Another U.S. Governor Has UFO Sighting

The first was Jimmy Carter when he was governor of Georgia. Former Arizona Governor Fife Symington says UFOs flew over Phoenix in '97. The money quote:

"I'm a pilot and I know just about every machine that flies. It was bigger than anything that I've ever seen. It remains a great mystery. Other people saw it, responsible people," Symington said Thursday. "I don't know why people would ridicule it."

Symington, who was in his second term as governor of Arizona during the Phoenix Lights incident, recently told a UFO investigator making a documentary that he had kept quiet about his personal close encounter because he didn't want to panic the populace.

The two notable things about this are: (1) Symington is a very credible witness as both a trained pilot and high ranking government official; and (2) fear of panicking the public as a reason to cover up alien contact has become a cultural meme.

In fact, there would have been good cause to believe (2) 60 years ago. The pandemonium caused by the Orson Welles's radio broadcast of War of the Worlds had occured fewer than 10 years before the Roswell crash. Any Eisenhower Administration official involved in the Roswell event would have had this in the forefront of his mind when handling the issue.

Assuming you believe the Roswell events occurred, then there are some very interesting questions. Have we been gradualy accurated to the idea of extraterrestrial biological entities through our popular culture for the past 60 years? If so, how would we react now if the government actually revealed "the truth" about Roswell? Would we behave as our grandparents had in the 1930s, or would we just shrug it off and silently think "I knew it!" Would the government reveal such information to the public before developing weapons to defend ourselves from the new "invasive" species?

The cultural impact of such a governmental revelation, if mishandled, (and is there a correct way to handle it?) COULD be severe. The political consequences range from impeachment of the President and Vice-President whose administration revealed the info (because they hadn't come clean sooner and had covered it up) to a sprawling decades long Congressional investigation. And then there's the potential religious upheavel which is impossible to estimate.

The massive potential chaos caused by such a revelation could reverberate around the globe and result in a global temporary autonomous zone. What an event to live through. It would be almost like living through the Biblical endtimes. Maybe that's why the meme keeps spreading - it simply updates an underlying fear.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Roswell event.

The Revolution Will Be Webcast

A Brave New World of Political Skulduggery? - washingtonpost.com

Finally, politics has embraced our post-modern condition with thr massive dissemination of the Hillary-Obama 1984 ad via (print, tv and web) media in addition to blog and email forwards. The ad is everything good about post-modernism - the mixing of media (video and text), the use of sampling (the reuse of the 1984 Macintosh commercial - aired during that year's superbowl incidentally), superbly crafted subtext(s) (which I go into here using only the video and not the audio) and the ability to spread itself virally. Oh Joy!

Gil Scott Heron was right in that the Revolution will not be televised. It will be brought about by thousands of free spirits creatively using the tools at their disposal to effect massive change. James Carville once made the point that the entire Renaissance was only 1500 people but they changed the world. This ad could herald something similar. I hope it really is the beginning of "citizen political ads" as the MSM has stated. And this WaPo article makes the point that the commercial was made very easily. While it "only" reached a few million of our 300 million citizens, those are the people paying attention early and who will be opinion and grassroots leaders in their communities.

This brings me to a point I haven't made on this blog yet. Namely, that political campaigns belong to the people, not the politicians. Abominations like McCain-Feingold give politicians too much control over the direction of political debate and cultural discourse by limiting who may participate and when they may participate. This is simply the political class's unique version of rent-seeking.

Ads like this show that the barrier to entry for political ads (now that YouTube and its rivals exist) is extremely low and relatively inexpensive. Normal citizens can now make their own advertisements (assuming the FEC doesn't freak out and ban them all) very cheaply and still have impact. What happens now is the question.

Another Nation Admits to Trackg UFOs

Breitbart reports that France has opened its secret UFO files to the public. These files cover 50 years of sitings.

It's fairly interesting that France is the second nation since 2005 to admit to researching UFOs up to the present day. The U.S. Disclosure Project has been trying to accomplish the same thing over here, even though Project Blue Book was officially closed in the late 1960s.

