our seniors would lose their Social Security and Medicare. 
That would make the Woodstock generation, who spent a lifetime paying into these programs, much crankier and even more disillusioned.

The NFL Blows and Call Me when the Election's Over

Originally posted Nov. 30, 2007

The NFL blows and call me when the election is over... Current mood: tired Category: News and Politics

I'm tired of the 2008 election and it's not even 2008 yet. I like Ron Paul the most of the bunch, but nobody takes him seriously and I won't join the Republican party to vote for him in the primary. After that, I'd vote for either Obama or Edwards. Yeah, there isn't much in common between Paul or the two democrats. But I tend to side with libertarians on social issues and the democrats are the lesser of two evils when it comes to the major parties on social issues.

... The McGreeveys deserve each other. I think the family court judge should find away to confine our former governor and his estranged wife to a cell together. I can't believe our former Gov. took up court time over a kid's birthday party. We wonder why our legal system is so screwed up, but it's because we get the government we deserve. In this case, we go to court over the slimmest disagreements or when we face the slightest hardships. The judge should also sanction the attorneys involved for allowing it to degenerate to this point. If you have courts in a better position to threaten attorneys for frivolous cases, attorneys will find themselves to be in a better position to say "You're wasting your time, your money and the court's time" to a client. At least the judge was sensible enough to ridicule the parents.

...The NFL in its infinite wisdom took one of the best games of the year and reserved it for their own TV network despite the billions they get from their TV partners at ESPN, Fox, NBC and CBS. The NFL is overplaying its hand. It's bad enough that they stretch 1 hour of playing time into three and a half hours of TV time filled with commercials. Now the NFL is actually hoping to aggravate its fans into complaining to their cable operators so the public will pay for their channel. Screw the NFL. They're as bad as the Yankees. The masters at the NFL should learn the lessons from boxing. A sport that once showed title fights on Wide World of Sports on Saturdays took more and more of their fights to pay-per-view -- effectively narrowing their audience to the highest bidder. Now nobody cares about boxing. I can't name one title holder. The coverage is relegated to inside the sports section -- somewhere after high school sports and before equestrian events. The NFL should watch its step here, because their long term interest should be focused on the product on the field -- not the pipeline of delivery to the fan's home ...

Now that the Mets traded Lastings Milledge, what's the over/under in the number of seasons it takes for him to become an All-Star? I'm figuring the 2010 season. The Mets inevitably find a way to do this.

That's all for now. Just some rambling before I call it a night...