Election Eve and all was quiet...

A couple of weeks ago I said it would be tighter than anyone could imagine at the time. I stick to that. I don't know enough to call underdog elections or anything like that but I do believe several things about this certain election:

• The mainstream media has been in the bag for Obama from Day 1.

• Obama has said absolutely nothing about what he really "can" do and has no accomplishment to even show to prove what he can do except for writing two BS books and hanging out with Chicago power players to get himself noticed.

• And, I'm sorry, but he's just a liar.... he will raise everyone's taxes and he doesn't care if it doesn't really bring in new revenue (as Charlie Gibson told him in one of the debates) - he just wants it to be fair - it begins with an "s" people.


• Obama surrounds himself with bad people who all hate America. And he's married to one.


• Obama wants to take money away from Joe the Plumber and give it to Samir the lavish non-working neighbor of Obama in Chicago.


• And he wants to investigate Joe the Plumber further for even daring to ask him a question that wasn't previously vetted the MainStream Media.


• And he has asked the Ohio government to investigate him. New politics my ass.


• McCain is a patriot.


• McCain spent more time in a POW camp than Obama has spent in the Senate - much less than run for President.


• McCain has fought within his own party and is the furthest thing from George Bush - if that is something you care about.


• Joe Biden is a doofus - who was only selected because Obama couldn't stomach picking Hillary.


• Sarah Palin is a patriot and a bulldog (anyone see her on the stump the past two days?)

Barack Obama will turn this county into a balkan gulag. Here is one man's opinion of what the future may hold (here.)

Yesterday afternoon the Rasmussen poll which has been shown on the Fox network for months showed major gains for McCain in the battleground states as pointed out by others on certain blogs. While the MSM has told you all weekend long that it is over, there are no undecided voters and that Barack will deport his illegal alien Aunt living in a projects in Boston, this baby is closer than you think. There will be surprises.

Finally, the hopefull secret weapon, that curiously is not talked about on the MSM are the PUMAs. PUMA stands for Party Unity My Ass and represents all of the Hillary campaigners who feel Obama just railroaded them with typical Chicago-type election thuggary (get ready for that in the White House you McPalin-haters). And they despise Obama such that they have gone house to house in PA and OH to campaign for McCain/Palin! They believe they represent up to 4 million of the 18 million who voted for Hillary in the primaries - and even if the only bring in 25% of that then that could swing those states. And, thus in all of the exhaustive polling that has gone on showing these massive Obama leads it is going to show that many "poll-ees" were not telling people that they were going to vote for McCain and ot telling anybody anthing especially after how they saw Obama run the caucus states and bus in Chicago thugs. But pollsters have already assumed Hillary voters to Barack. You can read a bunch of the story right here - and why no one network has caught on to this with all of their polling and investigative journalism and as they stand in the mega-studios amongst their big electronic maps.....

But the bottom line is that Pinnochio, yea That One, can win the popular vote easy (he will win CA and NY by 4 million votes if not more) but can seriously lose the electoral college.

I'm looking forward to a heck of a day. You betcha.

Try our Obama Tax Quiz

Okay, it's only three days before the election and Barack Obama has been campaigning for 2 years. Can you tell us exactly what his tax plan is for the country - you know, the one he keeps talking about but seems to change all the time - I guess that's what they mean by a Change We Can Believe.

(By the way - on Bart's chalkboard up there it says "I will not question my liberal puppetmasters". That is an Obama classroom. You might have to get used to it.)

Question 1: How much do you have to make (or not make) to receive a dead lead pipe cinch tax break as a middle class American under Mr. Obama's "Share the Wealth" plan. Is it for all those who make less than:

a) $250K? - which is what Obama has said as late as earlier this month

b) $200K - which is what Obama said on his infomercial this week

c) $150K - which is what doofus Joe Biden said this week (where is he now anyway?)

d) $120K - which is what prospective Obama cabinet member (not anymore) Bill Richardson said on radio this week, and

e) $42.6K - what Obama voted for in Congress.

Yeah - he's a real decisive decision maker all right - or so said soothsayer Joe Klein in his pap piece on Obama in the last week's Time magazine. My god - why does Time and Newsweek treat Obama like he is Jesus Christ? Just look at the fawning pictures. Has he bought you all out? Seriously has the whole world just lost their ability to add and multiply? The tax quiz above only talks about income taxes but Obama will increase social security taxes and capital gains taxes as well - all of which have shown not to provide anymore revenue at all. But he wants to be "fair". Why would nearly 50% of the country say - yes tax me more - I will like it - I don't care if you don't make sense Obama - but I like a man with a lot of vowels in his name. And of course his tax plan actually will just give checks to a slew of voters who don't pay taxes anyway - there is nothing more presidential than buying an election. Again, Change.

The bottomline is nobody knows who this guy is - and why does he want to tax us into oblivion when it is proven it will not produce more revenue for the national coffers. Well, more is described by a former classmate here.

God help us.

