Fiscal train wreck on the horizon

From the Wall Street Journal:

“Interest on the nation’s borrowing is a big and growing budget item, one that cannot be cut except by slashing the debt itself. The $168 billion in annual payments, much of it to overseas holders of Treasury bonds, represents just over 7 percent of the federal spending. That’s more than the government will spend on education, housing, transportation, science, space and technology combined.”

The same article goes on to say that about 85 percent of the government’s $2.3 trillion in spending this year is untouchable by public consensus. That includes the 20 percent that goes toward defense (an area which has increased by 55 percent under President Bush). The war and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are running about $5 billion a month.

And Bush wants to borrow another $2 trillion to finance his Social Security privatization scheme at the same time that he is pushing Congress to make his huge tax cuts for the wealthy permanent.

50 Great Songs

Here are 50 Great Songs that didn’t make the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs list that came out last month.


1. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police
2. Do You Feel Like I Do - Peter Frampton
3. Don’t Look Back - Boston
4. Barracuda - Heart
5. Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller Band
6. Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry
7. Juke Box Hero - Foreigner
8. Tom Sawyer - Rush
9. Photograph - Def Leppard
10. Legs - ZZ Top
11. Jump - Van Halen
12. Rich Girl - Hall & Oates
13. Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel
14. Will The Wolf Survive - Los Lobos
15. Freeze Frame - J. Geils Band
16. Another One Bites The Dust - Queen
17. Living On A Prayer - Bon Jovi
18. Black Magic Woman - Santana
19. Give It Away - Red Hot Chili Peppers
20. Turn To Stone - ELO
21. Takin’ Care of Business - Bachman Turner Overdrive
22. Get Lucky - Loverboy
23. Radar Love - Golden Earring
24. YMCA - The Village People
25. Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
26. Crazy On You - Heart
27. Gimme All Your Lovin’ - ZZ Top
28. Centerfold - J. Geils Band
29. You Got Lucky - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
30. Just What I Needed - The Cars
31. You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
32. We Got The Beat - The Go Gos
33. Who Are You - The Who
34. Like A Virgin - Madonna
35. What I Like About You - The Romantics
36. Just The Way You Are - Billy Joel
37. Running With The Devil - Van Halen
38. Thriller - Michael Jackson
39. Under Pressure - Queen w/ David Bowie
40. Spirits In The Material World - The Police
41. Band On The Run - Wings
42. Yellow Submarine - The Beatles
43. Whip It - Devo
44. Start Me Up - The Rolling Stones
45. Sowing The Seeds Of Love - Tears For Fears
46. Time - Pink Floyd
47. LA Woman - The Doors
48. Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder
49. Spinning Wheel - Blood, Sweat and Tears
50. Remedy - The Black Crowes

Greatest Hits collections

CNN has a list of what they deem to be the best of the Best Ofs
or the greatest Greatest Hits collections available on single discs.

Let me just say right off that their selections are awful. Yuck! I would throw out half of them in a heartbeat. You know something is wrong when they select as the very top greatest hits collection “Echo and the Bunnymen.” Their list is chock full of 80’s era New Wave Euro-Pop junk. Some of their other favorites that I would discard include:

The Cure
The Smiths
Siouxsie and the Banshees
New Order
A Tribe Called Quest
Gang of Four
The Cramps
The Buzzcocks
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Pet Shop Boys
The Jam
The Pixies
Blur
Depeche Mode
XTC
The Specials

Their list isn’t all bad. Here are some that they get right:

"Changesbowie," David Bowie (1990)
"Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)," the Rolling Stones (1966)
"Endless Summer," the Beach Boys (1974)
"Chronicle, Vol. 1," Creedence Clearwater Revival (1976)
"Smash Hits," Jimi Hendrix (1969)
"Legend," Bob Marley (1984)
"The Very Best of Prince," Prince (2001)
"Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy," the Who (1971)
"20 All-Time Greatest Hits!," James Brown (1991)
"ELV1S 30 #1 Hits," Elvis Presley (2002)
"Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits," Bob Dylan (1967)
"1," the Beatles (2000)
"The Great Twenty-Eight," Chuck Berry (1982)
"Greatest Hits," Aerosmith (1980)
"Greatest Hits," Elton John (1974)
"Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You Edition," Queen (2004)
"Greatest Hits," the Doors (1996)
"Number Ones," Michael Jackson (2003)
"Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be)," Willie Nelson (1981)
"Eponymous," R.E.M. (1988)

