Chavez:open car & rose petals / Bush: bulletproof limo & eggs
posted by Ukulele Man at 6:32 PM
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Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Ironic Timing
Hey Folks,
That evil Hugo Chavez is at it again. What a dictator, making policy by decree rather than going through the legislature ( similar to "signing statements" and "executive orders" and putting presidential toadies in every department of the bureaucracy to over-ride and thwart legislative requirements).
Hmmm... critics say it's "a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked power." Hmmm...
Who will feel the pain?
Well, he will "decree nationalizations of Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the rich and impose greater state control over the oil and natural gas industries."
Heavens!!!!!!!!!!
One critic says Chavez' behavior "is unprecedented in Venezuela's nearly five decades of democratic history."
Well, that's true. For the last fifty years, the elite 20% of Venezuela and foreign "investors" have "democratically" ruled the country. Now, unfortunately, the interests of the impoverished 80% are being addressed by - dare I say it - evil socialism.
Hmmm... (next posting: Dictator Bush)
- Uke Man
Chavez to get powers to remake Venezuela
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela - A Congress wholly loyal to President Hugo Chavez met at a downtown plaza Wednesday to give the Venezuelan leader authority to enact sweeping measures by presidential decree.
Hundreds of Chavez supporters wearing red — the color of Venezuela's ruling party — gathered in the plaza, waving signs reading "Socialism is democracy!" as lawmakers read out the proposed bill giving the president special powers for 18 months to transform 11 broadly defined areas, including the economy, energy and defense.
"The people of Venezuela, not just the National Assembly, are giving this enabling power to the president of the republic," said congresswoman Iris Varela, addressing the crowd next to the National Assembly.
Chavez, who is beginning a fresh six-year term, says the legislation will be the start of a new era of "maximum revolution" during which he will consolidate Venezuela's transformation into a socialist society. His critics, however, are calling it a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked power.
The former paratroop commander has already said he will use the law to decree nationalizations of Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the rich and impose greater state control over the oil and natural gas industries.
A final draft of the law shows Chavez will also be allowed to dictate unspecified measures to transform state institutions; reform banking, tax, insurance and financial regulations; decide on security and defense matters such as gun regulations and military organization; and "adapt" legislation to ensure "the equal distribution of wealth" as part of a new "social and economic model."
Chavez also plans to reorganize regional territories and carry out reforms aimed at bringing "power to the people" through thousands of newly formed Communal Councils, in which Venezuelans will have a say on spending an increasing flow of state money on neighborhood projects from public housing to road repaving.
Lawmakers were scheduled to formally approve the law Wednesday in an outdoor session in Caracas' Plaza Bolivar, next to the National Assembly.
Chavez's supporters deny the law constitutes an abuse of power and argue radical steps are necessary to accelerate the creation of a more egalitarian society.
National Assembly President Cilia Flores said the special powers will enable Chavez to enact new laws that "will benefit the people, those who were excluded their whole lives. They are laws for inclusion and social justice."
Others say the enabling law is dangerously concentrating power in the hands of single man.
Historian Ines Quintero said that with the new powers, Chavez will achieve a level of "hegemony" that is unprecedented in Venezuela's nearly five decades of democratic history.
She said the effects will be "exponential" because Chavez will wield "extraordinary powers" in a context where state institutions are weakening and the division of powers is not being respected.
Chavez has requested special powers twice before.
In 1999, shortly after he was first elected, he was only able to push through two new taxes and a revision of the income tax law after facing fierce opposition in congress. In 2001, by invoking an "enabling law" for the second time, he decreed 49 laws including controversial agrarian reform measures and a law that sharply raised taxes on foreign oil companies operating in Venezuela.
This time, the law will give Chavez a free hand to bring under state control some oil and natural gas projects that are still run by private companies — the latest in a series of nationalist energy policies in Venezuela, a top oil supplier to the United States and home to South America's largest gas reserves.
Chavez has said oil companies upgrading heavy oil in the Orinoco River basin — British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA — must submit to state-controlled joint ventures, as companies have already done elsewhere in the country.
The law gives Chavez the authority to intervene and "regulate" the transition to joint ventures if companies do not adapt to the new framework within an unspecified "peremptory period."
That evil Hugo Chavez is at it again. What a dictator, making policy by decree rather than going through the legislature ( similar to "signing statements" and "executive orders" and putting presidential toadies in every department of the bureaucracy to over-ride and thwart legislative requirements).
Hmmm... critics say it's "a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked power." Hmmm...
Who will feel the pain?
Well, he will "decree nationalizations of Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the rich and impose greater state control over the oil and natural gas industries."
Heavens!!!!!!!!!!
One critic says Chavez' behavior "is unprecedented in Venezuela's nearly five decades of democratic history."
Well, that's true. For the last fifty years, the elite 20% of Venezuela and foreign "investors" have "democratically" ruled the country. Now, unfortunately, the interests of the impoverished 80% are being addressed by - dare I say it - evil socialism.
Hmmm... (next posting: Dictator Bush)
- Uke Man
Chavez to get powers to remake Venezuela
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela - A Congress wholly loyal to President Hugo Chavez met at a downtown plaza Wednesday to give the Venezuelan leader authority to enact sweeping measures by presidential decree.
Hundreds of Chavez supporters wearing red — the color of Venezuela's ruling party — gathered in the plaza, waving signs reading "Socialism is democracy!" as lawmakers read out the proposed bill giving the president special powers for 18 months to transform 11 broadly defined areas, including the economy, energy and defense.
"The people of Venezuela, not just the National Assembly, are giving this enabling power to the president of the republic," said congresswoman Iris Varela, addressing the crowd next to the National Assembly.
Chavez, who is beginning a fresh six-year term, says the legislation will be the start of a new era of "maximum revolution" during which he will consolidate Venezuela's transformation into a socialist society. His critics, however, are calling it a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked power.
The former paratroop commander has already said he will use the law to decree nationalizations of Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the rich and impose greater state control over the oil and natural gas industries.
A final draft of the law shows Chavez will also be allowed to dictate unspecified measures to transform state institutions; reform banking, tax, insurance and financial regulations; decide on security and defense matters such as gun regulations and military organization; and "adapt" legislation to ensure "the equal distribution of wealth" as part of a new "social and economic model."
Chavez also plans to reorganize regional territories and carry out reforms aimed at bringing "power to the people" through thousands of newly formed Communal Councils, in which Venezuelans will have a say on spending an increasing flow of state money on neighborhood projects from public housing to road repaving.
Lawmakers were scheduled to formally approve the law Wednesday in an outdoor session in Caracas' Plaza Bolivar, next to the National Assembly.
Chavez's supporters deny the law constitutes an abuse of power and argue radical steps are necessary to accelerate the creation of a more egalitarian society.
National Assembly President Cilia Flores said the special powers will enable Chavez to enact new laws that "will benefit the people, those who were excluded their whole lives. They are laws for inclusion and social justice."
Others say the enabling law is dangerously concentrating power in the hands of single man.
Historian Ines Quintero said that with the new powers, Chavez will achieve a level of "hegemony" that is unprecedented in Venezuela's nearly five decades of democratic history.
She said the effects will be "exponential" because Chavez will wield "extraordinary powers" in a context where state institutions are weakening and the division of powers is not being respected.
Chavez has requested special powers twice before.
In 1999, shortly after he was first elected, he was only able to push through two new taxes and a revision of the income tax law after facing fierce opposition in congress. In 2001, by invoking an "enabling law" for the second time, he decreed 49 laws including controversial agrarian reform measures and a law that sharply raised taxes on foreign oil companies operating in Venezuela.
This time, the law will give Chavez a free hand to bring under state control some oil and natural gas projects that are still run by private companies — the latest in a series of nationalist energy policies in Venezuela, a top oil supplier to the United States and home to South America's largest gas reserves.
Chavez has said oil companies upgrading heavy oil in the Orinoco River basin — British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA — must submit to state-controlled joint ventures, as companies have already done elsewhere in the country.
The law gives Chavez the authority to intervene and "regulate" the transition to joint ventures if companies do not adapt to the new framework within an unspecified "peremptory period."
posted by Ukulele Man at 6:05 PM
1 comments
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What'd I say !!
