Music Bullets, 5-25-07

• Here's an interview with Chali 2Na of Jurassic 5. Actually, I guess that would be solo artist Chali 2Na now. Still a little hard to accept. Hip hop is in dire need of every talented act it can get, so while it's great that Chali's releasing a solo album--he's so good at his craft that I imagine it'll be pretty good--J5 was a proven entity, and hip hop will miss them.
• Seriously, where's the good hip hop??? I think I've bought like one hip hop album (Brother Ali) this year. I'm desperate. Anybody out there know of anything new worth buying here? I know it won't come from The Fugees, who aren't together again after all. From Pras: "You know, unfortunately Miss Hill, she got some things she needs to deal with. I wish her the best, but life goes on." Lauryn Hill's Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was just an amazing album--as I've mentioned before, Fall 1998 was the high tide moment for hip hop with Lauryn Hill, Outkast, Jay-Z, and Black Star all putting out amazing albums, but it looks like a combination of her own head and the record industry has damaged Ms. Hill pretty significantly.
• Happy Belated Birthday, Bob!

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Random 10!

I’m slightly fine-tuning the “Talk about Song #1” process that I ripped off of Erik at Alter Destiny. So I don’t have to b.s. about a song I don’t want to b.s. about, I will talk about a song of my choice. It’s my blog, I can do what I want to!

1. Chonkyfire, Outkast
2. Stuck Between Station, The Hold Steady
3. Box #10, Jim Croce

If ever I do a Primer on Jim Croce (and trust me, the thought has crossed my mind), this song will probably make the list. As I said in a previous post:

On a side note, Jim Croce’s catalog works ... with almost every song fitting into one of three categories—bad relationships, bad guys, badass women.

Well this is one song that doesn’t fit into one of those categories. Call it the exception that proves the rule. It’s Jim Croce at his simplistic best, telling a detailed, sad story in three verses and a simple chorus. Guy from Southern Illinois goes to the big city to make it as a musician, gets robbed, goes broke, ends up sleeping in a hotel doorway.

While there are lots of reasons for me to disagree with my musical upbringing (let’s just say that berlin niebuhr is a much bigger fan of Herman’s Hermits than the Beatles or Dylan), I was weaned on Jim Croce’s entire catalog, and I consider that a pretty good thing. While I enjoy the ballad-heavy rotation of Croce’s well known catalog (“Time in a Bottle”, “Photographs and Memories”, etc.), most of my favorites are rarities. “Box #10”, “Hey Tomorrow”, “Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues”, “Rapid Roy the Stockcar Boy”...just fantastic music. He did more with less than most musicians, especially in the period in which he thrived.

4. Rise Above, Black Flag
5. Colors and the Kids, Cat Power
6. Mathematics, Mos Def
7. Raunchy ’73, Incredible Bongo Band
8. Requiem, M. Ward
9. Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel, Barenaked Ladies
10. Always on My Mind, Willie Nelson

Now THAT’s the variety I look for in a Random 10!

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Only 530 Days to Go

Olbermann throws down the gauntlet.

And where are the Democratic presidential hopefuls this evening? See they not, that to which the Senate and House leadership has blinded itself?

Judging these candidates based on how they voted on the original Iraq authorization, or waiting for apologies for those votes, is ancient history now.

The Democratic nomination is likely to be decided… tomorrow.

The talk of practical politics, the buying into of the President's dishonest construction "fund-the-troops-or-they-will-be-in-jeopardy," the promise of tougher action in September, is falling not on deaf ears, but rather falling on Americans who already told you what to do, and now perceive your ears as closed to practical politics.

Those who seek the Democratic nomination need to-for their own political futures and, with a thousand times more solemnity and importance, for the individual futures of our troops-denounce this betrayal, vote against it, and, if need be, unseat Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi if they continue down this path of guilty, fatal acquiescence to the tragically misguided will of a monomaniacal president.

…

With the exception of Senator Dodd and Senator Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidates have (so far at least) failed us.

They must now speak, and make plain how they view what has been given away to Mr. Bush, and what is yet to be given away tomorrow, and in the thousand tomorrows to come.

Because for the next fourteen months, the Democratic nominating process–indeed the whole of our political discourse until further notice–has, with the stroke of a cursed pen, become about one thing, and one thing alone.
The electorate figured this out, six months ago.

The President and the Republicans have not-doubtless will not.

Luckily, all the serious (i.e. not Biden) candidates voted against this. It shouldn't have even required a second thought, but I guess beggars can't be choosers.