And they at least give honorable mentions to:

"The Best of 1980-1990," U2 (1998)
"Complete Greatest Hits," the Cars (2002)
"Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)," the Eagles (1976)
"The Very Best of Otis Redding, Vol. 1," Otis Redding (1992)

One problem with their list is that they limit it to single disc collections. I can understand not including big pricey box sets, but two-disc sets should not be off limits. By including two-disc collections we can pick up a number of other great sets like:

The Bee Gees Greatest
Rush - Chronicles
Neil Young: Decade
Billy Joel: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Gold and Platinum

And I’m sure there are many others.
But since they filled their list with so many throwaway New Wave and Punk groups they left no room for:

Bruce Springsteen
The Police
ZZ Top
Van Halen
The Band
Heart
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Ray Charles
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
John Mellencamp
Van Morrison
Rod Stewart
Stevie Wonder
Hall & Oates
Simon & Garfunkel
James Taylor
Roy Orbison
Peter Gabriel
Johnny Cash
ELO
Buddy Holly
Cheap Trick
Smashing Pumpkins
Los Lobos
The Black Crowes
Deep Purple
Boston
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Bon Jovi
Genesis
Buffalo Springfield
Billy Squier
Gordon Lightfoot
Jim Croce
Talking Heads
REO Speedwagon
Rick Springfield
Santana
Lyle Lovett
Dwight Yoakum
John Denver
Eric Clapton
Foreigner
The B-52s
Asia
The Kingston Trio
The Doobie Brothers
INXS
Loverboy
Little Richard
Sting
Neil Diamond
Jerry Jeff Walker


OK, I’ll stop now.

33 Questions

I swiped this from Keri at 500 Miles From Nowhere and she swiped it from someone else.


1) WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR BEDROOM WALLS?
White, but my wife wants them painted soon.
2) WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
“The Discoverers” By Daniel J. Boorstin
3) WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Star Trek
4) FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
I always liked Trivial Pursuit. Haven’t played it in ages, though.
5) FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
The New Yorker
6) FAVORITE SMELL?
Vanilla
7) FAVORITE COLOR?
Maroon
8) LEAST FAVORITE COLOR?
Burnt orange
9) HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE PICKS UP?
Four or five I think. I’m always having to talk over the answering machine before folks hang up.
10) MOST IMPORTANT MATERIAL THING IN MY LIFE?
My house and my lot which backs up to a lovely green belt.
11) FAVORITE FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM?
French vanilla
12) DO YOU BREAK THE SPEED LIMIT DAILY?
Who doesn’t?
13) DO YOU HAVE A STUFFED ANIMAL IN YOUR ROOM SOMEWHERE?
Yes. They’re everywhere!!
14) STORMS - COOL OR SCARY?
Very cool. Especially those fantastic lightning shows off in the distance.
15) FAVORITE DRINK?
Vanilla Coke
16) WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY?
July 5
17) FAVORITE VEGETABLES?
Tomatoes, sliced and covered with fresh mozzarella.
18) IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
An editorial columnist. Then I could inflict my views on a huge audience every week.
19) IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY COLOR HAIR, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
My hair started turning gray when I hit 30, but I’m perfectly OK with it. Really.
20) HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE?
Non-stop since 1990.
21) TOP THREE FAVORITE MOVIES (NOT IN ORDER because I couldn't possibly pick an order)? (AKA Movies I can watch over and over) And this changes on a regular basis...
Back To The Future
The Court Jester
Lord of the Rings
22) DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS?
Yep!
23) WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
The cat whenever he’s done something bad.
24) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER?
5
25) FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH ON TV & IN PERSON?
Baseball
26) WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE BIGGEST FEAR?
Bush getting re-elected. Oops! Time to pick a new one.
27) FAVORITE CD OF ALL TIME/RIGHT NOW?
All time: Ken Burn’s Jazz
Right Now: The Rolling Stones: Exiles on Main Street
28) FAVORITE TV SHOW OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW?
All time: Star Trek/X-Files
Right now: Lost
29) HAMBURGERS OR HOT DOGS?
Lot of good hamburger places here.
30) THE COOLEST PLACES YOU'VE EVER BEEN?
I like big cities with lots of history! New York, Boston, Chicago.
31) WHAT WALLPAPER AND/OR SCREENSAVER IS ON YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW?
My son sitting in Santa’s lap.
32) DOES MCDONALD'S SKIMP ON YOUR FRIES & DO YOU CARE?
Nope and not really.
33) FAVORITE CHAIN RESTAURANT?
Mamacita’s. They have the best chicken flautas made with flour tortillas.

