New Web Browser
Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Well its not really new, its been around for years but the latest version rocks the house. The only drawback is that I am not able to post to my blog from it, IE is the only browser that gives me all the tools I need. When I post from my mac, I cannot add pictures or hyperlinks. Anyways, check out Opera, it is very stable and has few popups. The best feature of it is the ability to open multiple sites and have them cascaded within one major window. When you are done for the day, just shut down the main window and leave all your sites open. When you launch again, they are all there and all you need is to hit refresh on each page. If you are like me and like to read a number of sites, this keeps them all in one window and open at all times.

http://www.opera.com/

I was on the firefox kick for a while but that is so 2004 now, Opera is the future, better get on board before you are swept away.

Posted by mardenhill 4/12/2005 09:05:00 AM 2 comments    

Daily Delay

http://dailydelay.blogspot.com/

The Public Campaign Action Fund has put together a blog to keep a daily history of Tom's exploits and the general public updated on the events that may not make the MSM. I was very suprised to hear on CNN yesterday Delay's name and his ethics violations in the same sentence. Feel free to bookmark this site if you are interested in following Delay's demise.

Posted by mardenhill 4/12/2005 09:01:00 AM 2 comments    

Signing her book...

Posted by mardenhill 4/10/2005 07:58:00 PM 3 comments    

Shaking hands...

Posted by mardenhill 4/10/2005 07:58:00 PM 1 comments    

Pictures from the book signing. Giada was very nice and took a few moments to speak with everyone. I missed the cooking demonstration, I was too far back in the line, there were probably a few hundred people there.

Posted by mardenhill 4/10/2005 07:57:00 PM 3 comments    

Music To My Ears

Well It has started, the republicans are starting to turn on Delay, its just a matter of time before the slithering snake is forced to step down. I will be throwing a party when that day arrives, drinks for everyone. Delay is the epitomy of corporate/political sleaze and its all coming out. This louse had his wife and daughter on the take, receiving money from a PAC he formed years ago. Bring his whole family down, I don't care, let him be an example to the nation on what happens when politicans take too much money from lobbyists. Hell, his own daughter had a baby shower thrown and paid for by a lobbyist. I guess Tom doesn't make enough money in the house to throw his own daughter a party, what a sad, sad world we live in. Its just a matter of time, the Terri Shavio saga is over, the funeral for the pope is over, now the TV time is wide open and hopefully its on Tom Delay day and night. Expose Tom for the true hyprocrite that he is, play his own words to the world to let them hear how he threatened judges not just once but many times.

"Tom's conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election," Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., told The Associated Press in an interview, calling for DeLay to step down as majority leader.
"My party is going to have to decide whether we are going to continue to make excuses for Tom to the detriment of Republicans seeking election,"

Now you have Santorum speaking up but a bit more diplomatically since he is public enemy #1 come the 06 elections but still wants to be the the loving grace of Senator Frist and the party.

Rick Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said Sunday that DeLay needs to explain his conduct to the public.

"I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves," Santorum told ABC's "This Week." "But from everything I've heard, again, from the comments and responding to those, is everything he's done was according to the law.

"Now you may not like some of the things he's done," said Santorum, who is up for re-election next year in Pennsylvania. "That's for the people of his district to decide, whether they want to approve that kind of behavior or not."

Posted by mardenhill 4/10/2005 07:01:00 PM 1 comments    

Giada De Laurentiis is a private chef and caterer in Los Angeles and the founder of GDL Foods. Growing up in a large Italian family, Giada's passion for food was sparked as a child as she learned to prepare family recipes for their frequent gatherings. She became a professional chef after attending the famed Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Paris. After working in a variety of Los Angeles restaurants, including Wolfgang Puck's Spago, Giada started her own business. She's happy to share her family's secrets.
Giada will be at Williams Sonoma in Somerset this saturday doing a book signing. We picked up her new cookbook at Costco for almost half the price and I plan on heading up there. If anyone else is interested let me know. Giada is an amazing cook plus she's hot. Move over Nigela, Giada is the new hottie on the block.....

Posted by mardenhill 4/06/2005 09:32:00 AM 4 comments    

David Duchovny's Blog
Tuesday, April 05, 2005

http://lionsgatedirectors.com/duchovny/index_flash.html

Yep, David Duchovny from X Files fame has his own blog out and its pretty cool. I didn't even know he has moved onto directing and has a movie coming out in a couple weeks. Himself, his wife Tea, Erykah Badu and Robbin Williams all star in the movie. Here is the premise of the movie from its website.

A comical and touching story of a man looking back at his childhood in 1970s Greenwich Village, Lions Gate Films' HOUSE OF D is the feature film writing and directing debut of actor David Duchovny, starring Duchovny, Anton Yelchin, Robin Williams, Téa Leoni, Frank Langella and Erykah Badu.

An American artist living a bohemian existence in Paris, Tom Warshaw (David Duchovny) is trying to make sense of his troubled adult life by reflecting upon his extraordinary childhood...The year is 1973, and thirteen-year-old Greenwich Village native Tommy Warshaw (Anton Yelchin) is on the brink of becoming a man. While his bereaved single mother (Téa Leoni) continues to mourn the death of his father, Tommy escapes his own grief by causing trouble at school and making afternoon meat deliveries with his best friend Pappas (Robin Williams), a mentally challenged janitor. Following the romantic advice offered by Lady (Erykah Badu) - incarcerated in the infamous Greenwich Village Women's House of Detention for shadowy reasons - Tommy even experiences his first taste of love. Yet when an unexpected tragedy radically alters his world, Tommy must make a life-defining choice - one that will compel the adult Tom Warshaw, thirty years later, to confront his unfinished past.

Vividly capturing the spirit of youth in all its joy and heartbreak, HOUSE OF D examines with humor and pathos a boy's harrowing coming of age and the manner in which it defines his adulthood. Sensitively directed by Duchovny and bolstered by affectionate portrayals from a talented cast, HOUSE OF D is a winning, hopeful story about overcoming loss and coming to terms with one's past.

http://www.houseofdthemovie.com/

Posted by mardenhill 4/05/2005 12:23:00 PM 0 comments    

Ryan Adams Mania

We have count it 4 total cds from Ryan this year, a double cd with the Cardinals and then Jacksonville and 29 later this year. If you check out Ryan's website, www.ryan-adams.com
you can hear the 1st single "Let It Ride". Keep this site bookmarked, Ryan likes to completely change his site every few weeks.

RYAN ADAMS has confirmed the tracklisting for his first album of 2005.

Ryan Adams And The Cardinals release double album ‘Cold Roses’ on May 3, ahead of full length solo releases from Adams later this year.

The Cardinals are credited as guitarists JP Bowersock and Cindy Cashdollar, bassist Catherine Popper and drummer Brad Pemberton.

The tracklisting for ‘Cold Roses’ is:

Disc one: ‘Magnolia Mountain’ ‘Sweet Illusions’ ‘Meadowlake Street’ ‘When Will You Come Back Home?’ ‘Beautiful Sorta’ ‘Now That You’re Gone’ ‘Cherry Lane’ ‘Mockingbirdsong’ ‘How Do You Keep Love Alive’

Disc two:‘Easy Plateau’ ‘Let It Ride’ ‘Rosebud’ ‘Cold Roses’ ‘If I Am A Stranger’ ‘Dance All Night’ ‘Blossom’ ‘Life Is Beautiful’ ‘Friends’

As previously reported Adams is set to tour North America at the end of this month (April) before releasing albums ’Jacksonville’ and ’29’ later this year.

Posted by mardenhill 4/05/2005 12:04:00 PM 1 comments    

Opening Day Update

Well it was a great day for baseball yesterday, just check out my face, I am sunburnt beyond reason. I also have 2 levels of burn on my arms, 1 from my sweater and then the other from taking it off. The tigers won so I guess thats all that matters. The weather was amazing and it was sold out with 41,000+ people. Kwami got booed at the beginning and so did Jennifer Granholm but I think it was just because they came out together. We went to Harry's to start off, its a pretty cool bar nestled inbetween abandoned buildings on Cass, you would never know it was there. From there we moved onto the Detroit Brewery next to Small Plates and finally the game. Afterwards made a trip down to Mexicantown and back home. The drive back sucked, I took the Southfield expressway back which was stop and go the whole time. 75 was a mess with rush hour and game traffic but I don't think my shortcut was much better. This summer will be the summer of the Tigers, I think we will do something this year, and I plan on being there as much as I can. Btw, the Tigers won 11-2 and Dimitri Young had 3 homeruns along with a few RBIs.

Posted by mardenhill 4/05/2005 11:02:00 AM 3 comments    

If Delay wasn't Enough
Monday, April 04, 2005

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=240%20

Delay isn't the only congressman inciting violence towards judges, now we have Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) spewing forth more hatred. This fucking scumbag thinks that judges are appointed for like and cannot be voted out of office that should just be killed. What us wrong with Texas and their dimwitted representatives? I cannot think the whole state is this stupid, there has to be some level headed people there. The problem with this whole thing, no one will hear these statements since the news is pope 24/7 and that is exactly why they are saying it. Funny how we are mourning a religious icon and they are using religion to dismantle the judiciary system and kill innocent people. What separates these terrorists from Bin Laden, he called for a religious war, these guys are doing the same. Why cannot we just arrest them and throw them into a torture cell and hold them without counsel? Maybe then people would wake up and see the abuse going on here. The sound bytes are great for commericals but then they will sit on the shelves for another year while the republiscums use the nuclear option and kill all the activist judges. Will it take Michael Shivao or judge Greer to be murdered for people to see whats going on? I believe so and I hate to see that happen but it will. Some religious terrorist will kill and then it will make the news. I can see the headlines right now, another Matthew Shephard where people protesting saying that he deserved to die. I tell ya, there are some sick bastards out there and its not just hidden away, they are in power messing with our constitution.

Here is the quote, hopefully Senator Conyers rebuke gets some play but I highly doubt it.

“I don’t know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country,” Sen. Cornyn said. “Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that’s been on the news and I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in - engage in violence.”

Posted by mardenhill 4/04/2005 10:53:00 PM 0 comments    

Opening Day
Sunday, April 03, 2005

Well tomorrow is opening day and I will be downtown cheering the Tigers on. I am really excited about this, year after year i say hey it would be fun to go down but then its sold out. This year i was proactive and got tix on the day they went on sale. Seats aren't the best but i dont care i am in the door enjoying the day. Tomorrow's weather is slated to be 59 degrees, sunny and a little wind. Game is at 1pm, i will be down there around 10am to get some pre-partying in and then over to the game. More tomorrow afterwards, now i am off to watch desparate housewifes and think about grouting the bathroom floor.

