By Rick Morris
For the donkeys, in a yawner, Hillary will top 50% in what would have to be called the dubiously-named beauty pageant. That designation comes from political pundits looking for some way to offer some context to a glorified straw poll, since the Democratic National Committee yanked all the delegates away from the Sunshine State for moving its primary up without authorization. This victory will not, and should not, be taken as any time of substantive refutation for the mighty hiney-whooping she took in South Carolina over the weekend, but the shameless Clintonian spin machine will try to push that garbage anyway.
On the Republican side, the toughest prediction of any of the contests to date looms. John McCain and Mittens are running neck-in-neck continuously in the polls. Based on the very little I can discern from the polls in recent days, I give the slightest of edges to McCain based on apparent momentum coming from the endorsement of Governor Charlie Crist and the fact that he is trending better on Intrade at the moment. "America's Mayor Rudy" will be a distant third, a prelude to his coming withdrawal from the race, and The Huck's slide will culminate in a fourth-place plummet.
Showing posts with label Chinese Democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese Democracy. Show all posts
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Stone Temple Pilots Reunion?
By Tony Mazur
If you're not a fan of '90s rock & roll, you may want to skip my very first post on The FDH Lounge Blog. However, if you are a fan, then you may want to check out this breaking news.
One of my favorite bands, Stone Temple Pilots, will be reuniting for some summer concerts. I am excited about it, especially because the reunion show is rumored to kick off at Rock on The Range at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, just two hours south of my lily white suburban neighborhood.
Stone Temple Pilots achieved success back in 1992 with their mega-selling album, Core. Core produced rock radio staples "Creep", "Plush", "Wicked Garden", "Dead and Bloated", and "Sex Type Thing". Two years later, Purple was released, featuring the crossover hit, "Interstate Love Song". Tiny Music... and No. 4, disappointed fans, even though No. 4 included their biggest hit, "Sour Girl". After 2001's failure, Shangri - La Dee Da, the band called it quits, due to Cleveland's own Scott Weiland's drug and legal problems.
After STP, Weiland joined Slash and other former members of Guns & Roses to form Velvet Revolver (by the way, I stopped counting down when Chinese Democracy will be released. I can't count that high). VR is arguably one of the most popular groups in recent years, due to the success of 2004's Contraband and 2007's Libertad. Their live shows feature covers of STP and G&R favorites. Robert and Dean DeLeo, former STP guitarists, joined forces with Filter frontman, Richard Patrick, to create Army of Anyone. The supergroup released an album in Fall 2006, but the future of the band looks bleak.
In an interview with Billboard, Slash confirmed that Stone Temple Pilots will reunite this summer for some shows.
As a fan of the genre, I cannot wait for an STP reunion. I do enjoy some of today's music, but the early to mid '90s produced some great, memorable tunes. About five years ago, I wrote a list of bands I would die to see (figuratively)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Saw them on Halloween 2006 after the release of Stadium Arcadium. Great show.
Alice in Chains - Layne Staley passed away in 2002, and I knew it would only be a dream. AIC recruited a new singer and went out on tour. Damn House of Blues only holds a small amount of concert goers.
Nirvana - Another dream.
Stone Temple Pilots - Hopefully this comes true May 2008.
ZZ Top - Put on a heck of a show.
Sublime - While I'm still dreaming, I want a cool billion dollars.
Rage Against the Machine - Have reunited, but won't come to Cleveland because they find Chief Wahoo "offensive towards Native Americans".
This concludes my first post as a member of the FDH Lounge family. Don't worry, I won't always publish music-related posts, but I figured that some of our audience fits the demographic of the grunge genre. My posts will be quite diverse, ranging from sports headlines, to the political scene, to my feeling on the recently committed celebrity. I hope you enjoy my contributions to the FDH family.
If you're not a fan of '90s rock & roll, you may want to skip my very first post on The FDH Lounge Blog. However, if you are a fan, then you may want to check out this breaking news.
One of my favorite bands, Stone Temple Pilots, will be reuniting for some summer concerts. I am excited about it, especially because the reunion show is rumored to kick off at Rock on The Range at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, just two hours south of my lily white suburban neighborhood.
