old friends to greet us

come along with me
down the mississippi
take a boat
to the land of dreams
sail down the river
down to new orleans

bands there to meet us
old friends to greet us
the sound sure is sweet
you know they call it basin street

basin street
is the street
where the light
and dark folks meet
in new orleans
land of dreams
you will never know
how nice it seems
and how much it really means
glad to be
yes sirree
where the living is free
for you and me
that's when i know
that i can lose
these basin street blues.




well, my friends, in the morning ms rhonda and i are off to new orleans. for the next seven days i am not going to think about politics, comedy, show business, guns, orphans, recessions, depressions, food riots, four dollar gasoline, immoral wars, inflation that is about to get out of hand, tens of thousands of jobs lost, an occupation of two foriegn muslim lands that seems endless, ethenol that takes more energy to produce than it produces and then has to be shipped by truck because it has water in it and so cannot be shipped by pipeline, elections and other matters of no consequence and concentrate on eating, drinking and being merry. i am going to eat the best food in america and hear the best music in the world. oyster po' boys at acme and breakfast at brennans. dr john and the neville brothers, the preservation hall jazz band and stevie wonder, jazz, dixieland, blues, funk, zydaco (sp?) and that unique new orleans sound that is a mixture of almost all.

walk on gilded splinters
down to saint james infirmary.
and
aint that a shame?

the fat man is still singing
and i think earnie is still alive too.

i'm gonna
have a drink
get stoned
fuck my wife
eat a crawfish

i'll write when i get back.

what is your take on this?

woke up this morning and it was COLD! damn folks, it is spring. the shows last night were just great, the downtown CRACKERS club here in indy gets a good mature audience; i like people who read the newspaper, get references and can follow a to b to c to d to punch line. i think the bob and tom show helped the turnout.

regardless of the arguments of the gun owners/carriers and some of them were very well reasoned out, i still think that carrying a gun is not a good idea. once person wrote and said that i was one of the ones who wanted to tell other people what to do. wrong, i am expressing an opinion that not all people should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon. and i repeat, i own guns, rifles and pistols both. we lead the industralized world in crime including murder, gun deaths, robberies, assualts etc. we are a gun society and we pay a price for that. by having guns so available we make it easy for the criminals to get guns and you can't argue that. in a way, it is just like drugs, you can go into any city in america and get both guns and drugs and it won't take you a full day of seaching. answer? i don't fucking know. i do know that, in a perfect world, we would not need guns. also regardless, ANYONE is capable of losing their temper and doing something incredibly stupid. once that bullet leaves the barrel there is no taking it back, you can pull a punch you can't pull a 9mm. (sean bell was shot 50 times by the police and the main factor was that some fool said "go get my gun" and the police thought someone had one so now more lives are ruined. along that line, police are so often put in "no win" situations and i feel for the bride to be and for the police and their families as well)

let us move on to other subjects. the polygamists in texas and the children being put in foster homes is one real sticky situation. foster homes are many times a real nightmare and taking children away from their parents without concrete proof of abuse is a scary use of government authority.

i am no fan of any kind of a cult and this group has the markings of one but this particular case just sits wrong with me. making 13 year old girls "marry" some middle-aged man is wrong and IF they did that then charge the specific man and the person who arranged it with rape. man oh man, tough questions abound in this case.

i got a lot of feed back on guns, what do you all think about this?

keating, guns and bob and tom

the keating five was a name given to 5 senators that were involved with charles keating a real estate devoloper in arizona. there were 4 democrats and john mc cain. while mc cain accepted a little over 300k from keating there was no wrong doing that anyone could find on mc cain. he probably got involved because they wanted a republican as well as the four demos to take his cause to congress. keating was involved in a savings and loan scandel that cost the tax payers hundreds of millions of dollars.

while i would like to hang something on johnny mac , in this case, i will have to agree that he did nothing wrong.

was on bob and tom radio this morning and it went great. i have been doing them since they were only local here in inday whereas today they are in dozens of markets. over the last several years i have not done all that well on the show since they wanted everything bing bang boom! and my stlye is not that. today, however, we talked about poker. tom is very interest in the game and therefore they gave me my head and we went down some interesting trails.

for all of you who have written about john mc cain. i bring it up because he brings it up. if he brings it up, then it is fair fucking game. facts are facts and let us not confuse facts with hero worship.

boy, you make one comment about guns and lo and behold we are taking away YOUR GUNS. no, no, no. read again. i asked do you really want us to have the right to carry guns. there is a difference here, guys. i hate to break it to you but there are a whole lot of idiots out there that have clean records and can get a gun BUT HAVE NO BUSINESS CARRYING A GUN IN PUBLIC. a gun for hunting or home protection is one thing. a concealed weapon is quite another. can you say that you are not capable of losing your temper and doing something really stupid, such as, for instance, pulling a gun out. can you say that the guy over there is not capable of losing his temper and pulling a gun out? why would anyone who is not carrying large amounts of money on their person want to carry a gun for anyway? are you so afraid of your fellow man that you feel the need to be armed with deadly weapons? really? are they out to git ya? here, once again, hating to break it to you...but we are all brothers and sisters. why would you want to kill your brother? or your sister?

