Monthly Archives: May 2011

Tuesday Open Thread

Welcome to our Tuesday Open Thread. First day back at the grind after a long weekend and apparently we are in for a real heat wave all week. It is too early to have to crank up the AC. Just make sure all of your new plants have plenty of water this week.

The European Magazine interviews Rolf-Dieter Heuer, who is the director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research and also oversees the CERN laboratories in Switzerland. Great (but too short) interview with Heuer discussing the mis-naming of the “God-particle”; the limits of human knowledge and the boundaries between science and religion:

The European: Let us talk about the idea of the divine. For much of human history, religion and science were deeply intertwined. Galileo was expelled from the church for questioning those links. How would you separate the two realms?
Heuer: We separate knowledge from belief. Particle physics is asking the question of how did things develop? Religion or philosophy ask about why things develop. But the boundary between the two is very interesting. I call it the interface of knowledge. People start asking questions like “if there was a Big Bang, why was it there?” For us physicists, time begins with the Big Bang. But the question remains whether anything existed before that moment. And was there something even before the thing that was before the Big Bang? Those are questions where knowledge becomes exhausted and belief starts to become important.

One of the amusing things about listening to the media discuss Newt Gingrich is their insistence that Newt represents the *intellectual* of Republican Party politics these days. As if the barely coded BS of “con man” or “Kenyan” or “socialist” counts as intellectual heft. Michael Lind at Salon takes a look at another of the brain-dead intellects of the right, Niall Ferguson, who is currently hawking another disposable book:

Ferguson is the most prominent of a number of British conservative intellectuals and journalists who have found more sympathetic audiences in the U.S. than in their own country, where their enthusiasm for Victorian imperialism and Victorian economics stigmatizes them as cranks. His Old World accent and reactionary politics might not have been sufficient to earn Niall Ferguson his cisatlantic celebrity, were it not for the demise of American intellectual conservatism, chronicled by Sam Tanenhaus and others. The mass extinction of America’s intellectual right at the hands of anti-intellectual Jacksonian populists like the Tea Partyers has created a lack of native conservative thinkers with impressive academic credentials who are willing to dash to a TV studio at a moment’s notice. And in an era when the conservative movement is symbolized by lightweights like Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter and Jonah Goldberg, rather than William F. Buckley Jr., George Will and Irving Kristol, even Niall Ferguson can be mistaken for an intellectual.

Ouch! But dead on and it never ceases to amaze me how reverently these self-styled intellectuals are referred to in the media. When the wingnut right are busily racing to the bottom, there is no need to either join them or help them normalize their BS.

And, for fun, How The Apocalypse Would Happen If Heaven Were A Small Non-Profit

Are you catching up with the world today? What interests you out there?

American Whites: From God Complex to Aggrieved

Poor whitey. He’s feeling picked on and the Wall Street Journal agrees. This isn’t much of a surprise as we have watched the rise of the Tea Party in the face of the Great Kenyan Usurper. By 2000, White America feels that “anti-white bias to be a greater social problem than anti-black bias.” Oh geez. I guess we will just ignore that fact that income disparity between whites and blacks has quadrupled from 1984 to 2007. And when I look a the leadership teams of the companies I have worked for, the white man has always held a firm grip on the power. As Gregory Rodriguez writes:

This doesn’t bode well. When even the majority group sees itself in a struggle for status and respect, it erodes any notion of the collective good. Forget the melting pot or the salad bowl; the metaphor for how we balance diversity and unity is becoming the fighting cage.

NJ Truthiness Watch — Amtrak Edition

Sunday’s editorial has the NJ wagging their wizened finger at Democrats for not embracing Rep. Mica’s idea of carving out the Northeast Corridor for a rail privatization scheme. Essentially, they claim that Democrats see Amtrak as a jobs program and ask:

Is Amtrak a transportation company or a jobs program?

This is, of course, a banal question and one that doesn’t even begin to frame the really serious issues surrounding this discussion. As for jobs, you can see by more detailed reporting that *both* Democrats and Republicans pay some lip service to the jobs provided by Amtrak.

What happens to the Northeast Corridor if it is meant to be privatized is the thing to worry about. Starting with the fact that Amtrak became a public passenger rail service 40 or so years ago *precisely* because the private sector could not keep it going because it was so unprofitable, there is nothing yet in Mica’s plan that demonstrates that the private sector can now do any better. And watch how this is being framed — as a “public-private” partnership, which, in the hands of today’s GOP means the funneling of your tax money to the pockets of their friends while you settle for cleaner rail cars or some such. Seriously, they are not privatizing ANYTHING if they still plan on spending your tax dollars on it.

