DINGBUST

Helloooooo, world -- I mean, `sphere. I'm posting right in the middle of the first round of the Big Dance so my thought process -- already a couple of cylinders short of a full V-6 -- will be really misfiring writing and watching the games. But I'll give it a shot anyway.

Right now, go read this post ("Elections, Courage and Terrorism") over at the rapidly recovering Steve Gilliard's blog. He rightly jumps all over David Brooks' stupid argument that Spain should've cancelled elections after 3/11. What horseshit!!! I'm not able to expound on Mr. G's post -- just go read it for yourself. Short, succinct -- and definitely to the point.

As usual, I've let events pass me by -- or at least, this blog. I wrote at length here about the pending abortion vote in the state Senate that day. I just knew, given the current political tone, that bad boy would pass. But my God, what a difference a couple of days made. Senator David Fowler, the bill's sponsor, didn't get what he wanted, so he picked up his ball like a whiny little "bee-ahtch" and went home....or did he (or more importantly, the lobbyists) have a more sinister motive in mind behind the whole thing?
'' 'We'll be working to change some of the names and faces
that voted pro-abortion today,'' said Brian Harris of Tennessee
Right to Life."

Hmmm....looks our brave Commander of the RTB figured it out from the get go (here, and here.)

Gotta go...talk to y'all later.

Here we go again...there was a time last year, right after I started this blog, when there were seemed to be people dying left and right, be they famous or Mr. or Ms. Everyday People. (I was looking for the specific post in my archives, but it appears it's disappeared into cyber-ether.) Well like I said...here we go again: Oscar/Emmy nominee (and Emmy winner) Paul Winfield, and TV's favorite house painter, Robert Pastorelli. Yep, they all come in threes (see previous post).

Let me quickly say congratulations and "whoo-hoooo!!!!" on Steve Gilliard's return home from the hospital -- and to the blogging -- after heart surgery. He's been one of my favorites since his guest posting days over at Kos before and during the early days of the Iraq war, and his blog is on my list of everyday must reads. So here's a tribute to you, Steverino -- "Welcome Back":

(Sung to the tune of the "Welcome Back, Kotter" theme song)

Welcome back....your ticker almost gave out...
Welcome back....to the same ol' blog that we rave about...
When you left, Mister Bush looked invincible,
Now you're back, and we can dream the impossible...
Dubya's not a shoo-in (Dubya's not a shoo-in!),
And JFK Two may get the big win (JFK Two may get the big win!)
Yeah, we need ya a lot,
To put the Bushies on the spot,
Welcome baaaack!
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back....

Yeah, it stinks....but I'm a blogger, not a lyricist. Anyway, welcome back home, Stevie G. Keep gettin' better. (Oh, and you're finally on my list...right where I need you.)

Finally, I got this little ditty from my sis today. Hope the link works for ya. Enjoy....see ya later.

Hi gang...I was going to go straight to posting, no stopping at "Go", and no worrying about $200 that wasn't there to begin with...but the news of Spalding Gray stopped me cold. Terrible...just terrible. To be honest, of his filmed monologues, I've only watched several minutes of Gray's Anatomy, so like everybody else, I know him mainly from his most taked about roles (this, this, and of course, this late, lamented TV gem.) When I saw the news on Yahoo! , it featured a link to a eulogy written by a good friend of his shortly after Gray disappeared. Check it out.

Well, the state Senate is voting tonight on whether to amend the state Constitution and put it to the people whether to outlaw abortion. Again, the pro-life people say "activist judges" are the reasons to codify yanking the right of a woman to choose what she wants to do with her body and her future away from her. As I see it, when they use the code words "activist judges" they're harking back to the old Civil Rights court battles of the 50s & 60s, specifically the Warren/Burger/Marshall era when the tide began to turn to equality and personal protections for all of us. Of course, for most of us, those battles are either blurry lines in the pages of a yellowing history book, or the subject of the occasional PBS documentary. But it hits close to home for second and third generation conservatives, who may not have a racist bone in their body, mind you, but probably got that "activist judges" bullshit with all its nasty meanings rammed home each and every day from their progenitors (parents, grandparents, etc.) or teachers, preachers, you name it. Of course, they lost that fight (heh, heh, heh...), so they took it to other social issues, including abortion.

Well, sad to say, this is a fight they'll probably win...at least in tonight's Senate vote. But in the past few days, I've been wondering, just how many abortions are performed in the U.S every year? I mean really, I've never seen any numbers from any given year about the rate of abortions. The way the pro-life crowd makes it sound, there are thousands of terminated pregnancies every point-oh-five seconds. Really, I'd like to know -- how many abortions have actually taken place in the years since the Roe v. Wade decision, compared to the number of live births during that same time period -- and I want year to year data. See, I've got a theory: that since Roe v. Wade gave women the right to choose, the number of abortions have really gone down, because with the option of abortion open to them, more and more women have chosen the alternative. It was in the Dark Ages -- when being an unwed mother was frowned upon -- that women felt forced into going to those back alley butchers. But in this day and age, as women become more and more empowered, they choose to have the baby, or at least put the child up for adoption.