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The Moron Twins from OK

We give so much credit here to Jim Inhofe for being the biggest numbskull in a greatly brain-challenged Senate, but we can’t forget OK’s other nutjob contribution to that body, a man who, while in the House, condemned NBC for showing “Schindler’s List” because it had frontal nudity. Actually, his list of bad nonsense may be as long as Inhofe’s. His latest? Stopping a Senate resolution to honor Rachel Carson because, get this, she got DDT banned (uh, no, she didn't) so mosquitoes in poor nations went wild and killed so many babies with malaria that she's as bad as Hitler or something. But just remember the old saying, “if you think that elected official is bad, you should see his constituents.” These two are walking ads against any business or personal development in OK and the state is, by definition, too ignorant to see it. (And I did look it up. Incest is illegal in OK, . . . but if everyone's your relative, who's going to find you guilty?)

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Weather, Water, Energy 5-24-07

• This is what global warming leadership looks like. Japan is calling for a Kyoto replacement that will halve greenhouse gas emissions worldwide by 2050, and German chancellor and EU head Merkel calls out the US and China to get on the right side of this.
• Meanwhile, speaking of China, reaping what they're sowing: Melting Tibetan glaciers could cause the worst flooding on the Yangtze since 1998, when more than 3,000 people were killed as China's longest river overflowed, state media said Thursday.
• More leadership. CA's energy commission stopped L.A.'s and other state municipal utilities from contracting new coal-fired power plants. And WA sounds like it's going to follow suit. See? Leadership.
• Finally, we’ve noted here that other nations have glommed onto the fact that retooling to fight global warming actually creates economic opportunities and entrepreneurship. Finally, a couple of US House types have figured that out formally, too. My candidate for econ growth is all the retrofitting of existing cars to whatever new fuel type we end up with. Of course, if I had the brains figure out what that fuel is going to be, I’d probably already be rich, wouldn’t I?
  
  

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Photo of the Week

This one is for all you holiday travelers.

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There’s unreal…

...and there’s UNFREAKINGREAL (via Avedon).

"Al Hurra television, the U.S. government's $63 million-a-year effort at public diplomacy broadcasting in the Middle East, is run by executives and officials who cannot speak Arabic, according to a senior official who oversees the program. That might explain why critics say the service has recently been caught broadcasting terrorist messages, including an hour-long tirade on the importance of anti-Jewish violence, among other questionable pieces."

I’m too flustered to actually form a real sentence about this, so I’ll just repeat what Avedon says. These people are just too stupid for words. I mean...GOD...

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Didn’t see THIS coming at all

...via C&L, the House Minority Leader is blaming Democrats for high gas prices. Yup. Uh huh. Sure. The Democrats, who have been in charge since January, are responsible for the fact that gas prices have been consistently rising for the last 3-4 years. Okie dokie.

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Giant Poop Scooping

When you’re two of the stupidest people ever created, in public, your boss ends up having to clean up the streets behind you.

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Weather, Water, Energy 5-23-07

• Proof that Britain's Labor Party is dumb to the bone, not just to the Blair. Taking scarce alternative energy funds and investing in more nuclear, which won't help homes at all, which are outfitted for gas, and which affects less than 4% of the nation's power. The Scots, OTOH, are telling the English where to stick it and investing in something that won't, uh, provide terrorists targets and weapons material, need tons of water that might not be as available with the warming for cooling the reactors, and require tens of millenia to store its byproducts. While we're whacking Brits, let's note Joseph Romm's nice takedown of the Labor Gov's now saying that it never thought Blair could get Bushnev to set emission targets at the next G8 meeting after, two weeks ago, saying that Blair was very confident that he could do so. Pat the good doggie on the head, Georgi, and send him away for his tea and biscuit.
• Speaking of water disasters, maybe as many as 10 hurricanes in the Atlantic this coming season, with 5 maybe getting really nasty, according to the National Hurricane Center. How long before no insurance company will offer policies to people with homes anywhere near the coasts?
• Everything you need to know to get you and/or your friends and relatives started on understanding global warming and all its desiderata, from the good folks at RealClimate.
• Okay, we get how global warming can move environments in which living things can best survive, causing their migration if they can move and fast enough. That includes diseases as well, especially malaria and flu, apparently. But here's the other way those diseases spread, from all the damage done to water and sewage systems when severe storms (or 10 hurricanes) hit. Just another little thing you probably hadn't thought about at all.
• “Canary in a coal mine” really does seem dead. Grist is asking for suggestions for new metaphors.
• While at Grist, note that David Roberts links to a sad defense of cap-and-trade systems that seems to think business and corporations will actually permit adequate caps to be instituted. Tinker Bell’s dying, clap louder.
• At Only In It For the Gold, Michael Tobis makes the argument we’ve made here, and backed up with recent reports of latest findings, that those who argue that the uncertainty of our future means only that things can turn out better are ignoring that things could also turn out worse. He says it in perhaps a more convincing way. Here are a couple of his points:
  