Some movie reviews

I, Robot

Maybe some day there will be a movie called “Isaac Asimov’s ‘I, Robot’”
This movie was so far removed from the story that Asimov told that they dared not even say “Based on the book by ...” in the credits. Instead, they say “Suggested by a book by Isaac Asimov.”
About the only things the book and the movie share is the reference to Asimov’s famous Laws of Robotics, which are spelled out at the beginning of the film.

That being said, however, this was not a bad movie. It’s by no means a classic, but it is a decent B-movie action flick and worth the price of a rental at the least. Will Smith plays a futuristic cop chasing down rouge robots with the same zeal that he showed chasing aliens in the Men in Black movies. I enjoyed picking out the Chicago landmarks I saw this summer from the futuristic cityscape designed for the movie.

Hidalgo

This is a premature review because I haven’t finished watching the movie. I bought a used copy from Hollywood Video a while back and we just sat down last night and watched the first part of it. So far it has been pretty good, I was looking forward to seeing Viggo Mortensen in his first film since “Lord of the Rings,” but I was immediately struck by the plot similarities with Tom Cruise’s “The Last Samurai.”
Both films are set in the post-Civil War era and feature a protagonist who is profoundly changed after witnessing a U.S. Army massacre of an unarmed Indian village. Both protagonists then become alcoholics and wind up as performers in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Then they each decide to seek out a new path by facing challenges in a foreign country: Tom Cruise goes to China and Viggo Mortensen goes to Saudi Arabia.
Hopefully, this is where the similarities end and I will enjoy the rest of the movie.

Defending Donald Rumsfeld

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, long a pariah of the left, is now taking flak from the political right. Recently he has been harshly criticized by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi and Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
Despite Bush’s efforts to defend Rumsfeld, his support is continuing to erode and now a new poll shows 52 percent want him out.

Now, I agree that Rumsfeld should be out on his rear due to the awful miscalculations and mismanagment of the war in Iraq. But then so should the entire Bush administration starting with our Incompetent Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush.
Unfortunately, when we had an opportunity to do just that a little more than a month ago, 51 percent of my fellow citizens chose to send this same crew back to Washington for four more years. So what good would it do to replace Rumsfeld now, when all he is doing is following the orders set out by Bush and Co.? If people are finally acknowledging that things aren’t going as smoothly in Iraq as they could or should be, they need to look further than Rumsfeld to lay the blame. Something has to change besides just the people carrying out the administration’s marching orders.

Disney’s rise and fall and rise and fall and rise and fall...

Disney shut
down its traditional animation studio earlier this year essentially
conceding that the future belongs to computer animation.
The last big Disney release in the traditional style was “Home on the Range”
which did mediocre at the Box Office ($50 million), slightly less than
”Brother Bear” ($85 million) which had preceded it.
Disney has been on a downward
slide since the peak of its latest animation renneissance with “The
Lion King” ($328 million) in 1994. The next year, “Pocohantas” pulled in
less than half that amount ($141 million) and in 1996 “The Hunchback of
Notre Dame” just barely made it across the $100 million mark. Even worse,
1997’s “Hercules” couldn¹t even break into triple digits, stalling at $99
million and becoming the first major Disney animated release to miss that
mark since 1990’s “The Rescuers Down Under.”
”Mulan” did slightly better in 1998 ($120 million) as did “Tarzan” in 1999
($171 million), but none were breaking box office records like Disney
executives had hoped.
In the meantime, Pixar’s computer animated films like “Toy Story” ($191
million), “A Bug¹s Life” ($162 million) and “Toy Story II” ($245 million)
were mopping up at the box office.
So Disney tried to revamp its formula, first with a hipper, cutting edge comedy “The Emperor’s New Groove” ($89 million) and then with the modernistic “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” ($84 million). Then it looked like they were finally heading back in the right direction with the minor hit “Lilo & Stitch” ($145 million). But Pixar had just released ”Monsters Inc.” ($255 million) and Disney’s next film was the hugely disappointing “Treasure Planet” which made a paltry $38 million.
That is probably when the Disney executives decided to pull the plug. They went ahead and let the last two films in the pike finish up and then they canned their animation staff.

