WHO DAT?

This isn't really a political post, but since we've got A to Z going on, I didn't want to disrupt my whole alpha thing. Plus I was not sure what letter to put this under.


It could be "T" for Townshend. Or maybe "P" for Pete. Or even "W" for Who.

But probably the best fit is "A" for ass…

But in either case, I'm posting it here on "Back In The USSR."

Pete Townshend wishes he had never joined The Who.


Despite the band being considered one of the greatest rock groups of all-time, the guitarist believes he could have been just as successful as a solo performer.


'My Generation' rocker Townshend is adamant he could have emulated the career path of Roxy Music keyboard player Brian Eno who went on to release several experimental solo albums before moving into producing, masterminding records for U2, Coldplay and Depeche Mode among others, if he had gone it alone.


Speaking in a new one-off magazine The Who: The Ultimate Music Guide - made by the makers of music publication Uncut - he said: "What would I have done differently? I would never have joined a band. Even though I am quite a good gang member and a good trooper on the road, I am bad at creative collaboration.


"I would have made a much more effective solo performer and producer working the way Brian Eno has worked."


The 65-year-old musician also believes he would not have so many injured body parts if he hadn't spent five decades in the band - which during its peak was comprised of the guitarist, singer Roger Daltrey, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon.


He added: "I would be less physically damaged today. My ears, right wrist and shoulder would work more efficiently. In all other respects I am in extremely good shape."


Townshend has been suffering from tinnitus - a painful ringing in the ears, which is a symptom of noise-induced hearing loss - for years and has seen several specialists in a bid to help the problem and prolong the lifespan of The Who.

the guitarist believes he could have been just as successful as a solo performer

Really, Pete? Aside from "Let My Love Open The Door," have you ever had another hit? Or even much radio play? Roger, on the other hand, has had several successful solo singles.


I feel bad for Pete's aches and pains, but guess what? WE ALL HAVE 'EM!

So come on, Pete-it's a little late, but have your mid-life crisis! Stay away from the Internet porn (remember how well that worked out last time) and buy a Corvette and pick up a nice young bleached blonde!

And be grateful for the fact that you had a career doing what you love, with unlimited partying and lots of casual sex, and that you're still alive to talk about it.


Or is being a rock and roll star like slavery, too?

The original article can be found here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/pete-townshend-wishes-he-hadnt-joined-the-who-2251836.html#

A MAN OF PEACE

Vigorously defending American attacks in Libya, President Barack Obama declared Monday night that the United States intervened to prevent a slaughter of civilians that would have stained the world's conscience and "been a betrayal of who we are" as Americans. Yet he ruled out targeting Moammar Gadhafi, warning that trying to oust him militarily would be a mistake as costly as the war in Iraq.

You remember that war, right? The one our Kenyan-born leader promised to end within his first year in office?

Obama announced that NATO would take command over the entire Libya operation on Wednesday, keeping his pledge to get the U.S. out of the lead fast -- but offering no estimate on when the conflict might end and no details about its costs despite demands for those answers from lawmakers.

He declined to label the U.S.-led military campaign as a "war," but made an expansive case for why he believed it was in the national interest of the United States and allies to use force.

In blunt terms, Obama said the U.S.-led response had stopped Gadhafi's advances and halted a slaughter that could have shaken the stability of an entire region. Obama cast the intervention in Libya as imperative to keep Gadhafi from killing those rebelling against him and to prevent a refugee crisis that would drive Libyans into Egypt and Tunisia, two countries emerging from their own uprisings.

"To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and -- more profoundly -- our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are," Obama said. He spoke in a televised address to the nation, delivered in front of a respectful audience of military members and diplomats.

"Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different," Obama said. "And as president, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action."

Mass graves like in Rwanda and Darfur, countries the United States declined to intervene in.

In Rwanda, the Hutu exterminated one million Tutsis, basically committing genocide and all but wiping the Tutsis from the earth.

In Darfur, the civil war is ongoing, with several hundred thousand dead, with mass displacements and coercive migrations into refugee camps or across the border.

But we were able to turn a blind eye to these atrocities.

Obama, the Nobel Prize winner for peace, has made his case for war.

This war is about oil, and that’s the sad part.

We’ve been fighting another war over oil, and our gas is up to almost four bucks a gallon. I’m afraid that we’ll see ten dollars a gallon before we’re through in Libya.

THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL?

Elizabeth Taylor passed away last week at the age of 79, and the American film industry surely lost one of its icons.

What I found a little disturbing is that Fox News referred to Ms. Taylor's marriages to Richurd Burton as one of the "greatest love stories of all time."

It saddens me that the expectations for the sacrament of marriage in America have sunk so low that this would be celebrated.

Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times to seven different husbands. She was married to Burton twice, for a combined period of ten years.

I understand that marriages fail for many reasons, and I am not writing this to condemn divorced couples. We should at least try to remember that marriage is a sacrament and is supposed to last until "death do us part," not until you have an affair with the next person who catches your eye.

The greatest love story of all time? Really?

If we use Elizabeth Taylor's love life as a criteria, isn't the greatest love story of all time Bill and Hilary?

He certainly had more sex with different partners during his administration than any other president, not to mention providing ideas for all sorts of new uses for cigars. And they're still together today.

My parents have been married for what is closing in on sixty years.

Which makes my oldest brother close to sixty, a fact I want to point out because if he reads this I get an extra dig in.

Their marriage has endured eleven presidential administrations (well, ten and the Clinton brothel), a plethora of miliatry actions, a handful of recessions, financial struggles, and most importantly fifty years of having to put up with ME!

Isn't a story like that a better candidate for the greatest love story of all time?

TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI

Here is a quote regarding the authority of the President to direct a miliatry action:

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.



As Commander-in-Chief, the President does have a duty to protect and defend the United States. In instances of self-defense, the President would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent. History has shown us time and again, however, that military action is most successful when it is authorized and supported by the Legislative branch. It is always preferable to have the informed consent of Congress prior to any military action."



Who said that?

Why Kenya's own Barack Obama, back in 2007, denouncing George W. on the topic of bombing Iranian nuclear sites.

Here's another quote:

"I say we go get the motherf&#@er!"

Who said that?

Why, the same birth-certificate challenged Barry Obama, on March 18, 2011 stating his intent to totally disregard his 2007 criticism of the prior commander-in-chief's abuse of authority and abuse some his own self! The intended victim is none other than Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan tyrant (and apparently the only man in the Muslim world who cannot grow a kick-ass beard).

Polls show that Obamacare, which was highly unpopular at the time of its passage, is even less popular today.

So like his predecessors, what does our candidate do to boost his approval rating with an election year around the corner? Why declare war on a third-world country without the proper authority, of course!

And of course, our Americonned citizens, seeing similar visual effects on the news (although not quite as good) as on their Call Of Duty 4 games, stand up and cheer at each missile strike. Another raghead motherf&#%er bites the dust! Our jingoistic culture shining as an example for the world to see.

And Obama Messiah (like Emporer Bush before him) gets away with usurping the Constitution, and murdering a bunch of people who pose no direct threat to the United States.

In short, by demonstrating similar behavior to what he's condemning Gaddafi for.

But it's backfiring a little.

President Barack Obama's authority to order the military action against Libya without congressional approval is being challenged — and congressional critics are using candidate Obama's words against him.

Now most Americans are unfamiliar with that old piece of papyrus they have behind glass in Washington that is the framework for how this country is supposed to work. They thing that the Constitution is more of a suggestion than the law of the country.

Article One, Section Eight of The Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war.

You see, our Founding Fathers were smart. They had just fought a bloody war to escape unjust taxation and tyranny from a monarchy.

There is a reason our government was set up the way it was-to keep the President from doing what our Kenyan Comrade has done (like the Marxist Dubuya did before him), usurping the military which would basically allow him to create a monarchy of his own.

Obama the Messiah.

Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) tore into President Barack Obama's decision to order U.S. air strikes against Libya, opening the door for impeachment while emphatically declaring that Obama violated the Constitution.

"President Obama moved forward without Congress approving. He didn't have Congressional authorization, he has gone against the Constitution, and that's got to be said," Kucinich told reporters, "And I'm raising the question as to whether or not it's an impeachable offense. It would appear on its face to be an impeachable offense," Kucinich said.

I applaud Mr. Kucinich for being consistent. Kucinich wanted to bring impeachment articles against both former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over Iraq, only to be blocked by his own party's leadership.

Obama said the UN-sanctioned operation was aimed at averting "the humanitarian threat posed by Col. Gaddafi to his people."

The United States could not "simply stand by with empty words" while Gaddafi, who had "lost his legitimacy," was "carrying out murders of civilians" and "threatened more," the U.S. president said.

"It is U.S. policy that Gaddafi needs to go," he added.

I'm looking to see the exception language in the Constitution that refers to a UN-sanctioned operation. I'm having a bit of trouble finding it. Probably because IT'S NOT THERE!

What worries me the most is how willingly our Prez is to cowtow to the United Nations. Remember George H.W. Bush's speech about a New World Order?

I got news for you, people-America is not the top of the food chain in this New World Order.

And don't get me wrong. I do not run the Arizona chapter of the Gaddafi fan club, and I don't dial into Libyan phone sex lines (that would be funny though-what kind of robes are you wearing?), but the plain and simple truth is that this is not about humanitarian issues.