Hey Folks,
In the second post below, I said Bush & Co. had bitten off more than they could chew because they were businessboys who had always gotten their way and who thought they always would.
I've also said that they "don't understand hillbillies."
If you missed that, it goes like this:
Hillbillies (my heritage) have nothing but their pride and their kin. They are not the kind of people Bush & Co. and all the other corporate/governmental ginks are accustomed to pushing around; i.e. fearful, humble souls clinging to their miserable job, kissing up, self-effacing, willing to put up with anything.
No. Hillbillies aren't like that; they have nothing but their pride and their kin (and in some cases their fanatical, backward religion); and when you start fucking with any of that, you are in for the long haul.
You can't talk them into being your "boy." You can't coerce them into kissing your ass. And if you kill one of them, you've just made twenty-five new blood enemies. In the end, unless you exterminate them all, you are going to be disappointed.
Well, Georgie Porgie with the silver foot in your mouth, you are going to be disappointed, you arrogant fool.
Ask your new General/Admiral/Whatever: you "underestimated the enemy's persistence." No shit!! But then YOU've never had to deal with hillbillies, have you, Frat Boy?
You'll never get the picture, but some within your hollow circle are coming to realize that expanding your super-duper-power-empire into the land of the sand hillbillies ain't beanbag and it sure as hell ain't business.
- Uke Man
Fallon says U.S. miscalculated Iraq
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Adm. William Fallon, who is poised to become the top American commander in the Middle East, says the United States miscalculated the ability of Iraqi forces to take control and underestimated the enemy's persistence.
"Securing the stability of the country has been more difficult than anticipated," Fallon said in a written statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Our ability to correctly assess the political, economic and security situation in Iraq has been lacking."
Fallon's remarks were submitted in advance of a confirmation hearing Tuesday. Fallon, who commands troops in the Pacific region, has been tapped to replace Army Gen. John Abizaid as head of the U.S. Central Command.
In the second post below, I said Bush & Co. had bitten off more than they could chew because they were businessboys who had always gotten their way and who thought they always would.
I've also said that they "don't understand hillbillies."
If you missed that, it goes like this:
Hillbillies (my heritage) have nothing but their pride and their kin. They are not the kind of people Bush & Co. and all the other corporate/governmental ginks are accustomed to pushing around; i.e. fearful, humble souls clinging to their miserable job, kissing up, self-effacing, willing to put up with anything.
No. Hillbillies aren't like that; they have nothing but their pride and their kin (and in some cases their fanatical, backward religion); and when you start fucking with any of that, you are in for the long haul.
You can't talk them into being your "boy." You can't coerce them into kissing your ass. And if you kill one of them, you've just made twenty-five new blood enemies. In the end, unless you exterminate them all, you are going to be disappointed.
Well, Georgie Porgie with the silver foot in your mouth, you are going to be disappointed, you arrogant fool.
Ask your new General/Admiral/Whatever: you "underestimated the enemy's persistence." No shit!! But then YOU've never had to deal with hillbillies, have you, Frat Boy?
You'll never get the picture, but some within your hollow circle are coming to realize that expanding your super-duper-power-empire into the land of the sand hillbillies ain't beanbag and it sure as hell ain't business.
- Uke Man
Fallon says U.S. miscalculated Iraq
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Adm. William Fallon, who is poised to become the top American commander in the Middle East, says the United States miscalculated the ability of Iraqi forces to take control and underestimated the enemy's persistence.
"Securing the stability of the country has been more difficult than anticipated," Fallon said in a written statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Our ability to correctly assess the political, economic and security situation in Iraq has been lacking."
Fallon's remarks were submitted in advance of a confirmation hearing Tuesday. Fallon, who commands troops in the Pacific region, has been tapped to replace Army Gen. John Abizaid as head of the U.S. Central Command.
posted by Ukulele Man at 9:36 AM
1 comments
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Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The Emperor Perseveres
Hey Folks,
Doesn't Mr. Krugman know that the Emperor is above the law, not to mention "the normal principles of good government" ?
- Uke Man
January 19, 2007
Surging and Purging
By PAUL KRUGMAN
( a ukethanks to Phyll)
There’s something happening here, and what it is seems completely clear: the Bush administration is trying to protect itself by purging independent-minded prosecutors.
Last month, Bud Cummins, the U.S. attorney (federal prosecutor) for the Eastern District of Arkansas, received a call on his cellphone while hiking in the woods with his son. He was informed that he had just been replaced by J. Timothy Griffin, a Republican political operative who has spent the last few years working as an opposition researcher for Karl Rove.
Mr. Cummins’s case isn’t unique. Since the middle of last month, the Bush administration has pushed out at least four U.S. attorneys, and possibly as many as seven, without explanation. The list includes Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney for San Diego, who successfully prosecuted Duke Cunningham, a Republican congressman, on major corruption charges. The top F.B.I. official in San Diego told The San Diego Union-Tribune that Ms. Lam’s dismissal would undermine multiple continuing investigations.
In Senate testimony yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refused to say how many other attorneys have been asked to resign, calling it a “personnel matter.”
In case you’re wondering, such a wholesale firing of prosecutors midway through an administration isn’t normal. U.S. attorneys, The Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, “typically are appointed at the beginning of a new president’s term, and serve throughout that term.” Why, then, are prosecutors that the Bush administration itself appointed suddenly being pushed out?
The likely answer is that for the first time the administration is really worried about where corruption investigations might lead.
Since the day it took power this administration has shown nothing but contempt for the normal principles of good government. For six years ethical problems and conflicts of interest have been the rule, not the exception.
For a long time the administration nonetheless seemed untouchable, protected both by Republican control of Congress and by its ability to justify anything and everything as necessary for the war on terror. Now, however, the investigations are closing in on the Oval Office. The latest news is that J. Steven Griles, the former deputy secretary of the Interior Department and the poster child for the administration’s systematic policy of putting foxes in charge of henhouses, is finally facing possible indictment.
And the purge of U.S. attorneys looks like a pre-emptive strike against the gathering forces of justice.
Won’t the administration have trouble getting its new appointees confirmed by the Senate? Well, it turns out that it won’t have to.
Arlen Specter, the Republican senator who headed the Judiciary Committee until Congress changed hands, made sure of that last year. Previously, new U.S. attorneys needed Senate confirmation within 120 days or federal district courts would name replacements. But as part of a conference committee reconciling House and Senate versions of the revised Patriot Act, Mr. Specter slipped in a clause eliminating that rule.
As Paul Kiel of TPMmuckraker.com — which has done yeoman investigative reporting on this story — put it, this clause in effect allows the administration “to handpick replacements and keep them there in perpetuity without the ordeal of Senate confirmation.” How convenient.
Mr. Gonzales says that there’s nothing political about the firings. And according to The Associated Press, he said that district court judges shouldn’t appoint U.S. attorneys because they “tend to appoint friends and others not properly qualified to be prosecutors.” Words fail me.
Mr. Gonzales also says that the administration intends to get Senate confirmation for every replacement. Sorry, but that’s not at all credible, even if we ignore the administration’s track record. Mr. Griffin, the political-operative-turned-prosecutor, would be savaged in a confirmation hearing. By appointing him, the administration showed that it has no intention of following the usual rules.
The broader context is this: defeat in the midterm elections hasn’t led the Bush administration to scale back its imperial view of presidential power.
On the contrary, now that President Bush can no longer count on Congress to do his bidding, he’s more determined than ever to claim essentially unlimited authority — whether it’s the authority to send more troops into Iraq or the authority to stonewall investigations into his own administration’s conduct.
The next two years, in other words, are going to be a rolling constitutional crisis.
Doesn't Mr. Krugman know that the Emperor is above the law, not to mention "the normal principles of good government" ?
- Uke Man
January 19, 2007
Surging and Purging
By PAUL KRUGMAN
( a ukethanks to Phyll)
There’s something happening here, and what it is seems completely clear: the Bush administration is trying to protect itself by purging independent-minded prosecutors.
