And now for something a little different...

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We were fortunate enough to be invited to be on Silvio Canto's internet radio show last night.


We spent the majority of the time talking California's high-speed choo-choos at the front end of the program and a little on Solyndra, Fisker and the Department of Energy's inept and corrupt green loan program right at the end of the show.


Link to webcast here.

Check it out if you get a chance.


Thanks to Silvio for the opportunity to be on and for being such a gracious host and also to Leslie of Temple of Mut for shepherding us through the process.

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Quote of the day

As heard on the radio yesterday:

"Let me get this straight: for 8 years Bush was Hitler but now bin Laden is Geronimo?"

Forgive us this brief departure into PC World: though were not sure it warrants a Congressional investigation, we don't blame the American Indians Native Americans one damn bit for being a tad out of sorts over the fact that someone that is so revered in their culture was in any way associated with that monster. Just sayin'...

May we suggest....

The following video has gone viral but we wanted to show it here as we have our own plans for this guy.





The Cleveland Cavaliers have offered Williams a job which he apparently has decided to accept.

This is great news and we hope it takes because this man has led a pretty miserable life induced by self-inflicted wounds.

However, above-and-beyond his work for the Cavs, we can't help but think that he might be a great fit for what is the franchise here in America for "golden voices".

With John Facenda long-departed and Harry Kalas only recently so, can there be any higher calling than NFL Films?



Whaddya think?

Whatever happens with his career, we hope the best for Mr. Williams in his life.

Audio clip(s) of the day

We love it when the poster of an audio/video clip provides the set-up... saves us from doing it.



(if embed no worky please click here)
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(H/T: Deadspin)



That wasn't too shabby but it pales in comparison to the single greatest sports-related meltdown of all-time.

The set-up: Michigan State (the chronically underachieving Michigan State who happens to be undefeated at 7-0 and whom we are thinking of ruining their season by adopting them as "our team" as our normal faves, the USC Trojans, are on a two-year bowl probation) had lost a game to Notre Dame back in 2006 that they had in the bag. We remember watching it and the 4th quarter was a phantasmagorical nightmare. It was the kind of game that sends coaches into retirement if they are not fired first and as you will soon hear, sports talk guy to the loony bin.

A 15-minute descent into madness brought to you by Mike Valenti* and AM 1270 out of Michigan, here.

* Valenti was supposedly 25 years old when this went down. 25 yrs. old?
Chain smoking and drinking corn liquor since age 11 may do that to you.

The Front Range and the Western Slope belong to this guy (UPDATED!)

(please scroll down for update)

Up over the Rockies we couldn't pull in much on the radio. Both ESPN Radio and Rush were fading in and out and/or were too full of static too tolerate but something called Progressive Radio out of Boulder (natch) was coming in loud and clear.

We needed only to listen to Ed Schultz's program (of which Dennis Miller claims is broadcast from Teddy Roosevelt's nostril in South Dakota) for 5 minutes to be informed of the following:


"Righties are stupid"

Nothing like insulting those who might just be dropping by out of courtesy or lack of other audible options on the dial.


"The Right Wing wants to destroy public education"

We'll settle for "reform" but ol' Ed didn't get the memo from the President about campaigning on fear.


"The Democrats will keep both the House and the Senate"

They can have the Senate - we just want a solid filibuster-utilizing minority there. Not the party of "No", the party of "Hell No".

And delusions of holding onto the House aside, he seemed to base this upon "the energy" he felt at that sparsely attended astro-turfed, lefty-palooza "One Nation Working Together" at which he was a speaker.



But the best was an exchange he had with a union longshoreman from the Philly area who claimed he was about to be out of a job because Del Monte was going open shop.

During the exchange while the caller was laying out the story about Del Monte and negotiations with the unions, Schultz interrupted, saying, "OK, now who is this Steve Dore guy?"

Caller: "That would be stevedore"

Clueless Ed: "What's that?"

Caller: "Those are the guys that do the loading and unloading of trucks and ships."

Stupendously Clueless Ed: "Oh."


Steve Freaking Dore

May Gaia strike us down right here in Fruita, CO if that exchange did not go down.

Ed Schultz, man of the working man and unions and public education and probably a bunch of other stuff if you asked him, could not even identify or recognize one of the most heavily unionized professions on the face of the planet.

As we said, all that in 5 minutes. And with that, it took only that amount of time to figure out why it is that lib-talk never quite caught on here in America: their most prominent hosts are about as sharp as a bag of wet mice.

Steve Dore.... Steve Dore!




P.S. We were able to pick up an oldies station for a brief while which was playing the following song and which serves as a constant reminder that no matter how much of a nit-wit one may be (and you know which one we are talking about), they may have also been making some great music back in the day.








(UPDATE #1): Hate to break up this stroll down Carnaby Street but we found some footage of Stupendously Clueless Ed at the non-partisan event this past weekend at the Mall in D.C. being non-partisan by giving this totally non-partisan speech.




"...fight the forces of evil in this country... the conservatives of this country.."