now, i know that some of you are going to send me some story about how some brave gun toting person stopped a crime. i will then give you the stats on how many idiots managed to shoot themselves and/or their loved ones. hell, cops who carry a gun as part of the job have accidental shootings. and, i might add, police sometimes end up shooting the wrong person or firing dozens of shots at someone at point blank range and misssing. and you think average joe blow is going to be better, more careful, a better shot, better in control of his emotions than our professional police? you think you are?

he waved the gun around and then shot himself in stomach. there you go.

no one is going to take away your guns. relax. lighten up. even better, light up. make love not war. (it is much more fun) put your guns away.

if i wrote it in farsi, no-one could read it.

guess what? the "surge" ain't working. american and iraqi deaths are back up. the so-called iraqi government is still bickering and the "benchmarks" are still a wet dream of georgie boy.

what we have done is basically arm the sunnis, who used to be the "terrorists" so they can fight the shiite militias. of course, we, by osmosis, armed the shiites as well when we didn't secure the arms warehouses right after the invasion. plus, we have armed the iraqi police which is mainly shiite and they have used those arms to terrorize the sunnis who used to terrorize the shiites during the reign of saadam. and so it goes.

not only have we armed the sunnis (the awakenings) we have bribed them as well. we are spending millions to pay these sunni councils to fight al qaeda but they are really fighting the shiites. remember, al qaeda is sunni. iran (persia) is shiite. (be sure and remind john mc cain of this) there is an excellent article in the march 6th issue of rolling stone on the "surge."

another thing the article pointed out is that still today we have very few arabic speaking people in the services, much less farsi speaking. the iranians speak farsi, arabic and english; the iraqis speak arabic, farsi and english; the americans speak english. duh.

already i have been chastized for bringing up john mc cains "failures" in vietnam. and once again, he is the one who keeps bringing his service up as though it should put him in the white house. you bring it up, johnny, and it is fair game. you were shot down and captured. you, according to you, resisted torture. good for you. BUT THAT IS WHAT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DO. but, as i pointed out, you were also supposed to not get captured in the first place.

today i am going to research the KEATING FIVE. haven't heard of it? well, you are going to.

john mc cain is a warmongering, right wing fanantic who would continue the policies of bush. he is not a straight talker. he has flipped flopped over and over again. he will say and do anything to get elected. he is about as honest as your local con man.

speaking of which, bush's disapproval rating lowest ever in the 70 year history of the gallup poll. 28% approve and 69% disapprove. but here is the stunner: of republicans, 66% APPROVE. that is beyond comprehension. seriously. i cannot comprehend this. THEY APPROVE. the poll also proves there are considerably more democrats and independents than there are republicans. surely you remember your algebra. and then you know how to figure out how many more, percentage wise, demos and indeps than repubs.

speaking of which, (approval, that is, not the algebra problem) in todays edition of usa today, headline: MORE FORCED TO STAY IN ARMY. "the army has accelerated its policy of involuntary extensions of duty to bolster its troop levels, despite defense secretary robert gates' order last year to limit it, pentagon records show."

they are not asking troops to stay, that wouldn't work, they are forcing them to stay. breaking a promise and disobeying an order all at the same time. today's military.

also from usa today. our invasion of iraq has displaced over 4 million iraqis. we have let 4,500 of them into the united states. the other 3 million, nine hundred and ninty five thousand, five hundred are mostly living in squalor somewhere in the middle east. we are some humanatarian mother fuckers aren't we?

66% of republicans APPROVE.

when gwb took office, we were at peace, we were prosperous, gas cost $1.46 per gal.

66% of republicans approve.

unfuckingbelieveablyincomprehensable (ile?) but you get what i mean.

in a case of road rage in tempe arizona, david lopez waved his gun at a fellow motorist
david then shot himself in the stomach.
david then tried to flee in his car
david then wrecked his car
david then tried to flee on foot.
david is now in the hospital, under arrest for multiple charges.

are you really sure you want everyone to have the right to carry guns?

did you know that for the FIRST TIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY the people coming into the job market are not as well educated as the ones who are retiring? test scores are down, drop out rates are high. 24th in math. first in football. 33rd in science. first in basketball.

66% of the republicans approve. "goddamn striaght we're first in football!" "fucking liberals had their way, why our boys would spend precious, precious, i say, time reading books instead of learning their blocking assignments."

it is a beautiful day in bloomington, the grass is green and the birds are singing. bloomington is a cool little town. so is ann arbor. both college towns, both liberal, both fun, both cool.

just a question: how many more men have to be freed from prison because it turns out that they didn't do the crime for which they had been convicted before we stop the death penalty in america? it doesn't stop crime and you and i both know that we have surely executed some innocent people. us, some countries in the middle east and china have the death penalty. we have the death penalty but not a national health care system. the industrialized west has health care and not the death penalty. look up the word, 'barbarian.' use your imagination. see who it fits.

oh well, gotta go now. it is nap time. shoot, i have a full schedule tonight: basketball, dodgers, pennsylvania primary. what more could a sports/politics junky ask for?

betting positions and bombing positions

four of the five shows in ann arbor were as good as i can be. i can be 'as good' but i can't be 'better.' the fifth show was damn fucking good but not at that same level. it is what i do this for; to have shows such as those.

i was explaining how the muslims couldn't get into heaven because they didn't believe in THE BUNNY. all salvation is found through the BUNNY. hippity hop, hippity hop.

