A few days ago Ron Paul finally dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination. All the hippies and wackjobs that loved this man more then their own sanity are in a state of mourning. This is also a huge loss for me because, like Mike Gravel and Rudy “Noun, Verb, 9/11″ Giuliani, he was a constant source of easy comedy. Now I’ll actually have to focus my attacks on Old man McCain.
So here is to all the hippies who blindly supported him because he is pro-hemp and anti-war without a glance at the rest of his record.
And here is to you Ron Paul. Here is to the man that:

Who would have guessed that stoned college kids could be so easily misled?

Now that he is gone he leaves behind a nothing but cardboard signs and bumper stickers slapped up on telephone poles and mailboxes around my city. That is his legacy. Soggy, limp, useless hunks of cardboard flapping about aimlessly in the wind and old fading stickers barely clinging to rusty lamp posts. Fitting. Now who the fuck is going to clean up this mess now that his idiot fans have receded back to the paranoia of their 9/11 conspiracy forums?

So, I ran into someone I can only describe as a person who once drank at the same bar as I did, at least as frequently as I did. I wouldn’t even call this person a casual acquaintance. Truth be told, I struggle to remember her name. We were just people who on several occasions in the mid 90’s had drunken conversations due to nothing more than proximity. After the usual how’ve you beens, she informed me that she’s moving to Austin, Texas because she’s finally accepted that Buffalo is a dying city. I told her she’d miss it here, and she replied, no, she won’t. I then suggested that some of us fine Buffalonians think the problem is not that people are leaving because Buffalo is dying, rather Buffalo is dying because people are leaving. Chicken, egg. Egg, chicken.

Naturally I’ve been mulling over this nonsense ever since. I sit here, in a town I’ve hardly ever left, adamantly standing my ground in the second poorest city in the nation, drinking the Kool-Aid that Others Like Me are happy to poor. Buffalo NY is one of the worst managed, heavily taxed, hopelessly decaying cities in the country. Opportunities are slim (hence the paradox above), so the brain drain continues. Aside from very small pockets of prosperity, neighborhoods are collapsing in on themselves– literally. HUD grants are funneled not into the communities that need it, but into building luxury loft apartments which, while admittedly will help revitalize downtown, are just lining the pockets of their investors. The public school system is deplorable, in many cases horribly outdated, woefully understaffed and underfunded. The mayor is inaccessible and either blind to the plight or ridiculously naive.

And I love it here. Like some glutton for punishment, I stay.

I love it for the usual reasons. The architecture. The change of seasons (yes, I hate winter, but without winter, you never have that incredible first spring day of the year, the first day you can drive with the windows rolled down listening to the Housemartins). The Sabres. The people. The history. But I love it for less obvious, less Buffalo Chamber of Commerce approved reasons. I love that you can walk into any restaurant, order a meal, and know you’re taking some home with you because the portions are freaking ridiculous. I love that on the worst day, barring roadwork or a sporting event, you might sit in traffic for five minutes, tops. I love that I can walk out my front door and in five minutes be on one of the most vibrant city streets in the country, with nearly every type of food and drink, live band, and a few renown museums to choose from. I love that in winter months, you never know when the lake might decide the city needs to shut down for a few days and everyone needs to stay home and drink whiskey.

Most of all, I love the mindset– the cynicism, the inherent waiting for the other shoe to fall. I love the sense that we’re all kind of screwed, and therefore we’re in this together. You don’t get that in NYC or Toronto, or Boston. You don’t have that unspoken understanding that we’ve been dealt a lousy hand, but we’re better for making the most of it.

The easy thing is to leave. And as a parent, it might come to that someday– if not for me, certainly for my son. But right now, I want to be part of the solution, not contributing to the problem. If I can make a living and provide for my family, I want to stay. What will make that easier for me, and for people like me, is for Buffalo to realize that there isn’t going to be a panacea. Nothing will suddenly turn Buffalo back into the prosperous boom town that it was when people actually needed the Erie canal and had no choice but to go through this city. We need lower expectations. Buffalo needs to invest in its people. New York State needs to rethink the taxes and regulations that stop businesses from investing here. City Hall needs to apply some common sense to addressing the poverty and crime in the lower west and east sides (see http://pushbuffalo.org to see what at least one organization is doing to kill two birds with one stone– address the abandoned houses on the west side and make home ownership possible for people who wouldn’t otherwise even dare to dream it). Lastly, we need to play to our strengths and stop allowing the destruction of our architecture and heritage, because believe it or not, if you allow a building to stand, people will come to see it. And stay in a hotel. And eat. And spend money.

And for Christ’s sake, the last thing we need is another casino.

