I’ve done stuff but it has just been normal stuff. I was out for two consecutive weekends and now we are here until probably mid-August. That is nice as I’d like some downtime with my wife and just chill out.

That’s a good thing because I’ve been on the verge of burnout which seems silly. I’ve been out of the office quite a bit but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. I need more sleep. I haven’t been able to sleep in on weekends either.

Anyway, you can see why I haven’t updated. I’ve been keeping up with everyone else though.

This weekend, I am in Walla Walla Thu-Sun.

Our cat really hates us right now.

It has been quite busy. Summer usually is anyway but this one seems to be flying by. We have stuff going on all of the time and our schedule is filling up until after Labor day. Labor day! For the love of everything, I need to stop the insanity. Put my proverbial foot down. Yeah!

Probably not but it is a nice thought.

Which one of these is the most sad/outrageous/”signs our country is going down the crapper”:

1. There is a genuine question of whether or not Obama would turn into this cult of personality figure as President (or an argument he already has) and very few people seem to have an issue with this (Oh, and not just from me or evil Republicans but from one of their own, Mr Paul Krugman)
2. The only reason many people know of the term and can give you the basic definition of it is because of a song from 1989 by the band Living Colour.

Commence armageddon.

The thing that bugs me and the thing that should bug people of any political stripe is the reliability of the press during these critical election times.

Now I have never been media conspiracy guy. The biggest conspiracy the press has had in the last twenty/thirty years is the conspiracy to sell newspapers and ad space. I have also never been the person to say we should further regulate the media, impose the fairness doctrine or create campaign finance laws that apply to media coverage.

Many people of the liberal persuasion have categorized the media’s handling of the Bush presidency with the term “kid gloves.” I think that is a fair enough argument but even with the supposed kid glove treatment, Bush’s ratings are in the gutter. The impact of those kid gloves may be significant, it may be insignificant. I don’t know.

Now if the daily media treats a guy with kid gloves who is politically poisonous, aloof and is the complete opposite of most of their held political views, how are they going to treat a President Obama who is pretty much the exact opposite of that?

My concern is what I’ll call the Tiger Woods treatment. You see, Tiger Woods never gets criticized in the sports media. He is talked about positively in almost all respects. He is a great (if not one of the greatest) player and as a minority in a sport dominated by white males, that gets amplified. There are problems with Tiger’s game though and there has been historically low points in his career where he has played poorly. Even in these times, there has always been certainty that he is on the right track and giving him the benefit of the doubt.

The thing about Tiger is that nobody in the media wants to criticize him. They want to stay close to him so they can get preferred access to him. If anybody watched the US Open coverage this weekend, you had to see it.

I am annoyed that the same thing could easily happen with Obama and the press. And it seems like it should annoy more people and it should be talked about. The unfortunate part is that it is being presented as a partisan issue when it shouldn’t be. I don’t have a great solution other than just people being aware of the possibility of it happening.

P.S. I know someone will bring this up so I might as well address it. The Rev. Wright thing, which he did get hammered on, is virtually a non-issue now. In this respect, it was a matter of luck that it was brought up during the primary (rather than the general). I don’t know what it would look like in the general so I can’t tell what the response would be but a vast majority of the coverage focused on how this revelation would impact the primary race.

Here’s the deal, that same song was played at my high school graduation eight years ago and by that time, it had become cliche. This is the same song that Seinfeld went out into the land of syndication on.

So if the graduating class of 2000 had picked an eleven year old song, what would it be? Here is my top 10 list of the best graduation songs released in 1989:

10. If You Don’t Know Me By Now - Simply Red: A little alluding to going through some rough times but never really resolving. Maybe good for those high schools where nobody can get along, it also captures a romantic vibe without being in anyway romantic.

9. Every Rose Has Its Thorn - Poison: Probably less of a “this song has so much meaning because of the lyrics” and more like “this reminds me about the time that Donnie spilled a milkshake on Jimmy’s favorite bleached jeans.” If that doesn’t make any sense, it is probably because a lot of people like the song and just said screw it.

8. Dreamin’ - Vanessa Williams: A first verse that could be related to a big event in your life followed by two more verses and fifteen times through the chorus that confirms it is actually a love song. No matter, it is fun to dream. I mean, dreamin’.

7. Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx: Maybe this song has the only element of truth to it. After all, a high percentage of your classmates are going to be right where you left them and apparently they were waiting for you so that they can pretend you are going to “get together soon” after you haven’t stayed in contact with them for eight years.

6. The Living Years - Mike and the Mechanics: Maybe the rebellious/inspiring independence choice of this whole bunch. Still bay be a little depressing or political to be used as an overall graduating song choice. Still, the song is grating enough to where you’ll probably remember.

5. Don’t Wanna Lose You - Gloria Estefan: Another converted love song that can show that you really want to avoid the inevitability of your relationships breaking down when you’ve spent the last four years building them. Corny lines about making mistakes and amends only helps further its rise up this list.

4. Nothing I Can Do About It Now - Willie Nelson: Probably the only country song I can stomach from the era but definitely one of the best for this list. It has all the graduation symbols from turning the corner, fate and change.

3. We Didn’t Start the Fire - Billy Joel: More of a boomer hit than anything, this is still a well known song and has a message of “Hey, don’t blame us. Y’all messed up way before we came along.” If you ask me, that’s a perfect song for a graduating class.

2. The End of Innocence - Don Henley: A heady political song with a title that disguises the song meaning enough so that high schoolers can pretend the song means something it doesn’t. In other words, a great choice for a high school graduation.

1. I’ll Be There For You - Bon Jovi: I despise this song but even I have to admit that this would be the top choice from the list of possibilities from 1989. A very popular song that teenagers who don’t know any better can sing to their friends as their lives slowly drift apart as they leave high school.

In a word: no.

In more than one word: we don’t need it. Just like we don’t need a gas tax holiday Sen. McCain.

All of these one time, unfocused, short-lived tax relief plans lack a lot of things but the biggest thing they lack is courage. The courage to say no to politically expedient, low impact measures in favor long term measures that value the prosperity of our country. The courage to shoot down a proposal that will hurt us in the long run.

What we need are long term solutions for our country. Those aren’t fixed with band-aids. If any of the candidates spent that kind of time on things like eliminating or permanently fixing the AMT, adjusting our corporate tax structure to be competitive with other western nations and proposing true tax and revenue changes that will help our government function with stability while allowing our people the financial freedom to determine their own destiny, we’d be in a much better place.

But no. No one with the moral fortitude will step up this election season. This is truly the politics of the same and don’t you think for a second that this sort of politicking will change anytime soon.

No joke. KTRH is going to be calling me at 6:50 am CDT (that would be 4:50 am Pacific) to talk to me about employers reducing their work weeks to four days to help save their employees gas costs. I guess I didn’t think this had any traction until I read that more companies are actually considering it. I wrote the post on my website over a year ago.

So if you are in Houston, you should listen. I am going to try and record of the stream if I can and then drop it here. I’ll try not to cringe at the sound of my voice, especially after waking up at 4:30 am.

Also, Jen cut her hair. It looks really good (and I want to emphasize that) but it is still freaking me out a bit. I barely noticed the last few haircuts but she took off like twelve inches of hair this time so that it could be donated. Anyway, I know it will grow back (if she wants it) but every time I come in the door or see her after a prolonged absence, I still get this “What happened??” feeling.

Oh no! How dare we call baseball boring! Stating the obvious is Just. So. Wrong. The only reason I applaud fans like these are because they cheer on the demise of baseball through plunging ratings (even though it is the only sport on for three months out of the year, an advantage no other sport has).

Look, I don’t mind going to baseball games. I mean, real physical baseball games. The argument that this is about the fans at the stadium is pure rubbish. There is crap going on at the stadium. There is nothing going on during a radio or TV play by play. Watching six hours of TV is just plain boring unless you are a hardcore fan of the sport.

The idea that pitching changes are the “timeouts” of baseball is silly especially when there are already 15 to 16 3-5 minute breaks between innings and the top and bottom plus mound conferences. Not to mention that no more than 3-4 of your players are playing in any one instance.

Not that I care significantly. Just thought I’d throw up this post as an example of that MLB fan that annoys the bejebus out of me.