Chicago!

Back in the day, in my case "the day" may as well be the Bronze Age, there was a rock band so unique, so different, and had no idea how to know when enough is enough just like the jazz bands I love so much. Chicago Transit Authority had horns, three different singers, and put stuff out on their double albums (cuz they had no idea how to rein it in) like 4 minutes of protesters chanting "The Whole World Is Watching" from the 1968 Democratic Convention.

Last night, Max and I spent the last night of 2013's See Em Before They're Dead Tour watching the current lineup of Chicago (no Transit Authority anymore they got sued)play the outdoor site at Harrah's. Unfortunately, the best singer is truly dead (Terry Kath) and the other singer is musically dead (Peter Cetera) so we had to listen to Robert Lamm do his stuff (Beginnings Question 67&68) and pale imitators do the Kath and Cetera stuff.

I would like to say I loved it, but I really can't. I am not a fan of that soft rock that Chicago started doing after Terry Kath exercised his 2nd Amendments rights back on January 23rd,1978 and blew his head off. And to get to the good stuff (Dialogue, Does Anybody Know What Time It Is, Beginnings, 25 or 6 to 4, Make Me Smile, I'm A Man) you had to sit through the lousy stuff (Hard Habit to Break, and anything put out after 1/23/78). Then you had the good stuff sung by people who couldn't do it justice. For instance, my favorite Chicago song is Dialogue, which featured both Kath and Cetera trading lyrics about relevant shit that holds true today (God I've had that conversation from that song so many times) but when done by others it just doesn't cut it. In fact YouTube "Dialogue" from 1972 with the original members. Breathtaking!

Chicago is what they are now. 4 original members , three of whom are horn players and Lamm and if that's good enough for you, great. It just made me miss an enormous talent like Terry Kath more. I truly do put the guy in the list of Top Ten rock singers of all time. The white Ray Charles. In fact, I had to show Max a picture of Kath to prove he was white. Sorry, but Lou Pardini just isn't Kath.

I hate to imply I hated this concert because I didn't. Chrissakes, they jammed to I'm A Man! It was good, but not great and goddammit I like great! RIP, Terry! You were great!

Side story, back in the 70's there was a bar here in Omaha called Chicago Bar I would frequent. It used the band's logo on the front window and one day while the band was in town they drove by the bar and saw the front window. They sued. And the Chicago Bar had to repaint the window. It did not make the Chicago Bar management smile.

Insaney Cheney!

Wyoming is a beautiful state full of fresh air and cool mountains and home to some of the most vile people who ever drew a breath of that fresh air. That, of course, being the Cheney family and anybody who tourists to Jackson Hole. Nah ,that may be a cheap shot at Wyoming because, after all, the Cheneys are really residents of about everywhere else on earth except Wyoming as are the Jackson Hole tourists.

Dick Cheney, born in Lincoln, Nebraska until even THEY ran the heartless prick out of the state and into Wyoming where he was indoctrinated into the Republican state of mind. As soon as this leech could, he left Wyoming and went to Washington DC where he started his career as a bully, a drunkard and a torture enthusiast while carefully avoiding going back to Wyoming, unless he could use the good folk for his own advancement. He did use them and they let him when he ran for that empty state's only Congressional seat and won over and over again. Like they do in Iraq and Russia. Cheney got bored having to go back to Wyoming and putting up with grown men in cowboy hats every now and then and became Secretary of Defense under President George H W Bush, the one who was really bad but nowhere near as bad as his stupid son so we don't think he was that bad. While there, Cheney invaded Panama, and bombed the shit out of Iraq. From there he led defense thieves Haliburton to prominence and moved to Texas ,where he shot a guy who got his face in the way of Cheney's shotgun. While living in Texas, The Dick drove a Texas car, paid Texas taxes and assuredly hollered "hot damn" every now and then. When the stupid Bush was ordered to pick Cheney as his Veep, Cheney ran back to Wyoming and said shit you people are sure hard to find. They call these types "carpetbaggers". Other well know carpetbaggers include Ted Cruz, Chuck Hagel, and Hillary Clinton (yes I can be an equal opportunity basher), however, they have hearts. Proven. Though Cruz's is black.