  Those people who doubt the consensus in a rational way (e.g., Broecker, Lovelock) advocate for a very vigorous policy. We don't know how bad it can be, so we really ought to give considerable weight to it being very very bad. The asymmetry arises because we know how good it can be. Climate change can at best amount to a (relatively) very small net gain, if it is modest and slow enough. At worst it can quite conceivably be a threat to civilization. . . .
  Most people stressing the uncertainty, though, seem to me to deliberately strive to confuse the policy process, or to echo others who do so. It is discouraging how effective this tactic continues to be, given that it is based on a completely irrational argument. The only remotely sensible way to argue for small or no policy response is not to argue for large uncertainty. A rational argument for policy inaction requires arguing that the consensus position is certainly wrong and oversensitive. A rational, conservative response to uncertainty would be to take more effort to avoid the risk.
• As if meaning to prove him correct, a new report from Australia's chief scientific body: "Global warming is occurring faster than predicted because rapid economic growth has resulted in higher than expected greenhouse gas emissions since 2000, said an Australian report on Tuesday.
  Emissions from burning fossil fuels have increased about 3 percent a year since 2000, up from 1 percent a year during the 1990s, said Australia's peak scientific body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)."
• Let's all welcome AL (Alabama, not Alaska) to those SE states getting whipped by drought and water problems. Tell me again what percentage of your vote went to the Busheviks??
• MIT type has an op-ed in the Boston Globe on the way our auto makers monkey with fuel efficiency standards and recommends some good stuff to change incentives toward buying more efficient cars, such as a 10-cent a gallon increase in the gas tax and a higher tax on guzzlers and rebates for gas sipping cars.
• And here’s why that tax increase needs to be many times higher if it’s going to have an impact since the increases in gas prices so far haven’t done much to discourage driving.
• You’d think rational, decent, and responsible companies wouldn’t have to be asked but . . . wait, we’re talking oil companies. Forecasters urged the oil industry this summer to stockpile supplies away from the U.S. Gulf Coast, which they predict will be hit by hurricane-force winds, potentially sending sky-high gas prices even higher, according to hazard models released on Wednesday.
  "It is almost certain there is going to be significant production disruption in the Gulf of Mexico this year. That's not good," said storm tracker Chuck Watson.
  "We're really urging the oil industry to keep the stocks outside the Southeast as high as you can because otherwise you risk disrupting the whole country if there is a storm impact."
• Finally, the Smithsonian sells out its mission and us once again by downplaying global warming in its Arctic exhibit. You see, the way you teach science is to give in to morons and ideologues every chance you’re given. And we wonder why this nation is becoming second world in science and engineering, much less the important advanced technologies. God help us, folks.

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Only 532 days to go...

So Giuliani's doing so well in Iowa that he's thinking about skipping it altogether. Repubs really seem to be catching onto the fact that their candidates are horribly flawed. I think last week's "I will torture better than you" fest turned off as many people as it turned on (then again, the party seems to be united in wanting to ban Ron Paul from future debates, so maybe it turned off no one), and even though guys like Newty and Fred Thompson aren't any better, the fact that they're not out revealing their horrid flaws on a daily basis is starting to be a good thing. All the parity helps Romney, I think, with his good standing in Iowa and his strong fundraising, but...if anybody other than Hillary gets the Dem nod, I'm thinking it might be a trouncing in the general election.

New Rep Odds:

Romney 28%
McCain 25%
Giuliani 23%
Newty 12%
Thompson 12%

New Dem Odds:

Obama 40%
Hillary 29%
Edwards 23%
Other 8%

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Ladies and Gentlemen . . .

. . . two of the stupidest people ever created, and, magically, both play on the Redskins. Defending Michael Vick's right to dog fight. You really can't make this stuff up. "Haven't you seen Animal Planet?" Well, haven't you?