Last month, Bud Cummins, the U.S. attorney (federal prosecutor) for the Eastern District of Arkansas, received a call on his cellphone while hiking in the woods with his son. He was informed that he had just been replaced by J. Timothy Griffin, a Republican political operative who has spent the last few years working as an opposition researcher for Karl Rove.
Mr. Cummins’s case isn’t unique. Since the middle of last month, the Bush administration has pushed out at least four U.S. attorneys, and possibly as many as seven, without explanation. The list includes Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney for San Diego, who successfully prosecuted Duke Cunningham, a Republican congressman, on major corruption charges. The top F.B.I. official in San Diego told The San Diego Union-Tribune that Ms. Lam’s dismissal would undermine multiple continuing investigations.
In Senate testimony yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refused to say how many other attorneys have been asked to resign, calling it a “personnel matter.”
In case you’re wondering, such a wholesale firing of prosecutors midway through an administration isn’t normal. U.S. attorneys, The Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, “typically are appointed at the beginning of a new president’s term, and serve throughout that term.” Why, then, are prosecutors that the Bush administration itself appointed suddenly being pushed out?
The likely answer is that for the first time the administration is really worried about where corruption investigations might lead.
Since the day it took power this administration has shown nothing but contempt for the normal principles of good government. For six years ethical problems and conflicts of interest have been the rule, not the exception.
For a long time the administration nonetheless seemed untouchable, protected both by Republican control of Congress and by its ability to justify anything and everything as necessary for the war on terror. Now, however, the investigations are closing in on the Oval Office. The latest news is that J. Steven Griles, the former deputy secretary of the Interior Department and the poster child for the administration’s systematic policy of putting foxes in charge of henhouses, is finally facing possible indictment.
And the purge of U.S. attorneys looks like a pre-emptive strike against the gathering forces of justice.
Won’t the administration have trouble getting its new appointees confirmed by the Senate? Well, it turns out that it won’t have to.
Arlen Specter, the Republican senator who headed the Judiciary Committee until Congress changed hands, made sure of that last year. Previously, new U.S. attorneys needed Senate confirmation within 120 days or federal district courts would name replacements. But as part of a conference committee reconciling House and Senate versions of the revised Patriot Act, Mr. Specter slipped in a clause eliminating that rule.
As Paul Kiel of TPMmuckraker.com — which has done yeoman investigative reporting on this story — put it, this clause in effect allows the administration “to handpick replacements and keep them there in perpetuity without the ordeal of Senate confirmation.” How convenient.
Mr. Gonzales says that there’s nothing political about the firings. And according to The Associated Press, he said that district court judges shouldn’t appoint U.S. attorneys because they “tend to appoint friends and others not properly qualified to be prosecutors.” Words fail me.
Mr. Gonzales also says that the administration intends to get Senate confirmation for every replacement. Sorry, but that’s not at all credible, even if we ignore the administration’s track record. Mr. Griffin, the political-operative-turned-prosecutor, would be savaged in a confirmation hearing. By appointing him, the administration showed that it has no intention of following the usual rules.
The broader context is this: defeat in the midterm elections hasn’t led the Bush administration to scale back its imperial view of presidential power.
On the contrary, now that President Bush can no longer count on Congress to do his bidding, he’s more determined than ever to claim essentially unlimited authority — whether it’s the authority to send more troops into Iraq or the authority to stonewall investigations into his own administration’s conduct.
The next two years, in other words, are going to be a rolling constitutional crisis.
posted by Ukulele Man at 6:30 AM
2 comments
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Monday, January 29, 2007
"What's good for me is good enough for America !!"
"You're fired!!!"
posted by Ukulele Man at 6:05 PM
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Bully Boys
Hey Folks,
The Amazing Ktistof recently wrote another misguided column in which he "explained" our foreign policy behavior. As he often does, he exposed his faulty understanding of the basics.
He floundered about questioning the wisdom of the official "reasons" we attacked Iraq, wondering why we don't learn from the mistakes of the past, and - most tellingly - asks "why do we act so often against our own long-term interests?"
His two answers are that we are bullies because we can be and because we Americans don't understand the world. A la Thomas Friedman, he offers several solutions that make wonderful sense to him but have NO chance of being pursued.
It's not that "we" don't understand foreign policy. It's that we are run by "businessmen" who won't listen to those who do understand it (Clinton, whatever else he was, WAS competent in understanding foreign policy).
They envisioned running the rest of the world "like a business," just like they run us. That means like arrogant bullies who OWN everyone and everything ("You're fired") just because THEY have been annointed - somehow - to own it.
These clods have grown up always getting their way - if not at first, after proper pressure was applied. In this larger case, they bark self-serving orders and the pressure is applied militarily. They don't give a damn about the best interest of America, its people, or anyone else in the world - they only care about themselves and - to some extent - their necessary cronies.
Superpowers do blunder throughout the world pushing folks around "because they can," but that's not the REASON they do it. They COULD move around the world in benevolent ways, but DON'T. Bush & Co. have MBA's, and business isn't in business for benevolence; personal profit is the basis of capitalism (which is what Bush is pushing in Iraq - not "democracy").
This always works at the small business, public school, city-state-national government, and corporate levels - just like it works for the mafia. Stark power keeps the "right" people on top and reaping the rewards, regardless of any considerations, such as what the average person would consider "American interests" or "American values."
This time, though, the bully boys have bitten off more than they can chew. To that extent there is some truth to Kristof's comment that "we act so often against our own long-term interests" since that the Bully Boys, while reaping large war and oil profits, have somewhat hurt their selfish political interests.
BUT !!!! There is no "OUR" involved in "American interests." Never has been, and that fact should be clearer now than at any time in the last sixty years.
- Uke Man
The Amazing Ktistof recently wrote another misguided column in which he "explained" our foreign policy behavior. As he often does, he exposed his faulty understanding of the basics.
He floundered about questioning the wisdom of the official "reasons" we attacked Iraq, wondering why we don't learn from the mistakes of the past, and - most tellingly - asks "why do we act so often against our own long-term interests?"
His two answers are that we are bullies because we can be and because we Americans don't understand the world. A la Thomas Friedman, he offers several solutions that make wonderful sense to him but have NO chance of being pursued.
It's not that "we" don't understand foreign policy. It's that we are run by "businessmen" who won't listen to those who do understand it (Clinton, whatever else he was, WAS competent in understanding foreign policy).
They envisioned running the rest of the world "like a business," just like they run us. That means like arrogant bullies who OWN everyone and everything ("You're fired") just because THEY have been annointed - somehow - to own it.
These clods have grown up always getting their way - if not at first, after proper pressure was applied. In this larger case, they bark self-serving orders and the pressure is applied militarily. They don't give a damn about the best interest of America, its people, or anyone else in the world - they only care about themselves and - to some extent - their necessary cronies.
Superpowers do blunder throughout the world pushing folks around "because they can," but that's not the REASON they do it. They COULD move around the world in benevolent ways, but DON'T. Bush & Co. have MBA's, and business isn't in business for benevolence; personal profit is the basis of capitalism (which is what Bush is pushing in Iraq - not "democracy").
This always works at the small business, public school, city-state-national government, and corporate levels - just like it works for the mafia. Stark power keeps the "right" people on top and reaping the rewards, regardless of any considerations, such as what the average person would consider "American interests" or "American values."
This time, though, the bully boys have bitten off more than they can chew. To that extent there is some truth to Kristof's comment that "we act so often against our own long-term interests" since that the Bully Boys, while reaping large war and oil profits, have somewhat hurt their selfish political interests.
BUT !!!! There is no "OUR" involved in "American interests." Never has been, and that fact should be clearer now than at any time in the last sixty years.
- Uke Man
posted by Ukulele Man at 10:41 AM
0 comments
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Sunday, January 28, 2007
I'm Baaaaaaack!!!!
Hey Folks,
I just flew in from New York; and boy, my arms are tired!!!
The rest of me is tired, too.
Tonight, suffice it to say, I'll be brief and share a picture or two.
I had a great time!! Four nights in New York - Four nights of Ukulele Music:
Wednesday was the show I put together, Ukulele Man & Friends, at Manhattan's Bowery Poetry Club (& the Poetry Stage following our show).
Thursday was Uke Night at Biscuit - a new restaurant in Brooklyn.