The spawn of the heartless Dick ,one Liz Cheney, has moved back to Wyoming to attempt to show the dopey folks who live there just how Wyoming-eeeee she is and become their new United States Senator. Though she's lived in Virginia for years, ahhhhhhhh who'd notice? Certainly not a bunch of rubes like Wyoming folk. They'd welcome Liz Cheney back as one of their own even though she was born in that liberal hellhole of Madison, Wisconsin, went to college in that pot smoking Colorado and that Obama loving Chicago and , wait a flippin minute here, has never lived in Wyoming??? What the fuck, Wyoming? You aren't falling for this bullshit are ya?

Wyoming currently has a Republican Senator who will cruise to victory in 2014 against any jeans wearing lamb the Democrats put up. But Liz Cheney has an ego. And a mean streak a mile wide. Wyoming's current Senator is some nobody named Mike Enzi, a guy so conservative he actually still wants a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. But to Liz Cheney, that's not good enough. Liz Cheney looks like that cigarette smoking scotch guzzling barfly with a Noo Yawk accent who would actually ask you to step outside so she could kick your ass for actually challenging her stupid ass views. Wyoming? Please!

But Liz Cheney has gone off the Cheney Nutty Reservation by now claiming she doesnt want the gays to be able to get married. Trouble is her sister, Mary Cheney, is all gay married and shit and even the heartless prick of a father they ahare has has no problem with it. So Liz Cheney, who I think still has a beating heart, thinks her own sister is not good enough to be married. Wow, that's harsh. Even Dick Cheney is pushing his heart beating machine around and shaking his head at his utter failure as a father. You see, he did raise a good Republican conservative nutjob. But he also now knows he raised a complete asshole.

Good job, Dick!

I Have A Nightmare!

I was so disappointed at President Obama's speech today 50 years after Martin Luther King dazzled a crowd, or if you're a Bill Buckley Republican, a mob, with eloquence and grace. Oh no, I wasn't let down by anything he said, I was just pissed that a white park ranger wasn't standing behind him holding an umbrella over his head, like they did for Oprah, so the nutjobs could go crazy again. They are already going nuts claiming that MLK was a Republican and how they, the Republicans, let the Negroes vote and shit (that is until they started voting the wrong way). Jesus, Bill O'Reilly channeled MLK and the Good Reverend and Bill enjoyed a long conversation about how goddamned crushed MLK was because O'Reilly-Land, where chicks know their place, and blacks shined Bill's shoes without complaint, and the homos stayed in the closet, and George Zimmerman would be a hero, never came to fruition. Ahh, Billy, the voices in your head are far more interesting than what spews out of that whiskey hole of yours.

Meanwhile, Rushbo was yakking how MLK would have been a good conservative fellow who would tell the Coloreds to sweep streets like Michelangelo and take out the garbage and how Obama was just up there talking about himself cuz Obama is a ego maniacal uppity Negro. Oh Rushbo, you've been spouting off the same nonsense for 25 years and making millions saying the same fucking thing day after day. Better watch it, Rushie, that Michelangelo was a bit light in the loafers. You're just lucky none of your listeners know who Mike Angelo is.

Fox News couldn't wait to get off that celebration of the day everything started downhill in 'Merica. They were so happy when Rafael Nidal or whatever that Mooslim terrorist at Fort Hood's name is was sentenced to eat the needle. A huge sigh of relief came from Roger Ailes' office in between handjobs from blondes when Fox could go back to Islam bashing. And it stopped the hysterical phone calls from viewers thinking the blacks were forming an army to come take their front porch swings from them.

Matt Drudge, the totally not gay conservative web site vomiter, was outraged that the only black United States Senator, some Herman Cain wannabe from South Carolina named Tim Scott, was not invited to the speech. Yeah like he would have come. Nicki Haley wouldn't have let him off the leash. The totally not queer Drudge also posted links to stories on how few people showed up, how the Supremes were compared to the KKK, how the greedy King family makes money off MLK's deeds and words totally unlike Republicans who inherit Daddy's money, and posted a picture of some guy with a bone in his nose which is completely not racist cuz the guy was actually there.

What else did the wingnuts do during the speech besides whack off to Nailin Palin again? Over at Newsmax, they used this day as an excuse to slander Trayvon Martin again and start that whole clusterfuck argument again eventually steering into the Oklahoma killing and the Spokane killing and then climbing back under their rocks with their assault weapon waiting for the race war they want so bad. Over at RedState, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter's site, they just ignored the story and openly rooted for the United States to lose in Syria, much like they did in Iraq and Afghanistan, once Obama took over to clean up their mess. And oh yeah, at the Westboro Baptist Church site, they still hate fags.