position is not just that in the betting cycle but where you are in relationship to other players. both are important but look at it this way; one changes on every hand and one stays the same on every hand except one and that is when you are on the big blind. obviously then, the one that is in play 90% of all hands should get some strong consideration. YOU DO NOT WANT A STRONG AGGRESSIVE PLAYER TO YOUR IMMEDIATE LEFT. YOU DO NOT WANT A COMPLETE IDIOT ON YOUR LEFT.....you want both of those people on your right so that you can isolate them or at the other end of the table so that there are always potential callers/raisers between you and them.

i have been running good and am up quite a bit for the month. i would be having a better month had not i lost three hundred dollars to one guy who outplayed me on two seperate hands. he was to my immediate left. i might add that i still won that day but only a tiny amount. i was playing well just not as well as he was playing. not only that, he had gotten into my head and so i contributed to my contributions, so to speak. i finally said to him, "i've got to move; i don't want you on my left any more. you are a better player than me." and i laughed. and then i got a seat change. and then i got my money back from players whom i was better than.

point being: recognize really good opponents and don't give them an extra edge against you. see, i should have left the first time he outplayed me, i should have seen the obvious signs. he was a good aggressive player. why give him that advantage?

i am just passing on a lesson that i paid 300 dollars for:

of course, betting position is of HUGE importance. i think most money is lost from hands in early position. when i look at my cards in early position and the first one is a queen or jack, i secretly hope that the other one is a two. daniel N. said the hardest hands to play are "good cards in early position." i must remind my readers, i am not any kind of an expert on no limit hold-em. i am learning this shit as i go along. next time i visit "position" i will talk about some position plays that i have done, successfully and not so....

remember folks and never forget: john mc cain did not know that iran was shiite and al qaeda was sunni. he had to be told three times by joe liebermann. scary. mc cain is a warmonger. and remember and never forget: without john mc cain, it would have been the keating 4.

let me see if i have his creditionals right.

he was shot down. i believe that could be classified as having "failed" in his mission.

once shot down, he was captured. according to the code of conduct of the united states military, a soldiers duty is to avoid capture. so, that would be a "failure".

once captured, he did not escape. once again, it is his duty to escape.

we are told he went through a lot while in the hanoi hilton. so did other people. there are guys who suffered much more in vietnam than john mc cain did. john mc cain was a bomber pilot, he bombed people from afar. the north vietnamese held a very dim view of such men. what with the bombing of hanoi and all. there are thousands of men who came back from that ill fated, ill planned, illegal war that was not a war but another "police action." where we supported a military dictatorship in the south. from 65 to 69 there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 government changes; ALL THROUGH MILITARY COUPS. that is whom we were fighting for. military dictatorships.

that john mc cain suffered, i am sorry. that over 55,000 american boys died, i am sorry. they shouldn't have been there. and for that i am mad. just like our boys, and now girls, are dying in iraq, i am mad. they shouldn't be there. i am sorry for the deaths, i am sorry for the tens of thousands wounded, i am sorry for the families that have been devastated but, most of all, i am mad that those dead, those wounded, those families plus the hundreds of thousands of iraqis killed or wounded and all their familes were put in these positions, these graves, these hospitals based on lies told by our leaders. there were no weapons of mass destruction. there were no connections to osama bin laden. there was no connection between iraq and 9-11. john mc cain apparently is not sorry. he wants to continue the slaughter. he wants to continue the occupation of a country that never did anything to us. and he keeps bringing up his imprisonment as some kind of "experience" that in some ways qualifies him to be president and therefore commander in chief. i, for one, am not buying it.

i got your meat right here

while albertsons had said that they would call yesterday, the call came this afternoon. the store manager (i am sorry i have forgotten his name) was very nice and very apologetic (sp?) for the actions of mr. st. pierre. they are, supposedly, sending me a 20 dollar coupon. not enough to get me back as a customer but i do look forward to spending it when st. pierre and the woman who said i "threw the meat" are on duty. lol (i got your meat right here, baby)

got my highway shoes on and off tomorrow for the midwest; i will see some of you in ann arbor and indianapolis (crackers, downtown for those who are interested).

it is possible that the show in louisville in august may not happen; my friend, kenny moore, who plays acustic guitar and harmonica in the show is not in the best of shape physically and, to a degree, mentally, and says that he thinks that he is not going to make it. a good portion of it is that he says he just doesn't have the fire in his belly anymore. it just breaks my heart, i was so looking forward to this. scotty may, the other erstwhile member of the MERRY BLUESTERS and i are trying everything to get kenny to come. we could get someone else to work with us but it just wouldn't be the same without mr. moore. kenny and i first did BAD GIG BLUES in 84 and when we came off stage that night i told him that was the coolest thing ever and that one day we would do it on national television and in 93 we did. of course, in 97 we took our little song and dance routine to los angeles and did a six month run at the century city playhouse. we really need to do that show one more time!

kenny is best known for a film of him hitting a heckler over the head with a 12 string yamaha guitar way back in the 80's. kenny is a hero to all comics everywhere and rich miller bought the remains of the guitar from him for a nice sum. the heckler said, "i am going to kick your ass" and kenny said, "well, get on up here, motherfucker!" the guy then started to get up and kenny put him down. kenny was a lurp (long range recon patrol) in vietnam and takes no shit. it would be a shame and a loss for all if he doesn't perform again.

oh well, the juices aren't flowing tonight so i will see you on down the road.

ALBERTSONS REPLY (LOL)

this is the message i got from albertson's at 12:27pm today.