What is wanted here is some detail on how this privatization scheme would work; how much tax money would be involved in this; how service would be affected; how HSR would be implemented (and how much it would cost and in what timeframe); detailed projections on how the system starts paying for itself and what happens to the rest of the system once you carve off the most profitable piece of it.

And this is really key — there are no major HSR systems on the planet that operate without government subsidies. But then, we don’t have any airports or interstates that don’t operate without some government subsidy, either. Why is it that we need rail to deliver financial performance that none of the rest of our infrastructure is asked to do? Frank Lautenberg notes:

“Last year, we spent more than $40 billion on highways,” he told the panel. “Over Amtrak’s entire 40-year history, we’ve spent just under $38 billion total. That’s worth repeating: Amtrak has received less federal money in its history than highways get in a single year.”

If anything, this system has been underfunded and meant to wither on the vine. And nor does it help that when Amtrak does try to shut down parts of the service that cost them too much to keep going (portions of the transcontinental routes), they get a great deal of pushback from Congresspeople who use this as a campaign opportunity — to tell the folks back home that they saved their (little used) train service.

You might, of course, point out that both Virgina and Maryland have contracted out to run their commuter rail services. Neither are being asked to plan, build and operate a High Speed Railservice. The company that has those contracts is Keolis Rail Services America, whose majority owner is Société Nationale de Chemins de Fer. Who is that, you ask? Why, that is the French government-owned company that runs the French national rail service. This same company was part of the team that built the French HSR service and operates that service to this day. (Right now, the SNCF has had some issues in Maryland — there is a law asking them to clarify their role during WWII in transporting Jews, homosexuals and others to death camps.)

But this discussion starts with asking why we would treat Amtrak differently than the infrastructure for roads or for airplanes or for ships and NOT with taking people to task for trying to save some jobs. Because Amtrak is fairly important to the economic life of New Castle County (at least) with more jobs (and more growth) at stake than the 1000 or so employed by Amtrak here, I would expect that Delaware’s newspaper would be more interested in figuring out the how and whys of a privatization scheme instead of scolding Democrats for wanting to save jobs. Which, of course, isn’t exactly all they have concerns about.

Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., May 31, 2011

I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, I hope that Tony DeLuca enjoyed a terrorist-free Memorial Day weekend, and I hope that Monsignor Greg Lavelle stopped crying about ‘gerrymandering’ long enough to spout inanities about what it means to be patriotic. Well, crying has never stopped Lavelle from spouting inanities. He can and has done both at the same time.

Even when the General Assembly is out of session, we can generally count on DeLuca and Lavelle to offer up their comic stylings. We’ll start with the lesser of the two–Lavelle. Ten years after Wayne Smith drew the pious Monsignor a district that was ‘sawtooth-like’ to protect him, Lavelle whined about ‘gerrymandering’, meaning he got drawn into a district with a fellow Rethug, the Billionaires’ Best Friend, Debbie Hudson. For those so inclined, wander over to the Department of Elections, look at Lavelle’s current district RD 11, then check out the proposed RD 12, which is slated to be Lavelle and Hudson’s new home. You tell me which district describes the term ‘gerrymandered’.

Memo to Greg Lavelle: You got ten years that you didn’t deserve, courtesy of blatant gerrymandering. Please shut up now. I know you’re concerned about who will take up the cause of poor misunderstood pedophile priests in your absence, but don’t worry. Republicans have always taken up the cause of powerful evil overlords. Someone will be there to take your place.

Now on to perhaps the most ridiculous story of the year, one that, even by Delaware Way standards, has already earned a spot in the Delaware Way Hall of Fame.

A first-ballot selection, I might add:

Attorney General Beau ‘Beaudhisattva’ Biden contorted himself into a Rosemary Woods-like pretzel and applied an anti-terrorism statute, let me repeat that–an anti-terrorism statute–to justify withholding the hours that Tiny Tony DeLuca allegedly shows up for, and leaves, his $68,000 ‘job’ at the Department of Labor. Has absolutely nothing to do with the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps, he’s not working the required hours. Or even showing up. Trust the AG.