There are really two explanations as to why elite members of these last two nations are pushing to open their nations' respective files:

1) To prove that "there's no there there" and try to dispel the growing cultural belief in alien visitations (Jung would have an interesting take on the UFO phenomena).

2) It is part of the gradual acculturation process that began decades ago with the first alien-human contact during the Eisenhower Administration with the crash at Roswell.

Occam's Razor says that option (1) is more likely. I think I'll go with that one. The second option is too creepy to contemplate in any event.

Of course, we can now get into a conversation about Faction One vs. Faction Two, but we'll leave that for another time.

Hey Asshole - More info on CVS poor service

If you're going to leave a comment, be a (wo)man about it and leave an actual email address for me to respond to your comments and criticisms - and I will respond via email to comments. (Aside from this post) I'm not going to waste my blog space on replying to idiot/self-righteous morons. Unfortunately, some people are too cowardly to leave comments w/o doing it anonymously.

To the asshole who wrote saying I should have helped the old guy at CVS and criticized me for not being a decent human:

The fact is that I am the one who asked her to call the pharmacy tech from the day before, and Ms. Uneven suggested the pharmacy tech call her doctor. Yes, I used some literary license - it is afterall called a "portrait" as opposed to an actual retelling of the event. If you don't understand the difference, look at the differences between James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man vs. his actual biography. There are significant differences. Too bad you're too much of a coward to leave an actual email address to respond to so that we could have a real conversation about this.

For the record, the portrait was of an old man being beaten down by the beauracracy. It wasn't supposed to be a completely true story, just the outlines of a sad one.

Deconstructing the Hillary-Obama 1984 Ad

The Hillary-Obama Ad is a great juxtaposition of the most famous commerical of all time (Apple's initial upstart assault on dominant Microsoft, in turn based on Orwell's 1984) with the dates of the a previous general election and the commercial's first airing (1984) and the next general election 2008. Scroll down to watch the ad.

What happened in the 1984 election? - the Democratic candidate annointed by primogeniture (as only Republicans do), Walter Mondale, had beaten off an insurgent campaign based on new ideas and charisma, Gary Hart, to lose in a disastrous landslide in the 1984 general election (to Ronald Reagan). The visual reference to the 1984 commercial also provides the undertones (subtexts) that Hillary:

(1) Is Big Brother, again enforcing orthodoxy
(2) Again advancing through primogeniture in a party which finds such a process alien to its political DNA and distateful to its (small d) democratic roots.
(3) Will lose disastrously because (1) will produce an result completely in sync with the American People

What could happen in the 2008 election? - The American people, tired of the same (type) of people running the government as those of the last 20 years will pick a new (type?) of politician. It could be Barack Obama, Chuck Hagel, Newt Gingrich, Al Gore and a few others.

The visual statement: "2008 won't be like 1984" provides the undertones (subtexts):

1) It won't be Hillary. She represents the continuity of the political past, not the break from it we're all yearning for.
2) The above-referenced yearning which didn't really exist in 1984 because people were relatively satisified with President Reagan
3) Poses a direct challenge to Hillary (from the Obama campaign based on the logo, but they have denied it).
4) Hillary as recipient of the "two-minute hate" against which true-believers can rebel.

A Mo(u)rning Portrait

At the Waterfrong CVS earlier today (store #1348) , I overheard a distraught elderly gentlman patiently trying to pick up medicine for his wife/daughter (I wasn't paying that much attention). Apparently CVS had misplaced the prescritions he dropped off yesterday so that he could have them today. The CVS technician offered neither to call the doctor (most of which have answering services for emergencies) nor to call the CVS pharmacy tech working yesterday (whom he described well - I've been to that pharmacy before) to find out if she knew if she had misplaced them.

Instead of helping him resolve the issue, she blew him off and shooed him out. When he asked if she would call the doctor about the prescriptions, she said it was unlikely the doc would answer and his best bet would be to come back tomorrow. She also refused to call the accurately-describted pharmacy tech. As he patiently pointed out (if it were ME, I'd be boiling over at this point), he had dropped off the prescriptions Yesterday so he could have them TODAY for his sick loved one. No one should have to wait a day for basic medical treatment because a retail employee is lazy.