If that were true, we would have acted in Rwanda.

Or Darfur.

But those countries don't have the same appeal to the Americans as blowing up some Arabs. Even the Bible Belt can get behind that!

Obama-you're gonna get your second term no matter what (although I don't know why you'd want it)-so can we please ix-nay on the or-way and stop spending BILLIONS that we do not have blowing people up?

Or maybe you see yourself as the savior in the Middle East?

Obama may be letting his presidency go to his head a little. A messiah he ain't!

CITY OF WANNABEES

This post really has no political significance, but explains why I bust on Arizona all the time.

I moved to Phoenix, Arizona almost sixteen years ago, having spent thirty-four years in the Philadelphia suburds, and more than eleven years working in the city of Philadelphia.

While there is a lot I miss about Philly, I do like Phoenix. Should my company ever offer a transfer back to Philadelphia, it would be a tough decision. Phoenix is a convenient city to live in - short commute, cheap housing, sparse traffic. It's like one big suburb.

But the local media has a real chip on their shoulder about comparing themselves to the big kids (NYC, LA, Chicago). They even started a pissing match with Philadelphia the year they passed Philly to become fifth largest. The Philly paper's pieces were all hysterical. The Phoenix paper's piece sounded like a kid crying he was gonna take his ball and go home.

In the latest piece of Phoenix media penis envy, this was posted Saturday on the local newspaper's web site. And trust me when I say, I am being generous calling it a "newspaper."

They wrote, "Mill Avenue businesses struggled even before the Great Recession, but one downtown Tempe strip is seeing so much traffic that it's on the verge of becoming the Valley's version of Times Square in New York."

And they posted this picture:

Can you believe the crowd? Why...that's THREE PEOPLE!

Have you ever been to Times Square? Have you ever seen a picture of it? I've been there in the middle of the night, and there are more people there than on this SATURDAY AFTERNOON WITH PERFECT WEATHER IN THE MIDDLE OF A COLLEGE TOWN!

There were more people in Times Square than this during the terrorist bomb-in-a-car scare. Not counting the police, FBI and ity personnel.

 In fact, if you pick the slowest moment on Times Square, there are more people there than on Mill Avenue at midnight on New Year's Eve.

Okay Airheadzona Repugnant, with your nickel and dime reporting staff, listen up and listen good:

Mill Avenue will NEVER be like Times Square.

EVER.

If China gets pissed off that we can't pay our debt to them and drop a smart bomb right on the Kit Kat Club, there will still be more people people (albiet somewhat under the weather) left standing than have ever stood on Mill Avenue.

Even if all the cheerleaders at ASU lined the streets in their birthday suits and handed out free beers, massages with happy endings and second generation iPads, there would still be more people in Times Square if on the same day a blizzard hit NYC.

But that's okay. What makes Phoenix (and let's face it, Tempe IS part of Phoenix-these suburbs need to get a clue-they're suburbs!) is that it is NOT New York City. Everyone moved here to escape a northeastern or midwestern city. If we wanted to live in that environment again, we'd move back there!

So please, Phoenix, be at peace with your southwestern Sonoran desert charm, and embrace your "fifth largest city that's like a small town" ambience.

That's what makes you unique. That's why so many people moved here from somewhere else.

And we're staying. Whether we like it or not. Whether YOU like it or not.

But you're not gonna fool us with that "we're just like New York" bullshit.

If you want to read the original story, it's here.

I HEARD SCREAMIN' AND BULLWHIPS CRACKIN'

This may not be political enough for some readers, but it does demonstrate two of the many less-than-desirable traits of our society.

(1) Everyone is afraid to call a minority to the carpet when they pull the racist card
(2) Our media and our society get too wrapped up in things that, as entertainment, should only be a diversion

Let's set the mood with some song lyrics and images

"Southern man, better keep your head

Don't forget what your good book said"
-Neil Young

"I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don't need him around anyhow"
-Ronnie Van Zant

There's a point (sort of) to all this.

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson compared the "plight" of the NFL player to slavery. In case you do not follow football news, the millionaires that are the NFL players have a union, and they are involved in a dispute with the billionaires who own the teams.

The players, looking for public support, put the dispute in the context of fighting for rights for future generations of players.

Peterson vented his anger about the owners refusing to open their financial books.

“It’s like . . . well, show us. We want more information, and they want to (expletive), going around, saying this and that, just open it up and give us the information we want,” Peterson told Yahoo! Sports shortly before the NFLPA’s decertification last Friday. “. . . If they have nothing to hide, just give us the information. Why not? Obviously, there’s a lot to hide — these guys are professionals, and they’re maximizing what they do. But they know that if all this information comes out, the information the players want, it’ll be right out there for everyone to see. It’s a rip-off — not just for the players, but for the people who work at the concession stands and at the stadiums.”