I could just stop there–but, naaah, where’s the fun in that? Let me ask the first of several obvious questions: How in hell can Biden claim with a straight face that Tony DeLuca is susceptible to any kind of terroristic threat? By whom? Bloggers? Hell, he’s far too much fun to have around and write about. Plus, we’re a notably sedentary and non-violent lot. Slashing tires is not our style. Even if someone, ANYone, harbored ill intentions to do bodily harm to DeLuca, a terrorist??? Really??? If Biden was operating as an Attorney General instead of as a protector of an unworthy pol, he would recognize, and perhaps investigate, the manner in which DeLuca has subverted public trust in government. He’d be investigating whether DeLuca is actually spending the hours required of a full-time state employee. In other words, DeLuca undermines confidence in government all by himself. Why would terrorists go after someone who does their job for them?

Finally, if Tony DeLuca faces no terrorist threat, then why in hell is Biden using a totally inapplicable statute to justify keeping DeLuca’s-comings-and-goings secret? Don’t bother answering, it’s a rhetorical question.

I lived through the (Jane) Brady years, and there were some unbelievable opinions that oozed out from under her office door. But this ‘written-to-spec’ opinion makes a mockery of something called the Department of Justice and its current AG. If Biden doesn’t change his tune on this, I will not be supporting him next time he runs for anything, and I’ll go out of my way to let people know why.

Speaking of the Delaware Way and not supporting people for reelection, I can’t let this latest story about Jack Markell and jobsjobsjobs go without comment. As to whether or not there should be a new medical facility in Middletown and/or whether there should be an independent quasi-governmental board ‘charged with scrutinizing and approving public health care developments’, I’ll leave that up to the General Assembly and the Governor. However, that’s the current law, and Gov. Markell went to extreme lengths to subvert the law and the workings and the recommendations of this board:

“…review committee members said that despite an unprecedented level of political meddling — including the appointment of six newcomers to the 17-member board in early May by Markell — they were not convinced there’s a need for the hospital. The duty of the independent board is to foster cost-effective and efficient use of health care resources, including preventing excess capacity, board members say.”

Because, to Gov. Markell, ‘jobsjobsjobs’ justifies a new medical facility, regardless of whether, you know, people would actually use it.  I don’t really have a problem with that. It’s the blatant attempt to fix the game. Governor, if you don’t like the rules, you have the power to change the rules by getting the General Assembly to change the laws. Packing an independent agency to get your way mocks the very notion of citizen participation in government.

And, it almost wouldn’t be a ‘Delaware Way’ story without Bloated Bobby Byrd, one of Delaware’s most notorious lobbyist/fixers, and a man who held the dubious distinction of lobbying the Minner Administration on behalf of his multitude of clients while also working for–the Minner Administration. He’s been retained by the company that wants to build and run the facility. Allow this fixer to rationalize the stacking of the board by Markell:

Byrd said the process has been difficult because the application is “very sophisticated” and one that had not been seen by the board before.”The board and staff have been challenged,” Byrd said.

One of the board members who was curtly dismissed was Hans Francke. I’ve known Francke for probably close to 50 years now. To this day, I have no idea what his party affiliation is. What I do know is that he has a brilliant analytical mind, is neither partisan nor doctrinaire, and is precisely the type of person who Markell should thank his lucky stars takes his role as a citizen volunteer seriously. For someone as unprincipled and demonstrably unethical as Bobby Byrd to even imply that his client’s end-run around the existing rules is running into difficulty due to the ‘sophistication’ of the proposal and the inability of people like Hans Francke to somehow grasp it is deplorable. But Bobby Byrd doesn’t get paid for HIS analytical mind or sophistication, he gets paid for access and influence. That Jack Markell is all too willing to take on such an oleaginous co-conspirator means that Jack Markell is willing to embrace the worst of the Delaware Way to achieve his goal of jobsjobsjobs, regardless of the consequences. He has become, sadly, a jobs whore. He’s just dickering over the cost. He clearly doesn’t care that the cost includes making invaluable Delawareans like Hans Francke unwelcome as citizen volunteers. I do. Seriously, Governor, your cavalier approach here is shameful.