Posted by mardenhill 4/03/2005 08:01:00 PM 0 comments    

Big suprise, Delay has broken the law yet again....
Friday, April 01, 2005

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/lautenberg_letter_delay_schiavo_401.htm


Once again Delay has opened his mouth and spewed for more hatred and vitrol. On his latest comments regarding Terri Shavio he threatened Michael and all the judges that their time will come.

SUGAR LAND, Texas – House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today released the following statement mourning the passing of Terri Schiavo:

“Mrs. Schiavo’s death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo's friends in this time of deep sorrow. ”

This wretched louse will try to spin this to say he was talking about God's wrath but we know exactly what he meant. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today." I'm sorry this is an open invitation to incite all the extremists to go on a hunting expedition to pick off everyone involved. This is ILLEGAL, IMMORAL and downwright DISGUISTING. I guess Delay doesn't mind when a few activist judges are gunned down along with their family members as long as it advances his agenda. How much more does America have to bear before they take action and remove this piece of trash from office? We have had a rash of killings lately and since Delay is in bed with the same extremists that have no qualms about killings doctors, we know they will go after the judges.

The article talks about Senator Lautenberg's letter to Delay regarding his blatent disregard for laws and the possible charges that can rise from doing so. Many thanks to Lautenberg and hopefully the MSM picks up on this and blows Delay out of the water. Tom your days are numbered, if you want to bring the ship down with you, thats your business but threatening lives will only accelerate this process.

Posted by mardenhill 4/01/2005 11:30:00 AM 1 comments    

Its the Pathetic vs. the Deplorable
Tuesday, March 29, 2005

http://www.nme.com/news/111853.htm

IT'S THE KILLERS v THE BRAVERY!

Ok my last post talked about the funniest article but this one takes the cake. You have The Killers dissing the Bravery for riding their coat tails. You have this 2nd, hell maybe 3rd tier band The Killers trying to compare themselves to Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes. Come on, The Killers are just a bunch of flotsam and jetsam that floated to the surface in this mixed up world of music. They have no originality and are riding the retro wave. How can they stand there and criticize The Bravery while doing the same thing, where do the Killers get off thinking they are a legit band? What, they played Saturday Nite Live, Ashley Simpson played and I don't think people see her as legit anymore. Their songs are thin, weak and lack any substance. They are just summer fodder meant to be played while driving around in a convertible and forgotten the next year. The Killers will put out one more cd, it will be trash and they will be forgotten. The Bravery, same thing but at least they are stuck in the UK and hopefully we won't have to hear much about them.

If you happen to like The Killers, well too bad, they suck rocks and u can post all you want trying to sell them.

My new fav is Nic Armstrong & The Thieves, I wrote about them the other day but I think everyone needs to check them out so I will continue to push him until everyone is sick of it.

Posted by mardenhill 3/29/2005 02:26:00 PM 1 comments    

Sex, Prozac and rock 'n' roll: satirists turn on the 'Glum Rock' takeover of British pop music

This is one of the funniest stories I have read in a while and its not even supposed to be funny.

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/news/story.jsp?story=624478

The point of it is that bands are all starting to sound like or copy Coldplay and that they have become the Oasis of this decade. Just a few years ago, I was complaining that Coldplay was just copying Jeff Buckley and Travis on their 1st cd and now they are leading the revolution of "Glum Rock". I have to admit, I do like Coldplay, they are a good band that took Travis's spotlight but then you cannot have everything you want. They do have 2 terrible songs and those would be "In My Place" and "Moses", I hate them both and are very amaturish.

Nothing like Embrace ripping off the Verve for their 1st cd and now Coldplay for their latest, at least they have good taste. I do like Athlete, Keane and Snow Patrol and can see the comparisions but then any band with a piano and wussy singer can be compared. The only probem with Coldplay leading the charge is that they are boring personally, yes you have Chris Martin and his marriage but there are no good tabloid stories like Oasis. No band other than Marylin Manson has been able to manipulate and use the media like Oasis, they are pros at kick starting album sales and getting exposure. They stage fights, breakups, marriages, divorces, new members and do it with ease. Is Oasis the best band musically, No, but they are the best when it comes to image and the whole package. I miss this, the Libertines were just a bunch of drunks and addicts and burned out, Oasis was able to sustain and carry on. We need more bands like this and Coldplay is not cutting it.

Posted by mardenhill 3/29/2005 01:30:00 PM 1 comments    

D610
Monday, March 28, 2005

Well i am sitting here at work while the rest of the world has the day off. We had a huge server migration project we did this weekend and that included the 3 Donovan servers I am responsible for. So I got to work Friday and now Monday, makes for some good OT as long as my boss doesn't try to make me take comp days.

I decided that it was time that I treated myself to a new laptop, I am in the process of loading it up right now. I am 2 models behind the brand new ones that just came in so I feel its time to upgrade. I have to lose my docking station which sucks but its about time to move on. My new laptop is a nice silver color, 1 gig of ram, 2 ghz processer, 40 gig hd, built in wi-fi plus more. One of the perks of working in the IT field, you get the good stuff when it comes in. Now if I could only get a better Mac at work then I would be all set.

My new favorite cd of the week is Nic Armstrong & The Thieves - Greatest White Liar. It just came out this year but has the feel that you are listening to a recording from the late 60s. Lots of Kinks, Stones, Faces, Beatles in this cd, its going to be a great summer drive listen. Below is a link to his record label and a bit on him, his current page wasn't up when I tried it.

http://www.indian.co.uk/nicarmstrong/

I think this cd, the new Beck, Brendan Benson's and The Sights are going to be some of the best releases this year. I am still in love with the Kasabian, The Kills and Brazilian Girls but those are last months and before and its time to move on.

Well I am almost out of here so I will end this post here, I will try to add more tonight.

Posted by mardenhill 3/28/2005 12:38:00 PM 2 comments    

New Jon Spencer!!!!!
Friday, March 25, 2005

Yes you heard me right, a new Jon Spencer record is slated for release next month. This one goes by the title Heavy Trash, same for the band name. Heavy Trash is Jon Spencer and Matt Verta Ray who was from Madder Rose and Speedball Baby. This cd is more Spencer swagger but a bit on the alt country side, well from the 1st single I heard on Woxy. So I went investigating and the cd is out April 19th and is on Yep Roc Records. The good news, Yep Rock is on eMusic so it will be available for download, well it better seeing that the rest of the catalog is out there. I tell ya, if you havn't checked out eMusic you should, its getting better and better. I just got last years Mary Lou Lord cd with the remaining downloads I had for the month. I also got the Kitchens of Distinction greatest hits cd 1 which rocks. I have to wait til next month to get cd 2, I didnt have enuff downloads left. Ian Brown's new one, Nick Cave, Pixies, Bjork, Throwing Muses, the whole Detroit garage rock scene just to name a few. Some of the labels are: Anti, Merge, Matador, Koch, 4AD, Thrill Jockey, Cooking Vinyl, Jet Set, Kill Rock Stars etc.

Posted by mardenhill 3/25/2005 09:40:00 AM 1 comments    

The Flaming Lips
Thursday, March 24, 2005

Right now on Austin City Limits, the Flaming Lips are playing. They had the longest rendition of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots and then did a cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs. They had Cat Power guest star on that one and in typical Cat Power fashion screwed things up. She couldn't remember half the words and was pretty lame to watch. I have decided that I don't care for her, she sucks. The Flaming Lips are amazing tho, I havn't seen them live in a while and can imagine how much fun their shows are. They had the costumes, ballons, confetti everywhere and even played She Dont Use Jelly. The Lips will be like the Velvet Underground, people liked them but it wasn't until 20 year later when people realized what they were all about and how they changed rock n roll.

The Shins are on now, they are one of those quirky indie rock bands that has a few good songs but not enough to hold me for a whole show. If you havn't noticed, the Autin City Limits show has become the indie rock mecca the last couple years. There are always tons of great bands and I got to see Guided by Voices in one of their last performances. Another underrated band that broke up before I got to see them.

While we are on the topic of music, The Sights have signed to a new label and have a new cd coming out next month. iTunes has their single Circus available for download, I just got it the other day. Its lots of fun, tons of organ and good stuff. It was wierd to see them on iTunes, I just hope they get the whole cd and a ton of exposure, they are one Detroit band that deserves it. Brendan Benson's new cd is out on iTunes also, I will pick it up this weekend most likely, he is another Detroit great.

Posted by mardenhill 3/24/2005 10:22:00 PM 1 comments    

More over Delay, You got company.....

I have tried to not post on this subject, we are already bombarded by the coverage every minute of the day but when it comes to the hyprocriscy of our politicans, I can't resist. I am usually attacking Delay, the former Pest Exterminator, yeah that was his previous career before becoming the house of representatives resident pastor. I have now turned my attention to our beloved senate majority leader "Dr Bill Frist" he perfers Dr instead of senator since that was his previous profession. So you have Dr. Frist diagnosing Terri by watching 4 minutes of video tape, now thats accurate, where do I sign up to have this quack diagnose me. You got to understand, Frist is gunning for the 08 republican nomination and now needs to "shore up the base" so what does he do, panders to the religious right. Instead of putting his profession to use, he uses his lip service to buy some votes. Do you see Howard Dean out there diagnosing people to get the spotlight? No, he is smart enough to know people will see thru this bullshit but not our Frist. So Dr/Senator Frist gets called out below for his hyprocriscy and will continue as long as he runs with the Delay and co trash that has infected our congress. I have no qualms attacking Frist, he has proven that he is no longer a respectable senator and just another sleazy politican.


courtesy of http://dcinsidescoop.blogspot.com


Frist's Schiavo Assertion At Odds With His Comments About Christopher Reeve

Frist's assertion that Schiavo could recover stands in stark contrast to his attacks on John Edwards for saying back in October that stem cell research could help people like Christopher Reeve walk again. Observe:

Frist on Schiavo Possibly Recovering: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist several times questioned Schiavo's diagnosis, saying he had reviewed a videotape of her and her case file and wasn't sure whether she really was beyond recovery.