Dear Ronald,

Thank you for contacting Albertsons Customer Care. We received your email regarding the level of customer service you received in your local store.

Please know that we value you a loyal Albertsons customer. We apologize that your experience was unsatisfactory. Your satisfaction is of the utmost importance and we appreciate you taking the time to make us aware of this situation. Please be advised we have forwarded your complaint to the Store Director who will contact you by telephone within 24 hours. For your reference, the case number associated with this matter is xxxxxx.

Again, thank you for contacting Albertsons Customer Care. If we can provide any information or be of service to you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us by email or by calling xxxxxxx.

Sincerely,

Judy P.
Albertsons Customer Care Representative.



HERE IS WHAT I WROTE BACK.

dear ms. P.

i find it amusing that you use my first name and not MR. SHOCK, as though we were somehow familiar with each other, at the same time you do no put your own last name in your signature.
somehow, the familiarity of "ronald" is overwhelmed by the totally non personal Judy P.

that aside, i await with bated breath the call from the store.

sincerely,

ron (not ronald) shock

I ALSO LIKE THE WAY THEY CAPITALIZE THEIR DEPARTMENT.

one of my readers suggested that i file suit (or at least, threaten to) for slander since they said i threw the meat at them which would be assualt. funny.

corporate america. don't ya just love it? they love us, don't ya know. they value us. THEY JUST DON'T WANT US TO KNOW THEIR NAME. love such as this is rare.

NO RECEIPT FOR THE RANCID MEAT

once upon a time, not that long ago, (and not in a galaxy far, far away) stores and store employees were geared towards the customers and customer service. i can remember going into my bank or my local grocery store and the same people were working there as in the months and years gone by. many times these employees greeted me by name, recognizing me from all my previous visits, "good afternoon, mr. shock" and this, in many and sometimes subtle ways, made me like and want to do business with that establishment. they made me feel as though we were all on the same side so to speak. alas, this way of doing business has gone by the wayside with stores, banks, shops etc being totally committed to the bottom line and the RULES laid down by the higher ups. personal service is no longer practiced but seemingly discouraged.

let me tell you the story of ALBERTSON'S and the rancid meat.

this morning, rhonda, my better half and THE WORLD'S BEST COOK, sent me off to the store to buy some pork chops. a task, that should have been at least easy and possibly pleasant. i found some and bought them. now, here i must confess that i am not the world's greatest shopper nor am i the kind of person who examines each and every thing i buy looking for flaws. i grab what is in front of me and if there is no glaring problem with it (meat turning black or the glass container broken) i take it and buy it. you know, i am a man. we are not shoppers. anyway, i digress, i pay with my handy dandy american express card at the electronic cashier and depart. (those are just another way to get rid of as many employees as possible and are not really convient unless, as in this case, you are buying only one or two items...) when rhonda opens the meat this evening it is off and starting to spoil. with pork you have to be really careful so i am going to go back to the store to exchange it. we cannot find the receipt but figure that will be no problem since the meat is off, it is not past the due date and has a ALBERTSON'S sticker on it and once before in the same situation the store had willingly exchanged it and apologized for the inconvience. i was wrong, apparently that attitude has now been discouraged by ALBERTSON'S and now their policy is:

we will exchange no rancid meat
for good meat
without a receipt.

this is basically what the "manager", a mr. steve st. pierre, told me. i said that you have done it before but he was adamant that is now store policy. he said it in a rather rude and certainly emphatic way. i said, "is that right? well, we have shopped here since 00 but we will shop here no longer." and with that, i dropped the meat on the check out counter and went across the street to SMITH'S and bought chops (and at a better price, i might add) and came home.

i wrote to the company and while i was doing that, rhonda got the store on the line and was told that i "threw the meat at them." in my letter to ALBERTSON'S i told them about that as well. that not only are their employees rude, in order to justify their own stupid decisions, they lie.

in my email to ALBERTSON'S, i told them that i wrote a blog and performed here locally and gave them this address. i will post their response when i get it. i hope they bring up the "throwing" since i have several funny lines for in return. i told them in my letter that there were other people there and i am sure they have cameras.

you know if more of us started complaining when we get shitty service from some place and put it in writing to the corporate headquarters, some of the companies might actually pay attention; we shall see if ALBERTSON'S does.

i still want to write about the importance of position in no-limit but will do so in another post.

of course some are bitter

obama was absolutely correct in his "bitter" comments. the republicans have known this for over 20 years; how do you think they get working class people to vote against their own self interest?

each election cycle, republicans get working class people to vote for them by talking about how the liberals are going to take away their guns or how the republicans are going to keep "god" in the schools. the republicans will talk about the "sanctity" of marriage between a man and a woman.

while they are talking about those things they are installing economic measures that insure wages don't go up, workplace safety is not a priority and all the while outsourcing as much as possible and then giving tax breaks to companies that send american jobs to foriegn countries.

one of the differences between the republican approach to social ills and the democratic approach to the same ills is that republicans "blame" and democrats look to "fix." check it out.

instead of doing something about soaring medical costs, the republicans blame "frivolous lawsuits" for driving up costs. schools are falling apart, republicans blame the "teachers union." i could go on and on. check it out.

and people who are on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder are often susciptible the blame game. it is not their fault, it is not the administrations fault, it is (pick one) the niggers, the spics, the illegals, the queers, the welfare cheats, the lawyers, the liberal press, the commies, the liberals, the terrorists and, if all else fails, the french.