Friday night was Ukulele Noir at Mo Pitkin's, put together by Bostonian Craig Robertson.
And Saturday was Jason & Ted's (Sonic Uke's) big show Ukulele Cabaret at Jimmy's in the West Village.
During all that time my friend and former Eighth Grade English student, Ron Hester, put me up at his apartment in beautiful Park Slope, Brooklyn.
I am so grateful to be able to visit and experience our nation's premier city and to share my music with truly amazing artists, performers, and friends. It warms my heart.
I'll share more on all of this once I'm rested, and once Ron sends me the pictures he took (the old guy is slowing down - didn't snap as often as I should have).
- Uke Man
I just flew in from New York; and boy, my arms are tired!!!
The rest of me is tired, too.
Tonight, suffice it to say, I'll be brief and share a picture or two.
I had a great time!! Four nights in New York - Four nights of Ukulele Music:
Wednesday was the show I put together, Ukulele Man & Friends, at Manhattan's Bowery Poetry Club (& the Poetry Stage following our show).
Thursday was Uke Night at Biscuit - a new restaurant in Brooklyn.
Friday night was Ukulele Noir at Mo Pitkin's, put together by Bostonian Craig Robertson.
And Saturday was Jason & Ted's (Sonic Uke's) big show Ukulele Cabaret at Jimmy's in the West Village.
During all that time my friend and former Eighth Grade English student, Ron Hester, put me up at his apartment in beautiful Park Slope, Brooklyn.
I am so grateful to be able to visit and experience our nation's premier city and to share my music with truly amazing artists, performers, and friends. It warms my heart.
I'll share more on all of this once I'm rested, and once Ron sends me the pictures he took (the old guy is slowing down - didn't snap as often as I should have).
- Uke Man
posted by Ukulele Man at 10:05 PM
0 comments
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Park Slope, Brooklyn
7th Ave. looking West from 2nd Street
posted by Ukulele Man at 9:58 PM
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Friday, January 26, 2007
Maybe if he'd attended Public School !!!
Hey Folks,
Why can't Georgie read? He attended only the best, private schools. He had all the advantages. Poppy and Mummy-Bar threw as much money at his education as anyone could want; and the monkey STILL can't read - at least not for comprehension.
It's pitiful - but not for him. He's the President.
It's pitiful for our troops and their parents and loved ones. It's pitiful for America and Americans. It's pitiful for the World and for the billions of all those "irrelevant" non-Americans in the world.
But, tough shit!!
The "educator-in-chief" will explain it to us; then we can all shut up and love Big Dumb Brother.
- Uke Man
January 17, 2007
Aux Barricades!
By MAUREEN DOWD
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
WASHINGTON -
Being president can be really, really hard.
“Sometimes you’re the commander in chief,” W. explained to Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes.” “Sometimes you’re the educator in chief, and a lot of times you’re both when it comes to war.”
President Bush has been dutifully making the rounds of TV news shows, trying to make the case that victory in Iraq is “doable.” He thinks the public will support the Surge if he can simply illuminate a few things that we may have been too thick to understand. For instance, he says he needs to “explain to people that what happens in the Middle East will affect the future of this country.” Yes, Mr. President, we get it.
He also told Jim Lehrer last night that in 20 years, radical Shiites could be warring with radical Sunnis and Middle Eastern oil could fall into the hands of radicals, who might also get weapons of mass destruction.
So after scaring Americans into backing the Sack of Iraq by warning that radicals could get W.M.D., now he’s trying to scare Americans into supporting the Surge in Iraq by warning that radicals could get W.M.D.
So many deaths, so little progress.
It’s unnerving to be tutored by an educator in chief who is himself being tutored. The president elucidating the Iraqi insurgency for us is learning about the Algerian insurgency from the man who failed to quell the Vietcong insurgency.
During his “60 Minutes” interview, Mr. Bush mentioned that he was reading Alistair Horne’s classic history, “A Savage War of Peace,” about why the French suffered a colonial disaster in a guerrilla war against Muslims in Algiers from 1954 to 1962.
The book was recommended to W. by Henry Kissinger, who is working on an official biography of himself with Mr. Horne.
Mr. Horne recalled that Dr. Kissinger told him: “The president’s one of my best students. He reads all the books I send him.” The author asked the president’s foreign affairs adviser if W. ever wrote any essays on the books. “Henry just laughed,” Mr. Horne said.
It seems far too late for Mr. Bush to begin studying about counterinsurgency now that Iraq has cratered into civil war. Can’t someone get the president a copy of “Gone With the Wind”?
Maybe it was inevitable, once W. started reading Camus’s “L’Etranger,” set in Algeria, that he would move on to Mr. Horne. As The Washington Post military correspondent Tom Ricks wrote in November, the Horne book has been an underground best-seller among U.S. military officers for three years, and “Algeria” has become almost a code word among counterinsurgency specialists for the mess in Iraq. The Pentagon screened the 1966 movie “The Battle of Algiers” in 2003, but the commander in chief must have missed it.
I asked Mr. Horne, who was at his home in a small village outside Oxford, England, what the president could learn from his book.
“The depressing problem of getting entangled in the Muslim world,” he replied. “Algeria was a thoroughly bloodthirsty war that ended horribly and cost the lives of about 20,000 Frenchmen and a million Algerians. There was a terrible civil war. ...De Gaulle ended up giving literally everything away and left without his pants.”
President de Gaulle had all the same misconceptions as W., that his prestige could persuade the Muslims to accept his terms; that the guerrillas would recognize military defeat and accept sensible compromise; and that, as Mr. Horne writes, “time would wait while he found the correct formula and then imposed peace with it.”
Mr. Horne also sees sad parallels in the torture issue: “The French had experience under the Nazis in the occupation and practiced methods the Germans used in Algeria and extracted information that helped them win the Battle of Algiers. But in the long run it lost the war, because it caused such revulsion in France when the news came out, and there was huge opposition to the war from Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.”
In May 2005, Mr. Horne gave a copy of his book to Rummy, with passages about torture underlined. “I got a savage letter back from him,” the author said.
The best thing now, he said, is to try to “get around the mullahs” and “get non-Christian forces in there as quickly as possible, mercenaries. As Henry said the other day, if only we had two brigades of Gurkhas to send to Baghdad.”
Meanwhile, maybe W. should move on to reading Sartre. “No Exit,” perhaps.
Why can't Georgie read? He attended only the best, private schools. He had all the advantages. Poppy and Mummy-Bar threw as much money at his education as anyone could want; and the monkey STILL can't read - at least not for comprehension.
It's pitiful - but not for him. He's the President.
It's pitiful for our troops and their parents and loved ones. It's pitiful for America and Americans. It's pitiful for the World and for the billions of all those "irrelevant" non-Americans in the world.
But, tough shit!!
The "educator-in-chief" will explain it to us; then we can all shut up and love Big Dumb Brother.
- Uke Man
January 17, 2007
Aux Barricades!
By MAUREEN DOWD
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
WASHINGTON -
Being president can be really, really hard.
“Sometimes you’re the commander in chief,” W. explained to Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes.” “Sometimes you’re the educator in chief, and a lot of times you’re both when it comes to war.”
President Bush has been dutifully making the rounds of TV news shows, trying to make the case that victory in Iraq is “doable.” He thinks the public will support the Surge if he can simply illuminate a few things that we may have been too thick to understand. For instance, he says he needs to “explain to people that what happens in the Middle East will affect the future of this country.” Yes, Mr. President, we get it.
He also told Jim Lehrer last night that in 20 years, radical Shiites could be warring with radical Sunnis and Middle Eastern oil could fall into the hands of radicals, who might also get weapons of mass destruction.
So after scaring Americans into backing the Sack of Iraq by warning that radicals could get W.M.D., now he’s trying to scare Americans into supporting the Surge in Iraq by warning that radicals could get W.M.D.
So many deaths, so little progress.
It’s unnerving to be tutored by an educator in chief who is himself being tutored. The president elucidating the Iraqi insurgency for us is learning about the Algerian insurgency from the man who failed to quell the Vietcong insurgency.