I think that will prove to be a big mistake. This is not the first time Disney went through a downturn with its animation pictures. The first golden period started right at the beginning with “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” in 1937. This was followed by a string of hits that are now classics including “Fantasia” and “Pinocchio” in 1940, “Dumbo” in 1941 and “Bambi” in 1942. But things fell off during the latter part of the decade when the most memorable film was probably “Song of the South” in 1946.
But Disney bounced back with another string of hits in 1950 beginning with “Cinderella”, followed by “Alice in Wonderland” (1951), “Peter Pan” (1953), “Lady and the Tramp” (1955) and “Sleeping Beauty” (1959). This strong period carried into the 1960s with “101 Dalmations” (1961), “Mary Poppins” (1964) and “The Jungle Book” (1967).
But then things fell off once again and there was another long period with few hit movies until the studio hit its stride once more beginning with “The Little Mermaid” in 1989, “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991 and “Aladdin” in 1992 leading up to “The Lion King.”
If Disney’s current executives would just be patient I’m sure the studio would strike another vein of gold before long. But now they may have gone and killed the goose that was laying the golden eggs.

Missing Movies - 2004

I’ve been pretty remiss in my movie watching this year. I guess being a new parent had somethingto do with it.
I’ve only seen two movies in the theater this year - Spider Man II and National Treasure. But what is most surprising to me is that I have only seen six movies overall that were released in 2004:

Spider Man II
National Treasure
Shrek II
Fahrenheit 9/11
Around the World in 80 Days
Laws of Attraction

That’s it. Don’t ask me about Academy Awards this year. I haven’t a clue. Oh, I guess I could make an educated guess based on what I’ve read, but I haven’t seen anything that will get more than a couple of technical nominations.
I wasn’t quite this bad in 2003, but I was close. I’ve since caught up on most of the 2003 films I wanted to see and I likewise will probably see most of the 2004 movies in ‘05.

Following is my annual End of Year List of Movies I Still Want To See:

Finding Neverland
The Aviator
Million Dollar Baby
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The Incredibles
Bourne Supremacy
Ray
I, Robot
Troy
Van Helsing
Collateral
Polar Express
The Terminal
Hidalgo
Ladder 49
The Manchurian Candidate
Friday Night Lights
Hell Boy
King Arthur
Home on the Range
Ocean’s Twelve
Sky Captain
Alexander
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Alamo
Kinsey
De-Lovely
Closer
The Passion of the Christ
The Day After Tomorrow
Shark Tale
Dodge Ball
Starsky & Hutch
Secret Window


Update

So as not to seem like I have seen no movies this year, here are the 2003 films that I saw in 2004:

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Finding Nemo
Matrix Revolutions
Seabiscuit
Master and Commander
The Last Samurai
Freaky Friday
Cold Mountain
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Love Actually
Lost in Translation
Under the Tuscan Sun
Secondhand Lions
Whale Rider

The more things change...