More if you’re interested:

http://www.buffaloreuse.org/

http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/

http://www.wrightnowinbuffalo.com/

I’m going to ask you a question.  Before you answer it,  I want you to read the rest of this blog while thinking about it.

The question is this:  What is your ethnicity?

It might seem like a simple enough question.  I bet an answer popped into your head as soon as you finsihed reading it.  It may be the correct answer.   However, I want you to think about it for a moment.

What defines ethnicity?  Is it the color of your skin?  Is it where you live?  Is it what language you speak?  Is it where your ancestors are from?  Is it something else?

It could be any of those.  I guess it is really up to the individual to define the term for his or herself.  I’ve been thinking about this question since I was involved in a discussion yesterday evening about this very topic.

My great-grandparents came over to the United States from Poland.  They continued to speak the language when they arrived, and had children who spoke Polish.  But those children also learned English which became their primary language.

As time went on, and generations were born to my family, the use of Polish diminished as did the Polish customs that the family had brought with them from their homeland.  Soon, my generation was born any trace of the “old country” was all but gone.  I suppose you can say that the family was “Americanized.”

So, here’s my second question:  Am I Polish?  Am I Polish-American?  Or am I just American? 

At what point does “American” become an ethnicity?

Those who come from Italy are italian.  Those from France are French.  Germans come from Germany.  But, who are the people that come from America?  Why do we put our ancestors’ ethnicities in front of “American” when we say who we are?

If I were to move to Italy and become a citizen, would I be considered American-Italian?  Or Polish-Italian?

Where do we draw the line?

If I were to go back to Poland I would realize just how Polish I’m not.  The same for an African-American who’s never been to Africa (not to mention that Africa’s aa continent, not a country so I’ve never understood the term African-American as it seems to apply to all blacks.  Not every black person in America has roots in Africa.)  How about an Asian American who’s never left the continental United States?  Are they of the American ethnicity?  Keep in mind, I’m talking ethnicity and not race.

It’s a good question to ask yourself, and I’m curious to hear opinions on this.

Or at least it should but who knows if Clinton is even properly attached to reality anymore. She has been living the last few months in a land of unicorns and rainbows. Funnily enough that land of make believe is right next door to the “permanent war is good” land of make believe that McBush is living in.

This just in: Clinton to ride a candy coated unicorn to deliver a speech tonight where, according to her campaign, she will not concede but she will acknowledge that Obama has enough delegates to win the nomination. I am actually getting quite sick of Clinton moving the goalposts.
I don’t know how Clinton and her rabid supporters can overlook what has been obvious to the rest of the planet: It is over. It has been over for a long time now. Pack up, go home, the game is over.

One thing that you probably won’t hear all that much tonight is that there is a Republican primary in New Mexico too. Pay attention to that one and see what percentage of the vote John W. McBush actually gets. The Republican party is hardly unified behind him. Hell, even just today Cheney was criticizing McBush and his plan to cut the gas tax for the summer.

Obama has been playing this one well. While Clinton still takes shots at him while trying to stay relevant he has started acting like the Democratic nominee. He has been ignoring her and focusing his attacks directly at Old Man Warmonger.

A question I have to any McCain supporters that read this:
Why didn’t McCain support the new G.I. bill? Why didn’t he even bother to show up to vote on it?
As a veteran he should be appalled by the way this administration has treated the troops. Inadequate supplies of body armor, inadequate care when they come home. And that is just the tip of this bloody iceberg. How can you, John McCain, in good conscience say you support our troops when you are not willing to even give them better college benefits when they come home. If they come home.
Our soldiers fight and die every day, every minute of every god damned day for this bullshit war that you want so badly to inherit and you aren’t willing to even help them better their lives when they come home.
The act is, you don’t support our troops. The fact is, you are just using them for your own political gain.
I have two more words for you McCain:
Fuck You.

Widely ignored was the fact that Pennsylvania has two primaries. The Democratic one that everyone paid attention to and the fully ignored Republican one. Honestly the Republican primary shouldn’t even be news worthy because they have their nominee in John McCain but something strange is happening here.

Out of 791,205 Republican votes McCain only picked up 72.7%. Crazy assed Ron Paul picked up 15.9 and Mike “Change The Constitution for Jesus” Huckabee got 11.4. Huckabee dropped out a while ago and he still got double digits. I guess when your main selling point is being a term extension for the extraordinarily shitty Bush policies not everyone can get behind you. Not even your own party. Losing over a quarter of your vote when you are the nominee has to be embarrassing.

Even before McCain was the nominee voter turnout for the Republican primaries has been startlingly low while the Democratic side has been pulling in record numbers. A very bad sign for anyone with a hope for McCain.