But Peterson didn’t stop there. Many NFL players feel that they aren’t being treated as business partners, but Peterson chose a different term for the treatment.

“It’s modern-day slavery, you know?” Peterson said. “People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too. With all the money . . . the owners are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money.”

Now, I find the idea of a player's union somewhat laughable. The league pays a minimum salary of $285,000 (as of 2007, presumably adjusted for inflation the past few years). That would put every player in the top one percent of wage earners in the country. Seventy percent of the tax returns in the US report income of $50K or less, and ninety percent report $100K or less. Why are these people feeling sympathy for either side.

The one thing I do agree with owners on-they invest an awful lot of money in the teams, and should get a fair return on that investment. Before I left the great city of Philadelphia, I remember the Eagles owner getting heat in the local paper because he took in profit out of the team. I do not remember the dollars, but I seem to remember it may have been $10M in profit on a team he paid $165M for. If that $165M had been sitting in a bank account, he have gotten more than $8M for that year, so I do not see that as greed.

Can we just call the NFL dispute what it is: two sides are trying to equitably distribute a lot of money.

And can we remember that slaves in the nineteenth century were not paid salaries that place them among the country's elite? They did not have entourages, and Cadillac Escalades, and trophy wives, and groupies. If Adrian Peterson feels he's getting a raw deal, let him live on my salary. For a week.

And if I feel he's acting like an overpaid, steriod-abusing child who runs with a ball for a living-that's not racist. Because when I see Tom Brady and Drew Brees talk about this like a crusade, I feel the same way about them.

But what made me deprogram ESPN from my television was the following tirade on ESPN's First Take. They often have black guest analysts who look for the racist angle in everything, and today I just reached my boiling point.

This morning, Jalen Rose, former NBA player and current ESPN analysis and obvious caucasian-phobe, called fans who sided with management in the NFL labor dispute rascist. The white analyst was treading softly, because in the politically correct version of America, when a black man makes a comment playing the race card, you can't tell him he's full of shit.

Jalen, you're full of shit.

Yesterday, Jalen defended comments made in a documentary about his college basketball team, where he accused any black player who attends Duke of being an "Uncle Tom."

During the 2008 election season, I told a black friend I was voting for Ron Paul (don't blame me for the current state of things-I wrote in Ron), and he called me rascist.

What my friend failed to understand, is that a vote for Obama simply because he is black, is an act of racism. What people like Jalen fail to understand is that generalized comments made against whites are rascist comments. If one hopes to eliminate rascism, it cannot be just by eliminating prejudice against blacks-one must stop pre-judging all races.

Does Duke look for a certain "type" of candidate? If I am to beieve what I hear, yes. Is it based exclusively on race? Again, it sounds like no. Are blacks generally a minority in the profile Duke recruits. Probably. But let's remember that they are a minority anyway-blacks are 12.9 percent of the population.

I wonder what percentage they are of NFL players? I read two sites, one claiming 78 percent and one claiming 67. Let's assume 67 percent. Certainly we can agree that blacks are fairly represented among the players.

Maybe the NFL needs affirmative action in the player realm…for whites!

The point of my post?

Slavery was a (no pun intended) black mark on the history of this nation. I don't think you will find many whites not wearing sheets as formal wear who would disagree with that.

NFL players are not slaves, nor are they even close to being slaves. They enjoy the freedom that this country was founded on, as many of them come from the poorest neighborhoods and through their own efforts and talent, reap the rewards of our system. If the players want to do something else, they're free to get into their Escalade and drive away from practice. The slaves needed an undergound railroad.

Get over yourself, Adrian.

Sadly, most of America will be caught up in the  NFL issue, a labor dispute for atheletes, and the President will probably end up getting involved. Meanwhile, we ignore the bigger issues that are right out there for us to see:

(1) Unconstitutional social programs bleeding the wealth of the 29 percent of Americans who make between $50K and $250K

(2) Staggering foreign debt that is mortgaging the future of your children (I have none)

(3) An illegal alien with Communist ideals sitting in the oval office

(I couldn't resist that last crack-while I am not as fanatic about his birth certificate as the "birther" crowd, I find it interesting that he still has not produced one.)

So maybe I won't convince any readers to turn off ESPN and watch news, or (Heaven forbid) read (although I would recommend The New American magazine to anyone).

Can we at least all agree that this:

No longer has any meaning except to identify fans of southern rock or country bands? It does not mean they lynch people or burn crosses. We're scared of extremists wearing sheets, too. That's why we own guns.

Now excuse me-I need to find out about the NHL labor issues….