The Wall Street Journal on Monday had a Page 1 feature story about the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. The reason for the story is to report the alarming news that the Corps is facing big changes being pushed by the new commandant Lt. Gen. John Van Alstyne.
The only problem with the story (which unfortunately is not available online) is that it could have been written when I was there 20 years ago. The Corps is always undergoing big changes.
Here is what Van Alstyne is demanding: He wants the cadets to spend more time studying and less time hazing freshmen. That's not any different. They have always stressed studying and have tried various methods of getting cadet grades up. When I was there we had three hours a night of enforced study time. If you had a big test the next day you were allowed to sleep in and skip morning formation. The cadets with the highest grades usually got the best assignments and were promoted higher than the rest.
The article claims that cadets get up at 5 a.m. every morning and go on runs. I recall setting my alarm for 6 a.m. and morning runs were only done once a week and were a good excuse to get out of going to morning formation. It is true that some cadets wouldn't get enough sleep and would doze off in class, but the smart ones would not schedule early morning classes and would go back to bed for a couple of hours after morning formation.
The article also notes that Van Alstyne cracked down on some cadets who were caught paddling underclassmen with axe handles. But that practice was forbidden when I was there and would have earned a suspension even back then.
I always thought the Corps changed significantly between my freshman and sophomore years. That was the year that a cadet who had concealed a heart condition from his superiors collapsed and died after a morning workout session. The commandant's office at the time came down pretty hard on us. Suddenly we were not allowed to make freshmen do more than a dozen push-ups at a time. We had to allow them to eat their meals - no more "fish bites" which meant three chews and swallow. Old Army was dead!
But in reality the Corps was still the Corps. Little things like that change all the time but the important things stay the same. This reporter obviously listened to too many old Ags who can't see the forest for the trees. When I read the story I see things haven't really changed that much after all.

Planting a legitimate question

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was put on the spot last week during a Q&A session with soldiers about to go into Iraq when one of the troops asked the following question:

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?"

The question garnered cheers from the troops and proved a major embarrassment to Rumsfeld and the Bush administration.
But now the Pentagon is questioning whether the question was appropriate because it was apparently “planted” by a reporter who was embedded with the troops.

I don’t believe the reporter did anything wrong in this instance and the very fact that the Bush administration is raising this as an issue is simply an effort on their part to skirt the issue and divert attention from their own malfeasance and irresponsible handling of the Iraq war.
It is not like the reporter in question forced the soldier to ask a question that he wasn’t willing to ask himself. In fact, the question was based on concerns expressed by many soldiers that the reporter had come across while being embedded with their unit. The fact that the question garnered applause from the rest of the troops after it was asked bears this out.
Also, the fact that the question was crafted by the reporter and may not have been in the soldier’s own words shouldn’t make it any less credible. Otherwise we should probably question just about everything that comes out of President Bush’s mouth since most of what he says is pre-scripted for him by a White House speechwriter.

GOP-style democracy - only Republican votes count

How is it that a bill with wide popular support that ultimately passed the House by a margin of 336 to 75 was almost derailed by a couple of Republican committee chairmen last week?
Answer: The Republican’s new rule that says that 49 percent of the people in the United States no longer matter.

”Speaker Dennis Hastert last week enunciated a policy in which Congress will pass bills only if most House Republicans back them, regardless of how many Democrats favor them.
Hastert's position is the latest step in a decade-long process of limiting Democrats' influence and running the House virtually as a one-party institution. Republicans earlier barred House Democrats from helping to draft major bills such as the 2003 Medicare revision and this year's intelligence package. Hastert (R-Ill.) now says such bills will reach the House floor, after negotiations with the Senate, only if "the majority of the majority" supports them.”

Yes, that’s correct. Under the new rules established by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and his puppet, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, the only votes that matter in the House from now on are Republican votes. If you have a Democrat representing your interests in Congress then you do not matter.
How does this work? Simple. As Speaker of the House, Hastert can control which bills will be allowed to come to the floor of the House for a vote. The new DeLay/Hastert rule says that only bills with majority support among Republicans will pass that threshold. Isn’t that swell?
So even if a bill has broad support across the House - like the Intelligence Reform bill did - it can be held up by a handful of Republican chairmen and their little cadre of supporters. A bill that has the support of a majority of Democrats and a minority of Republicans would easily pass the overall House with a wide majority, but those bills will never see the light of day under the new rule.
If the Democrats had used this kind of petty partisanship when they were in the majority we would not have a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which passed with more Republican votes than Democratic votes.
As congressional scholar Norman Ornstein notes, the new "majority of the majority" maxim, is a disastrous recipe for tackling domestic issues such as entitlement programs and the deficit. But this is what we have to look forward to until the grownups can finally take charge again.
In the meantime, welcome to our new and improved Republican-style democracy. Yippee!

My favorite Christmas music

Ray Conniff Singers
Originally uploaded by mwthomas87.