(I'm basing my theory, however cockeyed it may be, on a significant period of U.S. history: Prohibition. When the right to drink was taken away, people turned to the black market [i.e. speakeasies] for alcohol, which gave rise to organized crime. Ergo, you prohibit abortion, and you may just force women to turn to the aforementioned butchers.)

But again, without the numbers, it's just that...theory. So if ya got the numbers, help me out, `kay???

Later, gators.

First Jevon...then Robaire...now Justin???? Damn, free agency's a bitch.

And so is Martha Stewart...uh, I mean, what Martha Stewart is facing is a bitch. Why the hell didn't she just reach a plea bargain agreement, pay a big fine...which she could afford...and just drop the whole thing??? No, just because she wanted to save a (for her) measley 51 grand, she's now a convicted felon, looking at jail time (won't be much, now), and not only will likely get booted as "chief creative officer" (whatever that means) from her own company, but may have destroyed that very company she worked so damn hard to build.

That's not exactly a good thing.

Put this under the "Smart People who Do Dumb Things" catagory. Well, at least the prison she's going to will get a really nice makeover. ("These curtains have a beautiful floral pattern which would really brighten up this window...and it'll draw attention away from those awful bars!") And hey, her fellow prisoners will get some really sumptous meals...

Say folks, I've got this saying stuck in my head...I think it came from a move, but I can't remember. You say a person's name -- oh, let's say, Martha Stewart -- then follow it with "you bitch!" So it goes like so: "Martha Stewart, you bitch!" (Now that could go for anybody, so don't nobody get mad about me using Ms.Stewart's name as an example.) It sounds like something off of Saturday Night Live...but if the one or two of you who read this know what I'm talking about, hit me back on my e-mail, okay????

Speaking of SNL...guess who's hosting the show next month? "Janet...Miss Jackson, if ya nasty!" Can't wait to see that one...but I don't think we'll see a reprise of the Tit That Topped Texas...or will we?

Gotta go, folks. Later.

FROM: Big Daddy
Proprietor, "Dingbust"
Somewhere in Davidson County, TN
February 24, 2004

TO: The Honorable (yeah, right!) George W. Bush
President (by Supreme Court edict) of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (temporary residence)
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President (rhymes with "Resident"):

Please keep your goddamn grubby hands off the U.S Constitution. And tell that to your Senate lackey from Tennessee, Dr. Plays Rough with Cats.

Thanks,
Big Daddy

P.S. Tell the missus to keep the number to the moving van handy...I think you'll need it in a few months.

What a putz..and I mean that charitably. We've got Iraq on the verge of civil war, another country just a few miles off our shores already in the throes of a civil war and teetering towards an eventual collapse, a sputtering, wheezing economy, deficits as far as the eye can see, and let's not forget these friggin' sociopaths...and what does he do? Pick a fight on his fellow Americans, who just want to live their lives in peace and happiness. Before he and his ilk try to amend the Constitution, they need to reread this little part of it...especially the part about the general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty. (That goes for you "strict constructionist" mofos, as well.)

Speaking of mofos (pronounced moe-FOES, for all of our slang challenged citizens out there), here's my theme for the `04 Anti-Bush Campaign:

That MoFo Has GOT to Go

And to quote My Main Man -- it's time for me to go. Later, y'all.

Good people of the Blogosphere, and especially the Almighty Rocky Top Brigade --

IIIII'MMMMM BAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!

Hello....hello....helloooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh????????

Damn....I've been gone a real long time....but I'll let the subtitle of this blog serve as my introduction, so to speak.

So, how the hell have you guys been, huh? When I last blogged on this here site, I had just added a new site devoted to My Main Man (www.goreabc.com, never to be linked to again, I'm sorry to say) as part of the effort to get him back in the race. Of course, weeks later, he endorsed "Mouthzilla" (see Nunes, Susan for examples of her tirades against the former Governor of Vermont), and it just took the wind right out of everybody's sails. Within a day, Draft Gore ended its effort, the people over at Elect Gore`04 shut their website down with nary a goodbye, good night, see ya later, kiss my ass, nuthin'. There was a last ditch "write-in" effort begun by some remaining Draft Gore diehards, but it all turned out for naught...so what began as the hopes and dreams (and as some right wing assholes would say, delusions) of his most ardent supporters turned into a third disappointment...and this time, we were definitely out.

We were all alike: we'd been living with the heartbreak of the 2000 campaign/fiasco/theft, especially those of us here in Tennessee (knock it off the laughter, Bushies, and finish your glass of GoOPer Kool Aid!). We felt a good man got shafted, and in the process, so did the nation, which would've been well served with his experience, vision, forthrightness and leadership. We saw the country being slowly, then surely, led down to the wrong path, and geared ourselves for the battle to come. Then came the second letdown....December 2002, when he said he wouldn't run. It would've been all about the 2000 election, he said, and that he had come to closure with the decision. O-Dub said it best the day after:

He spoke from his heart - telling us how wrong we were
fighting the war on terror, and how the Bush economic team
should be scrapped (someone was listening, eh?) but still the
derision and distaste continued. It was too much for one
person, even Al Gore.
So he won't be around to kick any more, though whoever
is the candidate of the Democrats can be prepared to be
demonize. But Al Gore doesn't have anything to be ashamed
of. He doesn't have to be the most electric man in the room, or
even the most affable. He is guilty of caring about America.
That's one crime I wish George Bush was guilty of.
Al Gore is still the better man.
(Emphasis mine...)