"Remember, Terri is alive. She is not in a coma," Frist said Sunday. "Although there are a range of opinions, neurologists who have examined her insist today that she is not in a persistent vegetative state. She breathes on her own - like you and me. She is not on a respirator. She is not on life support of any type. She does not have a terminal condition." [The Tennessean, 3/22/05]

Frist Attacking Edwards: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist attacked Sen. John Edwards for saying that stem cell research would enable people like Christopher Reeve to “get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.”

Frist responded on a conference call with reporters arranged by the Bush-Cheney campaign: "I find it opportunistic to use the death of someone like Christopher Reeve -- I think it is shameful -- in order to mislead the American people… We should be offering people hope, but neither physicians, scientists, public servants or trial lawyers like John Edwards should be offering hype.

“It is cruel to people who have disabilities and chronic diseases, and, on top of that, it's dishonest. It's giving false hope to people, and I can tell you as a physician who's treated scores of thousands of patients that you don't give them false hope." [CNN.com, 10/12/04]


So what does this tell us, Frist is just a scumbag, Reeve was able to vote before he died, he had no intentions of voting republican so that was open game for Frist to attack him. Now with Terri, she cannot vote, cannot speak and Frist sees this as an opportunity to get all moral on us and bless us with the "culture of life" bullshit lines. Frist you are on my radar, just ask Delay its not a place you want to be. We will bring the both of you down and return the republican party back to the party we don't agree with rather than the party that we we hate.

Posted by mardenhill 3/24/2005 09:44:00 PM 0 comments    

Bush's Vacations.....
Monday, March 21, 2005

courtesy of www.democraticunderground.com

I find this very interesting and it just goes to show that Bush and co. are just trying to politicalize the Schiavo case. What people don't understand is that this is going after the core foundations of Hospice, and the right to die. If we cannot die in dignity what rights do we have left? I am afraid opponents of abortion, assisted suicide and hospice will use this law to dismantle these freedoms. Hospice is not a bad thing, I just went thru this with my aunt at the beginning of the year and I do not think keeping my aunt alive would help her improve. What I don't understand is that Terri Schiavo's medical bills fall under Medicade the same program Bush plans on cutting funding this year. Will this case give him a change of heart, I doubt it, Medicare and Medicade will both be on the table for cuts this year and its all just political theatre to score a few points with the conservatives out there.

Bush Rushes Back To DC! Ends Vacation! by Michael in New York - 3/21/2005 01:46:00 AM

Yes, as you already know, Bush ended his vacation early -- a virtually unprecendented act for a President who spends a LOT of time on vacation -- and rushed back to DC so he could score political points on the painful private decision surrounding Terri Schiavo. Obviously, this took hours and hours of time when the papers he went to sign could have been flown to him in Texas without much difference. But this issue was too important and he wanted to spend hours flying there to emphasize to the far right how he had come through for them.Now let's think about the many other times when Bush couldn't be bothered to spend an hour or two on an issue and decide if any of them were more important.

1. The tsunami victims -- More than 100,000 people died in the worst natural disaster of our lifetime. Millions were left homeless. It happened just after Christmas and hit hard our staunch ally, Thailand. (Many, many Muslims were devastated by this disaster.) Bush couldn't be bothered to step outside for FIVE minutes and offer his heartfelt sympathy to an event that had the rest of the world riveted and shocked. It took Bush DAYS to do anything, even after his aides had bungled our first offer of aid.

2. Investigating 9/11 with Congress -- Bush spent months hemming and hawing and avoiding having to meet with the bipartisan panel trying to look into the worst attack on US soil in history. He finally, grudgingly, spent a few hours but insisted he appear with Cheney by his side, cause they were busy and needed to get this over with.

3. Heck, 9/11 itself -- On the day of the worst attack on US soil in our history, Bush spent hours and hours flying around the country when he could have just spent a few minutes to get in front of a camera and reassure the nation that he was in charge and we'd get through this.

4. Military funerals -- Bush is the first President in US history during wartime (and presumably peacetime as well) who has refused to attend a SINGLE military funeral to honor one of our fallen soldiers. It's not just the couple of hours he can't be bothered to spend; Bush thinks it would be bad politics to remind people that young men and women die in war, so why bother honoring them? They can take a hit on the battlefield, but Bush won't risk taking a hit in the polls. And if things are going so swimmingly in Iraq, why does he STILL refuse to honor our military?

Posted by mardenhill 3/21/2005 06:09:00 PM 2 comments    

The Slow Painful Death Of Delay
Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Well our favorite Texan Delay is facing yet even more ethics violations. You may be wondering, wasn't he admonished last year on multiple violations? Why yes he was, then what did Delay do, he brushed them off and gutted the ethics committee and changed the rules that both a dem and a republican have to agree before a voilation can make it out of committee. Talk about sleazy, yeah this is the same guy who got his team to change the rules to keep him in power if he is indicted which was reversed at the 11th hour.

So u may wonder what Delay did again, well its more of his financed trips, one to South Korea and another to Europe, all on the lobbyist dime. Yes this is illegal, you cannot use these funds for trips or campaign work, only for administrative costs. Delay is of course denying the charges but they are mounting and he has also ensnared 2 more congressional members in his mess. Feel free to read the articles below.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=176

I am all about this attack on Delay, he is a total sleazeball and needs to be brought down, hell Newt Gringrich's scandal pales in comparision to Delay. Our other favorite scandal ridden senator Trent Lott has weighed in on the matter and is sticking by his boy, we will see how long that lasts.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=179

Posted by mardenhill 3/15/2005 10:57:00 PM 0 comments    

The Kills
Sunday, March 13, 2005

Stupid Picasa wouldn't post the link and then the pic would disappear when I would edit the post. One of these days I will figure it all out....

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/k/kills/no-wow.shtml

Posted by mardenhill 3/13/2005 07:04:00 PM 2 comments    

My new fav cd for the week is The Kills - No Wow, if u havn't heard it yet, check it out. It has a bit of a fuller sound than the 1st one but is still full of the sexual tension like before. I think the this cd is even better, more layers and lots of gritty garage sound. Live these guys are just 2 people with a drum machine, not much to write home about but their cds are amazing. Its not fair to compare them to the White Stripes, Jack has more talent in his pinky than The Kills but that doesn't make them any less of a band. The Kills are not going for that sound, they are all about mixing the male/female dynamic into a New York hipster sound.

Now this is rare and I thought that I should post it, both Pitchfork and I agree on a cd, I think the world is about to end. I was blown away when I read the review, maybe they are finally coming around to good music and are dumping the pretentious indie rock crap that love to praise. Probably not, I just think we are on the same wave this once. Check out the review below.

Posted by mardenhill 3/13/2005 07:03:00 PM 0 comments    

Sunrise

If u didn't get U2 tickets yesterday, well you're screwed, they are sold out. The show sold out in 25 minutes and tix were from $50 -$165. We got the cheap upper bowl ones, almost the same seats that I had back in 92 for the Achtung Baby tour. The good news tho, they are adding a 2nd show and that one goes on sale Friday so if u missed out, u can still go. Its the 2nd show so that makes it not as good as the 1st, u will not be at the same one as me and that being the better one. Its ok there are always scalpers if u need ot be at the 1st show and can probably get tix.

Other than that, got more of the bathroom done, got the paneling up on the walls and all thats left is the trim and grouting the floor. I will be doing the floor sometime this week, that should be fun.

If u were not at PCB 05 last nite, u missed the party of the century, ok maybe not but it was fun none the less. Chris threw a good party and had a good turnout. No throwing pens into an uncovered fan that then flew off to mark up the ceiling but still a good time.

I think TV has now hit its low point, on the Food Network they are having a wedding edition of the crazy southern lady Paul Dean who cooks everything with pounds of butter and wrapped in bacon. Its very bad, and of course I am stuck watching it. Please help me.

Posted by mardenhill 3/13/2005 06:12:00 PM 3 comments    

U2 and other misc stuff
Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Sorry I havn't posted in a few days work has been kicking my ass. I have to upgrade 170 people and only have 85 done. It involves writing what apps they have, uninstalling the old ones and then starting the upgrade. I have been doing this since monday and I am already going batty and its only wednesday and I am only half way done!!!

This saturday, U2 tickets go onsale for the October 24th show at the Palace. Ticket prices start at $50 and go up from there. I am hoping to score some upper bowl tix for $50, I cannot justify paying more than that. Its wierd, 13 years ago I saw u2 at the Palace on the Achtung Baby tour and it was one of my favorite concerts ever. I am hoping this tour will be just as good but I am not getting my hopes up, I think I will be disappointed if I do. The Achtung Baby tour was more than just the music, it was U2 moving into a new decade and not relying on thier older music to carry them. They played the new album and a few older ones but only going back to the Joshua Tree. I was fine with this tho I am one of the few people who don't think U2's best work is the Unforgettable Fire and Boy. U2 reached their peak with Achtung, they have never released anything close to as good as that cd. The whole thing is amazing, not a bad song and its timeless. I want you to pull that cd out now and listen to it, the songs are still fresh and not dated. Will U2 ever get back to that level, probably not but as long as they don't release another boring All That You Can't Leave Behind I will be ok. Achtung defined the 90s, it set the stage for the birth of the Internet and media manipulation. No one really understood what Zoo TV was about but now with the internet we can see what Bono was getting at. That cd is on my top 10 cds that if I were on a deserted island, I would want. U2 will always have their place in music, hell can you name another band who has been together as long as U2 without breaking up or changing/leaving bandmembers? I can't I have tried but nothing. REM, changes, all your 70s bands, changes, the Cure or New Order, changes or hiatuses. U2 has successfully stayed together and put out music for 25 years. Is U2 my favorite band, no I prefer REM and the Cure over them but they are up there and have had their moments. I am looking forward to this show, its been 13 years and its about time I see Bono in action again.

Feel free to leave some comments/opinions about U2.

Posted by mardenhill 3/09/2005 10:31:00 PM 0 comments    

Update: Oasis
Monday, March 07, 2005

OASIS have finally completed their new album ‘DON’T BELIEVE THE TRUTH’ – and their first single will be called ‘LYLA’, NME.COM can exclusively reveal.

It’s been the longest build up to a record since their unsigned days before ’Definitely Maybe’, but after scrapping over 50 songs, Oasis have finished their sixth studio album.

The band have told NME.COM that ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’, will be released on May 30, and despite the delays the trademark Oasis swagger is back with a vengeance.