Watching him shuffle out of the door has darkened my mood. I hope that missing one day of medication won't harm his loved one's medical treatment. I wish customer service were a bigger priority for CVS pharmacies.

I think I'll transfer my prescriptions to a different branch or find a entirely new pharmacy in my neighborhood - hopefully I can find a locally-owned one.

External Validation Rocks!

"I even saw the lights of the Goodyear blimp, and it read Uneven Steven's a pimp." (With apologies to Ice Cube)

Of course, it WAS an honor to be nominated. I'd like to give a shout out to the Dewey Crew who have been calling me "Big Sexy" for years - you know who you are (of course most of those people have actually partied with me). I'm also grateful for the many votes I received from the DC blogging community. While some of the gracious people in this community know (and have done body shots with) me, not enough of you could possibly know me for me to win this award straight out. But thanks again for (further) external validation.

I won because of the method of voting. Different methods of voting produce different results. There is a whole branch of Rational Choice Political Theory dedicated to the different results that different voting methodologies produce. This is important enough that Democrats and Republicans both have crafted specific rules on legislative issue in hope of engendering their desired result through "democratic" means. Both parties are equally known for using their majority power to structure favorable voting rules for legislation coming to the floor (the acually most important method for determining what public policy will pass the House of Representatives). Both parties had their favorite rules, but the previous Democratic majority was masterful at it in a way that Republican never were. We'll have to see how this Democratic majority fairs

Being the second or third choice for most people when you're able to cast four per person means that you can be nobody's favorite and still win. This raises significant issues as to whether someone coming in first in such a contest (e.g., myself) is actually the democratic choice. In some sense the only contestant that can claim to be the "true" democratic choice is the "Condorcet winner", the one that beats EVERY other option in a head-to-head competition. I likely would not since I don't know enough of you.

All of that said, I DO APPRECIATE THE VOTES.

- US

Oh C'Mon, typical incompetence is not a conspiracy

Apparently, Mayor Nagin Suspects a plot To keep blacks away from New Orleans. Apparently it's all part of some plot by evil Republicans (or whichever party is now the party of racists - it used by the Dems until Nixon's Southern Strategy) to use natural disasters to disperse populations to benefit their party. Doubtful.

(ed - but Hurricane Katrina really did vastly redistribute hundreds of thousands of poor people who had never left their home neighborhoods, let alone towns. Many of them won't be coming back. But the lack of federal help (i.e., tax expenditures) in bringing these people back to New Orleans doesn't make it a conspiracy)

The government is generally very bad at big things (like this), and very good at little things (actually processing Social Security checks etc.). And I doubt the folks that brought us the Iraq War (complete with flower offering children), the ham-handed firings of the US Attorneys, and Plamegate could really get away with something like this.

Bad things happen. There's not always an invisible hand (except in capitalism) no matter how much we want the bad things to be CAUSED so that we have someone/thing to rail against.

A True Conspiracy? Did RFK Really Kill Marilyn?

FBI file links Kennedy to Monroe's death - World - smh.com.au

According to this articlte, the FBI had an ACTUAL FILE about RFK's role in inducing Marilyne Monroe's suicide. Even more, it was buried for DECADES as a classified document that detailed RKF's on and off again sexual relationship w/ Norma Jean. Apparently, it even conjectures that RFK had her killed when she realized he had no intention of divorcing his wife and marrying her.

Of course, this is a Kennedy Hater's dream.

Taegan Goddard Describes My Life

This describes a lot of my life w/ a few caveats. I really like to read Political Wire before the WaPo or NYT, and having a dual-tuner TiVo means never having to get out of bed to tape anything on Sunday. Plus, the PBS and local weekend political shows are always worth watching. I'm also pretty much over Prime Minister's question hour until there's a new PM (though that's just a matter of taste and I think we should require something similar of our President(s).


Instructions for becoming a political junkie, courtesy of Political Insider. (Required reading for college students and budding politicos).

But enough about me.