And I will always emphasize this till I get tired of talking about it...which may be til the day I die. A man raised by a distinguished U.S. Senator and his strong-willed, equally accomplished wife...born and (partly) raised in Washington (and how was that any fault of his own, please answer me that), but ingrained with true Tennessee values: hard work, faith, family, standing up to your responsibilities...and most of all, serving your country. Something which he did proudly, from Vietnam (no John Kerry-like heroism to brag on...but he was regular Army, unlike some people I know) to the vice presidency.

Should he have run this year? Yes, I think he should have. But looking back, did he do the right thing in not running?

Yes...I think he did. Because he wanted it to be about vision and values, and not about just seeking revenge. So he didn't go out like Adlai Stevenson, but instead on his own terms, knowing that his chance at the Oval Office was two and done. And he'd come to closure with it...but some of us hadn't. And still haven't...yet.

But we're getting there. I'm getting there. But fuck it all...he's still MY MAIN MAN.

So as I say goodbye to what could've been...what should've been...I look forward to what I hope will be....President John Kerry. Not because I believe he's better than John Edwards, but because he has what is sorely needed to beat The Pretender in this election: gravitas, that oft-mentioned word used when speaking of politicians. From what little I've seen of Edwards, he's very good on the stump, and may have the right combination of seriousness and charisma needed in otherwise ordinary times. But this year, the Democrats need a man at the top of the ticket who's been through the battlefield, both literally and figuratively, and has the experience to lead our country through some difficult times...and out of the quaqmire this (mis)administration has gotten this country stuck in, both on foreign shores and domestically. Any other year, I'd throw my support right behind Senator Edwards: he seems as if he can appeal to voters across the spectrum, regardless of age, race, creed, and political bent, something that's important if we want to win. But there's not enough battle dust on his shoes, and voters may not see past that. So this year, it's not just important to win the White House, but to have the right person to win...and I truly believe that person is Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.

Besides...Al's not running, now is he?

Later, folks.

First off: I got a new link on the right hand side devoted to My Main Man...check it out.

It's been a long time since I picked up a golf club -- about two or three summers -- but when I start back, I hope I have the presence of mind not to use ANY of these products. I'm a sucker for a cheap price on any and all goods, and I know these two plants haven't employed lots of people over the past several years, but these are 90 people who won't have a job. Jesus, how many more manufacturing jobs does Tennessee have to lose?

It hasn't been two weeks, and already, the freakin' bloodsuckers are coming out of the woodwork:

A survivor of the NHC nursing home fire is suing the company
for $5.5 million. The fire, which happened on Sept. 25, was
blamed for the deaths of 11 people.
(snip)
Personal injury lawyers didn't waste any time trying to sign
up residents of the NHC nursing home. (Emphasis mine.)
There were 120 residents of the home. Attorneys said almost all
of the 120 residents would have some sort of legal claim so
lawyers from across the state are scrambling to talk to the victims.
In an unusual move, some lawyers advertised directly to families
of the NHC nursing home. One ad appeared next to the obituaries
in the "Tennessean"and and another ad appeared in "The City Paper."
One of the advertising attorneys, David High, said he doesn't feel
it's wrong to solicit NHC patients, and in fact he thinks it's in their
best interest.


"In their best interest," he says. Give me a m_ _ _ _ f _ _ _ _ _ break. You advertise in the goddamn obituaries, for Pete's sake...and I've already seen one ad on T-V specifically target people who've had family members "injured" in nursing homes. Wonder who they're going after, huh? This just adds more ammunition in the drive for tort reform (which I'm againt, BTW). So in the interest of the public good, and to keep those freakin' bloodsuckers from leaching off a serious tragedy (and despite my low to non-existent readership), I'd like to pass on this info:

Nashville Bar Association
Lawyer Referral Service
315 Union Street
242-6546

Meanwhile, these cats take second place on my Dirty Rat Bastards list.

Speaking of blogs, O-Dub just came back from the BloggerCon conference, and has an excellent post about the current and future state of blogs. I have to agree with him 100% -- while I love reading blogs (and writing in them when I get the urge), none of the folks I know know anything about blogs...and outside of the Trent Lott affair, I doubt they've having any real impact yet in the general society, despite what Oliver calls "the blog-to-blog echo chamber."

And Oliver -- despite his tight Democratic leanings -- is nonetheless an independent Dem, in that he could give a rat's ass about Gray Davis.

That is all for now...the Cubs are on, and Zambrano is getting hammered in the 3rd inning (he's already given up THREE straight homers!). Tomorrow, Governor Ahh-nold...after that...God, who knows...