“I’m happy with every track on the album,” Noel Gallagher told NME.COM, adding that the album will be proceeded single ‘Lyla’ on May 16

Posted by mardenhill 3/07/2005 09:42:00 AM 1 comments    

Some Really Cool Speakers....
Sunday, March 06, 2005

I was reading www.gizmodo.com (a site for gadget geeks, yes I admit I am one of them) and found these speakers. Seeing that I am a smart person, these speakers are right up my alley, u have to check out their website to see what I mean.

http://www.orbaudio.com

Well I don't have a home theatre, hell even a new tv but I do have an ipod and I bet these would make that thing sound like a million bucks. Actually for the price they don't see that much, if you are the market for Bose, these look cooler and because of that sound better. Ok I cannot backup the last part of that statement so you are on your own for testing purposes. I have added these speakers to my wishlist which also has the latest from www.sonos.com . Pair these speakers with the wireless music boxes and u got yourself one kickin sound system. As for a tv, I am still in limbo as to what is the best, plasma or lcd or dlp or whatever the rest of the acronyms there are. Everyone at work seems to have a different opinion on whats best and when they come down in price to maybe $500 i will buy one. There is something wrong with buying a tv that is the same amount or more than your mortgage.

For other geeky tech toys stay tuned and I will start my weekly column of the latest and greatest gadgets that everyone must own.

Posted by mardenhill 3/06/2005 01:24:00 PM 0 comments    

Brazilian Girls
Friday, March 04, 2005

http://www.braziliangirls.info/

I have found my new fav cd for the week and it comes from the band Brazilian Girls. Below is a quick bit from their bio on www.allmusic.com.

Their music incorporates bits of reggae, electronica, jazz, bossa nova, and you name it, and despite their name, no one in the band is Brazilian. The sexy/quirky/mysterious Brazilian Girls are three men — Didi Gutman on keyboards and computers, Jesse Murphy on bass, and Aaron Johnston on drums — and one woman, Sabina Sciubba, the vocalist who often enjoys wearing lacy eye masks on-stage and sings in no less than five different languages. Sciubba was born in Rome but grew up in Nice and Munich before settling in Brooklyn, NY.

If you are a fan of Pink Martini, take their sound, mix it up with some New York sex and electronic and you have Brazilian Girls. I am a sucker for female vocals sung in a different language and that's what you got here. Anyone who can sing pussy, pussy, pussy marijuana, pussy, pussy, pussy over a reggae beat has got to be cool. Ok, the song actually sux, but don't let that spoil the rest of the cd. I expect a car commerical out of them in the next few months, their sound is perfect for a summertime convertible or night on the town drive. Yep thats me working in the IT dept of an Ad Agency coming up with commercials.

They played the shelter last month, I didn't even know until I checked out their website. Hopefully this cd takes off and they come back for a show at the stick.

Posted by mardenhill 3/04/2005 11:46:00 AM 2 comments    

Dashele who? Reid's The Man....

Ever since Reid was elected to the Democratic leader in the Senate, things have turned around. Reid has led the charge against Bush and his cronies and withstood the slanders and smear campaigns leveled against him. Reid is proving to be a good leader, too bad we didn't elect him years ago. Lets home he keeps up this aggressive campaign and brings in votes to the party. Reid has finally said what everyone knew but was afraid to say about our "beloved" chairman. The geezer needs to retire and let someone else take over who isn't swayed by the almight Bush dollar.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11044402.htm

While some Democrats worry that his low-key style might make him an ineffective opposition leader in President Bush's Washington, Reid has shown that he can throw a punch, too.

Asked Thursday his reaction to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's insistence this week that Social Security must be transformed, preferably along lines urged by Bush, Reid replied:

"I'm not a big Greenspan fan. ... I voted against him two times. I think he's one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington," Reid said on CNN's "Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics."

Reid complained that Greenspan had decried budget deficits when Bill Clinton was president but he doesn't criticize Bush for turning a federal budget surplus he inherited from Clinton into trillions of new debt.

Posted by mardenhill 3/04/2005 09:31:00 AM 1 comments    

DCFC Why!!!...Why!!!
Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Well our favorite indie rockers Death Cab For Cutie are back covering songs they should have left alone. While listening to Woxy, a cover of the Cure's "Love Song" came on and it had the pretenious, whimpy ass indie vocals that we have come to love from DCFC. They covered the 80's song "Against All Odds" which has taken over the #1 spot for the worst cover ever and now they are doing the same with the Cure. What can we do to stop these punks from ruining music? A letter writing campaign, boycott, blog bashing? What goes thru these clown's heads that they think they can successfully pull off a cover song? Death Cab if you ever read this, it is now my mission in life to prevent you from ever releasing or playing live again. I will not let you tarnish the "indie rock" genre anymore. This is your warning, pack up and leave now or I will hunt you down and kick your skinny asses from here to hong kong!

BTW, 311 covered the Cure and did a better job which isn't saying much.

For the record I do know the difference between DCFC and the Postal Service but both suck and contain the same members so cover songs by either group blow.

Posted by mardenhill 3/02/2005 04:39:00 PM 4 comments    

BONO FOR PRESIDENT?

This is way cool, just image Bono heading the World Bank, hell they were just talking about Paul Wolfowitz this morning for the position. Bono is a smart man, he is well versed in world affairs and would not bring any baggage to the position. If Arnold can be Governor then Bono can be President! That would mean that the U2 tour would be cancelled, that would suck but on the bright side the World Bank would actually be able to do something good for a change. I know I am getting ahead of myself and the chances of Bono actually scoring the seat are slim to none but its fun to dream.

Courtesy of www.nme.com

BONO’s name has been put forward for one of the world’s most important political jobs.
The U2 frontman has been suggested as a possible candidate for the president of the World Bank by prestigious American newspaper The Los Angeles Times.
"Don't be fooled by the wraparound sunglasses and the excess hipness," the paper wrote in an editorial. "Bono is deeply versed in the issues afflicting the least-developed nations of the world."
The singer’s work charity work, particular his campaigns to get rid of third world debt earned him the paper’s endorsement for the job which becomes vacant in May, although he’ll face stiff competition with British Chancellor Gordon Brown, also linked to the position.
Los Angeles Times Editorial Page Editor Andres Martinez however insisted the suggestion of Bono was ”entirely serious”, CNN Money reports.

Bono has yet to comment on the suggestion.

Posted by mardenhill 3/02/2005 02:24:00 PM 3 comments    

Go Dean Go!!!!

http://www.democrats.org/

Check out the website above, Dean our new head of the DNC has put together Bush's budget for 06 and its affects on each state. This will point out what is being cut from each states budget due to Georgie's poor planning.

In other political ramblings, it looks like the Social Security demolition by the republicans may be off for another year. This will give congress a chance to actually work out a bipartisan plan to keep Social Security working and away from Wall Street. Bush thinks that if he gets the young vote on board with the private accounts that they can bring them over to the GOP. I for one lost money during the internet bubble/bust and are not ready to dump my SS into the market again. We all have 401K retirement plans invested in the market, do we want both SS and 401K in the same place? Talk about putting all your eggs in the one basket. We adjust SS to work outside the market and focus more on allowing people to use their 401Ks more effectively.

WP: Social Security Vote May Be Delayed
Posted by kskiskaAdded to homepage Tue Mar 01st 2005, 11:19 PM ET

Critics Could Force Proposal to ChangeWednesday, March 2, 2005

The Senate's top Republican said yesterday that President Bush's bid to restructure Social Security may have to wait until next year and might not involve the individual accounts the White House has been pushing hard.
The comments of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), made as GOP lawmakers returned from a week of trying to sell the plan to voters, underscored the challenge facing the White House, especially in light of unbroken Democratic opposition.

Posted by mardenhill 3/02/2005 09:49:00 AM 1 comments    

Crazy Dennis is Right On!!!
Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Dennis Kucinich our favorite candidate in the primaries has made a valid point and hopefully this is picked up by the MSM and reported on.

Courtesy of http://www.democraticunderground.com/

Social Security's "Sleeper Issue" Exposed By Kucinich

Social Security’s "Sleeper Issue":Price Indexing Exposed By Kucinich

Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) today brought forth a new case against the Administration’s so-called Social Security reform plan by exposing the precipitous drop in future retiree benefits implicit in the Administration plan to switch from wage indexing to price indexing.In a speech this morning on the House floor, Kucinich said:"Social Security benefits have increased over the years because they long have been calculated to wage increases, which on the average go up 3.6% a year. So Social Security benefits increase with rising wages. The Administration wants to change all that. They want to index Social Security benefits based on a price index, not wages. "As a result, millions of future retirees will see their future Social Security benefits reduced as much as 40%. Because prices do not increase as fast as wages. "Let me give you an example. If you began working in 1959 and retired in 2003, at age 65, under wage indexing, your benefits rise with rising wages, you would get $1158 a month. Under price indexing, your benefits would be frozen, you would get only $701 a month. So it would be a 40% cut in benefits with price indexing, and a person would lose $100,000 in retirement benefits over a lifetime. "Why the switch to price indexing? Because, the privatization of Social Security will create an additional budget shortfall. The Administration is going to have to borrow money to set up private accounts. The shortfall is going to be for 45 years, and the Administration is going to have to borrow $15 trillion dollars."They are going to get the money off the backs of America’s retirees. It is wrong, say no to privatization, no to price indexing."Kucinich added that while much attention has been focused on private accounts, price indexing, once understood by both the media and the American people generally, will create such an uproar that it will jeopardize not only the Administration’s plans, but could create great political risk for members supporting the plans.

Posted by mardenhill 3/01/2005 09:12:00 AM 1 comments    

Update: Delaygate....
Monday, February 28, 2005

I won't post the whole article but check it out below. This piece of shit, dirtbag gladly took money from a group who targeted seniors with direct mailings to convince them social security was going to go bankrupt and to send them money. Delay had them pay for 2 trips totaling $134,000 over the past few years. This is illegal in Texas and these are the reasons all the ethics violation charges have been leveled against Delay. This guy needs to be run out of town and thrown in jail. Will the main stream media pick up on it, probably not, they are just a bunch of wankers afraid to say anything negative these days.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=134

Posted by mardenhill 2/28/2005 12:33:00 PM 0 comments    

Tom Delay

NEW TOM DELAY MONDAY BOMBSHELL: GROUP THAT PAID FOR $134,000 IN DELAY TRIPS RAISED MONEY SCAMMING SENIORS ON SOCIAL SECURITY: NOON...