The routine of one obsessed political junkie:

DAILY TASKS: Wake up. Check Drudge. Read the NYT and WaPo. Check Political Wire, the hotline blog, politico.com, the AP wire, the Reuters political wire, and MSNBC.com. Read ABC's The Note when it arrives in my inbox, around 10am. Throughout the day, check Drudge at least once an hour, check Political Wire a few times, check the hotline blog every hour or two. Once or twice a day, read Wonkette, Political Insider, potomacflacks.com, cqpolitics.com, HuffingtonPost, and TVNewser. Watch Hardball at 5pm or 7pm. During commercials, check in on Sit Room.

MUST READS: Everything by Howard Fineman (Newsweek). Almost everything by George Will. Everything by David Yepsen and Tom Beaumont (DM Register). Everything written by Mike Allen and Roger Simon (Politico).

TRICKS OF THE TRADE: Keep '08 staff list. Google alert names of spokespeople from campaigns to follow messaging. Check presidential websites weekly.

MONDAYS: Read Dana Milbank's Washington Sketch (WaPo).

TUESDAYS: Read E.J. Dionne's column in the WaPo.

WEDNESDAYS: Read Maureen Dowd and Tom Friedman's NYT columns.

THURSDAYS: Read Novak's column. Read John DiStaso's weekly Union Leader column. Read David Brooks' Thursday NYT column.

FRIDAYS: Read the Time articles that matter. Tivo HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.

WEEKEND: Savvy political junkies know that Novak's must read "Inside Report" column is printed on townhall.com on Saturday, a full day before it's available in his syndicated column. Read Maureen Dowd's Sat column in the NYT. Read David Brooks' Sun NYT column. Tivo all three network Sunday talk shows and FNC's Fox News Sunday. Tivo the Chris Matthews Show. Tivo McLaughlin Group and McLaughlin One-on-One. (Sunday recording requires taping shows at the same time). Watch at my leisure on Sunday. Watch C-SPAN's Road to the White House on Sunday night. Fall asleep watching Prime Minister's questions on C-SPAN.

REPEAT

Plagiarism is the Sincerest Form of Flattery - I'm looking at you Jazz Chill Corner

Jazz Chill Corner decided to repost my 2007 Music Festival listing w/o any type of attribution. You can compare them side by side - a his here and mine here and you'll see they're identical. He couldn't even be bothered to add a few new ones.

Not only does this probably violate my creative commons license, it's just rude not to give credit where it's due. It's called a footnote in academia (or a hat tip in the blogosphere). When I reposted E)'s stoner job search ad and commented on it, I gave her credit because that's appropriate.

While I'm flattered, it'a just not polite to acknowldege my hard work to compile that list (and solicit more info for future updates) or provide a link to the original source.

Gotta Love the Post-Modernism of Robotics Ethics Laws Based on Asimov

The tradition of SciFi writers predicting the future continues and has now advanced from Jules Verne to Isaac Asimov. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to get to some of the things Heinlein predicted.

That said there is something vaguely creepy about an entire national obsession with robots and the need for a nation to actually have a robotic ethics codes. Even the Europeans are getting in on the act. Though it does make practical sense for nations whose populations are imploding. However, it seems premature to establish robotic ethics at all before any of them pass the Turing test.

The most interesting implications of robotics combined w/limited AI are those related to creating sex robots. And all new successful technology from the VCR to the internet has been driven through its applicability to pornography (and making its use more anonymous). If robots are to become commonplace this is the most profitable place for manufacturers/researchers to start. And regardless of what I think, it's only a matter of time before some company starts doing this. Most likely Korea or Japan due to the population pressures mentioned above (which is getting worse due to the aborting of what would be female children in those cultures - we're actually witnessing cultural suicide, from a detached perspective, it would make an excellent PhD thesis).

The positive aspects the spread of sex robots could virtually eliminate trafficking in women and sexual slavery. This has enormous potential to reduce human rights abuses and vastly improve the lives of women around the world since sexual slavery would become comparatively more expensive.