During his “60 Minutes” interview, Mr. Bush mentioned that he was reading Alistair Horne’s classic history, “A Savage War of Peace,” about why the French suffered a colonial disaster in a guerrilla war against Muslims in Algiers from 1954 to 1962.
The book was recommended to W. by Henry Kissinger, who is working on an official biography of himself with Mr. Horne.
Mr. Horne recalled that Dr. Kissinger told him: “The president’s one of my best students. He reads all the books I send him.” The author asked the president’s foreign affairs adviser if W. ever wrote any essays on the books. “Henry just laughed,” Mr. Horne said.
It seems far too late for Mr. Bush to begin studying about counterinsurgency now that Iraq has cratered into civil war. Can’t someone get the president a copy of “Gone With the Wind”?
Maybe it was inevitable, once W. started reading Camus’s “L’Etranger,” set in Algeria, that he would move on to Mr. Horne. As The Washington Post military correspondent Tom Ricks wrote in November, the Horne book has been an underground best-seller among U.S. military officers for three years, and “Algeria” has become almost a code word among counterinsurgency specialists for the mess in Iraq. The Pentagon screened the 1966 movie “The Battle of Algiers” in 2003, but the commander in chief must have missed it.
I asked Mr. Horne, who was at his home in a small village outside Oxford, England, what the president could learn from his book.
“The depressing problem of getting entangled in the Muslim world,” he replied. “Algeria was a thoroughly bloodthirsty war that ended horribly and cost the lives of about 20,000 Frenchmen and a million Algerians. There was a terrible civil war. ...De Gaulle ended up giving literally everything away and left without his pants.”
President de Gaulle had all the same misconceptions as W., that his prestige could persuade the Muslims to accept his terms; that the guerrillas would recognize military defeat and accept sensible compromise; and that, as Mr. Horne writes, “time would wait while he found the correct formula and then imposed peace with it.”
Mr. Horne also sees sad parallels in the torture issue: “The French had experience under the Nazis in the occupation and practiced methods the Germans used in Algeria and extracted information that helped them win the Battle of Algiers. But in the long run it lost the war, because it caused such revulsion in France when the news came out, and there was huge opposition to the war from Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.”
In May 2005, Mr. Horne gave a copy of his book to Rummy, with passages about torture underlined. “I got a savage letter back from him,” the author said.
The best thing now, he said, is to try to “get around the mullahs” and “get non-Christian forces in there as quickly as possible, mercenaries. As Henry said the other day, if only we had two brigades of Gurkhas to send to Baghdad.”
Meanwhile, maybe W. should move on to reading Sartre. “No Exit,” perhaps.
posted by Ukulele Man at 6:28 AM
1 comments
links to this post
Hey Folks
I'm keeping busy here in New York. A lot of uke activity.
Unfortunately, I'm having great difficulty posting to the blog.
I'll start a full report Monday!!!
- Uke Man
Unfortunately, I'm having great difficulty posting to the blog.
I'll start a full report Monday!!!
- Uke Man
posted by Ukulele Man at 12:15 AM
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Tuesday, January 23, 2007
I'm off
Folks,
That's it from Ohio. Tomorrow I'll be in New York.
I hope to be able to add a little to the blog from time to time. We'll see.
- Uke Man
That's it from Ohio. Tomorrow I'll be in New York.
I hope to be able to add a little to the blog from time to time. We'll see.
- Uke Man
posted by Ukulele Man at 8:55 PM
0 comments
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Alan Drogin ............................ in 2 of the 3 NYC Shows
Hey Folks,
Alan Drogin and Steven Swartz, the driving force of Songs from a Random House, a cutting edge, avant guard band founded in the mid 80's and just recently, temporarily, mothballed; once gave me a ride from a Prividence Uke Fest (put on by Dave Wasser and the Gang at the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum) to Manhattan.
That was the start of a warm friendship that has continued.
Alan will be playing in the Wednesday and the Saturday shows, and Steven will be in the audience Saturday (get autographs). Check out the Scott Simon NPR interview with Steven and Alan. It's fun, and you can also hear three of the band's songs at the site:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4668018
Check out one of Alan's solo Midnight Ukulele Disco performances at:
http://ukuleledisco.com/thumbtack
and a wild solo on:
http://ukuleledisco.com/leftoverstrange
Come hear Alan & us all.
- Uke Man
Alan Drogin and Steven Swartz, the driving force of Songs from a Random House, a cutting edge, avant guard band founded in the mid 80's and just recently, temporarily, mothballed; once gave me a ride from a Prividence Uke Fest (put on by Dave Wasser and the Gang at the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum) to Manhattan.
That was the start of a warm friendship that has continued.
Alan will be playing in the Wednesday and the Saturday shows, and Steven will be in the audience Saturday (get autographs). Check out the Scott Simon NPR interview with Steven and Alan. It's fun, and you can also hear three of the band's songs at the site:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4668018
Check out one of Alan's solo Midnight Ukulele Disco performances at:
http://ukuleledisco.com/thumbtack
and a wild solo on:
http://ukuleledisco.com/leftoverstrange
Come hear Alan & us all.
- Uke Man
posted by Ukulele Man at 3:23 PM
0 comments
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Alan, his Family. and moi
Ukuleles for Sanity protesting the war
posted by Ukulele Man at 3:15 PM
0 comments
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Pat wants the Mountain to come to him
Should it?
posted by Ukulele Man at 10:43 AM
0 comments
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A window on our possible world
Hey Folks,
A lot of people just don't get it. They criticize the Muslims for their narrow views and their efforts - sometimes violent - to impose their particular religious views on the rest of us.
But, too many of us can't see the parallel to the efforts of radical Christians here.
Do we want - in this "free" country to tip-toe around trying not to offend people like Pat Robertson and James Dobson? Do we want to worry that some religious nut or group will assassinate those who go against their interpretation of godliness - say, pharmacists who legally provide "Plan B" or heretical Unitarians?
Well, that sort of thing is clearly going on now in other parts of the world, and a very strong push to intimidate "heretics" here has been under way for some time - along with a determined effort to impose religion on our governing system.
The article below shows what COULD happen here if we don't resist it.
- Uke Man
(the emphasis below is mine)
Danish editor: Cartoon debate to endure
By JAN M. OLSEN, Associated Press
COPENHAGEN, Denmark - An editor of a Danish newspaper that published the controversial prophet Muhammad cartoons said Wednesday he expects the debate about self-censorship in the media and artists' fear of offending Islam to continue for years.
The Jyllands-Posten daily in 2005 published 12 drawings — one of them showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. Another portrayed him with a bushy gray beard and holding a sword.
The cartoons, which were reprinted in a range of Western media, triggered international protests across the Muslim world and attacks on Danish embassies in January 2006.
Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the newspaper — one of Denmark's biggest — had asked Danish cartoonists to draw Muhammad. He reiterated that the decision to print the drawings was meant as a challenge to a perceived self-censorship, not to insult Muslims.
"The drawings have started a very important debate that will last for many, many years," Rose told a news conference, ahead of the one-year anniversary of the cartoon crisis. "In the coming years, this will become a bigger discussion."
Rose said he "felt provoked when I heard institutions, media and people in Western Europe were putting reins on themselves because they were afraid of offending Islam."
He gave several examples, from art removed from exhibitions to standup comedians saying they didn't want to poke fun at Islam. In 2004, Danish writer Kaare Bluitgen complained he could not find an illustrator for his children's book about Muhammad, for fear of retaliation for depicting the prophet.
"It reminded me of what I had seen in the Soviet Union, where I saw a society where people were intimidated by the system," said Rose, a correspondent in Moscow in the 1980s and 1990s.
He reiterated that he regretted if the cartoons had offended Muslims and apologized to them but stood by the decision to print them, saying it was within Danish law.
Muslims around the world were offended because Islam forbids the depiction of any prophet from the Quran.
A lot of people just don't get it. They criticize the Muslims for their narrow views and their efforts - sometimes violent - to impose their particular religious views on the rest of us.
But, too many of us can't see the parallel to the efforts of radical Christians here.
Do we want - in this "free" country to tip-toe around trying not to offend people like Pat Robertson and James Dobson? Do we want to worry that some religious nut or group will assassinate those who go against their interpretation of godliness - say, pharmacists who legally provide "Plan B" or heretical Unitarians?