Stay tuned, I will post more dirt on the scumbag and his latest legal troubles....

Posted by mardenhill 2/28/2005 11:06:00 AM 3 comments    

Installation of OS X
Friday, February 25, 2005

Well I am just sitting here at work waiting to leave and watching the installation of OS X on my mac at work. I decided it was time to wipe it clean and reload it, I tell ya, its easier than you would think. Put the disk in, restart and follow a few screens and, BAM!!, you're done.

Other than that, just working on the bathroom, well not me, Erika's dad is but I did help yesterday. Yes I was allowed to play with large power tools and didn't lose any limbs or mame anyone else. I did most of the grunt work the last few days, I had to tear up the original floor which was 2 inches of cement with the ceramic tile embedded into that. So with a sledgehammer and chisel, I took out half the floor. Once we got the toilet and sink out yesterday we were able to rip up the remaining parts in large chunks. At this time our house is covered in sawdust and dirt and we will be cleaning the rest of the weekend. The tile should be down by the time I get home and then tomorrow we can add the grout. I will post some pics once its done. So thats my weekend, cleaning up and learning about tiling.

Posted by mardenhill 2/25/2005 04:57:00 PM 1 comments    

Update: iPod Mini Round 2
Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Well Apple announced the new ipods, no color screen for the minis or bluetooth but price drops are there. The minis will have longer battery lives and the colors are more vibrant. The 20 gig ipod will stay at $299 probably until stock is gone and the ipod photos have dropped in price. There are no docks with the photos due to the price cut and the 40 has been taken out of circulation I believe. This is good tho, even without the color screen they have trumped both Creative and Dell who's players are only 5 gigs in size. In march there will be a connector coming out that can hook from your digital camera to the ipod photo to pull the pictures off.

iPod Mini
New 6GB Model. $249
4GB Model. $199
Up to 18hrs Battery Life
4 Colors

iPod Photo
30GB. $349
60GB. $449

Posted by mardenhill 2/23/2005 10:28:00 AM 0 comments    

Our Favorite Pennsylvania Senator....

Rick Santorum held an event yesterday talking about Social Security, the deficit and minimum wage. During the deficit part, Rick referred to the war as one time costs, I guess the 80 billion here and 80 billion there for a total of about 300 billion just counts as a one time cost. Hmm must be all that "fuzzy math" at play. So you have one side of the room chanting Rick's gotta go and the other side chanting Social Security's gotta go, thats classic, just what the president wants, people telling the truth about his plan.

Courtesy of www.dailykos.com

Santorum's SS eventby kos Tue Feb 22nd, 2005 at 16:49:50 PST

Chris Bowers has a funny take on Santorum's social security event today. These two paragraphs are particularly hilarious:

[B]efore the event, Philly DFA began chanting "Hey-hey, ho-ho, Rick Santorum has got to go!" Local college Republicans, who are just about the only Republicans in West Philly, responded with a chant that beautifully was captured live by CNN: "hey-hey, ho-ho, Social Security has got to go!" I love it when the other side does your campaigning for you!

Inside the hall, the biggest applause line of the event was generated early on when Santorum asked a rhetorical question about demographics and funding: "what happens in 2008?" Before he could answer his own question, someone shouted "Bush leaves office," and the room went wild.

Gotta love those College Republicans -- too young and stupid to use proper code words, letting their true intentions hang out in the open.

Posted by mardenhill 2/23/2005 09:55:00 AM 2 comments    

Update: iPod Mini and others
Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Here are the latest rumors, looks like they may be released tomorrow.
Courtesy of http://www.appleinsider.com

Apple Computer on Wednesday is expected to unveil a major overhaul to its iPod product offerings, according to a multitude of reports.

Following requests that dealers return their remaining stock of iPod photo players, sources say Apple will discontinue its 40GB iPod and iPod photo models, replacing them with a 30GB iPod photo for $349 and a 60GB iPod photo for $449. The iPod maker will reportedly keep its 20GB monochrome display player at $299 for the foreseeable future, or until supplies are exhausted.

Both the new 30GB and 60GB iPod photo models are expected to debut with Bluetooth wireless connectivity, sources added.As previously reported, Apple will also debut 4 new models of its iPod mini player, which will retail for $249 with a 6GB drive and color display. Sources said the company will continue to sell its current 4GB iPods, sans the 'Gold' model, for $199 until supplies run dry.

It remains unclear what will become of the Special Edition 20GB U2 iPod, which currently retails for $349 -- the same price point the company will target with its new 30GB iPod photo. Also unconfirmed is whether the new iPod photo players will continue to ship with a carrying case and docking station at their new price points, or if these accessories will now be sold separately.

Posted by mardenhill 2/22/2005 04:41:00 PM 1 comments    

iPod Mini and other secrets

If you are in the market for an ipod, I would say wait about a month. The rumors around the net are that the mini will be getting a new hard drive, either a 5 gig or even a 6 gig drive and a color screen. Right now all the other players on the market are sporting 5 gig drives and it would be Apple to upstage them and give the public a 6 gig. Don't look for the prices to drop tho, they will still be at the $250 mark. Good news on the bigger players tho, the 40 gig standard player may be making an exit and the 40 gig iphoto will come down to the $399 price with the 60 gig coming down to $499. This leaves the 20 gig still at $299, not sure if they will turn that color or phase that out later this year. Other rumors are that new ipods will have built in bluetooth for wireless broadcasting thru car stereos.

Posted by mardenhill 2/22/2005 09:25:00 AM 2 comments    

Quiet Is The New In....

This weekend a number of us went to see Kings of Convenience at the Magic Stick, the show was good except for all the hushing that went on all nite. It seems that the indie rock/emo kids are all about the quiet now. Erik and Erland sat quietly up on stage strumming away at all their catchy pillow talk songs while "Ann Arbor" buggers made tons of ruckus in the back. I fault the bar and the booking company, you have an open area bar, pool tables and a bowling alley below. A better venue would have been the Magic Bag, people could sit down and the bar is sectioned off. I think I will just stick to listening to their cds, no need to be harassed by 15 year old Bright Eyes worshipers telling me I'm too loud.

In other music news, courtesy of www.nme.com

NOEL GALLAGHER has confirmed that the new OASIS album is finally, definitely, finished.
Talking to NME.COM at last week’s ShockWaves NME Awards, the guitarist revealed how he was relieved now that the long-delayed record is finally ready.

Describing the past year as “difficult”, Gallagher said: “Not difficult in that everyone’s been feeling down about things, just frustrating that we thought we got to the finishing line, but when it came to it, it just wasn’t worthy of putting out.”

He added: “The longer that we took to do the album, the better it had to be because of the time from the last one. When it was two years, we asked was it good enough after two years of fucking about and now we have to ask if it’s good enough after three years.”

“It’s done now. We master it tomorrow and it’s out on May 26,” confirmed Gallagher, suggesting that a possible title for the record could be ‘The Ear Has No Memory’.

Posted by mardenhill 2/22/2005 08:50:00 AM 4 comments    

Update: Gannongate Round 3
Sunday, February 20, 2005

Well it looks like our boy Gannon has been setup to take the fall for the White House. It all depends whether or not he spills his guts before he is killed. Gannon is threatening to sue the liberal bloggers for defamation of character, hmm i guess those pics out on the internet, out in the public domain for anyone to see is considered private. He dismisses has past and said he has found religion and to leave him alone. Maybe he should have thought of that while he was busy giving blow jobs to the White House staff. Gannon better stay alive for this to reach its full fruitation, Bush and co need to be brought down and taking Gannon out will make things harder. The MSM (Main Stream Media) is finally biting on this story, CNN had an interview with Gannon on Anderson Cooper and he screwed up big time. Anderson had him on the defensive from the 1st question and hit him pretty hard. Anderson pulled a few punches on it tho, throwing him so easier questions but its a start. I am hoping Monday brings some more information on this story, there are more and more accounts of people remembering him and also exposing the perferred treatment people get in receiving these day passes. Gannon is a liar and continues to become tripped up in his lies. One day its a media blackout then its an interview trying to play the victim. Just keep this story rolling, remember Monica Lewinski started out like this and grew into one of the biggest political scandals.

Posted by mardenhill 2/20/2005 06:42:00 PM 1 comments    

You Know You're Right
Friday, February 18, 2005

I got the Nirvana box set over the weekend and let me tell ya, it rocks. I am currently listening to a solo acoustic version of You Know You're Right. The set doesn't just have all their studio songs, its full of demos, solo, acoustic, live etc. The dvd is supposed to be very cool, I havnt got a chance to watch it, but a friend at work has the set and told me about it. Its hard to believe its been 11 years since Kurt killed himself, its one of those days that you will always remember where you were. I remember I was in college in the dorms when Chris and Rick came into my room to tell me about it. They had the news on and it was plastered all over it. The month before when Kurt ODed in Europe they kept saying it was just a matter of time but I said no, Kurt won't kill himself.
I did get to see them on the InUtero tour when it came thru Kalamazoo at Wings Stadium, the Meat Puppets opened along with some other unknown band. The show was amazing, there wasn't a song they played that the crowd didn't know. My senior year in hs they came to town and were playing St Andys but I couldn't go. It was Homecoming weekend and I was in the marching band and had to play the halftime show. To make matters worse, it was my birthday that day, what a better way to spend it. So I missed that show but was able to catch them 2 years later.
So what are your best/worst memories of Nirvana, feel free to post comments.

Posted by mardenhill 2/18/2005 11:47:00 AM 3 comments    

Update: Gannongate Round 2
Thursday, February 17, 2005

Ok, this sleazeball is documented to have been in the White House before his stint with the fake Talon News site. So this means the guy had "NO" credentials or journalist background but was planted by someone. Could that someone be McClellan, or possibly Rove? Pictures reveal what looks to be a "hard pass" not the daily pass that Gannon came in on during his Talon News bit. Deducting this down, the guy was cleared long beforehand and somehow passed the background check with all his sex websites and prostitution. Hmm, either he skipped that or we have lapsed on our background checking.

So the story continues to build out in the blogosphere and certain websites but no one is willing to touch it. Give it a couple more days, people will be tripping over themselves claiming that they broke the story and horray to the bloggers for doing some investigating journalism. God knows we cannot trust the main stream media to tell us anything but propaganda passed down from the White House.