Of course, despite these positive cultural impacts, the christianists likely will rise up in outraged opposition. I'm sure they'll find some obscure Biblical passage to justify opposing another form of sexual release. More likely however, they'll just trot out the chestnut about Onan. Any literate reader of Scripture would realize his punishment was due to "gaming the system" to keep fucking his sister-in-law - which Hebrew law condoned in order to give her a son, but which activity would have to stop once she became pregnant - not for having sex that didn't result in conception (even the Song of Songs praises sexuality) which as become the justification for opposing birth control etc.

Does it matter what the Pope thinks about Biotech?

Obviously the Pope's opinion is wrong, especially his comments on artificical insemination for infertile couples (doesn't that go against God's command to "be fruitful and multiply" - of course people like Benedict don't really use logic). Additionally, the Pope is wrong and Andrew Sullivan right on gay marriage - if you're pro-marriage you allow gays to have civil union because it would provide the same social benefits to and from these couples that married people receive.

But does it even matter that he has an opinion? He is not the head of Christendom, only Catholicism (which recently has been seeking to reconcile with many of the protestant denominations). Aside from Catholics and christianists, do we even care?Most Europeans seem to ignore him. And what about the Chinese who have no cultural connection to the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam)? It's unlikely they would respond to his opinion either.

Additionally, the entire protestant movement was based on the idea that the Catholic church was too dogmatic and didn't allow others to interpret Christianity as they saw fit. So there's really no reason for him to pay much attention to him since the Anglican Church, to which I belong, does not agree with him.

Designer Babies in the UK

At the end of the day I completely support this. The individual and social benefits to eliminating genetic diseases such as diabetes, parkinsons, alcholism etc. are enormous.

I'd love to have my future children partially designed to eliminate hereditary diseases. That's a no brainer.

Unintended Social Consequences & Controversies of This Technology

Would I use this technology to enhance their intelligence and athletic ability - of course, what responsible parent wouldn't want their child to have every possible advantage. This is more controversial because thousands(millions?) of individuals making individual decisions for similar reasons can cause an unintential social movement. Such genetic enhancement runs counter to our American ideals of fair play (witness our laws against performance enhancing drugs for athletes).

What about the ethics of deleting a gay gene, deaf gene or genes that make you fat? Parts of our society would do this without blinking. But other parts of our society(beyond the christianists) will have severe issues with this? E.g., won't deaf culture die out and should it (which is a huge issue)?

Depending on how far such technology progresses, it also has has the potential to cement the position of those at the top and eliminatig the eternal goal of meritocracy and social mobility. Without the last two, our Democratic-Capitalist society will eventually collapse due to revolts and possible revolutions - they'll be slow in coming, but they'll come. And it won't just be our nation, it will occur in other nation where the same technology is available and utilized.

Biological Data Storage

How cool is this? Using artificial DNA to store information in bacteria is just brilliant and potentially will lead to faster computer processors, and EMP-proof data storage for corporations. Someone's going to figure how to make a lot of money off of this.

For all the potential benefits, it does raise three questions:

(1) What exactly is "artificial DNA," and what are its other potentially malicious uses of which we should be wary?

(2) Can this data be written into creatures beyond bacteria? Will I eventually be able to use my dog as a backup storage device? How cool would that be?

(3) Will scientists be able to use this artifical DNA to modify humans? In what way will they choose/be able/forced to do so? How far away is this?

Anyway, just things to consider. Still doesnt' change the coolness factor.

Of Course the Government Abused Its Power

Another name for Big Government Conservativism is Fascism and we're rapidly sliding down that slope. Fortunately, American-style fascism hasn't made "the trains run on time" (witness Katrina, Walter Reed, Iraq), so America likely will survive and recover from the latest assault on the Bill of Rights.

I'm shocked, shocked the FBI is abusing the powers granted to in the abomination known by the Orwellian name "The Patriot Act." Most of the extreme provisions in this bill should have been allowed to sunset per the originial law. However Congress, and especially the spineless Democrats raised few objections to expanding to renewing these provisions and only eliminate some of them.

And now the government is attempting to resurrect the Total Information Awareness system. Of course this time they're getting the private sector to do it for them so they contract for the services instead. [Note: to bring in another of my favorite themes,the original seal for the TIA office prompted many concerns from conspiracy groups about the Masons, Illuminati etc. taking over]. FOr real problems TIA could cause, see here.