That's right... evil. Now, embrace your dark side, America.

Awww... (UPDATED)

(please scroll to bottom of post for update. Thanks.)


The whiner-in-chief is bummed about technology or something.

US President Barack Obama lamented Sunday that in the iPad and Xbox era, information had become a diversion that was imposing new strains on democracy, in his latest critique of modern media.

Obama, who often chides journalists and cable news outlets for obsessing with political horse race coverage rather than serious issues, told a class of graduating university students that education was the key to progress.

"You're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank all that high on the truth meter," Obama said at Hampton University, Virginia.

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," Obama said.

He bemoaned the fact that "some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction," in the clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets.

"All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."

(italics, ours)

Wasn't this supposed be the most tech-savvy president and presidential administration of all time? Wasn't Team Obama's alleged abilities to connect with young voters via social mediums like Twitter and FaceBook an oft-repeated meme' and big reason for his victory in 2008?

Maybe he's just venting because it was a crappy week.. and it was but his hey, I'm just a regular guy schtick rings hollow. Maybe he doesn't know how to use all that techy stuff as he claims but tough luck there, champ - when you're the hippest person to ever walk the planet, people are going to hold you to it.



(UPDATE #1): The irony of the hippest and most tech-savvy President evah going grumpy old man on us, shrouded the larger issue in his Hampton University commmencement address and that is his very curious take on the explosion of information that is now available to us because of the digital revolution is somehow bad for democracy.

Sure, there is the danger of facts being misrepresented and falsehoods being represented as truth but since when was any of that not the case? And we're looking at you, old state-controlled media.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who the President is lashing out at as the second-to-last paragraph of the pull quote indicates (to wit, the right blogosphere has been opining on the possibility that the Gulf oil spill is Obama's Katrina. It's far to early to speculate and we'll wait until more facts are brought to light before we pass any judgement, if at all).

And in totally related news to the President having a tough time of late controlling the media narrative you'd be pleased to know that the FCC's Diversity Chief (the first position to suffer the budget axe in a BwD administration, btw) Mark Lloyd is a big fan of that champion of free speech and opposition politics, Hugo Chazez.

Two years ago, Lloyd stated, "In Venezuela, with Chavez, is really an incredible revolution -- a democratic revolution. To begin to put in place things that are going to have an impact on the people of Venezuela." Lloyd also commented that when independent media outlets criticized Chavez's policies, the Venezuelan dictator "began to take very seriously the media in his country." Lloyd's comments came in the middle of Chavez's two-year run of closing down nearly every single privately-owned media outlet in Venezuela, thereby ending all criticism of the government.

A long but good read from the American Spectator, here, on just what is in store for the internet, TV, radio and free speech, in general, if the politically-appointed folks at the levers of power within the FCC get their way.

On deck?

Forget Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and even Mark Levin (though, he’s solid), when Rush decides to hang up the golden microphone, there is only one person out there that could remotely be considered to fill Rush’s shoes as America’s conservative radio voice and that is Mark Steyn who guest-spots for Rush on occasion. No one that we listen to or read (outside of possibly Iowahawk) matches Steyn’s acerbic wit and humor.

Related…

Upon greater reflection, the Super Bowl ads represented a stunning array of grasping, hen-pecked beta-males portrayed in horribly lame attempts to justify their malesmanship*.

If you think “conformo-radicalism” is a contradiction in terms, well, such is the way of the world. It was reported last week that as many as a dozen men have been killed in disputes arising from karaoke performances of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” Surely, bellowing out “I did it my way” to Frank’s backing track in a karaoke bar is the very definition of not doing it your way, but it’s marginally less pathetic than the song’s emergence in post-Christian Britain as a favorite funeral anthem: “For what is a man? What has he got? If not himself, then he has naught.” Nothing sums up your iconoclastic individualism than someone else’s signature song — right?

Check out the rest of Steyn’s piece on Super Bowl ads, masculinity, individuality and the tea party movement, here.


* Yes, we just made up that word. Catchy, no?

Losing a voice

Harry Kalas, the voice of the Phillies passed away today at the age of 73. Kalas also worked as the voice-over for NFL Films and called NFL games on the radio for Westwood One which were carried here locally in San Diego.

Kalas’s distinctive leathery rasp cut through the air the moment you turned on the radio. There was absolutely no confusing it with anybody else.

For Gen-Xers that grew up listening to the radio, we’ve lost another one of the old guard – those friendly voices that provided the soundtrack to summer evenings or made those drives in the car in the fall and winter just a little bit shorter.

And speaking of the old guard, below is a transcript of Dodger broadcaster Vin Scully, working in a few words last Thursday about young Angel pitcher Nick Adenhart who was killed in a hit and run traffic accident last week, hours after completing his first major league start.