So the saga goes on, building more and more steam on the net, just giving the White House more time to sanitize all records of this guy. Requests have been made to the White House but those bastards will not follow thru, they are hiding something and it will be exposed. This is #6 for those of you counting how many reporters have been exposed for being paid off by this administration. When will it end, does it take a gay sex scandal to finally expose the abuse of this administration? MSNBC had a poll on their website and it has overwhelmingly shown that people want to know more about this story. So go ahead and break it, what are you waiting for!!!!

Posted by mardenhill 2/17/2005 02:58:00 PM 2 comments    

Mr. Santorum Please Step Up....

Hey folks, just wanted to point out some more hyprocrisy on the right, and today's target is none other than Mr. Rick Santorum, ultra rightwing conservative from Pennsylvania. Mr. Rick is currently stumping for tort reform, he wants to limit damages at $200,000 and to eliminate those ambulance chasers we have polluting out society. That's fine, he has his right but what you don't know is, Mr. Rick's wife just settled a lawsuit against her chiropractor for a total of $350,000 in damages stemming form a 96 incident that she said left her permanently damaged. She originally asked for $500,000 but it went down to $350,000. Now if her husband had his way, she would be only skating out of there with $200,000 max. Coincidence that this was settled before any legislation has been drawn up, I think not. So its ok for the republican sleazeballs to sue and get their fair share but for the rest of us, we must settle for what they deem reasonable. Can you say HYPROCRITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I understand and am well aware of frivilous lawsuits out there but don't go around the country telling me that in order to lower health care costs, we need to eliminte the ability to sue doctors. I got an idea, maybe the US govt should buy drugs from the Pharmacuticals not just the HMOs. I bet we could get a better rate as opposed to a number of smaller grps buying drugs. But nah, thats just crazy talk, we can't do that, its too close to socialism. So we are stuck with high medical costs because we have for profit outfits managing our healthcare who's only concern are their bottom lines and their stockholders.

Before I forget, Mr Rick has yet another skeleton in his closet. In Pennsylvania, elected officials need to live in their district so Mr Rick had gone out and purchased a house so he would be eligable to run. Well does Mr Rick live there, no he does not, he rents the house out and most likely pockets the money. What happened to following the rules, I guess it does not apply to this scoundrel. Mr Rick, your days are numbered, come 2006 you will be unemployed and will have to live off your wifes settlement.

Posted by mardenhill 2/17/2005 08:39:00 AM 4 comments    

No Drudge?
Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Ok, its been days since the Gannon story broke but no major media outlets are biting, whats wrong here? Could it be that the story is just a lie, nah its just too crazy to be fiction. If we go back in time, Matt Drudge was on every sex scandal known to man, btw this was the guy who broke the Monica Lewinski story but is afraid to touch this one. Drudge isn't one to back down from a scoop he posts stories whether they are true or not all the time but not this one. I think Drudge is missing out big time, is he hiding something, thats the only reason I can see that he isn't biting. Just think of the hits Drudge would have with a story of this magnitude. Instead he devotes most of the last 2 days to his pissing match with Chris Rock which no one cares about. Maybe there are pics of Drudge with mr Gannon that he is praying are not leaked, maybe Drudge found religion and decided to give up on the sex trade. Nah, he's a blogger and bloggers love torid sex tales, they love to post and tell the whole world. So we sit back and wait, wait for Drudge to come to his senses about this one, but if we are lucky, the majors will grab the story and scoop Drudge out of millions of hits. Drudge's repuataion on being the king of gossip will be over and the liberal blogs will have trumped him.

On another topic, hockey has been cancelled for the rest of the year, it pisses me off that they cannot look past dollar amounts and see the big picture. There are tons of people's who's lives depend on hockey, they are the concession stand workers, parking attendents, local businesses etc, they are the ones losing out here, not the players and owners. Hockey is already the redheaded stepchild of the sports world and this is just convincing more people to tune them out. I see a few markets losing teams in the next few years, that is a good thing but overall viewership will drop dramtically and I don't see a return like baseball has had. So long hockey, it has been nice knowing ya.

Posted by mardenhill 2/16/2005 10:35:00 PM 1 comments    

Update: Gannongate
Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Gannongate becomes more interesting by the hour, the latest revelations are that Scott McClellan and Gannon are more than friends and that is how Gannon gained access to the WH press pool. All the bloggers are running wild with this tantlizing info, but the scary part of it all is that Gannon may have been the person who outed Valerie Plume the undercover CIA agent a couple years ago. Novak will not give up his source but if this turns out to be Gannon, this connection is one step away from the president. If you want more juicy tales regarding McClellan and Gannon check out www.rawstory.com they have a story posted. McClellan denies knowing that Gannon is a fake name but the 2 are connected back in the day.

Bloggers have come under attack for jumping the gun and not real journalists, just people sitting around in their pajamas writing conspiracy theories. But when you look at who is breaking stories and fact finding, its the bloggers, Big Media needs to wake up to this and start reporting the news for real, not for ratings.

Posted by mardenhill 2/15/2005 09:58:00 AM 1 comments    

Update: Gannongate

Gannongate becomes more interesting by the hour, the latest revelations are that Scott McClellan and Gannon are more than friends and that is how Gannon gained access to the WH press pool. All the bloggers are running wild with this tantlizing info, but the scary part of it all is that Gannon may have been the person who outed Valerie Plume the undercover CIA agent a couple years ago. Novak will not give up his source but if this turns out to be Gannon, this connection is one step away from the president. If you want more juicy tales regarding McClellan and Gannon check out www.rawstory.com they have a story posted. McClellan denies knowing that Gannon is a fake name but the 2 are connected back in the day.

Bloggers have come under attack for jumping the gun and not real journalists, just people sitting around in their pajamas writing conspiracy theories. But when you look at who is breaking stories and fact finding, its the bloggers, Big Media needs to wake up to this and start reporting the news for real, not for ratings.

Posted by mardenhill 2/15/2005 09:58:00 AM 1 comments    

Mr. Alan Keyes, Father of the Year...
Monday, February 14, 2005

courtesy of www.politicalwire.com

Keyes Daughter Out of the Closet
Maya Marcel-Keyes, the 19-year-old daughter of conservative pundit Alan Keyes "will be making her first public appearance as a gay activist at a Valentine Day's rally in front of the Maryland State House" today, CBS News reports.

Last summer her father, as an Senate candidate from Illinois, called Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter "a sinner" and said homosexuality was "selfish hedonism."

Marcel-Keyes said "her parents have thrown her out of the house, stopped speaking to her and refuse to pay for college because she is gay."

Posted by mardenhill 2/14/2005 12:27:00 PM 2 comments    

Starving Artists
Sunday, February 13, 2005

Erika and I went out last nite for dinner at Starving Artists, a new restaurant in downtown Ferndale. It is next door to Angel's Cafe and has a total of 9 tables. The food was great except that 2 of the entrees Erika wanted were out. They had been busy all nite and we didnt go until 8:30pm. I guess you can look at it that everything is fresh, rather than an Applebees or any other chain restaurant. They have a liquor license and their wine list was decent. Prices were between $15 and $22 per entree and portions were good. Starving Artists has art work for sale, some of it prints and others local artisans works. We bought a print for the kitchen, it was only $30, the frame itself must have cost close to that. There are a few new restaurants in Ferndale, there is a French and a small crepe house. If you are looking for a new place to check out, I highly recommend Starving Artists and if they are too busy go next door to Angel's Cafe.

BTW, bought the Nirvana boxset at Costo today, its a 3 disc 1 dvd set and very good. If anyone would like a copy let me know. You can't beat the price at Costco, it was $8 cheaper than Amazon.com which usually has the best deals. While we are on the topic of music, I just found New Order's latest cd, its very good, not as guitar based as Get Ready but not total synth pop.

Now that I have finally organized my mp3s, its time to start backing them up, glad that the imac has a dvd burner or I would be here for the next 2 years. You can fit 4.4 gigs of data on each dvd and it takes approximately 14 minutes to burn.

Posted by mardenhill 2/13/2005 04:16:00 PM 0 comments    

What Is It With....
Saturday, February 12, 2005

What is it with doing New Order covers as your 1st single, you got Frente in 94 covering Bizarre Love Triangle then Orgy in 97 and Flunk a Norwegian band in 02 doing Blue Monday. That is one of my pet peeves, a band who releases a cover as their 1st single. You had some ska band who covered Come On Eileen, probably the worst 80s song ever recorded and where are they now? I can't even remember their name, thats how far they have faded from the music radar. T.A.T.U. a Russian girl duo released a Smiths cover as their single but the rest of the cd was crap. They figured that they could play off the whole lesbian angle while releasing a cover and that would get them press and radio play.

Covers as B-sides or just during live sets is fine, Travis probably has one of the most memorable covers, they did an acoustic version of Britney Spear's Baby Hit Me One More Time. This cover rocked, they played it on their 1st tour in the states, and it was so popular they added it to the Turn single. Another amazing cover is Siouxsie and the Banshees Dear Prudence, she took that song and made it her own, you would have never known it was a cover had it not been a huge Beatles hit. Nirvana has some great covers along with Pearl Jam and Oasis.

I found this site while doing my New Order reseach and found it pretty funny, check it out.
http://www.inthe80s.com/

Posted by mardenhill 2/12/2005 05:51:00 PM 0 comments    

Service Charge will the Death of Me

I got Oasis tickets this morning, they were $25 lawn seats and in the end the total was $77 something for 2 tickets. $3 each for parking, $8.50 for service charge and another $3.90 for for convenience charge. Now I can handle the parking in the ticket but the other charges, come on I paid more in service fees than the price of another ticket before charges. I know its the way it is, I havnt bought tickets in months and I swear thing have gone up a few dollars since then. My only hope is that the mycompanyoffer.com site that I have access thru work will have discounted or free tickets for the show and then I can sell mine. Depending on how the show sells, the my company will pickup the extras and get rid of them. If you ever want to attend any of the bad pine knob shows that never sell out. I can get those tickets.

Well I am off to the recycling center, will blog more later...

Posted by mardenhill 2/12/2005 11:43:00 AM 3 comments    

OASIS TIX
Friday, February 11, 2005

11 hrs and 30 minutes til Oasis tickets go on sale, they will be playing Meadowbrook on June 18th for those of u in the metro Detroit area. Oasis will have the lousy Australian band Jet opening for them, I guess I will get there late but its still Oasis and thats all that matters. This is only 1 of 5 US dates this year, so u better get yourself together and get some tickets.

