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(Roddy Frame - Aztec Camera - made the 80s worth listening to)

Getting into a 1980s frame of mind tonight - Aztec Camera from their first album High Land, Hard Rain - the opening track, and a favorite, Oblivious. Strangely, Aztec Camera really never caught on in the States. Only doing modest sales and occasional airplay. The only reason I can think of is the flood of albums and new bands coming out of the UK at the time caused a lot of worthy music to get lost in the shuffle. The early 80s saw a gradual shift from Punk to New Wave with Indie coming in through the back door. Once again, radio stations were also going through the shift, with less independent stations on the air and the growth of the corporate mergers - loosely translated: less experimenting and breaking of new acts and more concentration on the tried and true and the highly commercial acts (i.e. Madonna). Not to mention the introduction of MTV nationwide.

It was an interesting period of transition for the music business. But as is often the case, a lot of good music went unnoticed and it was frustrating not only for the bands, but for the audience as well.

Seems to still be that way.

If you love audio content and podcasts as much as I do, don't miss "In Bed with Susie Bright." In my opinion, her podcast on the Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford sex scandals (free excerpt at the link) should win best podcast of the year, if there is such a thing. (Her blog on sex, culture, and politics, etc. is great too, but like the podcasts, not necessarily work safe.)

Open thread below...

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Countdown's Worst Person's segment for Nov. 30, 2009 with winner Dana Perino. Runners up Mike Huckabee and Glenn Beck.

Grew up with two sisters, no brothers. At this time of year when White Christmas would come on the tee vee, we'd belt this one out loud and proud.

Lord help the mister, who comes between me and my man.

*The YouTube notes indicate Vera Ellen, a dancer, is not actually singing here, and it's Trudy Stevens's voice you're hearing with Rosemary Clooney's.

Favorite showtunes sharing appreciated tonight...

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November 30, 2009 FOX News

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Keith Olbermann delivers another Special Comment on the eve of President Obama's planned speech at West Point Military Academy calling for an increase of troops to Afghanistan.

As the hawks circle around Obama, drowning out any pacifist voice, Keith wonders why someone like Gen. McChrystal is given so much credence, a question that the Obama administration should have spent some of that "dithering" time contemplating.

General McChrystal has doubtless served his country bravely and honorably and at great risk, but to date his lasting legacy will be as the great facilitator of the obscenity that was transmuting the greatest symbol of this nation's true patriotism, of its actual willingness to sacrifice, into a distorted circus fun-house mirror version of such selflessness.

Friendly fire killed Pat Tillman.

Mr. McChrystal killed the truth about Pat Tillman.

And that willingness to stand truth on its head on behalf of "selling" a war -- or the generic idea of America being at war -- to turn a dead hero into a meaningless recruiting poster, should ring essentially relevant right now.

From the very center of a part of our nation that could lie to the public, could lie to his mother, about what really happened to Pat Tillman - from the very man who was at the operational center of that plan - comes the entire series of plans to help us supposedly find the way out of Afghanistan?

We are supposed to believe General McChrystal isn't lying about Afghanistan?

Didn't he blow his credibility by lying, so obviously and so painfully, about Pat Tillman?

Why are we believing the McChrystals?

It's frustrating to me, as someone who sees no shame nor weakness in embracing pacifism and peace as a goal to continually run up against Democrats who are so frightened about being portrayed as weak on defense to be swayed by something so patently nonsensical.

What is our mission now? When can we know we've achieved it? There are less than 100 al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. How is this the "good fight"? We have allowed the Taliban inroads into the government, so we cannot fight them without taking on Afghanistan as a state player, which changes our strategy entirely.

Please, President Obama, do not be beholden to campaign promises made a year ago. There is no "winning" in Afghanistan. Ask the Russians. There is no good fight. There is nothing there worth American blood and treasure.

Transcripts below the fold

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Nicole: Seth MacFarlane decided to feature Chris Matthews on his animated sitcom, The Family Guy, and amazingly, Tweety appears to have consented to provide the voice for his character, who has, shall we say, a rather prominent feature.

Love that MacFarlane totally nailed Matthews' penchant for continually interrupting his guests.

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From Face the Nation, FreedomWorks' Dick Armey claims that the GOP's purity resolution is not a litmus test for candidates. Sure looks like one to me Dick. I'm not sure what else you'd call it when you're using it to purge moderates from the Republican Party. Steve Singiser at DailyKOS has a post up on how this push to the right could end up being good for Democrats in the 2010--On Party Purity and Eleventh Commandments.

