After wasting our resources in Iraq, can we take on Iran?

rich ruminations Will we have the courage to do what's needed with Iran?: "Will our leaders have the courage to take effective and decisive action with the Iranians? I believe that Bush does, but I'm not sure the Democrats will put the interests of the country ahead of their political desires to disagree with and defeat anything and everything that Bush does."

Yea, Rich. It's just those Democrats. Oh, and those generals. Oh, and the majority of the American public.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, a remembrance

I received the 30th Anniversary edition of Born to Run for Christmas. One of the three included disks is a DVD of Bruce and the band's 1975 first performance in London.

I really think, as everyone who looks fondly back on their youth does, that this was the high point of the sort of music I like. It's not that I don't hear the occasional good thing now, but today's music frequently lacks a certain passion. Or at least the passion isn't always a shared experience between the audience and the artist.

Bruce was always different. You'd never see a hour long diffident set from him. Three hour shows were (and still are) the norm.

A month before Bruce's show in London, he played Sacramento, at the Memorial Auditorium. I'd read about Bruce (he'd made the cover of Time and Newsweek, and at the time I was a Rolling Stone subscriber. I'd have been hard pressed to miss reading about him.) I grabbed my brother, for what would be his first concert, and we were off. I don't remember the details of the show {insert your own reason for forgetting your late teens here.} but I remember the feeling. It was the best show I'd see for a long time. And Bruce wouldn't be back in Sacramento for 17 years, and by 1992, he was playing Arco Arena.

I'm finally watching the DVD from the Born To Run package, four months later. They've just released the music as a 2 CD set (another great deal on iTunes, if you don't mind me shilling a bit.) It's all good. Great music, great on-stage comraderie, and because the band was new to them, the audience was respectful (I hate the live sing-alongs.). (more parenthesis, but the Led Zeppelin BBC Live album is the same - they're weren't megastars yet, so the audience listened. :-) )

So, let us leave the blast from the past with the opening of the concert:

The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside
darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me

- Thunder Road

123456

This has come at me from two directions, so I'll pass it on:

This Wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

Slave labor, right-wing Republican style

It's one thing to have prisoners out doing public works, e.g., someone convicted of drunk driving picking up litter on weekends, or convicted felons making desks for our hard working state workers.
But to have prisoners working as unpaid labor for for-profit corporations is exactly what the Nazis did.
So, I found this more than a little offensive:
"I say let the prisoners pick the fruits," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, one of more than a dozen Republicans who took turns condemning a Senate bill that offers an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants an opportunity for citizenship.
Sadly, or not surprisingly, depending on where you are, this isn't really a Republican vs. Democrat issue. Not surprisingly, the Republicans are better at playing the jack-boot role.