Well, that sort of thing is clearly going on now in other parts of the world, and a very strong push to intimidate "heretics" here has been under way for some time - along with a determined effort to impose religion on our governing system.
The article below shows what COULD happen here if we don't resist it.
- Uke Man
(the emphasis below is mine)
Danish editor: Cartoon debate to endure
By JAN M. OLSEN, Associated Press
COPENHAGEN, Denmark - An editor of a Danish newspaper that published the controversial prophet Muhammad cartoons said Wednesday he expects the debate about self-censorship in the media and artists' fear of offending Islam to continue for years.
The Jyllands-Posten daily in 2005 published 12 drawings — one of them showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. Another portrayed him with a bushy gray beard and holding a sword.
The cartoons, which were reprinted in a range of Western media, triggered international protests across the Muslim world and attacks on Danish embassies in January 2006.
Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the newspaper — one of Denmark's biggest — had asked Danish cartoonists to draw Muhammad. He reiterated that the decision to print the drawings was meant as a challenge to a perceived self-censorship, not to insult Muslims.
"The drawings have started a very important debate that will last for many, many years," Rose told a news conference, ahead of the one-year anniversary of the cartoon crisis. "In the coming years, this will become a bigger discussion."
Rose said he "felt provoked when I heard institutions, media and people in Western Europe were putting reins on themselves because they were afraid of offending Islam."
He gave several examples, from art removed from exhibitions to standup comedians saying they didn't want to poke fun at Islam. In 2004, Danish writer Kaare Bluitgen complained he could not find an illustrator for his children's book about Muhammad, for fear of retaliation for depicting the prophet.
"It reminded me of what I had seen in the Soviet Union, where I saw a society where people were intimidated by the system," said Rose, a correspondent in Moscow in the 1980s and 1990s.
He reiterated that he regretted if the cartoons had offended Muslims and apologized to them but stood by the decision to print them, saying it was within Danish law.
Muslims around the world were offended because Islam forbids the depiction of any prophet from the Quran.
posted by Ukulele Man at 10:36 AM
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Monday, January 22, 2007
Heather Lev - also part of Wednesday's Show
Hey Folks,
I met Heather Lev via the anti-war movement. We both sang in the show protesting the New York Republican National Convention, "Dubya's Ukulele Farewell Party," and we both have marched together in the same cause several times since then.
Check out some of Heather's songs at:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/heatherlev2/from/jkloss
And enjoy a video at: www.ukuleledisco.com/theway
Come hear Heather and us all Wednesday night at the Bowery Poetry Club (see: http://www.ukuleleman.net/2007/01/uke-man-in-new-york-city_21.html )
- Uke Man
I met Heather Lev via the anti-war movement. We both sang in the show protesting the New York Republican National Convention, "Dubya's Ukulele Farewell Party," and we both have marched together in the same cause several times since then.
Check out some of Heather's songs at:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/heatherlev2/from/jkloss
And enjoy a video at: www.ukuleledisco.com/theway
Come hear Heather and us all Wednesday night at the Bowery Poetry Club (see: http://www.ukuleleman.net/2007/01/uke-man-in-new-york-city_21.html )
- Uke Man
posted by Ukulele Man at 10:13 PM
1 comments
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Well, now it starts
Hey Folks,
You heard it here first - long ago: Monkey Boy-George worships Ronnie Raygun more than his own father and (if truth be known) his "Higher Father"
Ronnie, his role model, spent the country into the poorhouse in order to thwart spending on the mass of American citizens. He spent like a drunken sailor, taking care of his pals; and when the Dems came to power, claimed 1) there wasn't any money for the people and, indeed, 2) the people would have to sacrifice by having their programs cut.
Long ago, I said Duh-bya was doing the same thing: tax cuts for the rich, a trillion or more thrown down the Iraq oil hole, sweetheart deals with his corporate cronies, balooning the deficit. I said then that he was emulating Raygun and that the day would come when he'd cry: "1) there isn't any money for the people and 2) the people will have to sacrifice by having their programs cut (their "entitlements").
Well, read it and weep:
Burden Set to Shift On Balanced Budget
Bush Likely to Force Democrats' Hand
By Lori Montgomery and Nell Henderson
Washington Post
January 16, 2007
When he takes the House rostrum next week for the State of the Union address, President Bush will list among his goals a balanced federal budget, a shift for a president who has presided over record deficits while aggressively cutting taxes.
Politically, analysts say, the president is calling the bluff of Democrats, who won control of Congress in part by accusing Bush of reckless fiscal policies. While Bush now shares the Democrats' goal to erase the deficit by 2012, the politically perilous work of making that happen -- cutting spending or raising taxes -- falls to the Democratic-run Congress.
"The Democrats have assailed deficits under President Bush. The White House is telling Democrats to walk the walk," said Brian M. Riedl, a budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Budget experts and economists from across the political spectrum, including some who worked in the Bush White House, say that Bush is unlikely to offer real concessions toward a balanced budget in the plan he delivers to Congress next month.
. . .
This month, Bush cited the "challenges" of entitlement spending as a factor in his decision to offer a balanced budget plan. Analysts said forcing the government to live within its means in the short term would lend credibility to the president's campaign to address the entitlement problem during his final years in office.
What did I tell you, Folks??
Now let's wait and see how long it takes for anyone in the media to point out what I just went over.
- Uke Man
Entire article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501085.html?referrer=email
You heard it here first - long ago: Monkey Boy-George worships Ronnie Raygun more than his own father and (if truth be known) his "Higher Father"
Ronnie, his role model, spent the country into the poorhouse in order to thwart spending on the mass of American citizens. He spent like a drunken sailor, taking care of his pals; and when the Dems came to power, claimed 1) there wasn't any money for the people and, indeed, 2) the people would have to sacrifice by having their programs cut.
Long ago, I said Duh-bya was doing the same thing: tax cuts for the rich, a trillion or more thrown down the Iraq oil hole, sweetheart deals with his corporate cronies, balooning the deficit. I said then that he was emulating Raygun and that the day would come when he'd cry: "1) there isn't any money for the people and 2) the people will have to sacrifice by having their programs cut (their "entitlements").
Well, read it and weep:
Burden Set to Shift On Balanced Budget
Bush Likely to Force Democrats' Hand
By Lori Montgomery and Nell Henderson
Washington Post
January 16, 2007
When he takes the House rostrum next week for the State of the Union address, President Bush will list among his goals a balanced federal budget, a shift for a president who has presided over record deficits while aggressively cutting taxes.
Politically, analysts say, the president is calling the bluff of Democrats, who won control of Congress in part by accusing Bush of reckless fiscal policies. While Bush now shares the Democrats' goal to erase the deficit by 2012, the politically perilous work of making that happen -- cutting spending or raising taxes -- falls to the Democratic-run Congress.
"The Democrats have assailed deficits under President Bush. The White House is telling Democrats to walk the walk," said Brian M. Riedl, a budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Budget experts and economists from across the political spectrum, including some who worked in the Bush White House, say that Bush is unlikely to offer real concessions toward a balanced budget in the plan he delivers to Congress next month.
. . .
This month, Bush cited the "challenges" of entitlement spending as a factor in his decision to offer a balanced budget plan. Analysts said forcing the government to live within its means in the short term would lend credibility to the president's campaign to address the entitlement problem during his final years in office.
What did I tell you, Folks??
Now let's wait and see how long it takes for anyone in the media to point out what I just went over.
- Uke Man
Entire article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501085.html?referrer=email
posted by Ukulele Man at 8:42 AM
0 comments
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Sunday, January 21, 2007
The Uke Man in NYC - Ron
Hey Folks,
I'll be relatively out of touch starting Wednesday, but I'll try to keep the blog chugging away as best I can while in New York.
In the meantime, I plan to intersperse the regular fare with some musical treats relevant to the tour, featuring some of the folks I'll be appearing with, starting with Ron Hester.
Ron was in my 8th Grade English class many moons ago. He grew up to pursue painting, graphic arts, music; and the hectic but incomparable life of a vibrant, creative New Yorker.
