Long day at work...

Sorry for the light blogging....

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The Johnny Cash post is two below this one.

Michael Reagan hammers Jimmy Carter

Yesterday Brainster had a post in which he said Jimmy Carter was "surely the worst president in my lifetime."

I commented on his blog that I wholeheartedly agreed with him.

Talk radio host Michael Reagan has an article today in FrontPage Magazine, where he hammers the part-time Habitat for Humanity home builder very hard.

Let’s begin with Iran, a boiling cauldron of hatred for everything associated with Western civilization. Recall that when Jimmah took office Iran was ruled by a strong ally of the United States, the Shah. Like most Middle Eastern potentates, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ruled with an iron hand. Under him, Iran was not the kind of democracy we’re now promoting for the Middle East.

The Shah, however, was also the staunch friend and ally of the United States. He saw to it that the oil kept flowing in our direction, and kept his military in good-enough shape to protect our interests in the area.

But the Shah somehow offended Brother Carter’s exalted view of the inherent goodness of a mankind freed from the strictures imposed by dictatorial rules. With a wink and a nod, he arranged to have Pahlavi replaced by an exiled mullah - the Ayatollah Khomeini - who in Carter’s view would be a moderate leader who would democratize Iran.

What Carter got for us was a Muslim fanatic seething with hatred for everything Western, who without blinking an eye spat on our national sovereignty when he took over the United States embassy in Tehran and held 52 American hostages for 444 days, until the U.S. came to its senses and elected my dad Ronald Reagan to replace the hapless Jimmy Carter.

I'd like to add despite the repressiveness of the Shah's regime, women had far more rights under his regime than to do under the mullahs, and religious minorities were respected. They're not now.

Technorati tags: Jimmy Carter Politics Religion Muslim women شريعة Islam اسلامی

The Man in Black comes around again: Johnny Cash's "Personal File" album out next month

Now here's a reason to head to the local music store in May. There will be a collection of previously unreleased recordings by the late Johnny Cash coming out, the album will be called "Personal File."

"I'm anxious to hear it" is what Cash said about the song "San Quentin" on the great Johnny Cash at San Quentin album from 1969. And I'm anxious to hear "Personal File."

From the Hollywood Reporter via Reuters:

Expect a new wave of interest in Cash next month: On May 23, Columbia/Legacy will release "Personal File," a two-CD set of previously unheard solo material, recorded by Cash from 1973-80 and culled from the musician's studio vaults.

The material on "Personal File" came to light when John Carter Cash, son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, was clearing out his father's House of Cash studio in Hendersonville, Tenn., in late 2004.

"It's a lifetime's worth of tapes -- whatever passed through (Cash's) hands," says Gregg Geller, the veteran catalog executive who produced the forthcoming set. "There were literally thousands of tapes that we plowed through. . . . There are several hundred guitar-vocal demos along the line of ('Personal File'). I would hasten to add that this is the cream."

The years 1973-1980 represent a kind of lost period of the country music baritone. Cash's ABC-TV variety show was cancelled in 1971, and his last big hit for many years, Man in Black, was released that year.

Cash found well-deserved critical and commercial success with the sparse "American Recordings" that trickled out beginning in the 1990s. The last of those, American IV--The Man Comes Around, was released in 2002. He was 70. How many septuagenarians release albums--let alone good ones?

I'm thinking (and hoping), based on what I read in the Hollywood Reporter article, that the "new" material will be similar to the American recordings.

Technorati tags: Johnny Cash Country Music Nashville music Entertainment

Great Wal of blogging part two

Rob Port of the Say Anything blog (he's with Pajamas too), tries on his blue Wal-Mart blazer, and does a great job keeping an eye on all the goings-on as the Wal Mart Media Conference winds down in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The mainstream media, epitomized by the New York Times' Michael Barbaro, has a "sneering attitude" of the retail giant, Rob says. I pretty much figured the same thing, but Rob was up close with them, and confirmed my suspicions.

Tom Forbes of Palousitics gets a jab in at Barbaro too, and posted this interesting comment from Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott:

Scott sees no threat to Wal-Mart from online merchants. How do you economically get things like toilet paper, etc. shipped through the mail?