Not much time or room left to talk about what’s coming up today in the Delaware General Assembly. The caucuses will have much more action than the sessions themselves. Members of the Joint Finance Committee will brief their respective caucuses on the status of their deliberations. Plus, there’s this little matter called redistricting. House Rethugs, in particular, will have to decide whether they might marshal a court challenge. It’d take a lot of chutzpah for them to do so, especially when you contrast their blatant 2002 gerrymandering with a much cleaner 2012 plan offered by the House D’s. But chutzpah has never stopped Rethugs before, especially with all the partisan hacks that Bush put on the courts with the acquiescence of D’s like Tom Carper. Maybe they’ll draw one of their bought-and-paid-for minions. Unlikely, though. They’re screwed, basically.

Ah, yes, the agendas. If you’ve read this far, this may well be when you stop reading. But not before I let you all know that I’ll be on the Al Mascitti Show TODAY, Tuesday, May 31, 10 a.m., WDEL-1150. Ya think, based on this column, that we might have a few things to talk about? Monsignor Lavelle, Beau Biden, Brian Selander, you and any and all others, are welcome to call in. And I haven’t yet mentioned El Somnambulo’s profound sorrow upon learning of the passing of Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage, but he will on Al’s show.

OK, OK, the agendas. The Senate agenda here. The House agenda here.

Trenchant legislative analysis? Tomorrow. Maybe.


Germany And Switzerland to Shut Down Their Nuclear Power Plants

Some months ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a decision to try to extend the working life of Germany’s oldest nuclear power plants. Yesterday, Chancellor Merkel flip-flopped on that unpopular decision and — announced that Germany’s ruling coalition has decided to shut down its nuclear power plants by 2022.

As expected, the coalition wants to keep the eight oldest of Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors permanently shut. Seven were closed temporarily in March, just after the earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima. One has been off the grid for years.

Another six would be taken offline by 2021, environment minister Norbert Roettgen said early on Monday after late-night talks in the chancellor’s office between leaders of the centre-right coalition.

The remaining three reactors, Germany’s newest, would stay open until 2022 as a safety buffer to ensure no disruption to power supply, he said.

This is an amazing development — a country that gets almost 25% of its energy from nuclear power is seriously discussing shutting that down for other alternatives. Nuclear power isn’t especially popular in Germany, especially after Nukashima. Merkel’s decision to extend the life of older plants in conjunction with the Nukashima tragedy is credited with her party’s loss in recent state elections (and with boosting the Green Party). This is nowhere near a done deal — there is lots of corporate opposition, opposition within her own party and not that much yet on what energy sources would replace these plants (have read in one place that the Greens are supporting some new coal-fired plants coming on line now and talking about supporting gas-fired ones. Ugh.)

Add to that, that the Swiss are also planning to phase out its nuclear plants, letting the existing plants run for their planned operational lives. The Swiss get almost 40% of their power from nuclear plants. Nuclear is also pretty unpopular here as well.

I hope that this means that these countries are looking very hard at renewable technologies that can replace this much power. If they can do it, they’ll be right at the technological edge of the market — meaning that people looking to replace nuclear sources and fossil fuel sources will be buying their technology from the Germans or Swiss. What I expect this means for us is a spanking new PR campaign from the nuclear industry hell-bent to on selling the US on this technology that can’t seem to survive without spectacular government subsidies.

Job Fair in Dover Tomorrow

Delaware’s Congressional Delegation — Senator Coons, Senator Carper and Representative Carney — are hosting a job fair tomorrow at the Delaware Technical and Community College in Dover from 9AM to 2PM. Governor Markell and the Mayor of Dover are also expected to be on hand. 70+ employers are confirmed to be on hand to meet potential applicants, and there will be skills seminars ongoing throughout the day.

There’s more detail (including a list of potential employers in attendance)here

There was a job fair in Wilmington some weeks back hosted by this delegation and it apparently was a big success. Please pass this information on to anyone you know who is looking for employment. This is a great opportunity and it’s good to get the word out.

Memorial Day Open Thread

Welcome to your Memorial Day Open Thread. Hope that you all have been contributing to Delaware’s economy by going to the beach with your family or getting your friends together to help you build an outdoor kitchen to your house.