It was Ron who got me "playing out" in the beginning and who enabled me to visit New York for the first time (by putting me up at considerable inconvenience and by helping the bumpkin navigate the intricacies of the City). He's also why I can return this time.
Thanks, Ron.
Check out Ron's My Space site: http://www.myspace.com/ronhester .
Four great songs await your ears.
- Uke Man
I'll be relatively out of touch starting Wednesday, but I'll try to keep the blog chugging away as best I can while in New York.
In the meantime, I plan to intersperse the regular fare with some musical treats relevant to the tour, featuring some of the folks I'll be appearing with, starting with Ron Hester.
Ron was in my 8th Grade English class many moons ago. He grew up to pursue painting, graphic arts, music; and the hectic but incomparable life of a vibrant, creative New Yorker.
It was Ron who got me "playing out" in the beginning and who enabled me to visit New York for the first time (by putting me up at considerable inconvenience and by helping the bumpkin navigate the intricacies of the City). He's also why I can return this time.
Thanks, Ron.
Check out Ron's My Space site: http://www.myspace.com/ronhester .
Four great songs await your ears.
- Uke Man
posted by Ukulele Man at 10:59 PM
0 comments
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Uke Man in New York City
Hey Folks,
The Uke Man (moi, Tom Harker) will be in New York City for two (2) shows January 24 & 27.
I’ll be at the Bowery Poetry Club
(map & directions at: http://www.bowerypoetry.com/ ) 308 Bowery, New York, NY 10012 - tel. 212-614-0505
From 10:00 p.m. until Midnight
on Jan. 24 with my New York Friends:
Ron Hester
http://cdbaby.com/cd/hesterron ( website under reconstruction)
Sonic Uke ( Jason & Ted & Allan)
http://www.sonicuke.com/
Heather Lev
http://heatherlev.com/
David Hornbuckle & his Dixieland Space Orchestra
http://www.mdhornbuckle.net/dso/
A great show is planned for your giddy enjoyment !! Please drop in !!!
The Uke Man will also stick around for and perform in “Midnights w/ Moonshine,” the Poetry stage, which follows our show.
THEN !!!!!
I'll be part of the January Ukulele Cabaret
at Jimmy's
43 E. 7th Street
212-982-3006
Saturday, January 27
8:00 p.m. "'til late"
This is sponsored by Sonic Uke and is a great spectacle that gets bigger and bigger every month. Check out videos from past performances at:http://www.ukulelecabaret.com/
Jimmy's map/directions: http://local.yahoo.com/details;_ylt=AqvotSQhzZnSUajUgq9ctbWHNcIF?id=34654300&state=NY&city=New+York&stx=jimmy%26%2339%3Bs&csz=New+York%2C+NY&fr=dd-local-more&ed=e3nhe6131Dxzh1xAtvjhsExjJXW.ooLmOFitrVmasYwDQEAUr84z.y4-&lcscb=MsjBOvKFjHV
I hope to see you there - Uke Man
The Uke Man (moi, Tom Harker) will be in New York City for two (2) shows January 24 & 27.
I’ll be at the Bowery Poetry Club
(map & directions at: http://www.bowerypoetry.com/ ) 308 Bowery, New York, NY 10012 - tel. 212-614-0505
From 10:00 p.m. until Midnight
on Jan. 24 with my New York Friends:
Ron Hester
http://cdbaby.com/cd/hesterron ( website under reconstruction)
Sonic Uke ( Jason & Ted & Allan)
http://www.sonicuke.com/
Heather Lev
http://heatherlev.com/
David Hornbuckle & his Dixieland Space Orchestra
http://www.mdhornbuckle.net/dso/
A great show is planned for your giddy enjoyment !! Please drop in !!!
The Uke Man will also stick around for and perform in “Midnights w/ Moonshine,” the Poetry stage, which follows our show.
THEN !!!!!
I'll be part of the January Ukulele Cabaret
at Jimmy's
43 E. 7th Street
212-982-3006
Saturday, January 27
8:00 p.m. "'til late"
This is sponsored by Sonic Uke and is a great spectacle that gets bigger and bigger every month. Check out videos from past performances at:http://www.ukulelecabaret.com/
Jimmy's map/directions: http://local.yahoo.com/details;_ylt=AqvotSQhzZnSUajUgq9ctbWHNcIF?id=34654300&state=NY&city=New+York&stx=jimmy%26%2339%3Bs&csz=New+York%2C+NY&fr=dd-local-more&ed=e3nhe6131Dxzh1xAtvjhsExjJXW.ooLmOFitrVmasYwDQEAUr84z.y4-&lcscb=MsjBOvKFjHV
I hope to see you there - Uke Man
posted by Ukulele Man at 3:57 PM
1 comments
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"I'm the Decider !!"
Hey Folks,
One Emperor,Napoleon, said: "History is what I say it is !"
How do you feel about that?
Another Emperor, G.W. Bush, said: "The law is what I say it is."
How do you feel about that ?
- Uke Man
You’ve got mail, and the president might be opening it
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
TOM TEEPEN
It turns out that as the holiday season was nearing its annual peak of panic and few were paying much attention to anything else, President Bush declared, in effect, that he is welcome to open your mail if he wants to.
Well, not him personally, of course. The president is a busy man. He would have his agents do it.
If not a fullblown flap, then at least a flaplet has been stirred by the New York Daily News’ discovery that Bush, as is his habit, first signed new legislation and then declared it null and void, sort of. The mechanism was the "presidential signing statement," a traditional option but in the past used rarely and mainly just to clarify technical ambiguities in a statute.
Bush alone has misused the signing statement as a means to undo Congress’s work wholesale — he has issued more than 800 so far — and, in sum, to declare he will rule by fiat whenever and however he jolly well pleases.
In the instant matter, Bush signed a law declaring that the government must get warrants to open first-class mail, but attached a signing statement saying his administration would take the provision as meaning "in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances."
Translated, that means be circumspect in your love letters.
The president’s spokesman, Tony Snow, shrugs off the matter. Bush, he says, was only reaffirming an authority sanctioned by long-standing law that the Postal Service may open first-class mail if there is good reason to suspect it contains a bomb or other material posing an immediate threat to public safety.
That would indeed be fine but, then, why this therefore-redundant codicil? And why is the administration resisting efforts by Salon.com to find out to what extent and in what way it may be recording envelope information from presumably unopened first-class mail?
No benefit of the doubt accrues to this administration in such matters. Remember, Bush used a similar dodge to poke into Americans’ overseas mail and phone calls without a warrant, even though lawful means stood ready for it to get a quickie OK from the very agreeable Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. This is the most pathologically secretive administration of modern times — maybe ever, period.
The signing statement has been stud and joist alike to the administration’s construction of an executive branch unanswerable to court or Congress.
Bush has used signing statements to override or undermine laws requiring the FBI to tell Congress how it is using the Patriot Act to search homes and seize papers; forbidding the use of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading methods against prisoners; requiring that scientific information developed by government researchers be available uncensored to Congress, and instructing the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission not to bar employees from providing information to Congress.
You remember all that stuff you heard in civics class about this being a nation of laws, not of men? You might as well forget it. Certainly your president has.
Tom Teepen writes for Cox News Service.
teepencolumn@coxnews.com
posted by Ukulele Man at 11:30 AM
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Saturday, January 20, 2007
hairy Frank Luntz with his pal the "Ethics Tzar" & after Bennet's fall ...
He shaved that man right out of his hair!!!
posted by Ukulele Man at 8:11 PM
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Now, here's a Sophist for you.
Hey Folks,
Frank Luntz was recently interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6761960
I don't know a better example of sophistry. Luntz shamelessly pretends that the manipulation he advocates, enables, and practices - far from being dishonest - is benevolent.
He makes a lot of money and helps heartless vampires understand how best to hoodwink the people into gladly sacrificing themselves to the good of the undead. Listen to his comments on the "death tax," and "gambling" and ask yourself how this is any different than calling the Mafia "the Family" or prostitution "the profession"?
He's all spin designed for manipulation. For Luntz there is no truth, only appearances.