Keep on yelling you old coot, nobody is really listening to you anymore. After the shit this country was put through by Bush we can not afford to have you at our helm.

It is really no secret that I support one Democrat over the other but if my pick doesn’t make it through to the general election you better damn well believe I will still step into that voting booth and pull the lever for Democrat. I know most of the Democratic supporters will do the same thing. Can you say the same for your team? Not currently.

The only tool he has that can pull his party together is the same tool Bush has been using to abuse his power. Fear. Lucky for America it seems that we have stopped falling for that bogyman. Don’t believe me? Check his ratings. 69% disapproval as of this month. That is lower then his father. Lower then Nixon. It is officially the lowest approval rating in recorded history beating out Truman’s 67% disapproval in January 1952.

Congratulations on that shit-stained landmark Mr. Bush! Now hurry the fuck off the stage, the grownups need to run the county now.

I read somewhere recently that a principal at some midwestern school has outlawed the game of tag. I believe she described it as a “game of intense aggression,” and is therefore unsuitable for the children of her school.

Along with this, dodgeball has been outlawed in many schools. Apparently it’s too violent as well.

In many parts of the country, little leagues have stopped keeping score.

I’m getting sick and tired of hearing this “every kid’s a winner” bullshit. Every kid is not a winner. Every kid should not be treated as a winner. If you want your kid to be a winner, teach him how to win.

You can’t expect children to grow up to be functioning adults if you coddle them until they’re 18. Can you imagine what a skewed sense of the world they’ll have? As soon as they leave their parents home, the world is going to crush them because they haven’t been properly taught how to succeed in it.

We’re being way too easy on children. We walk on eggshells with them because we’re afraid their feeling will get hurt and they’ll grow up with problems. It’s our generation of 30-somethings that’s doing this, too. For some reason we don’t want our children to have the same difficulties in school that we did. We want everything to be easy for them, everything handed to them on a silver platter.

I’m sorry, but the world doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to fail. You’ve got to lose. You’ve got to embarass yourself once in awhile in order to really know how to win. That’s life. You have to expose children to the harsh realities that await them someday so that they can actually handle it.

Let your kid lose once in awhile. It’s good for him.

Part 1: Tour of Duty Changes
Bush made a big fucking deal about changing the tour of duty from 15 months to 12 months. While it was recommended to be 12 months deployed and 24 months home to keep troop moral and mental health high they decided that 12 on and 12 off was good enough. Well, at least it is a step in the right direction, right?
As with everything else with this administration there is small print: This offer only valid to troops starting their tours after August 1st. Now I bet we will see the rapid redefining of the term “tour of duty”.

Part 2: Voting Rights
VA secretary James Peake, in response to a letter from Senators Kerry and Feinstein, say they will not reverse their ban on either allowing injured veterans to register to vote or even helping an injured vet get somewhere where they could register to vote. The reasoning?
They consider registering to vote a “partisan political activity”. So if you are injured fighting for this administration and are laid up in a VA hospital somewhere your right to vote gets essentially revoked.

This administration makes the charge that people who are against the war are not supporting the troops. Here they are, yet again proving that they are truly the ones that are against the troops.
It is easy to get the masses worked into a frenzy powered by fear. Fear of terrorism. Fear of extremists. Fear of people who are different. Fear of who and what they want you to fear. Fear is what got us here and fear is what is keeping us here. I, for one, say fuck you. I will not fear what and when it is convenient for this administration. I will not have a Pavlovian-like fear on command response to the words “Muslim” or “terrorist”. I will not ignore your misdeeds in the name of your redefinition for freedom out of fear.
I will not fear you.
I don’t understand how you could continue to put our soldiers in harms way without the proper armor. Without the proper gear. Without the proper care. How you could continue this and still pretend to have the best interests of the troops in mind. You, Mr. Bush, you and all those working with you are traitors to this country and should be dealt with as such.

Consider, for a moment, Kristin Hersh and the band she formed in the eighties, Throwing Muses.

Two things happened recently that made me think of Kristin and her aforementioned band. One was the release of the Breeders latest album, and the other was a conversation I had with a co-worker regarding Throwing Muses, my borderline obsession with their music, and a band from the mid 90’s, Belly.

While I haven’t heard the Breeders latest album in its entirety, I was lucky enough to see them on their latest tour, pimping said album. Sounded good to me. The Breeders first album was released in 1990. The band was formed by Kim Deal of the Pixies, and Tanya Donnelly, formerly of… Throwing Muses. While Tanya left after one album and one EP, the Breeders went on to have one of the biggest alternative hits of the ’90’s in “Cannonball”– even people who weren’t into that scene back then know that one. Try it, just hum the bass line to your Average Joe (”dum dummdummdummdumm dum dummdummdummdumm“) and they will instantly recognize it. Kim Deal, through her affiliation with the Pixies will forever have her place cemented amongst the pantheon of rock gods.