If I may speak for every member of the Dodger organization, our heartfelt and deepest sympathies to the mother and family of Nick Adenhart, and to every member in the Angels organization, for the untimely accident and death of young Nick last night at the tender age of twenty-two. Nick, from Maryland, had pitched six scoreless innings and was in a car with three friends, and a driver apparently went through a red light and T-boned the car, killing three of the four, including Nick, and one other member is in critical condition. And if there is one thing I’ve learned in all my years — and I haven’t learned much — but the one thing I’ve learned: Don’t even waste your time trying to figure out life.

Ground ball through for Andre Ethier, and life continues for those who still have it. And with a leadoff single, Russell Martin will be coming up.

But I would say, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a moment and say a prayer in memory for Nick, especially for his parents. What a shock to lose a twenty-two-year-old.

Andre Ethier at first base, Russell Martin the batter, James Loney on deck, and the Dodgers try to strike in the second inning against Kevin Correia.

Pure Vinny. The game, the narrative, the sentiment all wove together in a seamless fashion.

One of these days we’re going to wake up and wonder what happened to all our old friends.

H/T: Deadspin

Bill Press might want to talk to this guy (UPDATED)

For all the talk about how the Fairness Doctrine won’t be re-indoctrinated, there sure are a lot of people talking about how nice the Fairness Doctrine would be.

Talk show host Bill Press thinks the abundance of right-wing talk shows across the dial is because of some grand conspiracy.

Why? Station owners complain they can't get good ratings or make any money with progressive talk, but that's nonsense. In Minnesota, independent owner Janet Robert has operated KTNF (950 AM) profitably for five years. In Madison, Wis., WXXM, 92.1 FM, just scored its highest ratings ever. And KPOJ in Portland, Ore., soared with progressive talk from No. 23 in market ratings to No. 1.

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For years, the Fairness Doctrine prevented such abuse by requiring licensed stations to carry a mix of opinion. However, under pressure from conservatives, President Ronald Reagan's Federal Communications Commission canceled the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, insisting that in a free market, stations would automatically offer a balance in programming.
That experiment has failed. There is no free market in talk radio today, only an exclusive, tightly held, conservative media conspiracy. The few holders of broadcast licenses have made it clear they will not, on their own, serve the general public. Maybe it's time to bring back the Fairness Doctrine -- and bring competition back to talk radio in Washington and elsewhere.

Two things: A) Successful liberal talk radio in Madison and Portland? No way. B) One reason why conservative talk radio would appear to be far more popular than liberal talk radio is in the example provided by Press, himself. How is the radio-listening public to believe one has any credibility whatsoever when that person hosts a show on something called OBAMA 1260 AM in Washington D.C.? Well, they don’t. Hence, the shuttering the station’s liberal talk format mere weeks after getting started.

To date, this represents the first tanking of an Obama-branded product. It would indeed take a bunch of liberals to screw up something associated with the most recognizable and popular person on the planet, currently.

Even President Clinton chimes in:

"Well, you either ought to have the Fairness Doctrine or we ought to have more balance on the other side," Clinton said, "because essentially there's always been a lot of big money to support the right wing talk shows and let face it, you know, Rush Limbaugh is fairly entertaining even when he is saying things that I think are ridiculous...."

Mr. President, please define “big money”. Like George Soros “big” or just ad revenue “big”… derived from people who choose of their own free will to listen to Rush and Roger Hedgecock rather than Bill Press and Randi Rhodes.

(UPDATE #1): Well, well, well. Look who was on Fox News getting shredded by Megyn Kelly in a Fairness Doctrine discussion. Press’s argument revolves entirely around the concept of “public interest” as in, radio stations are not serving the public interest if they only broadcast from one side of the aisle, which of course means the conservative side in Press’s world-view. Kelly responds that the public is obviously not interested.
(Embed no worky. Please link here)

Also, the Obama administration is getting less and less definitive with respect to re-imposing the Doctrine after strongly worded campaign speech stating they had no interest in doing so. Link here to watch Presidential advisor, David Axelrod, defer a pretty simple question regarding the re-imposition of the Doctrine to the President and the FCC.

Finally, were curious if deep down inside the ratings-driven subconcious of some conservative talk show hosts, they are not secretly hoping for a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine. Afterall, nothing makes for better radio than an aggrieved host.

Like comfort food

For about as long as we can remember, if it’s a Sunday afternoon in the spring in SoCal, it means yardwork while listening to the playoffs and the Lakers on the radio. After a few years absence, it good to have them back in the 2nd round. (And though Spiro Dedes does a fine job as play-by-play guy, things have never seemed quite the same without Chick Hearn).

Just a quick assessment: the Jazz are going to run no less than 3 guys at Kobe (Matt Harpring, Ronnie Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko) and their collective 18 fouls in order to wear him down. Carlos Boozer is going to muscle-up on Gasol so the free man in this scheme now becomes Lamar Odom. No, the apocalypse is not upon us but we’ll be able to see it from here if Odom is not mentally up to the challenge.

P.S. Thanks to the Atlanta Hawks for not wasting our time today with their game 7 effort against Boston. Seriously. It was obvious from the first few minutes that they weren't up to the task so we didn't invest any time or emotional energy.