I got my Christmas lights up, bought a tree and dug out all the Christmas music this past weekend. I've got more Christmas music than I can possibly listen to during a single holiday season, but like most people I have my favorites that must be played before it can truly be a traditional Christmas.
Here are some of my Christmas music essentials:


1. Ray Conniff and the Ray Conniff Singers, We Wish You a Merry Christmas:

This was one my parents had on reel-to-reel tape when I was growing up. When I went to college I found a copy on record and later bought it on cd. Whenever I put this music on I am immediately transported back to my earliest recollections of Christmas past. It is wonderfully rich, well-orchestrated music with a large choir doing their own takes on popular Christmas carols. "Ring Christmas Bells" is especially powerful. I'm sure my sentimental attachment to this music is the main reason it tops my list, but it is still very good by all accounts.

2. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Christmas Album:

Another reel-to-reel tape from my parents' collection that I have made my own. It definitely has that '60s time stamp on it, but that does not detract in any way from the wonderful music. I'm not sure who does the singing on this album, but their version of The Christmas Song will always be the first one that pops into my head so my apologies to Mel Torme and Nat King Cole.

3. Bing Crosby, White Christmas:

For the longest time this was the only Bing Crosby music I was familiar with, but it was always an integral part of every Christmas. Now, of course, I am a complete Bing fanatic and listen to all of his music year round. But I still have to come back to this album every year for more than just sentimental reasons.


4. Elvis Presley, Elvis' Christmas Album:

It would certainly be a Blue Christmas without Elvis. I'm not sure who does a better job on "I'll Be Home For Christmas", Elvis or Bing, but they both certainly sing the heck out of that song. This may not be the best Elvis Christmas album but it is the one that I have right now.


5. Mannheim Steamroller, Christmas:

I have all of the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music, but this is the first one that kicked everything off in 1984. I remember it was a real revelation when it came out - mixing old renniassance-style acoustic music with then-cutting edge electronic synthesizers and orchestral arrangements.

6. The Chieftains, The Bells of Dublin:

A master work by the Irish folk band that became an instant holiday classic. Should be in everyone's collection.

7. Vince Guaraldi Trio, A Charlie Brown Christmas:

Iâ??ve not found too many jazz Christmas albums that stick with me, but this one certainly does. The TV special is classic in its own right, but the music takes it to a whole other level and stands on its own.

8. Harry Connick Jr., When My Heart Finds Christmas:

I picked this one up a few years ago when I was looking for some new Christmas music and it has stood the test of time. Some great original tunes interspersed with classics with a jazzy-pop twist.

9. Tony Bennett, Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album:

See above.

10. Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Christmas Eve and Christmas Attic:

A real treat. See these folks live if you ever get the chance. Kind of like Mannheim Steamroller but with electric guitars and a rock opera feel.

Alamo City Crossfire

My first post is now up at Alamo City Crossfire, the new blog set up to host debates on a variety of topics by a group of San Antonio-based bloggers.
The first topic up for discussion is the death penalty. Alamo City Commando who pilots the Express-News Watch blog will be posting the pro-death penalty argument in the next few days.
So check it out and remember that feedback and comments are welcome.

A rare reprieve

Gov. Rick Perry has stopped the execution of Frances Newton that was scheduled for Wednesday evening, agreeing with a rare recommendation from the parole board that she should be temporarily spared from lethal injection for the slayings of her husband and two children.
I don’t know much about the case, but here is some background info.
Newton claims to be innocent and blames the crime on a drug dealer. New tests that can be performed on gun powder residue may shed more light on the case. However, my opposition to the death penalty does not depend on the person’s guilt or innocence. I think it is wrong in either case.

Tonight I will be attending a lecture by Sister Helen Prejean at Travis Park United Methodist Church. Prejean is the nun who inspired the movie “Dead Man Walking” in which she was portrayed by Susan Sarandon. It should be interesting.

Later I will have more to say about the death penalty...