Wal-Mart invited bloggers in addition to mainstream media reporters to its annual Media Conference. When are other corporations going to do the same thing?

For more, read Great Wal of blogging.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart Business Blogging Media New York Times online marketing

Franken-senseless to speak at Minnesota Dem convention

Air America mid-day host, for now, Al Franken, aka Franken-senseless, is acclimating himself to life in Minnesota by accepting an offer to be the keynote speaker at the Minnesota Seventh Congressional Democratic slating convention in Bemidji on Saturday.

The state Democratic Party in Minnesota is known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Earlier this year, Franken moved to Minnesota. He grew up in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but hasn't lived there since the 1970s.

Because his Air America gig is plagued by low-ratings and shaky financial support, it's probably best Franken keeps his eyes open for a new employment opportunity--for several years Franken's been making racket about running for the Senate in Minnesota in 2008.

However, as Franken wanders around the state, he might discover--if he's listening--that the Minnesota of the 21st century is more conservative than that state he left in the early 1970s, when Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey were representing Minnesota in the Senate.

But he's probably got deaf ears on that subject. Like many baby-boomers, Franken is still living in the late 1960s and the pre Nixon-resignation 1970s.

Oh, I almost forgot. The book I'm currently reading is Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears and Deceives by Alan Skorski.

Technorati tags: Al Franken air america Minnesota DFL Politics Politics Bemidji

Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist meet counterprotesters in Illinois

I knew that Fred Phelps and his nutty Westboro Baptist Church was coming to South Holland, Illinois today to bring his anti-gay, anti-troop preaching to the funeral of Lance Corporal Philip Martini. I didn't blog it, because, for starters, I've sounded the alarm enough so the mainstream media is finally taking notice. Also, Phelps and his followers often don't follow through on their picket threats.

Hundreds of counterproductive, including some from the Patriot Guard Riders, were there to confront Phelps and his whackos.

Illinois is one of the states expected to pass funeral-protest ban legislation this year. The bills, nationwide, have one thing in common: They're in reaction to Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church.

Robert Novak donating $1.5 million to University of Illinois

My alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is in the news today, and for once, it doesn't involve its embattled mascot, Chief Illiniwek.

Newspaper columnist and Fox News contributor Robert Novak has the same alma mater. And this morning, the Chicago Tribune (free registration required) is reporting that Novak is donating $1.5 million to the school.

Here is the best part, the money is to fund a $1.5 million chair in western civilization studies.

From the Trib:

Novak graduated from the U. of I. in 1952. He says he felt enriched by the Western civilization courses he took, and he adds that the university also educated his father and several relatives.

Iran has a national baseball team?

Yep, they do. On Wednesday Iran's baseball team heads to Pakistan to participate in the qualifying rounds of the Asia Cup Baseball Championships.

As far as I know, Nuke LaLoosh is not on their pitching staff.

The finals of the tournament will take place in Doha, Qatar.

Technorati tags: Baseball Iran Farsi Qatar پارسی سی

Great Wal of blogging

Marshall Manson e-mailed me this afternoon and let me know that a couple of bloggers, North Dakota blogger Rob Port of Say Anything, who I've corresponded with a few times, and Tom Forbes of Washington state, who writes for Palousitics, are at the annual Wal-Mart Media Conference in Bentonville, Arkansas.

(Man that was a long sentence.)

Rob has a detailed post about his first day at the conference, among the things that caught his attention was the unpretentiousness of Wal-Mart's headquarters, writing that "the headquarters looks like my high school."

Contrast that with Sears' headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, which I've seen. The nation's third-largest retailer's campus-style fortress exudes power. But so did the Maginot Line. Before Sears moved to Hoffman Estates, their HQ was in the Sears Tower, America's tallest building.

The lesson is clear: An impressive headquarters is not an essential element for a successful company.

Palousitics' Tom is live-blogging the conference and has a whole bunch of posts from today's events, including his coverage of a speech by Arkansas' Governor Mike Huckabee. Huckabee is considered a possible candidate for the 2008 Republican nomination, and like Tennessee's Bill Frist, he's a marathon runner too.

Both bloggers traveled to Arkansas at their own expense.

Technorati tags: Mike Huckabee Arkansas Wal-Mart Blogging media Sears