Begin Self-Involved Explication

Many of the provisions in the Patriot Act simply gave the FBI the same powers to pursue suspected terrorists that the DEA already possessed for going after potential drug traffickers. On that front these provisions could be considered relatively harmless. One the other hand the War on (Some) Drugs could easily be ended by legalizing most drug consumption, regulating it and putting it in the hands of corporations. This would also result in the defunding of many of the terrorism organizations. I had a really interesting conversation about this at CPAC with a law enforcement officer advocating legalizing drugs for these reasons. For what it's worth, he told me he had a much better reception this year than last.

End Self-Involved Explication.

Shamrock Festival Rocked! RFK Management Blows! DC Police Are Professional

I say the festival rocked because I am no longer there. The management company decided to stop honoring VIP wrist bands for the VIP area (which was not the organizers fault). Like I always do with bad customer service, I asked to speak to the supervisor but was told no. He was only 10 feet away so I walked towards him to straighten everything out. Before I even got to him I was physically assualted by the staff - attempting to break my arm by pushing it up behind my back - and physically threatened further by the staff. The staff also refused to give me their names etc. so that I could file a formal complaint with the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission (who run RFK) and the police. That is unacceptable, but typical cover your ass behavior by the type of uneducated people who work these jobs and realize their in the wrong. (To quote the asshole professor from Real Genius "[they're] laborers ... that's what you get for not having an education").

I was visibly upset by their unwarranted assault and called the police on 911. Someone came very promptly, and I was escorted out of the event. I don't blame the police - they were doing their job and in their situation I would take the management company's word over mine since the management company is also part of DC government. I was very tense and the officers kept commenting on it and asked me to relax as we walked out. They were very professional the whole time and I appreciate their difficult jobs. I also believe that law enforcement at any level is second only to military servicen in terms of noble callings and professions deserving respect. Kudos to the DC police for handling this well.

However, if I were the guys who sponsored the event and the D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission stopped honoring the tickets I had sold (as well as vendor passes - many of whom also were barred from the VIP area despite the fact they were supposed to have access), I would stop having Shamrock Fest and Blocktober Fest at RFK. They did not provide acceptable customer service to the festival promoters.

Instead, I would do like the HFStival and do the events at Ravens stadium in Baltimore. In addition to better management, there is more to do around the stadium than at RFK, and it's just a better environment for having a good time than the RFK area. Of course, there will be a new Nationals stadium, so maybe they can do it there in the future.

RFK deserves to close due to poor management and inability to resolve customer service issues. Maybe the DC United (our excellent soccer team that not enough people see) could play at the new stadium too. For a WaPo article that mentions previous management problems at the stadium, click here.I worked in customer service for over five years service is a big thing for me.

Despite all the drama the festival was fun. The Connells aren't quite as good as they were 15 years ago, but still put on a solid show, as did all the Dewey Bands and Kelly Bell. I'm bummed I'm missing DJ AM and Carbon Leaf, but that's what happens for sticking up for yourself with the government (you can't fight city hall). I'm sure they'll both put on excellent performances.

Even a Convicted Pot Smuggler Needs a Job

Hat tip to E:) for this great picture.



And let's face it, the guy is qualified to run a medium size business. I mean managing 120 employees and shipping operations for a $100 million business must take some solid education and management skills. That said, do you really want to hire somebody who may start laundering illegal funds through your company? I don't think that's a good risk consdiering US Zero Tolerance laws Could result in the government seizing the company.

Of course, only in Canada would someone think about something like this.

Sell the book! Sell the book quick!

As a libertarian, I am deeply conflicted about the now-infamous " Beltway Madam", Ms. Debra Palfrey, but think that she should sell her little black book of clients before the courts stop her from doing so. (ed - little black book my ass - the 10,000 names and phone records weigh 46 pounds)

Begin Self-Involved Explication

My main source of internal conflict is that while I support the right to engage in prostitution as a matter of principle, I abhor trafficking in people and sexual slavery. I don't doubt that Ms. Palfrey and people at her level of the sex industry don't buy and sell people to provide sexual services. However, the fact that they exist helps fuels demand for all types of escort services, especially the more downscale ones. Escort services that compete on price (as most services do in our capitalist society - I am pro-capitalist btw) seem more likely to be run by those who engage in sex trafficking.