Stone Temple Pilots achieved success back in 1992 with their mega-selling album, Core. Core produced rock radio staples "Creep", "Plush", "Wicked Garden", "Dead and Bloated", and "Sex Type Thing". Two years later, Purple was released, featuring the crossover hit, "Interstate Love Song". Tiny Music... and No. 4, disappointed fans, even though No. 4 included their biggest hit, "Sour Girl". After 2001's failure, Shangri - La Dee Da, the band called it quits, due to Cleveland's own Scott Weiland's drug and legal problems.
After STP, Weiland joined Slash and other former members of Guns & Roses to form Velvet Revolver (by the way, I stopped counting down when Chinese Democracy will be released. I can't count that high). VR is arguably one of the most popular groups in recent years, due to the success of 2004's Contraband and 2007's Libertad. Their live shows feature covers of STP and G&R favorites. Robert and Dean DeLeo, former STP guitarists, joined forces with Filter frontman, Richard Patrick, to create Army of Anyone. The supergroup released an album in Fall 2006, but the future of the band looks bleak.
In an interview with Billboard, Slash confirmed that Stone Temple Pilots will reunite this summer for some shows.
As a fan of the genre, I cannot wait for an STP reunion. I do enjoy some of today's music, but the early to mid '90s produced some great, memorable tunes. About five years ago, I wrote a list of bands I would die to see (figuratively)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Saw them on Halloween 2006 after the release of Stadium Arcadium. Great show.
Alice in Chains - Layne Staley passed away in 2002, and I knew it would only be a dream. AIC recruited a new singer and went out on tour. Damn House of Blues only holds a small amount of concert goers.
Nirvana - Another dream.
Stone Temple Pilots - Hopefully this comes true May 2008.
ZZ Top - Put on a heck of a show.
Sublime - While I'm still dreaming, I want a cool billion dollars.
Rage Against the Machine - Have reunited, but won't come to Cleveland because they find Chief Wahoo "offensive towards Native Americans".
This concludes my first post as a member of the FDH Lounge family. Don't worry, I won't always publish music-related posts, but I figured that some of our audience fits the demographic of the grunge genre. My posts will be quite diverse, ranging from sports headlines, to the political scene, to my feeling on the recently committed celebrity. I hope you enjoy my contributions to the FDH family.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
It's America's loss, not Fred's
By Rick Morris
Fair warning: Bitterness Alert!
Every four years, you always hear people whining about the choice for president. "I can't believe it's Bush and Kerry. Can't we do better than that?" Four years before that, people were appalled by the choice between Bush and Gore. And on and on it goes.
Almost invariably, though, this country generally has at least a decent chance to do better, but rejects it in favor of a flashier or better-funded empty suit. The USA blew it again today when Fred Thompson dropped out of the race. Hence, history will repeat itself later this year when people are crying about the pathetic choice foisted upon this nation by the Democrats and Republicans.
Fred had it all: he possessed common-sense ideas that have been validated over the decades, he took on volatile issues like entitlement reform, he was a solid communicator and he treated the American public with decency and respect and had the courage to ask the same in return. This country, and in particular the Republican Party and the conservative movement, chose instead to their everlasting shame to continue their pattern (broken only by Reagan) of foisting crappy mediocrities on this land of ours.
Some of my friends who are Republican insiders, including some members of The FDH Lounge family, believe in the "Jim Rome Scoreboard Theory of Politics." That is, if you're the last man standing, that you're the best man because you proved your worth by going through the gauntlet. Scoreboard!
I couldn't disagree more.
Fred Thompson was the best man and it is only a broken system that kept him from being able to break through the glass ceiling put on him by the jerks in the media and the political class. His failure is an INDICTMENT of our political system. This is one reason that, although I don't like it, I'm not as consumed with hatred for McCain-Feingold as my aforementioned friends. Granted, the law is unconstitutional and was a bad idea. But unlike my friends, I refuse to glorify the present system and pretend there's nothing wrong with it. Winning a nomination by being the best at conspiring in smoke-filled rooms with party puppet-masters is the proven way to get ahead -- as the nominations of both political parties have shown over the past few decades. But it is nothing for our country to be proud of, as it is evidence that our democracy is broken. Now before any of my friends get the urge to go more-conservative-than-thou on me for appropriating the language of The Nation magazine for my critique, let me remind them that our Founding Fathers, whom we on the right respect greatly, did not intend for the pursuit of our nation's highest office to be just another game of casino capitalism.