obama could have phrased it better but he was right.

and those people who are bitter, a good number of them had every right to be so. they were sold a certain line then it was taken away from them. "go to work for a big company, put in your 20 to 30 to 40 years and then retire with a nice pension." that was true in the 50's and 60's but, starting with nixon, the republicans set out to destroy the unions and they did and when the unions got weak, workers across the industrialised belt of america got weak as well. now we find that many pensions had been stolen and that health care was an illusion. towns that were once the envy of the world are boarded up and rusted out. those that could, got out; those that couldn't are still there and they are either under or un employed. they bought a story and the story was a fairy tale of a golden land that used to be.



but i wanted to write about the importance of position in no limit hold-em.

damn

the preservation of liberty depends upon.....

"the preservation of liberty depends upon the intellectual and moral character of the people. as long as knowledge and virtue are diffused generally among the body of a nation, it is impossible that they be enslaved..."

"ambition is one of the more ungovernable passions of the human heart. the love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable....

"there is danger from all men. the only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with the power to endanger the public liberty."

john adams 1773

intellectual and moral character of the people. boy, are we fucked if that is what preservation of liberty depends on! our kids can't read or do math and the general public doesn't think at all.

as proof: IT IS NOT A WAR, IT IS AN OCCUPATION. how many times did the word, "occupation", come up in yesterday's questioning of p. & c.? answer is: NONE. (that i know of, none that i heard, none that i read) how many times does your local newspaper use the word 'war' instead of 'occupation' in it's reporting? the answer is: (drum roll, please) EVERY TIME!
that is that "liberal" press for you. newsflash: there is no such thing as the liberal press. the right wing has used joesph goebbel's axiom of propganda to put that phrase into the american lexicon. (if you don't know who jb was then it proves my point and if you don't know what his axiom was it proves it even more) ((i may have misspelled "goebbels")) (((but it is close enough so that if you know who he was, you knew whom i was talking about)))

and nobody notices. you know why? because they are fucking stupid is why. moral character. what a crock. when we invaded iraq, 85% of our moral populace supported us invading a country that had never done anything to us. we are some moral motherfuckers, aren't we? and stupid? remember FREEDOM FRIES? how stupid was that?

i shouldn't be reading JOHN ADAMS, it just makes me mad. for those of you who read, one of McCullough's other books, 1776, is excellent as well. knowledge diffused and all......

oh well, gotta go feed the dogs, pick up the shit, call a pool company, sign a report card for a kid, play some poker.

so have a good day, don't hurt anybody, get high, read a book, pray for peace.


p.s. in the picture of the strat, that is full moon up above.

The Stratosphere - Las Vegas

The view from the front yard of the Shock household.

bad coaching, some poker, 30 BILLION DOLLARS

in addition to not hitting free throws when they really needed to, the memphis tigers also lost due to incredibly bad coaching. up by 3 with just seconds to go and kansas with the ball, memphis did not foul and send ku to the line where they would have had to try to hit the first free throw and then miss the second trying for the rebound, one of the most difficult of plays to accomplish. instead, they let kansas get an open look at the basket and the rest is history. congrats to the jayhawks, they never paniced and played their game.

i have been playing very well at the poker tables since i gave myself a good talking to: to wit: quit trying to win and go back to trying to play well. i had gotten into a spell where i was "trying" to win every session and that cost me dearly. i had to reremind myself that it is a 365 day season and that fundalmentals are what wins over the long run. put another way, the wins will take care of themselves due to the laws of math and numbers, the trick is, to avoid the losses or keep them at an absolute minimum. offense wins games and defense wins championships. i have championship years when the wins are bigger than the losses. (which, incidently, is every year i have ever played the grand old american game of poker, be it stud or hold-em) yesterday i may have played a perfect game of no limit hold-em and that is very rare for me; i still make too many mistakes at no limit but, with critical retrospect, i didn't yesterday. as in my comedy, i am my biggest critic in poker and that may be one of my biggest strengths; people who cannot see their mistakes and then avoid them the next time are bound to repeat them. it is like the comic who sucks and then comes off the stage and says how bad the audience was. wrong, dog breath, you were bad, the audience was just responding to your hack material delivered poorly.

today, general petraeus and ambassador crocker are going to appear before congress and tell us just how hunky dory everything is in iraq. i do wish i could be on one of the committees so that i could ask some questions of our fearless leaders. the republicans like to tout petraeus as our modern day macarther but he is just another hack for the neo-cons, just better spoken and a better politician than most of the dumbos we have had over there.

facts are facts, jack and the fact is iraq is back to more bombings, more american deaths, more political turmoil, no progress made on any of the so-called "benchmarks" and the government there is disfunctional, crooked, filled with arguing cronies of all stripes. their "army" is a joke and in their recent clash with the al sadr militia, thousands of iraqi troops deserted.

we, the united states, are still paying for iraqi domestic needs while at the same time the iraqi government has, are you ready?, THIRTY BILLION DOLLARS in reserve plus another TEN BILLION in development funds. that is your money going to iraq. my money. our money. not their money. what does it take for the american people to get mad?

i question the patriotism of any general who would keep american troops in harm's way with no clear mission for them to accomplish. we are not at war, we are occupying iraq. we are occupying afghanastan. left to the whims of politically ambitious generals such as petraeus and morons such as senator mc cain, we will be there one hundred years.