End Self-Involved Explication

Now that that's over, I really do think that she has the absolute right to publish the book or sell it since it is her property and I am offended the prosecutor is trying to stop it. Simply doing that and embarassing some people is not the same as blackmail and the prosecution should stop pretending that it is. There is no law against embarassing thousands of people simultaneously.

At this point there has mainly been only small comments of titillation that some people will be embarassed. No one yet has really thought through the implications. After all, Brent Wilkes is going to jail for procuring prostitutes for Congressman Duke Cunnigham and others. There likely will be many other lobbyists in there as well, which will present problems for some of them, and not just of the going to jail variety. I'm talking about their personal life fallout.

Many of the people in the book likely procured sexual services for themselves. However, many of the lobbyists in the book will tell their wives/girlfriends/boyfriends that they simply were procuring the escorts for their clients. Many of the significant others will believe this because people who play at the level where it's plausible to hire an escort for a Congressman know how the game works. The problems will come for those who have cheated on their wives in the past and remained together or those who have had past relationship problems that this further contributes to. I feel bad for them

Finally, the publication of this book may result in some resignations from Congress or other scandals on K Street. We can only hope . . .

I got Lollapalooza Tix! I got Lollapalooza Tix!

All 3 days for $60! Limited Pre-sales are THE BEST REASON to sign up for festival email lists and band listservs. Regular tickets for Lollapalooza go on sale next month.

For a list of other upcoming music festivals, see here , which will be updated sporadically.

Oh, and Big Props to Blogger for hosting their party at SXSW this weekend!

2007 Music Festivals (Updated)

Thanks to everyone who helped update the Music Festiva list. As you may know, I put this list together because I have missed too many of them by not knowing their exact dates until it was too late. Some of these are a bit off the beaten path, but should be well worth it.

Again, thanks to everyone who helped update this list. Please Keep 'em coming.


The List So Far

March 9-11 Langerado (Sunrise, CA)
March 9-18 South x Southwest Music Festival (Austin, TX)
March 10 Shamrock Festival 2007 (Washington, DC - RFK Stadium)
March 15 - April 1 Savannah Music Festival
March 23-24 Ultra Music Festival (Montreal, Canada)
April 20-21 Dewey Beach Pop Festival(Rehoboth,DE)
April 27-29 Coachella (Indio, CA)
April 27-29 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (New Orleans, LA)
May 4-6 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
(New Orleans, LA)
June 1-3 Rock am Ring (Germany)
June 1-2 Rock im Ring (Nuremberg, Germany)
June 7-10 Chicago Blues Festival
June 8-10 The Download Festival (Donnington Park, Leceistershire, UK
June 22-24 Glastonbury Festival (U.K.)
June 22-24 Sierra Nevada World Music Festival (Booneville, CA)
July 5-7 Essence Music Festival (New Orleans, LA)
July 5-8 Roskilde Festival (Roskilde, Denmark)
July 6-8 Vancouver Island Music Festival.
July 7 Live Earth/Earth Aid (henceforth referred to as Live Earth Aid). (Washington, DC)
July 7 Ozzfest begins
Mid-July Heineken Jammin' Festival (Italy)
July 14-15 Pitchfork Music Festival (Chicago)(lineup TBA 3/16)
July 18-21 10,000 Lakes Festival (Detroit Lakes, Minnesota)
July 19-21 Goodstock (West Virginia)
July 19-22 Festival Internacional de Benicassim (near Valencia, Spain with an excellent line-up)
July 27-30 Eclipe Outdoor Electronic Music Festival (Montreal, Candada)
August (TBA) Burning Man
August 3-5 Lollapallooza (Chicago, IL)
August 8-13 Shambhala (Canada)
August 18-19 V Festival (Hylands Park, Chelmsford & Weston Park, Staffordshire - UK)
August 24-26 Reading and Leeds Festival (U.K.)
August 30 - September 2 Chicago Jazz Festival
September 1-3 Bumbershoot link is to last year's lineup but Rumor is that Kanye West is headlining again. (Washington State)

I have some downtime in August, so I'd love to start at the Eclipse Festival in Montreal end at Bumbershoot in WA and then head home.