Belly had a huge hit in the 90’s called “Feed the Tree“– you know that one, too. And so did my co-worker.

So, who is this Throwing Muses you are always on about?

“Well, remember Belly? They had that song ‘Feed the Tree’?”

“Oh, yeah!”

“Ok, well, the woman that formed that band, Tanya Donnelly, used to be in Throwing Muses”.

Which brings us to Kristin Hersh, her career, and the music industry in general. There isn’t a single song that Throwing Muses did that I can point to and say “those guys”. This is a band that can claim REM and the Pixies as peers. Think about that for a minute. The Pixies inspired, by Cobain’s admission, Nirvana. They remain one of the most influential bands of our time. As for REM– well, Jesus, do I have to spell it out for you?

Should Throwing Muses have had some monster hit? Maybe “Mexican Women” or “Counting Backwards”? I don’t know. Perhaps the poppy “Dizzy”, or “Not Too Soon”? Would that have altered their following albums? Would I be able to sit here, writing this nonsense about some (relatively) obscure band, stroking my chin and sneering down my nose at the uninitiated? Or is it maybe just the luck of the draw?

I’ve been saying for years that Kristin Hersh is one of The Most Underrated Musicians On The Planet. Given her work with the Muses (Eight albums, a few EPs), her albums as a solo artist (her first solo album, “Hips and Makers” included a duet with REM’s Michael Stipe), and what she has done recently with her new band, 50 Foot Wave (whose only claim to fame is choosing that name right before the 2004 Tsunami), Hersh remains one of the most prolific artists of the modern era. And yet she toils away, giving music away for free on the internet, bounced from her label (the venerable 4AD), playing shows in the US to sparse audiences (she’s bigger in the UK), blogging about her latest bus breakdown or shitbag motel her tour had to settle for this week.

And yet, this is her career. This is the only life her kids know, schlepped around from city to city while mom and dad hope, maybe, just maybe, someone notices. Yeah, that describes thousands of unknown artists who will never know what it’s like to be U2– but listen to Throwing Muses’ “The Real Ramona”, or Kristin’s solo album “Sunny Border Blue”, and tell me that there isn’t some fickle injustice at work here.

I wanted to put up this poll again to see if things have changed in the past few months. I left Ron Paul in this one because he hasn’t officially given up yet even though it is impossible for him to be anything but a joke. Same with Gravel. I also added Nader to the mix. Have at it!

Last time it ended with:
Obama 43%
Clinton 29%
Undecided 21%
Gravel 7%

While the answer to that question should honestly be the retirement home for old crazy coots what I want to know is who he is going to choose as his V.P. Or more accurately, who the GOP will let him choose.

Condoleezza Rice: This is the person I’m betting on if the GOP really wants McCain to win this one. Selecting her isn’t about her politics. It isn’t about her qualifications. It isn’t about her experience.
It is about her race. It is about her gender. It would be an attempt to one-up the Democrats. The Dems have, on one side, a black man and on the other a white woman running for the nomination. If the GOP tossed about a black woman for the VP it would be an attempt to prove they are as, if not more, progressive then their Democratic opponents and pick them up some independent votes.

Mitt Romney: I have heard his name tossed around a lot but I don’t think he would want it. He spent so much cash aiming at the presidency I think he will be aiming for it again next round. Plus I don’t think it would get McCain many new votes as there are better choices to stroke the religious right. Unless you count the Mormon areas.

Mike Huckabee: This is the reason that Huckabee stayed in the race when he knew he was dead. He would grab the attention and votes of the Jesus crew. He would effectively kill off the chance of any independent votes swinging to McCain and would virtually guarantee McCain a loss. If the republican party wants to keep the Jesus crew happy and doesn’t mind throwing McCain to the wolves you might see this one.

Jeb Bush: “The Other White Bush”. If McCain really wants to run as the third term of Bush this will be his choice. It would also set up Jeb for his shot at the presidency. Fuck that is scary.

Hillary Clinton: Also one of the names buzzing around. People think that her attacks on Obama and her quasi-praise for McCain point to this end. Bad idea. The Clinton family has a position of power within the democratic party and I don’t think they want to lose it. Imagine if she switched then lost the race. You think the republicans would accept her into a power role? Not a chance.
She like the power and that is while she is where she is.

There is also the choice of a retired high ranking military officer. Good choice for McCain if he wants to go all-in as “The War President V2.0″