how this for an idea; anytime we send american troops to some god forsaken foriegn country we have to institue a draft. if it is important enough for us to go to war, how about sending the sons of the rich and powerful to fight along side the boys and girls from poor rural and urban settings? if we instituted a draft today we would be out of iraq tomorrow.

oh well, got to feed the dogs, figure out something to do with the pool (it is green), wash the dishes, put up the washed clothes, pick up dog shit and then go play poker. have a good day, don't hurt anybody, if you do pray, pray for peace.

straight talk on johnny mac

for any of you who are democrats or any of you who are independents and are considering whether to vote for john mc cain, let me put a few things forth about the erstwhile senator from arizona. johnny mac who claims to be a "straight talker" but facts are facts, jack, and johnny, like hillary, has a hard time with them.

1. now representing himself as a supporter of civil rights, johnny boy voted against a holiday for dr. martin luther king, jr. and though he claims he has "evolved" he still opposes key civil rights laws.

2. according to bloomberg news, mc cain is MORE HAWKISH ON IRAQ THAN BUSH. conservative columnist, pat buchanan says mc cain will "MAKE CHENEY LOOK LIKE GANDHI."

3. mc cain built his reputation on his opposition to torture, but johnny boy voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded pres. bush for vetoing its ban.

4. MC CAIN OPPOSES ROE V. WADE. his words: "i do not support roe v. wade. it should be overturned." (how about that, ladies? another man who says YOU should not have the final authority over your own body) ((as a man who loves women...i keep marrying them...and a man who has three daughters, this alone would keep me from ever even considering j.m. as president.))

5. the CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND rated mc cain as the WORST senator when it came to children's issue. he voted against the children's health care bill and then applauded bush when he vetoed it.

6. while being rich is not a crime nor does it make someone "bad", it must be remembered that johnny mac is one of the richest men in the senate and it has been reported that he owns 8 homes. his suggestion for those laid off and not being able to afford their mortgages, 'get another job and cut back on vacations." compassionate johnny they like to call him at bear stearns.

7. he is known for his hair trigger temper. YEAH, GOOD IDEA, GIVE AN OLD MAN WITH A BAD TEMPER WHO ALREADY IS HAWKISH ON THE MIDDLE EAST THE ACCESS TO THE BUTTON THAT BRINGS ON NUCLEAR WAR.

8. you want more of the same old same old? vote for johnny, the sell out, who has 59 lobbyists working in his campaign. old straight talker says they won't have any influence in his administration. if you believe that, i have a bridge in new york city that is up for sale and i can get you a good deal on it.

9. while people are gnashing their teeth over rev. wright's comments, let us look at the man whom mc cain calls his "spiritual guide", RON PARSLEY, who believes that america's founding mission is (are your ready?) TO DESTROY ISLAM. another preacher whom mc cain has sought his support is JOHN HAGEE who believes that hurricane katrina was GOD'S PUNISHMENT FOR GAY RIGHTS AND CALLED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH THE ANTICHRIST. he also sought the support of pat robinson who agreed with falwell when he said, 9-11 WAS DESERVED BECAUSE WE, THE UNITED STATES, ALLOWED HOMOSEXUALITY IN OUR COUNTRY!!

10. johnny mac claims to be pro-environment but he scored a 0 ZERO! from the league of conservation voters last year for his votes in the senate.


john mc cain. war monger, sexist, homophobic, angry, liar, pawn of lobbyists, anti-environmentalist, follower of radical preachers, rich old white man. this is who you want? really?

straight talk from your drug-addled, poker-playing, feminist, environmentalist, civil rights supporting comic in las vegas.

(my thanks to my wife, rhonda, for sending this information to me)

"it will take time to restore chaos"

sunday morning musings after three cups of louisiana coffee and the review journal.

for those of you who are considering voting for john mc cain in nov. may i suggest you read paul krugman's editorial on johnny mac's voodoo health plan. johnny boy thinks (?) that the insurance companies are the ones who will bring down health costs. really?!?! we, the american people, PAY MORE FOR HEALTH CARE THAN ANY OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRY! thanks to the insurance companies. we are also the only ind. country that doesn't have national health care. why? because we are so fucking smart that we know better than anyone else. anyone who has had a run in with an insurance company knows just how full of shit john mccain is.

all things are related: the administration is going to cut back on VETERANS HEALTH CARE THROUGH THE VA. support our troops! my fucking god!

the administration has lifted the ban on hunting of wolves in 3 western states. hell, there is almost 1500 wolves in those three states. 500 per state. wolf experts say that a population of 5-7 thousand is necessary to a. insure the survival of the wolf and b. to balance the ecological system. george says, "kill 'em!"

the state government of nevada is republican which leads me to all things are related #2: in response to the slow down in jobs and so many people having to fall back on medicad and food stamps, so the republican government has decided to cut foot stamps, welfare and medicad. too many people need it don't you see. none of whom are rich, white republicans.

now you know why i don't bet sports. (see yesterday's scores and my predications...lol)

memphis to beat kansas by 5 or more is my latest. the tigers looked really good yesterday against ucla.

the iraq study group released their report yesterday: JUST AS BAD AS EVER. NO END IN SIGHT. stay the course. shock and awe, surge and purge, victory is in sight, light at the end of the tunnel, stay the course, mission accomplished, right around the corner, flowers at our feet, surge and purge, stay the course, war will pay for itself, get those wmd's, stay the course, victory will be accomplished as soon as we define victory which we wont but what the hell surge and purge and stay the course. of course.

only 289 more days until the bush nightmare is over. so let me quote george on freedom and iraq.