This interesting bit of new history has been discussed in several places this week:

According to Yale history professor David Blight, African Americans in Charleston, S.C., launched the first Memorial Day celebration in 1865, three years before the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic called on Union veterans’ organizations to decorate the graves of dead soldiers.[…]
Following the Confederate surrender, which ended the Civil War, blacks went to the place where hundreds of prisoners had been buried, many in mass graves. “Blacks, many of them recently freed slaves, buried the soldiers properly. They put up a fence around the area and painted it. More than 260 were buried there. We don’t know the names. We don’t know the race,” Blight told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Last year, President Obama rejected the calls for him to stop the tradition of sending a wreath to the Confederate Memorial at Arlington, but started a new one (I hope) of sending a wreath to the monument that honors the service of African-American soldiers during the Civil War. I’m hoping that tradition is maintained this year. But both President and Mrs. Obama will be attending the ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier today; this memorial is also the site of an official observance of a national moment of silence at 2:55 this afternoon.

And while we rightfully remember and honor the service and sacrifices of those who worked to defend this country, it is also a good time to ask when we can bestow the honor of ending asking for these sacrifices from American men and women:

This Memorial Day, I ask you all to take a moment to read the news and to imagine those who have been asked to say goodbye to their loved ones. If you feel the same as I do, that the casualties and sorrow of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have caused enough loss to our young people and their families, then consider asking your representatives in Congress, “Why?” Ask them when we, as a nation filled with veterans, can finally live a life that is truly peaceful, without war, and without so many soldiers dying in far reaches of the world.

Late Night Video — Artfully Visualizing Our Humanity

This video podcast from the TED Talks people features Aaron Koblin, who specializes in taking massive amounts of data — or massive groups of people — to create visualizations. I’m in awe of people who can do this kind of thing and I’m especially impressed with this young man’s effort to crowd source a video for a Johnny Cash song. He begins by recalling a tweet of a (unnamed) media theorist, who said: “19th century culture was defined by the novel, 20th century culture was defined by cinema, and the culture of the 21st century will be defined by the interface.” That’s an interesting observation about how we organize our narratives, but also what we think are important about narratives I think. Here it is, about 18 short minutes long:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v4XxlfVk3o[/youtube]

Weekend Open Thread

How disastrous is the GOP Kill Medicare strategy? This disastrous (pdf):

Disapproval of the Republicans in the House of Representatives has surged from 46 percent in February to 55 percent in April to a striking 59 percent now. Disapproval outnumbers approval two-to-one; intense disapproval by three-to-one. For the first time in more than a year, the Democrats are clearly even in the named Congressional ballot – an 8-point swing from the election – and Obama has made a marked gain in his job approval and vote against Mitt Romney—with the President now leading by 4 points. This period captured the introduction of the Republican budget plan and vote by the House—and voters do not like what they see.

Perhaps most notably, this survey flags a major retreat from the Republican approach to deficits and spending, the economy, and jobs. As the Republicans have unveiled their plans and approach during this four-month debate on the deficit, priorities and the economy, they have pushed many voters away.

Not that the GOP has actually *had* a damn thing to say about job creation, mind you. Their entire economic strategy is to transfer as much of your money into the hands of their wealthy friends as possible. Full Stop. Apparently this is a pre-long weekend tease of a much bigger report coming on Wednesday from these folks. That should be interesting.

Also from the GOP brain trust, I present you, Lou Barletta, (R-PA) who is having a major snit about the EPA (an agency he has voted to specifically defund, because, you know, business needs *less* regulation) not doing MORE in his own district:

On Wednesday, Barletta sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson asking the agency to perform additional testing in the Carroll/Mill Street neighborhood.[…]“Frankly, this is unacceptable. The EPA’s own Web site indicates that one of the agency’s primary reasons for existence is to ensure that ‘all Americans are protected from significant risks to human health and the environment where they live, learn and work.’”[…]

“I was surprised to hear an EPA official basically tell the residents of the Carroll/Mill neighborhood that they would not conduct soil and water testing to find answers. It is absolutely the EPA’s job, and I’m going to make sure that job is done. The residents are scared, and they deserve answers and peace of mind.”

So we have Mr. Barletta asking for the EPA to do more in this District, at this Superfund site, while he is voting to defund this agency and criticizing it for doing its job in other areas. Nice. Make sure to read the Think Progress article — there is polling that shows that 70% of the folks in Barletta’s district want the EPA to do more, not less.

One of the things missing in Democratic messaging for some time is a reminder to folks that even as many folks find their government large and exasperating, they sure want it and they have specific reasons why they do want all of that government.

The CDC provides helpful information on how to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. After providing a history of zombies they tell you how to get prepared for the coming apocalypse.