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Weather, Water, Energy 5-22-07

• We deservedly get heat (pardon the pun) in the US from the rest of the planet for our profligate ways, but this new National Academy of Sciences report notes that the rate of growth that's a big part of endangering the globe is from the underdeveloped world. Only a quarter growth in CO2 emissions in N. Amer. from 1980 to 2004, declines in Europe and Eurasia. But doubling in C. and S. Amer. and in Africa, tripling in the Middle East and Asia/Australia. Yes, we're still bigger and it's unfair to those who came last in development, but letting them catch up before we do anything is not going to work. And the major culprit? "Fueled by rapid growth in coal-reliant China . . . ."
• China, of course, insists that it's the put-upon party and demands rich nations act before it will. Good plan. Britain really is trying to get its businesses and industries to buy into the reality that helping the Chinas do better will actually boost their own national competitiveness, despite the econ doomsayers, but it's a little hard to help a neighbor who insists on sending you tainted and dirty food, and not just for our pets. Especially when it's polluting itself into a sick bed in the name of economic development. If China were a person, you'd be reporting them to Human Services.
• On the other side of the scale of forward thought and rational action, the Netherlands is already working out how to deal with rising oceans in a land below sea level. Without that kid with his thumb in the dike.
• Joseph Romm at Climate Progress has more great stuff, taking down the Gore-bashers and other deniers and obstructionists, including a great demolishing of that giant-headed egotist, Michael Crichton. Really, Michael? Weathermen often mess up tomorrow's forecast so why listen to warnings of global warming? Really?
• All the changes happening so fast. Who ever thought we'd one day be talking about how farmers, if they are going to lease their land for carbon sequestration, would need to set up a system that would demonstrate how much extra carbon they are really socking away?
• Just when you thought we couldn't f--k up the earth and its water anymore, welcome the massive seafloor mining set to begin this decade.
• Speaking of water, let's end with a couple of heaping spoonfuls of your life in the near future. Lawyers in the West are already arguing that we need to be paying more attention to water compacts among the states to get disputes settled before drought push becomes conflict shove. And the King of Jordan is warning the other Middle Eastern nations that water, not oil, land, or religion, could very likely be what the next major war there is fought over. Good times. Might work out okay on a planet with beings with brains.

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Oh, That This Headline Were True

and literal.

Howard warns of election drubbing
Australia's Prime Minister John Howard has warned his government that it risks "annihilation" by the opposition Labor Party in elections later this year.

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Tuesday Pirates Rant™

This season just keeps getting weirder. The pitching is falling apart--to the point where Shawn Chacon being added to the rotation both upgrades the rotation and severely hurts the bullpen--just as the offense is figuring things out, and the Pirates just finished a 4-6 homestand against Milwaukee, Florida, and Arizona. However, the NL Central is so unbelievably terrible that this article found its way to print this morning:

Imagine this call over the PNC Park loudspeaker in early October:

Ladies and gentleman, your 2007 Pittsburgh Pirates ... the National League's Central Division champions!

Ridiculous?

Laughable?

The punch line to some cruel, go-ahead-and-rub-it-in joke?

Yeah, probably. Truth is, if the Pirates keep performing as erratically as they have in the season's opening quarter, there is no chance.

At the same time ...

"We have 41/2 months of baseball left to play and, obviously, we're sitting in a division right now where clubs are not playing all that well," manager Jim Tracy said. "We're not in a division where a club is pulling away."

Well...it IS laughable--if the Brewers do indeed fade, it will be the Cubs or Astros who catch them--but the division is so bad that somebody who gets paid a lot more money than I do, thought this was credible. The Pirates' offense, defense, and pitching have rarely been worse, it seems, but .500 has never been more attainable. Forgive me if I don't get excited.

Good

* Ryan Doumit is STILL tearing the cover off the ball, even though he still doesn't really have a position. Through 76 at-bats, Doumit is batting .368, with a .435 on-base %, and .618 slugging %.

* Adam LaRoche has slowly begun to figure things out. Granted, he's still a smidge below the Mendoza line (.199), but his May numbers (.293 / .400 / .448) are much closer to what was expected of him all along.

* Freddy Sanchez' batting average is up to .276, which is terrible considering he's the defending NL batting champ, but it's great considering he was recently in the .220s.

* Ian Snell (4-2, 2.76 ERA) is still doing well, as is Tom Gorzelanny (5-2, 2.43 ERA).

* Closer Salomon Torres hasn't given up a run in his last 8 appearances.