"You're free. And freedom is beautiful. And, you know, it will take time to restore chaos and order---order out of chaos. But we will." gwb april, 2003.

where have all the giants gone?

several people had told me that the JOHN ADAMS series on HBO was something i needed to see but i don't get hbo and besides, the book is always better than the movie. (prime example: BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES by wolfe and then the movie...the book was one of the best i have ever read and the movie was horrible) i am about 20% into JOHN ADAMS and it is stunning. what a man he was! our country was truly blessed to have a collection of men such as we had to bring us to independence. these were giants; of intellect, of compassion, of will, of vision and the burning desire for freedom. their legacy spreads across the world. a thousand years from now almost everyone alive today will be forgotten except by a very few history buffs but the names of washington, adams, jefferson, franklin, hancock et al will be not only remembered but honored. i just hope that the midgets that call themselves politicians today don't destroy what these men built.

in reference to the above: another 80,000 americans lost their jobs last month. here in vegas, THOUSANDS of families are being put out on the streets each month as foreclosures continue unabated. meanwhile, in washington and on the campaign trail, our politicians act as so many obstreperous children, calling each other names and making snide remarks and at the same time, george the insouciant, tells us that all is well; it is just a "slow down." rome burns while many fiddle.

don't you just love the way congress has come out with billion dollar deals for builders and banks and then offering counseling to the people? oh yeah, i forgot, we all get 600 dollars. cool. that should last a laid off worker with 3 children at home for at least a week.

the one thing they haven't proposed is a vast government program to put people to work such as the tva did during the 30's. (that is the tennesse valley authority and the 1930's for those of you who don't know american history....a small percentage of my readers i hope) spend that iraqi and afghani money here at home. i know, it is not going to happen.

alright, here are my picks for today. memphis beats ucla and unc beats kansas. on monday, unc beats memphis. (i, of course, am going against my own favorite, ucla, whom i will be pulling for.) the best game today will be the tigers vs. bruins. offense vs. defense. i look for unc to beat kansas by ten or so.

the thing about memphis, though, is they are an outsider such as UNLV was in 90 and 91 and not a member of the basketball "elite" as the others are. for that reason, it would be cool if they won it all. it would be nice for a "mid major" to win it all again. i will have to look it up but i don't remember if anyone else of that nature has won it since the rebels did.

go bruins.
go dodgers.

go away, bush.

it is beautiful here, think i will go take maverick, the great dane, for a walk. impress the neighborhood children.

have a good day, don't hurt anybody, get high and enjoy life. be thankful you don't live in iraq.

for what it is worth.

forty years ago today, doctor martin luther king, jr. was assassinated in memphis tenn. and james earl ray pleaded guilty to his killing. almost immediately, james earl ray wanted to take back his guilty plea and told a story about how a man named raoul had recruited him and that raoul was the one who actually pulled the trigger. over the years many members of dr. king's family, including his son, came to believe that ray was innocent. no one has ever been able to confirm or discredit ray's claim of a gun running man who had a ranch in mexico and went by the name raoul.

in 1967 i was living in oklahoma city and knew from high school a man named dan bradley. dan was a gun dealer and most of his friends were gun dealers. one day a man was introduced to them and he said he wanted to buy automatic carbines. (a private person could own a carbine, a private person could own the "selector kit" that changed the carbine from semi to full automatic. if you put the kit into the carbine you have commited a misdomeanor but if you put the kit in and sell that rifle you have commited a serious federal felony.) these men kept turning down the offer and the buyer kept raising the price until finally one of the guys sold him some carbines. nothing happened to him and eventually almost all of the men sold this guy automatic carbines. this man took danny down to mexico where he supposedly was going to train central american revolutionists to "overthrow left wing governments". he bought danny a new truck and i believe paid off his house. there were some conversations that i know of where the idea of "uppity niggars" came up and especially dr. king.

danny was going to go to mexico and train people but was arrested at the oklahoma city airport and at the same time the other guys who had sold him weapons were arrested as well. the police in oklahoma city, knowing that i was friends with danny, came to my house to arrest me (me being a known police character at the time) but i escaped and went up to topeka and waited for the heat to die down. in january of 1968 the government dropped all charges against everyone and nothing was ever said about it again. the government spent tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to entrap these guys and then turned right around and dropped the charges.

the man who bought the weapons went by the name of RAOUL. he was an ATF AGENT. everything that james earl ray said about raoul was the same that we saw in action in okc. whether this was a very unusual coincidence or .... i still to this day don't know but i do know that the government was not really trying to bust some gun sellers, it was obvious entrapment. they were looking for something else. the men who got arrested were not criminals, they were family men who owned gun stores. they refused and refused and refused again but when they could make thousands upon thousands of dollars for just a few guns they went along. the government ruined these men and for what? i think that raoul was looking to recruit a killer. what better place to look than oklahoma in the 60's. cities were on fire, blacks were rioting from coast to coast, peace protesters were in the streets as well. the white power structure was afraid of dr. king.