Business as usual.

Fool Me Once.....Fool Me A Hundred Times!

Looks to me like since we're done in Iraq, and everything is so wonderful there, the defense contractors need another war to get that profit margin up and it looks like the game is rigged for Syria. Bashar Al-Assad the rat faced strongman of Syria is engaged is a fight with rebels who want to topple his murderous ass and become the murderous asses themselves. So of course the defense contractors, pulling the strings on the political puppets in Washington, need to pick a side here since it's the sexiest war we got. And that side is.......naturally the worst side. The religious whackjobs who want to put Syrian women in burkas, welcome Al Queda as a good neighbor, and take Syria back to the good old days. The 6th century. Ahhh, the good old days like they had in Afghanistan back when you could take off a Sunday afternoon and go to the stadium to watch the stonings. Hit em again Hit em again harder harder!

The excuse that will be used so we can lob a few multi million dollar cruise missiles into Syria and kill a few people is that Al Assad allegedly used chemical weapons on his own people. Horrific indeed! You wanna kill people, do it like a man, like we do, with non chemical weapons like napalm and cluster bombs and bunker busters and drones and shit. That's the American way. When we kill you, we do it right. America, Fuck Yeah!

There is no doubt this clusterfuck about to happen is a repeat of 2003. What with UN inspectors and chemical weapons and a guy with a mustache we don't like. The only problem here is we used to take years, perhaps a generation to make the same mistake again. Now it takes us like what, a year? Go in, drop a few bombs, kill a few people the good way, send the poor back into a meat grinder, and topple a bad guy so the people can install an even worse asshole.

Yep, way to go. It's happening again. Hey it's not as scandalous as Miley Cyrus, but it sure should be. She stuck her ass where it didn't belong and now we are about to do the same.

Live From The Assisted Living Arena!

There's a guy in the local rag whose job it is to review concerts. The typical review of a band or singer currently drawing crowds (Lil Wayne, Katy Perry) goes as follows:

"The hip young crowd was dancing and singing and loving every second of it"

The typical review for a band playing at a club that holds 500 people that nobody has ever heard of (Matt & Kim, She & Him)goes as follows:

"The hip young crowd was singing and dancing and loving every second of it."

If a band of legends shows up (Dylan, Ozzie) the typical review goes like this:

"Everybody there was really old......."

Fuck him!

Last night two legendary bands came to town and played a three hour marathon of hits that had us old folks singing and dancing when we could get up and off our walkers. The 2013 version of The Guess Who (original member Jim Kale only) and Creedence Clearwater Revisited (original member Stu Cook only)blew the doors off the new arena in Ralston. Yeah, who cares that the original drummer for the Guess Who was sick (well I do hope he gets better actually) and who cares that Doug Clifford of CCR missed his second gig in 50 years due to injury (our luck) cuz these bands played their hits and had everyone in the palm of their hands. Max, perhaps the youngest member of the crowd, got so into it some old hag of maybe 50 asked me, a geezer myself, if I'd forced Max to come? Nope, Granny, he forced me to come cuz the kid digs the oldies. Good for him.

Despite Mister Hipster concert reviewer's snooty opinion that the concert made him "uncomfortable" because he felt like he was watching "tribute bands" and the crowd was so old (maybe he was afraid his CPR skills had slipped) this 3 hour marathon of hits was awesome (is that term still "hip"?). If ya get the chance to see these current versions of these bands at a casino or something, do it. You won't be sorry, unless of course your oxygen runs out while you are moving to Fortunate Son.

Get A Klute!

My goodness this oldie but goodie is swinging around it's irrelevant head again. Jane Fonda,aka Hanoi Jane, is in a movie about a black guy (The Butler) who lived in the White House back before there was a Kenyan Usurper living there and portrays, hold on to your tri corn hats here, Nancy Reagan. Did you say Reagan? Yeah Nancy Reagan, the wife of the sainted Ronnie Reagan. I'll take time now to allow the faint of heart to compose themselves and take a few hits of oxygen.

We good? Cool.

