Is the right wing for real?

There is lots of discussion in the lefty news sites about the demise of the Republican Party, and therefore the right wing in general. I tend to dismiss such prognostications. Leftists love their pipe dreams. But I see Joe the Plumber keeps popping up. First he was challenging Obama on being taxed because sharing the wealth is communism (only to find out he and his family spent some time on welfare when he was young and he credits this with giving him a chance in life), he then gets asked to go to Israel and cover the bombing of Gaza and comes back with gems like "I don't think reporters should cover the war." Now he's being invited to a GOP congressional staffers planning meeting (The Conservative Working Group) and being advertised as an expert on the stimulus package. I'm starting to think the Republican Party might really be done.

My new year's resolution is well underway

I am keeping up with my resolution of an album a day so far. It is much funner than I thought it would be. And it has me excited about listening to music in a way that I haven't been excited in a long time. I have a diversity so far, some folk, old punk, latin, and modern rock/electropop. You can find them at:

http://www.albumadayreview/blogspot.com

Give me some suggestions as to what to review. I'm open for suggestions

New Years resolution (an album a day)

I have an ambitious new year's resolution. After not having been super excited about a lot of new music lately, I think that maybe I'm not out there looking hard enough. So my new year's resolution will be to listen to and review an album every day for the next year. There are no limitations. It doesn't have to be a new album, there are lots of classic albums I've never listened to. So, beginning on Jan 1st, I will post my first album review. The Portland music scene alone provides a plethora of opportunity, so I think there will be a lot of local music that will get reviewed. But also, I will peruse the Rolling Stone's list of greatest albums, and find out what I've been missing. It seems like an ambitious undertaking, but if I make it the entire year, I will have discovered some amazing new music, and older music as well. If anyone has any suggestions for albums I should listen to, the list is being made.

UPDATE: As I think about this I need to make some ground rules. The albums must be as originally released, so no greatest hits or compilations. Any genre, bluegrass to country to pop to metal.

The economy tanks

From The Corner (National review online),

"If on the other hand the economy sinks deeper and deeper into trouble (the best bet), it will as a writer for the Financial Times recently noted, be transformed from Obama's friend into his enemy and, at the same time, the GOP's key focus."

That's right, we should hope the economy gets worse, so the right will have some talking point.

We already know what to look for here.

Prop 2 update

It looks like Proposition 2 in California is doing well, with the latest poll showing 72% in favor of and 10% against. As far as animal welfare goes this is a pretty mild measure, it bans cages for breeding sows, nesting chickens and veal calves. There must be enough room for these animals to do things like stand up, turn around and spread their wings. My question is, who are the 10% who think this is unreasonable?

Wall-E

Katie and I went to see Wall-E last night. This must be the most subversive Disney film ever produced. A post-industrial landscape where human's can no longer survive, all of creation is controlled by a single corporation (Buy n Large), and humans, having been relegated to a space station, are really just a nuisance as machines go about controlling the society. The only role of humans is just to consume whatever BnL tells them to, they've even forgotten how to walk, as they move around on hover chairs that control where they go and when. If it wasn't for a sweet love story about two robots (one of whom creates cities out of compacted trash on Earth), this might have been one of the most stark and depressing views of human's impact on our natural environment. And it is amazing to watch from a visual perspective.

McCain's final at bat

It seems that McCain's new (and last) line will be that one party control of the White House and Congress is too risky. He has some historical evidence on his side. The last time this happened, 2001-2007, the US entered into two disastrous wars, shredded the constitution and ruined the economy. But really what is there left to destroy after the republican years.