Political pundits are now wondering where the Thompson support will end up now. As for me, I am disregarding early indications that Thompson will not make an endorsement and I anticipate that he will endorse John McCain -- and, given the prominent right-wingers (i.e. Gramm/Kemp/Coburn) who have recently surrounded McCain and figure to serve as his braintrust if elected president, I will probably give McCain my reluctant support as well.
I do want to beg any of my fellow Fred supporters, who have by definition been smart enough not to get hoodwinked by Say-Anything Mittens (rumor has it he's going around saying he's the only person who can get Axl Rose to release the Chinese Democracy album!) not to give into this vile fraud of a campaign at this late hour. Not only are Romney's convictions demonstrably only an inch deep, the rotten Romney campaign should pay a price for the whisper campaign waged about Fred's viability from Day One -- with the low point being the cancer-mongering put forth by one of their chief mouthpieces. This nation today suffered the loss of its best candidate for president -- let's not compound the error by awarding the GOP nomination to a denizen of the political gutter.
Fair warning: Bitterness Alert!
Every four years, you always hear people whining about the choice for president. "I can't believe it's Bush and Kerry. Can't we do better than that?" Four years before that, people were appalled by the choice between Bush and Gore. And on and on it goes.
Almost invariably, though, this country generally has at least a decent chance to do better, but rejects it in favor of a flashier or better-funded empty suit. The USA blew it again today when Fred Thompson dropped out of the race. Hence, history will repeat itself later this year when people are crying about the pathetic choice foisted upon this nation by the Democrats and Republicans.
Fred had it all: he possessed common-sense ideas that have been validated over the decades, he took on volatile issues like entitlement reform, he was a solid communicator and he treated the American public with decency and respect and had the courage to ask the same in return. This country, and in particular the Republican Party and the conservative movement, chose instead to their everlasting shame to continue their pattern (broken only by Reagan) of foisting crappy mediocrities on this land of ours.
Some of my friends who are Republican insiders, including some members of The FDH Lounge family, believe in the "Jim Rome Scoreboard Theory of Politics." That is, if you're the last man standing, that you're the best man because you proved your worth by going through the gauntlet. Scoreboard!
I couldn't disagree more.
Fred Thompson was the best man and it is only a broken system that kept him from being able to break through the glass ceiling put on him by the jerks in the media and the political class. His failure is an INDICTMENT of our political system. This is one reason that, although I don't like it, I'm not as consumed with hatred for McCain-Feingold as my aforementioned friends. Granted, the law is unconstitutional and was a bad idea. But unlike my friends, I refuse to glorify the present system and pretend there's nothing wrong with it. Winning a nomination by being the best at conspiring in smoke-filled rooms with party puppet-masters is the proven way to get ahead -- as the nominations of both political parties have shown over the past few decades. But it is nothing for our country to be proud of, as it is evidence that our democracy is broken. Now before any of my friends get the urge to go more-conservative-than-thou on me for appropriating the language of The Nation magazine for my critique, let me remind them that our Founding Fathers, whom we on the right respect greatly, did not intend for the pursuit of our nation's highest office to be just another game of casino capitalism.
Political pundits are now wondering where the Thompson support will end up now. As for me, I am disregarding early indications that Thompson will not make an endorsement and I anticipate that he will endorse John McCain -- and, given the prominent right-wingers (i.e. Gramm/Kemp/Coburn) who have recently surrounded McCain and figure to serve as his braintrust if elected president, I will probably give McCain my reluctant support as well.
I do want to beg any of my fellow Fred supporters, who have by definition been smart enough not to get hoodwinked by Say-Anything Mittens (rumor has it he's going around saying he's the only person who can get Axl Rose to release the Chinese Democracy album!) not to give into this vile fraud of a campaign at this late hour. Not only are Romney's convictions demonstrably only an inch deep, the rotten Romney campaign should pay a price for the whisper campaign waged about Fred's viability from Day One -- with the low point being the cancer-mongering put forth by one of their chief mouthpieces. This nation today suffered the loss of its best candidate for president -- let's not compound the error by awarding the GOP nomination to a denizen of the political gutter.
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