i took this story to spike lee in the 90's...he wasn't interested

i wrote dr. kings wife, carletta (sp) but got no reply.

i wrote his son. got no reply

i have a friend who is a writer in oakland and she took it to the editor of the oakland tribune who said that he would put his two best reporters on it. two days later, he told my friend that the paper was no longer interested in this story.

i have thought about going to cnn with this but, you know what, they will just shine me on as well.

james earl ray was as dumb as dirt. how did he come up with false passports and money and the knowledge to get himself off to spain and then england? how did he get out of memphis that night when everyone and their brother was looking for his mustang?

oh well, life in america. how different would it be today if dr. king had lived? he was maybe the greatest american of my lifetime and so down he went.

jfk realized that vietnam was a mistake and, if we are to believe many reports, was going to pull the troops out before we got in too deep.

bobby kennedy was killed in 68 as well.

richard nixon was elected in 68 and the neo con movement came into being.

oswald said "i am being made a patsy here."

ray said, "i was set up by raoul"

and the last words jack ruby said to the warren commission was, "a new and terrible form of government has taken over our country." (he said that in the dallas jail. he told the warren commission that he would tell them everything but they had to get him out of texas or else he was going to die. they, of course, refused) his full statement was, "the next you hear of me i will be dead and a new and terrible...."

oh well.

am reading JOHN ADAMS. i then read the newspaper. then i cry.

simply fabulous

this fits under catagory of "no business like show business".

back in the late 80's i did the first COMEDY ON THE ROAD which was aired on A&E and the set i did just killed. the show was being filmed at the ICE HOUSE in pasadena and they were filming about 12 comics that night. i went up fairly early, maybe 4th or 5th, and was outside with ellen and several other comics, shooting the shit, smoking some california reefer and all in all just having a good time. i was still new on the scene and everything was exciting.

a well known character actor, whose name escapes me but everyone knows him by sight because he was the guy on the commercial who was in the medicine cabinent when another guy opens it. some kind of shaving cream or something... but anyway, he is a much bigger "star" than me, and he comes up to ellen and i and says, "love your work, you were fabulous, simply fabulous!" and then he leaves. ellen and i are just overwhelmed. too cool. i have arrived says i to myself. our heads are getting bigger by the second. 15 minutes or so go by and another comic, whose name shall remain hidden, arrives; he had an absolutely horrible set; he had sucked the big one right there in front of god and everyone. he is slinking off to lick his wounds and up comes mr. commercial who says to fallen comic, "love your work, you were fabulous, simply fabulous!" (he was so sincere.....he was hollywood)

"like no business i know."

bush, basra, formaldehyde and other things that stink

"this is a defining moment in iraq!" george w. bush on the iraqi government's military push against the shiite militia in baghdad and basra. this was to show all the gains that the iraqi government has made militarily and show their strength in dealing with militias.

ah, that bush, he is so on top of things with his great world vision.

turns out that the iraqi military failed miserably to uproot the militias. they had to call on american air support, what? three minutes into the campaign, they ended up with al-maliki weakened even more and the peace deal was brokered by AN IRANIAN GENERAL. the militia are still in place and stronger than ever.

yeah, defined it all right. IRAQ IS A FAILED EXPERIMENT IN NATIONBUILDING. IRAQ IS THE SAME FUCKING DISASTER IT HAS EVER BEEN. THERE IS NO VICTORY FOR US TO BE HAD THERE. not only that, iran is stronger than ever with their influence spreading daily. we, as usual, look as bumbling fools.

pull our boys and girls out of there. what does it fucking take for our politicians, at least the democrats, to read the writing on the wall and get us out?

once again, for the umpteenth time, bush has told us another whooper.

your tax dollars at work: in hope arkansas there are 11,800 mobile homes and 7,500 travel trailers THAT WERE NEVER USED FOR THE KATRINA VICTIMS. why? well because they had high levels of formaldehyde in them. as did thousands of other mobile homes that your government gave to your fellow citizens without telling them about the formaldehyde. most of the people who were put at risk were black. (how in the world does rev. wright of chicago think that the american government would purposely hurt black people? )

52% of american urban youth graduate from high school. (and so many of them graduate with absolutely no idea of math or science that their degrees are not worth the proverbial paper they are written on). what we are producing here is a permenant underclass. poor and poorly educated they will continue to be a drain on the economy and the penal system. most of those urban youth are black or brown. and you know who i blame more than anyone or anything else? the parents of these kids. my uncle, cal farley, founder of boys ranch in amarillo texas (look him up if you would like to read about a real american hero) said, "there is no such thing as a bad boy." but given enough neglect, crime instruction from his hoodlum buddies, poverty, poor schools, absentee parents, easy access to bad drugs (crack and meth come to mind), and within a few years you have a strong candidate for prison. and where are the parents?

if they are waiting for white america to help, they have got another hundred years or so of waiting. the black churches, the black organizations in the inner city, the concerned black and brown populace had better get their collective asses in gear or what is bad now will be worse next year and the next and the next.

one of my friends here is a black woman who is on welfare. she has three children that make good grades, a cancer stricken husband who requires much help and this woman manages all of that, puts food on the table, has a car, gets them to school and woe be their ass if they don't do their homework, manages to keep them in a fairly nice house and has a great attitude while doing it. it can be done. her children will be contributors to society not a drain on it.

oh well, got to go feed the dogs and maybe go play some poker today.