Posted by mardenhill 2/11/2005 10:29:00 PM 1 comments    

Gannongate

Well the buzz on the net surrounds a man named J.D. Guckert or Jeff Gannon if u are journalist. Well Mr Jeff was not a journalist but somehow earned White House credentials, access to the WH pool of reporters, confidential CIA that may have outed Plume an undercover agent. Its all over the net what this guy has done and his skeletons in the closet but the big news reporters are not biting. Could it be media bias, I think so. Below is a bit on this guy, the gay porn isn't as big of a deal as the no journalism credentials but yet got to interview the prez and other WH officials.

Courtesy of http://semidi.blogsome.com/

“Jeff Gannon” is a sexy stud who owns a few gay-porn URLs, was credentialed as a White House reporter despite having no journalistic background (other than attending a two-day, $50 seminar hosted by a friend of George W. Bush’s), and now he’s been connected to the destruction of a valuable CIA agent’s career. Where is the so-called liberal media?

This guy wrote for a fake news site, Talon News and was privy to sensitive info, he is now pissed off because he was outed by liberal bloggers. Sorry guy, u lie u pay. Our own John Conyers congressman of MI has called for an inquiry on the issue, hopefully this does not fizzle out and just fade away into the zeros and ones of the internet. This is big news folks, if Gannon outed Valerie Plume to Bob Novak, this guy is looking at some nice jailtime. I do not have proof on this yet but I am sure it will be out soon. Check out http://www.democraticunderground.com/ for more info on this.

For those of you keeping track of the possible Deep Throat candidates, you can now add Prez Gerald Ford and Supreme Court Justice Renquist to your list. Both are ailing and were around during the Nixon Era. We will not know who Deep Throat is until he dies, until then every old goverment official on their dying days will be candidates.

Posted by mardenhill 2/11/2005 10:10:00 PM 1 comments    

More Texas Ethics Violations

Those fucking scumbags are at it again in Texas, why is it that everything that is wrong with this country ties back to Texas? No need to answer that I think we all know why. First it was a provision to protect "The Hammer" Tom Delay from stepping down from his post if/when he is indicted for ethics violations. That got a lot of heat and was finally reversed but a more broad blocking provision was not lifted. Now back in Texas, mind you this is where Delay is from and where the ethics violations originated they are trying to inact the same provision in the state legislature. The fallout from Delay's ethics violations are hitting close to home and all his cronies are running for cover and hoping the Texas dominated legislature will come to their rescue. They claim this is for local discrepencies but it will be used to protect those who along with Delay, illegally solicited campaign funds for their big Texas redistricting a few years back. This is bullshit and and everyone knows it but hey those from Texas seem to think they are above the law. If this is passed, I vote that we give Texas back to Mexico and just rid the US of all the scum from that state. I know there are some great people and democrats from Texas and maybe we can keep part of the state or relocate them to higher ground. I really hope this does not pass and that it makes national news so everyone in the country can see what is happening behind closed doors down in Texas.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ethics11feb11,1,7321903.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

Posted by mardenhill 2/11/2005 04:38:00 PM 2 comments    

Update: Virginia Underwear Fiasco
Thursday, February 10, 2005

Droopy-Pants Bill Dropped in Va. Senate

2 hours, 17 minutes ago

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia lawmakers dropped their droopy-pants bill Thursday after the whole thing became just too embarrassing.

The bill, which would have slapped a $50 fine on people who wear their pants so low that their underwear is visible in "a lewd or indecent manner," passed the state House on Tuesday but was killed by a Senate committee two days later in a unanimous vote.


Hmm, i guess too much public scrutiny on this one caused the state legislature to drop the bill. Now if we can move onto the next southern civil rights crisis and squash it just like the droopy pants.


Alabama state senators propose ten commandments, pledge be mandatory

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Some state senators want to make sure that every public school has the Ten Commandments displayed and that every school day begins with students and teachers reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Bills that would put both requirements into law won approval in the state Senate Education Committee on Wednesday and now go to the Senate for consideration.

Byrne said most schools do begin the day with the pledge and a moment of silence, which is required by law, but some only have the moment of silence.

Byrne’s bill allows teachers and students to opt out of saying the pledge if they have objections or if they are citizens of another country. That is becoming more common as Alabama attracts more international industries, and those companies bring over executives and their families from the companies’ home countries.


I like this "teachers and students to opt out if they have objections", yeah like thats going to happen. The 1st teacher to do so, will find themselves unemployed under some trumped up charge. The students will be ridiculed by classmates and I wouldn't put it pass the teachers to turn a blind eye while they are harrassed. These students will find themselves in detention, suspension, you name it. Come on, if kids are getting tasered in Florida and arrested, whats stopping Alabama from doing the same. Another sign that the religious right has gone too far.

Posted by mardenhill 2/10/2005 07:49:00 PM 2 comments    

Say NO to Underwear
Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Get ready for Universal uniforms for everyone at all times around the country. We are becoming a brave new world with the Govt in every and I mean every aspect of our life. This is funny but yet scary because I can see this catching on and spreading like wildfire across the south. Hmm, didn't we go bomb a country to liberate its population from wearing burkas? I guess that doesn't really matter anymore because the human body is such a disguisting thing and should never be witnessed in public without appropriate skin covering. I'm suprised that we are even allowed to shower naked, I bet within the next 2 years we will have to wear permanant clothing 24/7.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4249831.stm

US politicians fed up with catching an eyeful of underwear want to fine those who won't hitch up their trousers. The Virginia state house has voted to outlaw the trend of wearing trousers so low that underwear hangs over the top. Delegates said the habit, popular across the US and in other Western countries, was "coarsening" society. But others hit back, urging legislators to remember their own "fashion follies" and saying the law would be used mostly against black people. The house adopted the "droopy drawers" bill by a margin of 60-34.

Underwear is called underwear for a reason
Virginia Delegate John Reid

If the state senate also approves, youngsters in Virginia showing too much of their boxer shorts or G-strings could be fined $50 (£26)

Posted by mardenhill 2/09/2005 03:50:00 PM 2 comments    

How many jobs do u work!!!

I'm so glad, our out of touch, arrogant, liar of a president cares so much for the common folk.

Courtesy of www.drudgereport.com

BUSH: HOLDING THREE JOBS 'UNIQUELY AMERICAN'Tues Feb 8 2005 9:27:01 ET

Last Friday when promoting social security reform with 'regular' citizens in Omaha, Nebraska, President Bush walked into an awkward unscripted moment in which he stated that carrying three jobs at a time is 'uniquely American.' While talking with audience participants, the president met Mary Mornin, a woman in her late fifties who told the president she was a divorced mother of three, including a 'mentally challenged' son.
The President comforted Mornin on the security of social security stating that 'the promises made will be kept by the government.' But without prompting Mornin began to elaborate on her life circumstances.

Begin transcript:
MS. MORNIN: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.
THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?
MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

Developing...Filed By Matt Drudge...

Posted by mardenhill 2/09/2005 10:40:00 AM 1 comments    

Update: Napster To Go Round 2

Ok, I was right the 1st time with the $9.95 a month and additional $14.95 for the "to go" service a month. Also I found out how they will keep u paying for your rented music. So we are back to the $298.80 a year for your music and if you don't keep paying the man, its gone in 30 days.

Courtesy of www.slyck.com

This is how “Napster to Go” works. For $14.95 a month, an individual can download an unlimited amount of music tracks. The music is then transferable to a choice of three portable music players; the iRiver, Creative Zen Micro or the Dell Pocket DJ. But here is the catch. In order to qualify for Napster to Go, you must already be a subscriber to Napster – an additional $9.95 a month.
Ok, so $24.90 a month is not so bad, at least one can download an unlimited amount of music to keep right? Not so fast…An interesting quirk regarding Napster to Go is that an individual must maintain their subscription with Napster. Every thirty days or less, the individual must plug their “compatible” player into their computer; allow it to link up with Napster’s server, which gives the DRM tracks an additional 30 days of life. Don’t maintain your Napster subscription? *Poof* - your 14.95 dollar downloads are gone with the wind.

Posted by mardenhill 2/09/2005 09:29:00 AM 2 comments    

Republicans awash in porn...
Tuesday, February 08, 2005

I am not saying porn is bad, I am just pointing out how Republicans take money from the industry and then use it to try to convince people that is is bad. Everyone loves a little porn now and again....

"Moral values" hypocrites take porn moneyby kos Tue Feb 8th, 2005 at 09:01:23 PSTHypocrisy, GOP style:

While its previous owners considered adult entertainment "immoral," Adelphia Communications Corp., the country's fifth-largest cable television provider, last week became the first to offer hard-core adult films on pay-per-view to its subscribers [...]
Viewers can watch such sexually explicit movies in the Hilton and Marriott hotel chains on video services like LodgeNet or on "On Command," which is owned by Liberty Media, formerly a part of AT&T; at home via DirecTV, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp; or via virtually every cable company, including Cox, Time Warner and Comcast [...]
While the corporations generate millions in profits from providing adult content, their political contributions are often given to those elected, in no small part, because of their stance on "moral values."
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Comcast Cable has given millions in political donations since 1998. The national Republican Party committees are its biggest organizational recipient, with donations totaling $851,000. President Bush is its biggest individual recipient with $109,000 in donations.
Adelphia has given $166,000 to Republican committees, $17,000 to conservative Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., and $12,000 to Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., one of the most conservative members of the Senate.

Terry Neal writes:
In this world of irony, corporate leaders at companies as diverse as News Corp., Marriott International and Time Warner can profit by selling red state consumers the very material that red state culture is supposed to despise. Those elites then funnel the proceeds to the GOP, which in turn has used the money to successfully convince red state voters that the other political party is solely responsible for the decline of the civilization.
Sirota has more.

Posted by mardenhill 2/08/2005 02:34:00 PM 2 comments    

Update: Oasis

Ticket Prices: US $25.50 - US $45.50

Tickets OnSale: Sat, 02/12/05 10:00 AM

Posted by mardenhill 2/08/2005 09:56:00 AM 1 comments    

OASIS IN DETROIT!!!!!