Bad

* After Snell and Gorzelanny, the rotation has been putrid. Zach Duke (1-4, 5.19 ERA), Paul Maholm (2-6, 5.82), and Tony Armas Jr. (0-3, 8.46 ERA) have been rotten. Duke has improved recently, but Maholm has backslid, and Armas was bad enough that he lost his rotation spot to Chacon.

* You know how I complimented CF Chris Duffy for keeping his on-base % over .333? Yeah, it's now at .283 (with a .220 batting average). Not exactly what you're looking for in a leadoff hitter. But if you take him out of the lineup, your defense goes from bad to horrible. Have I mentioned how much this organization's depth sucks lately? Oh, and the guy the Pirates hoped would succeed Duffy if Duffy wasn't getting the job done? You know...Pirates' #1 prospect Andrew McCutchen? Batting .181, with a .245 on-base %. In AA Altoona. Fantastic.

* Jim Tracy is still a terrible manager:

It seemed a questionable choice, to be generous.

Arizona was slithering back into the game, down four runs in the seventh inning, and bases were loaded. A big hit was needed, and the Diamondbacks' pinch-hitter for light-hitting Robby Hammock surely would be switch-hitting slugger Tony Clark, owner of 232 career home runs and extraordinary power.

And Pirates manager Jim Tracy's signal to the bullpen was to summon ...

Marty McLeary?

The same Marty McLeary who had been hit hard in every outing since his recall from Class AAA Indianapolis two weeks ago?

The same Marty McLeary who had been used only in mopup duty?

Right.

Boom!

Clark's grand slam high into the center-field seats brought a tie that stunned and silenced the crowd of 30,677 at PNC Park, and Arizona's two-run eighth off Matt Capps would cap an astounding 9-8 victory for the Diamondbacks last night.

Tracy had all his relievers available except John Grabow, who had created the mess that inning, and Shawn Chacon, who had pitched five innings Thursday. He could have brought in Damaso Marte, Jonah Bayliss or Matt Capps, those he usually uses with the game on the line.

Or even Salomon Torres. Some managers in recent years have taken to calling on their closers in the game's most critical situations rather than just the ninth inning.

Instead, Tracy chose McLeary, whose first three appearances with the Pirates resulted in eight hits -- three of them home runs -- and a 7.36 ERA.

And when Tracy was asked why he made the decision, he basically threw Marte (too wild) and Capps (sucked that night anyway) under the bus. Just like last year, Tracy leaps to take credit for anything that bounces their way, but when his decisions are questioned, he blames the first person who pops into his head. Strong leadership.

Blog

Pat from WHYGAVS, on the state of the NL Central:

Honestly, I'm a bit tired of the same old "The NL Central sucks" stuff. The truth is that while the division is not great, I think there are two tiers in the division that will emerge pretty clearly this year. The Brewers and Cubs and everyone else. The division was no good last year, but no more than three teams had any realistic shot at winning the thing and it was probably down to only the Astros and Cards. Just because no team is the Mets in the division doesn't mean the Pirates have a chance.

And so we get two of the rejects in the division this year facing off tonight at 8 PM in St. Louis (the thread is going up a bit early because I'm going to a Greensboro Grasshoppers game tonight). The Pirates are a bit ahead in the standings, but the Cardinals have played much worse, scoring fewer runs than the Pirates and allowing more. Still, they're the Cardinals and we're the Pirates. It's hard to get that delineation out of my head at the moment.

Rowdy from Honest Wagner on Tony Armas:

The team was stubborn with Armas. When you make shitty personnel decisions, they have a ripple effect. If the team wants to win games, they have to win games now. Not later. No amount of losing today will increase the winning later. If they want to win games now, they have to play the most competent players. This means scrapping the "plan" when necessary. Armas, a $3M part of the offseason plan, was failing us well before this week. He had no business getting that last start.

Have I mentioned this team still has a chance to win 80 games? So confusing. And yet, I find myself caring about this season less than most. Until they fire their GM and prove that they actually want to field a good team, I have the feeling that will continue.

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Shelf life, heck it has a half-life

I ran across this list of surprising expiration dates at realsimple.com. Some I found interesting:

Brown sugar
Indefinite shelf life, stored in a moistureproof container in a cool, dry place.

Coffee, canned ground
Unopened: 2 years
Opened: 1 month refrigerated

Maraschino cherries
Unopened: 3 to 4 years
Opened: 2 weeks at room temperature; 6 months refrigerated

Rice, white
2 years from date on box or date of purchase

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