I would like for this list to be as comprehensive as possible, so please let me know (and include a link) about festivals left off this list, no matter where they are in the world. Thanks!

Also please let me know if the Pixies or Garbage are playing near you, so I can figure out where I can see them play again. Thanks!

Ok, So Al Gore Didn't Announce (Yet)

Ok, so Gore didn't announce for President at the Oscars the way I predicted. Oh well, sometimes I'm wrong. However, he basically received a nomination speech from Leonardo DiCaprio.

Gore also is nominated for a Nobel Prize. Given the Nobel Committee's recent penchant for including political considerations in its awarding process, Gore likely will win. He also has accumulated enough money in the private sector to jump start a late campaign (similar to the Gingrich strategy).

I believe that Gore will announce for the Presidency shortly after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and will be the nominee.

The Shamrock Festival is Going to Rock!

I love music and music festivals (no surprise to regular readers). The Shamrock Festival is going to ROCK! And let me tell you why.

In the past, the Shamrock and Octoberfest music festivals have been held in Ballston. They generally feature a mix of local talent and VERY popular cover bands such as Mr. Greengenes, Burnt Sienna, Kristen and the Noise, Laura Lea & Trip Fabulous. Love Seed Mama Jump usually plays too - they have an eclectic mix of their excellent original music plus covers. (You know - the typical Dewey Beach bands). Kelly Bell usually plays too and this year features Scott's New Band - a reworking or LRS.

This year is going to be better because it will be at RFK. This will minimize the crowding, but possibly make it bigger. It also is going to have major headliners and a lot of the favorites I mentioned above.

I hope that this eventually supplants the now-defunct HFStival.

Bad Service at Best Buy (Another One for the Best Buy/Ketchum Viewers)

Best Buy's customer service leaves much to be desired - Pay Attention you Best Buy and Ketchum folks still checking out my entries about boycotting Geek Squad for corrupt practices.

Ms. Uneven and I went to two different Best Buy locations last night since both our laptops have crapped out in the past week (My real boycott effort/annoyance is aimed specifically at Geek Squad, and not Best Buy per se). The first location we went to (Best Buy in Potomac Yards off Route One - Store 493) we had to stand in line for 45 minutes just to get some service. And then we had to go to the other Arlington location to get what we needed.

Per the norm, the Pentagon City store (Store 276) was so understaffed we couldn't find anyone to help us. We knew specifically what we wanted (due to the help we received at the Potomac Yards branch), but we couldn't find a sales associate and no one bothered to help us for 20 minutes. Due to this poor service, we walked out only with the new laptop and nothing else despite our intention to purchase a significant dollar amount of periperals.

The fact that customer service is so bad at those locations is a real problem. Best Buy's poor service at that location lost them several hundred dollars in sales from me.

PS - I have over 5 years experience working in retail and customer service. Best Buy needs to take lessons from some of the other retail giants on how to provide good service.

The War at Home is still on!

I'm very excited about this generally. Given the sheer amount of references to/jokes about drugs and premarital sex, I'm surprised the Lifestyle Police have let them stay on the air. BTW - I predicted a while back it would only last one season. I was wrong.

I think the use of the characters performing a monologue against a totally white backdrop is great for demonstrating the inner monologue, as well as for setting future jokes. Very PoMo.

Geek Squad Paranoid of Boycott Effort

Best Buy Executives and Ketchum folks (their PR) firm have been checking out my last post on boycotting Geek Squad all week. Apparently, some folks at Ketchum and Best Buy haven't figured out how to mask their IP addresses from the Stat counter. The Best Buy and Ketchum people spent over an hour on the site. Apparently figuring out how to respond to the original article I linked to and commented on.

Some Circuit City people have been checking it out too. Possibly to figure out how to benefit from this.