Time to get your shoes all shined up and ready to throw and to be hammered with indistinguishable insults and banter, cuz Oasis is coming back to town. If you have never seen Oasis, you are missing one of the best UK bands in the last 20 years. As for their choice of opening bands, yeah we all make mistakes but its still Oasis and u can always get there late.

OASIS are to play two more UK shows, as well as announcing details of a North American tour.
The band, who are preparing to release the follow-up to Heathen Chemistry in May, have announced they will play two nights at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena on July 12-13.
Tickets are priced at £32.50 and go on sale 9am on Saturday (February 12).
In addition to their new UK dates, Oasis will play a selection of live shows in North America with Jet.
These will be the group's first performances in America since summer of 2002.
The North American dates are:
Toronto-Molson Amphitheatre (June 17)
Detroit Meadow Brook Amphitheatre (18)
Chicago-UIC Pavilion (20)
NYC Madison Square Garden (22)
Philadelphia- Festival Pier @ Penns Landing (25)

Posted by mardenhill 2/08/2005 09:45:00 AM 2 comments    

Detroit Timeline
Monday, February 07, 2005

http://www.freep.com/news/locway/detroitxx7e_20050207.htm

The Freep had an interesting article on the road to the superbowl with Detroit's progress and yet to be finished projects. There is also a .pdf of downtown as a map so those of you that are driving challenged downtown can hang this in your cube and memorize it. I admit, Detroit is not the easiest city to navigate, the whole spoke concept was cool about 200 years ago, but I am getting better and so should you. While we are on the Detroit kick, mark your calendars because Tigers tickets will go onsale in a month from now, see below. I have never gone to opening day and this year I am planning on it so if you are in, let me know.

2005 Individual Game tickets go on sale Saturday, March 5 at 10 a.m. ET.Please check back often for information, or register for The Roar to receive ticket information, breaking news, and All-Star Game information as soon as it's released

Posted by mardenhill 2/07/2005 09:24:00 AM 2 comments    

Republican "Morality"
Saturday, February 05, 2005

More sleazeball tactics from this morally/ethically/fiscally bankrupt group of fucking pigs we call our government. What will it take to put these guys away, its going on 5 years now and Ken Lay has yet to see jail time and the asshole from Tyco got off because some skank on the jury was paid off. Bernie Ebbers from WorldCom is currently on trial, who wants to bet on the out come? It just goes to show that Bush and co are protecting these corporate scumbags and we will not see any convictions until Bush is out of office. Will DeLay be brought to trial, I doubt it, and he will stay in office with all his ethics violations conducting business as usual. Maybe one morning I will wake up and see in the headlines that "The Hammer" has been indicted and will be stripped of his whip status, hell I probably have a better chance at winning the Big Game than seeing that happen.


Courtesy of http://semidi.blogsome.com/

Republican “Morality”

GOP Watch | Semidi, 09:39 am | Comments (0)

It’s hardly surprising that the GOPsters have resorted to this unethical and hypocritical stacking of the deck:

House Republican leaders tightened their control over the ethics committee yesterday by ousting its independent-minded chairman, appointing a replacement who is close to them and adding two new members who donated to the legal defense fund of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).

Republican officials have spent months taking steps to ensure DeLay’s political survival in case he is indicted by a Texas grand jury investigating political fundraising, and House leadership aides said they needed to have the ethics committee controlled by lawmakers they can trust.

And this is the party whose members claim to be morally superior to the rest of us

Posted by mardenhill 2/05/2005 10:05:00 AM 0 comments    

Update: Napster To Go
Friday, February 04, 2005

Ok, I misspoke when I said that you had to pay the $15 plus the $10 for a total of $25 a month for the service, I think the $10 is no more if u upgrade to the "to go" service. So u are looking at $180 a year to rent your music with it living on your player and streaming thru your pc. The article below takes a look at this and compares it against the ipod and itunes which is pretty interesting. Yesterday I thought that $15 a month wouldn't be bad but $25 was, now I am thinking $15 is still bad since you do not own it. I don't know, if Apple comes out with a program, chances are it will be better than this one and it might sway me but we will see.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/04/napster_go_away/

Posted by mardenhill 2/04/2005 10:01:00 AM 2 comments    

Napster's new service
Thursday, February 03, 2005

Here's the lowdown on the Napster To Go service that will be airing in commercials over the Super Bowl. For $14.95 you can download unlimited amounts of music to your mp3 player (mind you, every player on the market except the ipod) and listen as much as you want. The fine print tho, you need to be a Napster subscriber which is $9.95 a month for unlimted streaming, (no burning) so Napster functions as a 1,000,000 song jukebox. So for $25 a month u can stream and download to your player but you need to maintain this subscription or all your music disappears. Not sure how this works, say u load your player with stuff and then cancel and never sync your handheld up again, I guess its yours but it will stay on your handheld until u delete it. So this sounds pretty cool, but then you are talking $300 a year to lease music that u cannot share. Now with the numbers up front, does it sound like a good deal? I don't think so, its still .99c a song $9.99 a cd to download and burn just like itunes. Napster claims to offer cheaper cds but not sure if they are any that we would want.

Maybe this will kick itunes into doing something like this, without the initial monthly subscription fee. I could handle $15 a month for leasing music, that could be pretty cool but $25 is too much. Keep this in mind when you start hearing about the new Napster To Go.....

Posted by mardenhill 2/03/2005 04:30:00 PM 3 comments    

SOTU tidbits....

I'm sick and tired of people complaining about the booing last nite like it was just a bunch of sore losers, please see below.

A history of booing
by kos
Thu Feb 3rd, 2005 at 10:01:34 PST

Courtest of the Stick*:
1999: Republicans Booed Clinton's Entrance
Many Republican lawmakers gave him a cool, though not impolite, reception. There were a smattering of boos when Clinton first entered the House chamber, but they were quickly drowned out by applause. Some Republicans barely applauded, or refused at all to clap. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) were conspicuously silent. [Boston Herald, 1/20/99]

1998: Republicans Booed Clinton's Medicare Proposal
Clinton's health-care initiatives, chiefly in the form of a medical bill of rights, found support on both sides, especially his attack on managed-care health-care plans. ... Clinton's proposal to expand Medicare to allow Americans as young as 55 to buy into the system drew shouts of "no" and some boos from Republicans during his speech. [Chicago Tribune, 1/28/98]

1997: Republican's Booed Clinton's Opposition to the Balanced Budget Amendment
The Republican response was far warmer than perhaps any of Clinton's previous four State of the Union speeches. Time after time, Republicans jumped to their feet to join Democrats in applauding the president. Only once did they unmistakably and collectively show their disapproval--when Clinton spoke disparagingly of a GOP-sponsored constitutional amendment to balance the budget. Many Republicans hissed and some booed. [LA Times, 2/5/97]

1995: Republicans Booed Clinton and Walked Out During Speech
The upheaval wrought by the Republican election landslide was visible throughout the president's State of the Union address - from the moment Speaker Newt Gingrich took the gavel to the striking silence that often greeted Clinton from the GOP. At one point, Republicans even booed. About 20 of them left as Clinton went on and on for an hour and 20 minutes. [AP, 1/24/95]

(*) The "Stick" is the nickname given by the dKos community to the Senate Democratic Communications Center, a.k.a. the 'War Room'.

Posted by mardenhill 2/03/2005 01:12:00 PM 0 comments    

SOTU another waste of an evening
Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Well, our "favorite" president will be on TV tomorrow spewing forth more lies and propaganda and the sad thing is, the American public will eat it up. More half truths and religous fodder to mull over while Bush tries to convince us that Social Security will be bankrupt come 2018. Oh wait, the date was changed to 2020 just the other day when it was proved that Bush's numbers were more fuzzy math. Now if you actually look at a non biased report you will find out that Social Security is solvent for another 40 years and a few tweaks can extend that deadline. Bush has spent the Social Security surplus for his tax cuts with no intention on paying them back so all he has left to do without raising taxes is to privatize the program. Bush's idea is to take a percentage of your earnings and put them into a private acct and then cut your benefits when you reach retirement age. So if the stock market has a couple bad years, kinda like what has happened the last few years and u are set to retire, sorry your investment is not worth much and guess what, your benifits will be cut.

For more on the State of the Union and Bush's lies and failed policies check out the website below. They bring to light all lies of previous speeches.

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=310515

Posted by mardenhill 2/01/2005 10:28:00 PM 1 comments    

DAMN PRETENTIOUS INDIE ROCKERS!!!!

Lets kill them all, I have decided that all pretentious indie rockers must die, they are the downfall of our civilization. This is from Pitchfork, our favorite source for news. I have posted the news a few days ago but its their spin on it that just pisses me off....

Ryan Adams Prepares Three Albums for ReleaseRob Mackey reports:If history has taught us anything, it's that Ryan Adams is a bit of a fool. But the Fork gives credit where credit is due, so we'll at least throw some adjective like ambitious or industrious before the word fool. The proof? In the latest development from the you've-got-to-be-kidding-me-Ryan department, everyone's (least? only?) favorite alt-country icon turned pastiche-happy-harlequin has announced plans to release three (three!) full-length albums in 2005, with one being a double album. Apparently his hand is feeling better...
Yes, Adams' official website-- which used to have a whole bunch of info, and is now a cryptic graveyard-- currently boasts a phony wedding invitation with all available info regarding each record-- the double album Cold Roses, and two solo efforts entitled Jacksonville and 29. However, as of yesterday, Cold Roses, set to street on April 19th, is the only album with a verified release date. In the boy-wonder's first non-solo outing since Whiskeytown, Cold Roses will be unveiled under the name Ryan Adams and the Cardinals. Who the Cardinals are, we're still not sure, but Willy Mason producer Thomas Schick was behind the boards while they played their instruments. Schick was also twiddlin' knobs when Adams recorded his second promised 2005 album, Jacksonville, which, as every rag will point out OVER and OVER and OVER AND OVER (starting right here), just so happens to be where Adams was born.
The third album, 29, will see the industrious singer-songwriter once again team up with bosom buddy/constant contributer/producer extrordianaire Ethan Johns. We'll keep you posted as tracklists become available. Then we'll save you the trouble and raze 'em down to the one EP worth of decent songs.
And, finally, as if three records wasn't enough news to digest, Adams also announced plans to tour North America and Europe in the spring, summer, and fall. Three albums, three seasons...one Ryan Adams.

Posted by mardenhill 2/01/2005 10:31:00 AM 2 comments