Day: April 15, 2006

Bangin’ on the Pipes/Steam Heat: nostalgic/novelty jazz; the only song my SO at the time didn’t like
Salt Peanuts: rapid-fire vocalization of the Dizzy Gillespie song, featuring Herbie Hancock on the piano, which I remember them performing with Carol Burnett on Carol’s show
Grinning in Your Face: straight-up blues by Son House, featuring side guitar by Bonnie Raitt
Shaky Flat Blues: poppish slow blues
That’s a Plenty / Surfeit USA: Dixieland
Little Pony: a Lambert, Hendricks and Ross tune
Fairytale: the song won the group its first Grammy Award, for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group
Black Coffee: a gorgeous torch song, later covered by k.d. lang
Love in Them There Hills: my favorite: the slow, percussive funk by Gamble & Huff, which I used to listen to the volume up and the lights down.
The album got up to #82 in the Billboard charts. That same year, the group got named to Mr. Blackwell’s worst dressed list, which I thought was silly; they were retro chic!

As they became more pegged as an R and B group, they had hits such as Fire and Slowhand. They really broke out with 1983’s Break Out, with Jump (for My Love), Automatic, Neutron Dance, and a rerecording of I’m So Excited.

But it’s that early album that really got to me. Wish I had it in digital form.

1. Should the President be impeached? You may pick a letter (or more than one – the answers aren’t all mutually exclusive), or come up with an answer not provided.

A. The President acted appropriately in declassifying materials. There is no issue here.
B. You liberals couldn’t get him on some other issues, so now you’re trying this one on. Give it up!
C. The President is probably on safe legal ground, but listening to his Press Secretary describing the justification is rather like listening to Bill Clinton parce “is”.
D. It’s troubling, but don’t quote me. What’s the status of the USA PATRIOT Act again?
E. That conversation about censure might be appropriate about now.
F. Well, maybe impeachment is appropriate, but after the Clinton impeachment, the country cannot afford to be torn apart like that again.
G. I’ve been reading over the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, and I’ve concluded: Can’t we impeach the Vice-President first? After all he was still talking about WMDs “proven” to be in Iraq on Meet the Press four months after the Pentagon showed it wasn’t the case.
H. From my reading of USC 50,
“Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources,” ITMFA.
(Now since this is a wholesome, family-friendly, column, I won’t tell you what that means. But if one were to go to ITMFA dot COM, one would be shocked, SHOCKED to find out.)
I. Who the heck is Valerie Plame?

2. Will either the President or the Vice-President ever be brought up on impeachment charges, and if so, how far will the charges go in the process?

3. Some retired US generals have been calling on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign. Will he, and if so, when? Should he?

BONUS: Have recent revelations made you more cynical about the political process, you were already cynical about the political process, or you are more hopeful about the process because information has come to light?