For those of you under the age of ,oh I don't know, about 80, Jane Fonda is an actress. She acts. She gets paid money to act. To be on a stage or in front of a camera pretending to be somebody she's not. You know, like 95% of right wing radio talk show hosts. Jane Fonda's heyday was the 1970's. That's right, the 1970's, back when most of the Tea Party folks were just becoming eligible to get free government money and scooters. The 1970's, when everybody threw keys into a fondue bowl and went home with other people's spouses, people were disco-ing like mad and snorting coke off hooker's asses, wearing tight polyester clothes that would go up in flames at the first touch of a errant cigarette ash, women were burning their bras and Bill O'Reilly was just startin to get down with the chicks! Oh, the 1970's. And Jane Fonda was over-acting her way to two Oscars. The good old days.

But Jane Fonda doesn't start VFW types and 40 year olds who listen to Uncle Joe's boring ass 'Nam stories hair on fire for that crappy Fun With Dick and Jane movie, no sirree Bob. Jane Fonda, in a very strange stooge stage of her life, went to Hanoi in July of 1972, when peace was just about at hand in Vietnam. It was there she called Nixon and Kissinger "war criminals" (yeah so?) and then posed on the seat of an anti-aircraft gun, which was used to shoot at American B52's that were dropping bombs on people. I'm not sure that was all that wise, but nobody ever called Jane Fonda wise. Then she met with American POW's and took messages from them to give to their families back home. Of course, according to the not so bright who believe every e mail they get, she also gave up the messages and the North Vietnamese started beating the shit out of the POW's right in front of a cackling Jane Fonda. Or something like that.

Well anyway, some of these people, still bitter over an illegal and immoral war that ended 40 fucking years ago, don't want you to see The Butler because the traitorous Hanoi Jane is in it. Some theater owner in Kentucky refuses to show it because Jane the Traitor is in it besmirching the legacy of Nancy Reagan, though after looking at this guy I'm not sure he wants "those people" coming to his theater anyway. For the really lonely, there's Facebook pages up denouncing the movie they've never seen where all sorts of not so well thought out and historically inaccurate statements are posted, just like right wing talk radio.

For fuck's sake , in 1985 or 40 years after the end of WW2, nobody gave a shit about Axis Sally or Tokyo Rose (whoooooooo?) why does anybody give a shit what a dumb actress did in 1972. Especially if the dumb actress has apologized hundreds of times for not affecting the war's outcome whatsoever.

Jane Fonda may have been naive' and maybe even stupid in 1972, but in 2013 she has certainly wised up. She told the people who continue to hold on to this 40 year old grudge to "get a life". Really. Please. Before you're dead and the funeral guy can't get the nasty bitter grimace off your mug.

Screw News!

Here's your news for today from the media we protect with an entire Amendment, oh not as important as that Second Amendment, but still pretty damn important. And the people who use it to tell the rest of us what the hell is going on really have no idea what to do with it.

Take Bradley Manning for example. You know, that guy who got 35 years yesterday for stealing classified information and giving it to a sun deprived Aussie who blabbed it all over the place? What did Manning give up? What could happen to the murderers in the name of us he exposed? Is the nation secure? Has anything been done to make people like Manning not be able to steal our shit? Nope!

All day today we get news about some chick named Chelsea Manning who just yesterday was a dude named Bradley Manning. Oh my, the news media has a new obsession. Transgender Leakers. What will happen to poor Chelsea in prison? Will Chelsea get hormone therapy in prison? Will Chelsea become somebody's bitch? Enough of that national security bullshit, let's hear the sexy stuff! Thanks news media. When all those soldiers were dying overseas, well at least in WW2 anyway, they were dying so not only could limpdicks keep their guns, but so you could get on to the important crap when informing the nation of whet the hell is going on!

Now in Right Wing Crazy News. Three black thugs murdered a white Australian not named Julian Assange in Oklahoma because they were bored and hated whitey. So when Aussie Chris Lane goes out to jog and mind his own fucking business, the thuggish blacks shoot him in the back because that's what blacks do. Three blacks kill a white guy!!! Where's Obama now??? Huh? Oh, one of them is white? So two black thugs murder a white guy! Where's Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and Barack Hussein Obama now? Huh huh?? It's just like the Zimmerman case everybody got all pissed off about so why isn't that same bunch of agitators saying anything now?? Huh?

Well I'll tell you the difference there, poor oppressed white folk. When they caught these three killers in Oklahoma for shooting an innocent guy for simply living his life, the cops didn't shake their fucking hands, tell em everything was all right and send 'em home to watch Judge Judy. Nope, they threw their worthless asses in jail and charged them with murder.

And if you still don't understand the difference here, go make more genius comments on Fox Nation and go out for a jog.