SMITH: The headlines out of the GOP this week, this notion, the Republican National Committee considering a list of 10 principles. Some have called them the GOP 10 commandments, which include things like support for the surge in Afghanistan or opposition, for instance, to the Obama health plan.

As a candidate, if you agree with the eight out of 10 -- with eight out of 10, you’ll get support from the national GOP, and if you don’t, you’re out of luck.

Dick Armey, is this litmus test a good idea?

ARMEY: First of all, it’s not a litmus test. Secondly, it is being offered for consideration in the party.

SMITH: Right.

ARMEY: And I think, thirdly, it is seven out of the 10. But if you -- if you read the list, at least five of the 10 are right at the center stage -- center post of the big 10 of American politics today, fiscal conservatism.

I think it’s -- if the Republican Party is going to win any future elections, it has to be presented as an alternative to the Democrat Party’s fiscal spending. And -- and in fact, it’s a very reasonable thing to say, if you want the support of the Republican Party, demonstrate some allegiance to the primary positions taken by the party.

That’s not a litmus test. That’s just saying, if you want us to give you our money, our support, our -- our troops in the field, our endorsements, then demonstrate that you’re someone like us.

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It's like deja vu all over again. Despite the fact that we know the causes of deficits are more important than the actual deficits, despite the fact that most top economists are calling for more economic stimulus and jobs programs, the New York Times has raised the anti-deficit banner in much the same way they did the "weapons of mass destruction" rationale for invading Iraq. (And look how well that all turned out!) This, of course, from the same paper who looked away while Bush trashed the economy.

And now our anti-deficit president's going to do another symbolic tour - in Allentown, of all places. Too, too ironic!

WASHINGTON — As Democrats renew their push to create jobs, they are at odds over the timing, cost and scope of additional measures, with the White House’s concern about high budget deficits pitted against the eagerness of many in Congress to spur hiring before next year’s elections.

After months in which his focus has been on a health care overhaul and foreign policy issues, President Obama will pivot later this week to the economy, convening a White House forum on Thursday to discuss ideas for job creation and then traveling to Allentown, Pa., for his first stop on a “Main Street Tour.”

Congressional Democrats return from a holiday break intent on packaging new proposals for tax incentives and construction projects to promote employment, with the House, where every member is up for re-election next year, on a much faster track than the Senate or the White House.

While the political rationale for additional government action is clear, it is an open question whether it would have any substantial economic effect. Still, the impetus for the activity will be underscored on Friday when the government releases figures for job losses and the unemployment rate for November.

With joblessness, which stood at 10.2 percent in October, likely to remain high through 2010 even as the economy recovers, the stage is set for what could be a yearlong tussle between deficit reduction and government incentives for job creation, and between the politics of Wall Street and Main Street.

An "open question" on whether it would have "any substantial economic effect"? Gee, you'd think a New York Times reporter would read Paul Krugman at least once in a while.

This video shows how scientists were misled. They thought the healthy ice was expanding, when it was actually thinning and spreading out over a wider area. I can't wait until all the right wingers who've been triumphantly pushing this as proof there's no climate change acknowledge they were wrong. I'll just sit here and hold my breath:

WINNIPEG–One of Canada's top northern researchers says the permanent Arctic sea ice that is home to the world's polar bears and usually survives the summer has all but disappeared.

Experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding. But David Barber says the thick, multi-year frozen sheets crucial to the northern ecosystem have been replaced by thin "rotten" ice that can't support weight of the bears. "It caught us all by surprise because we were expecting there to be multi-year sea ice. The whole world thought it was multi-year sea ice," said Barber, who just returned from an expedition to the Beaufort Sea.

"Unfortunately, what we found was that the multi-year (ice) has all but disappeared. What's left is this remnant, rotten ice."

Permanent ice, which is normally up to 10 metres thick, was easily pierced by the research ship, said Barber, who holds the Canada research chair in Arctic science at the University of Manitoba. The team finally reached what it thought was stable ice, only to watch a crack appear just as researchers were preparing to descend onto the floe.

"As I watched, over the course of five minutes, the entire multi-year ice floe broke up into pieces," Barber said. "This floe was 16 km across. Something that's twice the size of Winnipeg, it just broke up right in front of our eyes."