Cabinet shuffle

Bush’s first-term cabinet is continuing to drop like flies with the latest being Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. That brings the official total of cabinet vacancies to seven, but there are still question marks hanging over several other positions including Treasury.
Here is the tally so far:

Gone:

Agriculture - Ann Veneman
Commerce - Don Evans (Carlos Gutierrez)
Education - Rod Paige (Margaret Spellings)
Energy - Spencer Abraham
Homeland Security - Tom Ridge
Justice - John Ashcroft (Alberto Gonzales)
State - Colin Powell (Condoleezza Rice)

Hanging by a thread:

Treasury - John Snow
Health and Human Services - Tommy Thompson

Still here:

Defense - Donald Rumsfeld
Veterans - Anthony Principi
Labor - Elaine Chao
Transportation - Norman Mineta
Interior - Gale Norton
Housing - Alphonso Jackson (took over for Mel Martinez when he ran for the U.S. Senate)

The latest rumor is that former Texas Senator Phil Gramm will replace Snow at Treasury... And so the nightmare continues...

Answers, I’ve got answers

From the comments in the previous post:

From Alan:

Q1: What about politics do you enjoy?

I probably got interested in politics because I enjoyed debate and public speaking when I was in grade school and it seemed like a logical place to go with those skills. But once I went into journalism it was my experience seeing how directly politics impacted people’s lives that really got me hooked.
For example, I wrote a story 12 years ago while working for a small paper in Connecticut about how one of the small towns I was covering - Westbrook - was being dragged into a lawsuit over a hazardous waste cleanup mess in Rhode Island. As I was looking into the story I learned that there was legislation pending in Congress that would have resolved the problem but it was being held up. The citizens of Westbrook had participated in a hazardous waste cleanup a couple of years earlier and had used a private company to collect the waste and take it to a disposal site. But the company that had collected the materials had gone out of business after leaving the materials at a site in Rhode Island that was later declared a toxic waste hazard because of other materials left by large corporate polluters. As it turned out, the bill that would have exempted municipalities that had followed all the proper state and federal procedures from any legal liability had been stalled when my favorite U.S. Senator - Phil Gramm of Texas - had decided to showboat his balanced budget amendment by hijaking the bill and attempting to insert his language into it. So, seven communities in Connecticut were being threatened with huge legal bills because Phil Gramm was using this legislation - which he didn’t care about one way or the other - to try and make an unrelated political point. Facinating stuff. And I was the only one who tied it all together and reported on it.

Q2: What is the single most positive life-changing event in your life?

Without a doubt that would be the birth of my son, Nathan. Suddenly life takes on a whole new meaning.
Before that it would have been meeting my wife, and before that probably my decision to join the Corps at Texas A&M.

Q3: What makes a liberal a liberal?

Interesting question. Most liberals today might better be described as conservatives because they are trying to conserve established programs such as Social Security, Medicare, a progressive income tax, legal abortion, health and safety regulations, the environment and so forth. Meanwhile conservatives would more aptly be described as radicals today because of their efforts to change, alter or eliminate those same programs.
Liberals are often tied to the idea of big government. This is because our bleeding hearts are always forcing us to stand up for the little guy who has been trampled under foot by the dominant majority. And big government is the best and most effective means for protecting the rights of those minorities. If we had left it all up to state’s rights advocates we would still have pockets of legalized segregation to this day.
Folks who want to bash big governement should consider the biggest and most liberal government entity we have today - the U.S. military. We don’t pretend to try and protect ourselves with 50 different state militias. And we don’t do it on the cheap, either. If our military can be the best in the world by taking this course, then why not our education system or our health care system?


From Robert:

(B).1. Who *really* wears the pants in the family?

That would be the guy in the No. 4 diapers. He definitely calls the shots these days.

(B).2. What Third World country would you like to visit, and why?

That would have been a tough one before Thanksgiving, but now it is easy. Brazil.
After seeing the pictures my friends Sean and Arlene took during their recent trip down there it is definitely a place I would like to visit. First, Rio de Janeiro is beautiful with the beach that the Girl from Impanema still frequents. But then further inland you can find one of the great wonders of the world - a series of magnficent waterfalls that makes the Niagra Falls in New York look tiny by comparison.

(B).3. What satisfies you most about writing?

A well-turned phrase has always delighted me. There is something very satisfying about putting thoughts and ideas down on paper in such a manner that makes other people want to remember it. In fact, I can think of few things in this life more important than imparting your thoughts and ideas to other people. If you are not communicating then you are not living life to its fullest.
Plus I guess I like seeing my work in print after its done. It’s that small ego trip that makes up for the pitifully small paychecks that we writers get.