2. Pick a meeting place for your family to regroup in case zombies invade your home…or your town evacuates because of a hurricane. Pick one place right outside your home for sudden emergencies and one place outside of your neighborhood in case you are unable to return home right away.

The thing is, that this same planning is just as useful for being able to survive a natural disaster too. Go read the whole thing — this is a really clever use of social media to give real advice for planning to survive a natural disaster.

Yes, it is a lazy long weekend, but there are still things going on out there that interest you — so tell us what’s going on!

Chris Coons Votes Against the Patriot Act Extension

Senator Coons asked the Senate to limit the extension of the Patriot Act to one month so that the Senate could seriously review and revise the law to reflect current lessons learned to scale back some of the broad authorities granted to government under the original Patriot Act:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggfToKCixGg[/youtube]

His full remarks are here. The Leahy-Paul Amendment that he talks about would have reformed how National Security Letters are used and would also revise the “gag” order placed upon those in receipt of the NSL.

Senator Coons:

The Leahy-Paul Amendment also deserves consideration because the last five years have shown us that substantive revisions to Patriot are called-for and, indeed, necessary. I’d like to speak briefly about just one necessary change, those to the National Security Letter program.

National Security Letters, or NSLs, are administrative subpoenas that allow the government to demand subscriber information from third parties without even having to go to a judge. These orders are also extraordinary in that they prohibit recipients from telling anyone of their existence.

In 2007 and 2008, the Department of Justice Inspector General found massive abuses in the NSL program, with tens of thousands of NSLs issued for purposes that had nothing to do with national security. Further, in 2008, a court found that the gag order in each NSL was unconstitutional.

Plainly, NSLs are in need of revision, both to bring them in line with the Constitution and to guard against abuses that have nothing to do with national security. I support legislation that would require that DOJ maintain sufficient internal guidelines to ensure that NSLs are only issued when the agents issuing them state facts that show relevance to national security. I also favor amending the gag order so that any recipient can immediately challenge it in court.

These simple reforms – as well as the others contained in the Leahy-Paul Amendment, do not make our nation more vulnerable to attack. That’s why, in 2010, the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence sent a letter to Congress expressing the view that legislation almost identical to Leahy-Paul “strikes the right balance by both reauthorizing these essential national security tools and enhancing statutory protections for civil liberties and privacy in the exercise of these and related authorities.”

This Amendment was defeated, but Senator Coons is to be commended for supporting this effort at reforming NSLs. The Patriot Act needs a great deal more revision and reform than this (really, I don’t see why it shouldn’t just be allowed to sunset at this point) but this would have been a very good start. The Patriot Act was extended this week in Congress, in a low-key bit of bipartisanship across both Houses and with little of the media food fight that marks most of the rest of Congress’ work.

R. I. P. Gil Scott Heron

One of our true visionaries. Never was able to successfully defeat his demons, although he tried. And tried and tried.

Some samples of his genius:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcHOq8i5Pyk[/youtube]

‘Winter In America’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upKsTCKYm4E&feature=related[/youtube]

‘The Bottle’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRPRwG1_ayk[/youtube]

‘Johannesburg’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD_9Ph8KiVM&feature=related[/youtube]

‘Ain’t No Such Thing As A Superman’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV_astp3BjM&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

‘I’m New Here’

Priorities

Sorry I haven’t been around, but priorities people. It looks like you’ve had real fun while I’m on vacation so I doubt you’ve even noticed my absence.

Now it’s time to go chillax and enjoy the view.

20110528-120204.jpg

‘Bulo’s Music For the Masses: Only One Way to Kick Off Summer Edition

The Beach Boys. Brian Wilson. Teenage Symphonies to God.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFmWdFRw0a0[/youtube]

‘Keep An Eye On Summer’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6jOMn_KPCU[/youtube]

‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice?’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQFvobezpjI[/youtube]

‘A Young Man Is Gone’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCEUOfiZsnA[/youtube]

‘Wendy’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_TcWUslfvE&feature=related[/youtube]

‘Warmth of the Sun’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZbgAeR5wx0&feature=related[/youtube]

‘You Still Believe In Me’-Brian Wilson

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Hbd0c24gI[/youtube]

‘I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’-Brian’s most autobiographical song? Always gives me chills.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC_UILNwWrc[/youtube]

‘God Only Knows’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBLqXAN5cSQ[/youtube]

‘The Girls On The Beach’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Hryc5t2wQ[/youtube]

‘All Summer Long’