Listen to him and ask, "How does any of this help the people? How does any of this make a better world?" and, finally, "Shouldn't we all kick this guy in the ass?" Er ... maybe I should have said, "Let's put our best foot forward and give this guy a boost?"
Yeah !! That's the ticket !!!
- Uke Man
Frank Luntz was recently interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6761960
I don't know a better example of sophistry. Luntz shamelessly pretends that the manipulation he advocates, enables, and practices - far from being dishonest - is benevolent.
He makes a lot of money and helps heartless vampires understand how best to hoodwink the people into gladly sacrificing themselves to the good of the undead. Listen to his comments on the "death tax," and "gambling" and ask yourself how this is any different than calling the Mafia "the Family" or prostitution "the profession"?
He's all spin designed for manipulation. For Luntz there is no truth, only appearances.
Listen to him and ask, "How does any of this help the people? How does any of this make a better world?" and, finally, "Shouldn't we all kick this guy in the ass?" Er ... maybe I should have said, "Let's put our best foot forward and give this guy a boost?"
Yeah !! That's the ticket !!!
- Uke Man
posted by Ukulele Man at 8:06 PM
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Friday, January 19, 2007
Monkey Boy George - the Missing Link
Skull suggests human-Neanderthal link
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press
Jan 15, 2007
WASHINGTON - A skull found in a cave in Romania includes features of both modern humans and Neanderthals, possibly suggesting that the two may have interbred thousands of years ago.
Neanderthals were replaced by early modern humans. Researchers have long debated whether the two groups mixed together, though most doubt it. The last evidence for Neanderthals dates from at least 24,000 years ago.
The skull bearing both older and modern characteristics is discussed in a paper by Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis. The report appears in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
The skull was found in Pestera cu Oase — the Cave with Bones — in southwestern Romania, along with other human remains. Radiocarbon dating indicates it is at least 35,000 years old and may be more than 40,000 years old.
The researchers said the skull had the same proportions as a modern human head and lacked the large brow ridge commonly associated with Neanderthals. However, there were also features that are unusual in modern humans, such as frontal flattening, a fairly large bone behind the ear and exceptionally large upper molars, which are seen among Neanderthals and other early hominids.
"Such differences raise important questions about the evolutionary history of modern humans," said co-author Joao Zilhao of the University of Bristol, England.
It could reflect a case in which ancient traits reappear in a modern human, or it could indicate a mixture of populations, Zilhao said. Or it simply may be that science hasn't been able to study enough early modern people to understand their diversity.
Dr. Richard Potts of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History noted that the skull represents the earliest modern human ever found in Europe.
It's a big deal in that sense, he said, but the combination of characteristics don't necessarily indicate interbreeding between populations.
Overall there is no strong evidence for mixing of Neanderthal and modern human populations and "this doesn't add any," said Potts, who wasn't part of the research team.
None of the features cited as unusual in modern humans is exclusively Neanderthal, Potts said. Rather, they could be features passed down from earlier populations in Africa.
The field work that uncovered the skull was conducted in 2004 and 2005.
Meanwhile, a research team led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, is trying to map the Neanderthal genome in hopes of better understanding any possible relationship to modern people.
The research was funded by the U.S.
National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Green Foundation, Washington University, the Leakey Foundation, the Portuguese Institute of Archaeology, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Science, the Romanian National Council for Academic Research and the Foundation Fyssen.
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press
Jan 15, 2007
WASHINGTON - A skull found in a cave in Romania includes features of both modern humans and Neanderthals, possibly suggesting that the two may have interbred thousands of years ago.
Neanderthals were replaced by early modern humans. Researchers have long debated whether the two groups mixed together, though most doubt it. The last evidence for Neanderthals dates from at least 24,000 years ago.
The skull bearing both older and modern characteristics is discussed in a paper by Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis. The report appears in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
The skull was found in Pestera cu Oase — the Cave with Bones — in southwestern Romania, along with other human remains. Radiocarbon dating indicates it is at least 35,000 years old and may be more than 40,000 years old.
The researchers said the skull had the same proportions as a modern human head and lacked the large brow ridge commonly associated with Neanderthals. However, there were also features that are unusual in modern humans, such as frontal flattening, a fairly large bone behind the ear and exceptionally large upper molars, which are seen among Neanderthals and other early hominids.
"Such differences raise important questions about the evolutionary history of modern humans," said co-author Joao Zilhao of the University of Bristol, England.
It could reflect a case in which ancient traits reappear in a modern human, or it could indicate a mixture of populations, Zilhao said. Or it simply may be that science hasn't been able to study enough early modern people to understand their diversity.
Dr. Richard Potts of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History noted that the skull represents the earliest modern human ever found in Europe.
It's a big deal in that sense, he said, but the combination of characteristics don't necessarily indicate interbreeding between populations.
Overall there is no strong evidence for mixing of Neanderthal and modern human populations and "this doesn't add any," said Potts, who wasn't part of the research team.
None of the features cited as unusual in modern humans is exclusively Neanderthal, Potts said. Rather, they could be features passed down from earlier populations in Africa.
The field work that uncovered the skull was conducted in 2004 and 2005.
Meanwhile, a research team led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, is trying to map the Neanderthal genome in hopes of better understanding any possible relationship to modern people.
The research was funded by the U.S.
National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Green Foundation, Washington University, the Leakey Foundation, the Portuguese Institute of Archaeology, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Science, the Romanian National Council for Academic Research and the Foundation Fyssen.
posted by Ukulele Man at 10:40 PM
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Manly Michael Manley's Manly Mail
Hey Folks,
I LOVE the psychos who write letters to the Dispatch editor. I LOVE the Dispatch!! They're psycho, too!!
Throughout my entire life they have been printing letters like Michael Manley's (second below), as if they represented the sage wisdom of sane philosophers.
I've always wondered how many of these nuts actually are "out there" in the Columbus cow pasture. Do they represent a considerable percentage of the community? Or does the Dispatch print them disproportionately as a professional courtesy?
They don't usually print my wise-assed responses. Hence, I publish it here.
- Uke Man
To the Editor,
Poor Michael Manley sounded really upset in his recent letter! Maybe Taft and DeWine put extra fluoride in his tap water. Those weenies!
Saints preserve him from the nefarious, socialistic Democrats. They’re the kind who would eat up all the saltines in our Civil Defense bomb shelters, blame the disappearance on rats, and then buy replacement crackers with Michael’s own hard-earned money – some of which they’d surely stuff down the rat holes just for fun. Those gutless wonders!
But thank God for folks like Michael who produce something, folks who “make” rather than “take” and pay taxes so that, for example, unionized postal workers can put waste in their mailboxes.
For that and other reasons, I’ll bet Michael is really popular with the folks at work where – and I’m just guessing – he powers a number of turbines with the steam coming out of his ears.
Yours - Tom Harker
DeWine undeserving of ‘Dispatch’ praise
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
I r
I LOVE the psychos who write letters to the Dispatch editor. I LOVE the Dispatch!! They're psycho, too!!
Throughout my entire life they have been printing letters like Michael Manley's (second below), as if they represented the sage wisdom of sane philosophers.
I've always wondered how many of these nuts actually are "out there" in the Columbus cow pasture. Do they represent a considerable percentage of the community? Or does the Dispatch print them disproportionately as a professional courtesy?
They don't usually print my wise-assed responses. Hence, I publish it here.
- Uke Man
To the Editor,
Poor Michael Manley sounded really upset in his recent letter! Maybe Taft and DeWine put extra fluoride in his tap water. Those weenies!
Saints preserve him from the nefarious, socialistic Democrats. They’re the kind who would eat up all the saltines in our Civil Defense bomb shelters, blame the disappearance on rats, and then buy replacement crackers with Michael’s own hard-earned money – some of which they’d surely stuff down the rat holes just for fun. Those gutless wonders!
But thank God for folks like Michael who produce something, folks who “make” rather than “take” and pay taxes so that, for example, unionized postal workers can put waste in their mailboxes.
For that and other reasons, I’ll bet Michael is really popular with the folks at work where – and I’m just guessing – he powers a number of turbines with the steam coming out of his ears.
Yours - Tom Harker
DeWine undeserving of ‘Dispatch’ praise
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
I r