Audience participation

This was taken from Robert at Beginner's Mind :

(A) First, recommend to me:
1. a movie
2. a book
3. a musical artist, song, or album

(B) I want everyone who reads this to ask me three questions, no more, no less. Ask me anything you want.

(C) Then I want you to go to your blog/journal, copy and paste this allowing your friends to ask you anything & say that you stole it from me.

Comic suggestions

The San Antonio Express-News has a fairly decent comics selection although it still leaves a lot to be desired.
By my count they have 45 regular comics features - 39 on the two-page comics section, two that have been pushed over to the Advice page, Dilbert that runs in the Business section and three that are relegated to the Editorial page - Doonesbury, Mallard Fillmore and locally-based Nacho Guarache.

Of these there are about a dozen that I read regularly even on a busy day and a few more I might skim if I have a little more time. They include:

For Better or For Worse
Curtis
Rose is Rose
Luann
Zits
Fox Trot
Garfield
Get Fuzzy
One Big Happy
Non Sequitur
The Piranha Club
Doonesbury

If I have time I may also read:

Baby Blues
Jump Start
Baldo
Mutts
Bizarro
Sally Forth
Classic Peanuts
and Dilbert

And on rare occasion I may also skim:

Blondie
Beetle Bailey
B.C.
Wizard of Id
Cathy
Pickles
Mother Goose and Grimm
Frank-n-Ernest
and Family Circus

Strips that can go away as far as I’m concerned include:

The Lockhorns
The Quigmans
Born Loser
Broom Hilda
Willy-n-Ethel
Amazing Spider Man
Marmaduke
Marvin
Hi & Lois
Hagar the Horrible
Dennis the Menace
Fred Bassett
and Grand Avenue

If the E-N would clear off some of the dead wood from its comics page it could make room for some far superior strips. Here are a few of the very best that I try to read everyday online:

Big Nate
Monty
Pibgorn
Rudy Park
Heart of the City
Preteena
Drabble

They might also consider adding a couple of liberal strips like:

The Boondocks
La Cucaracha

to balance out the right-wing troika of Mallard/Nacho/Prickly City that currently goes up against Doonesbury.

Privatization boondoggle

Wow, this is like stepping back into a time machine. The Kerr County Commissioners are bidding to purchase the juvenile detention center in Kerrville.

I was writing about this story 10 years ago when I was a reporter at the Kerrville Daily Times. Back then there was this company called Rehabilitation and Corrections Corp. or Recor that was proposing to build a private juvenile facility for $2.5 million and pay for it by bringing in juveniles from all over the region. At the time I was highly skeptical of the proposal especially since the state was saying it would not reimburse counties at the rates that Recor was planning to charge.
But privatization was the big thing back then and Republicans were touting it as the answer to every problem, so they went ahead with the plan.

I have no idea what all took place during the interim. Recor is apparently long gone - I can find nary a trace of them on Google - and now some group of investors have been left holding the bag. And now the county wants to buy the facility outright, something they probably should have done 10 years ago.

Bush Library

I visited the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station this weekend. It was the first time I had been there and I have to say it was pretty nice. I didn’t get to spend as much time looking at all the exhibits as I might have – what with a 15-month-old running around having lots of fun – but I saw enough to get the gist of the place and I will probably go back a number of times.

One thing that struck me in light of the criticism leveled at the recently opened Clinton Library in Arkansas is how unfair it is to expect a president to highlight negative things about themselves in their own library. Bush certainly did not. There was no mention of Bush’s role in the Iran-Contra scandal or his decision to pardon Casper Weinburger which brought an end to further investigation of the incident. There was no mention of his broken “No New Taxes” pledge or about the time that he got sick and vomited on the Japanese prime minister.

There was nothing but glowing, good news about the Bush years. Even the newspaper headlines that were featured as parts of the exhibit were clipped from the Bush-friendly Washington Times rather than the Washington Post. But that is his prerogative.

I tried hard in 1988 to see that there would never be a Bush Library, (I still refuse to refer to George Bush Drive in College Station as anything other than Jersey Street) but once that effort failed I was at least glad that he built it at Texas A&M – an ideal location by my estimation.