Footnote: It's 9:30 AM EDT Saturday November 1st. Fox is showing the most spirited speech from John McCain I have ever seen (which was after Sarah Palin was letting it rip at another site). On CBS? Jugglers. CNN? A roundtable of nobodys discussing the financial crisis - 3 days before the election? NBC? A consultant talking about food addiction. MSNBC? Wow. There actually showing it. Maybe Keith Olberman finally lost it. Or they ran out of prison documentaries.

Obama TV

"And welcome back our viewers! We are sure you enjoyed the rerun of Sanford and Son and now to our regularly scheduled infomercial from our lord and savior President Barack Obama and his High Princess Michelle (who at the moment does not hate this country)."

You know what we saw Wednesday night is what we are going to see if and when this blowhard gets elected. His infomerical was nothing more than a dreary repetition of what any Democrat would say over and over and he reaffirmed his "non-plan" for the future. And of course his economic plan slid a few facts or two. He had been saying that he would not tax anyone who makes less than $250K/yr but on this broadcast it slid to $200k/yr (and Joe Biden said recently it would be $150K/per year). Yup, you can trust these guys.

They've bought the nation's media.

One man state's Obama' s further lies here. America please wake up before you have Big Brother looking over your shoulder.

Back in the U.S.S.R

Welcome my socialist comrades! Next Tuesday (as the press continually tells us) we will do to this country what the Soviets could not do during the Cold War. The battles we waged in Korea and Vietnam will have remarkably not stopped the wave of socialist populism we worried about so much back then. And when Ronald Reagan told whatshisname to tear down the Berlin Wall - well that won't mean as much now (so why did Barack go there?). Carried away by a media that is morally and mentally corrupt we may just usher this "great society" into a gulag that would make James Madison role over in his grave.

Obama is clearly on record for redistributing wealth (please see here) and as far back as 2001. In his campaign stump speeches of the last 10 days he has stated that capitalism doesn't work (really?)(an overriding principle for the creation and evolution of this nation). He has worked and worshipped with people who hate this country - period. He was against the surge in Iraq - and was proven wrong but he cannot admit it. He consistantly given no specifics of what he really wants to do (besides give welfare checks to everyone who does not pay taxes) and when questioned consistently lies about that too - and his running mate, Joe Biden, is a maloproptic twit. The only thing Barack consistently says is that George Bush is the devil (much like Kathy Bates in "The Waterboy") and, thus so must be John McCain - over and over and over. With no put-back from the media. Not one specific and credible idea or credential to his name. What other presidential candidate has had this on his resume and would have even hoped for being elected - much less be drummed off the campaign trail?

Well, besides Hillary.

Meanwhile we have Democratic weasels reporting old BS talking points (here) when others question Barack's obvious socialist tendencies. And Joe Biden doesn't like anyone questioning him or his ticket about anything (here) - look how dopey his answers are to this competant Florida anchor. And by the way O'Reilly on Fox thought she was "too tough"! Bill, grow a couple please. So much for Fox being in the tank - they are way more balanced than any news entity around.

And all the rest of the news guys can talk about is Sarah Palin's clothes. Pathetic.

"Keep your balyaka's ringing out, come and keep your comrades warm.....I'm back in the U.S.S.R. You don't know how lucky you boys are....."

A Democrat Tells the Truth the Media Needs to Hear - They're Liars

It's a runaway - it's tight - its a runaway. Frankly no one knows anything about what will happen. I am prediciting it will be closer than anyone can imagine. And, of course, I'm talking about the Presidential campaign of '08.

But what I cannot predict is why there are so many distorted views of facts and ongoing news items that tend to favor an inexpereinced hack who is going to, if elected, further destroy the economy of this country - as the Democrats have done so far. But unfortunately its the Republicans who get tarred and feathered.

And yes - John McCain could do a better job of pointing out Barack's welfare tax plan and other differences - but where is the media to do there job at all! It is out right appalling at the nonsense that people will nod there heads to and then on the other hand go attack. Joe the Plumber gets INVESTIGATED because he asked a question. Sarah Palin was asked a question by CNN based on an article that was quoted way beyond context. Joe Biden says statements that can only be attributed to a crazy unbalanced man. But no one says anything!

And it is because of the Democrats and the Clinton administration constantly beating on providing loans to people who could not pay them back that we are in this financial situation we are in. But what do you hear on the TV - "8 years of Bush" - it is so intelectually dishonest it is rather far from unbelievable. It is Rep. Dodd and Frank - but where is Katie Couric to incorrectly interrogate them?

Please read here from a knowledgeable Democrat who takes on the media for distorting every fact known to man. And why isn't this in the mainstream?

She Rocks

If she did not win - she definitely held her own.

Meanwhile some Democratic female hack representitive got on Hannity & Colmes and couldn't answer anything.

The race is still on - hold on to your hats.

Bottomline: Financial Meltdown Democrats Fault

You won't see it on the mainstream news. No, they would rather talk about lipstick and the expense of GOP women's clothes. But the history of this meltdown has all of its roots with the Democratic Party as seen here.

Meanwhile you won't hear much about how Obama has taken money from Fannie and Freddie and has had his VP candidate search managed by the head of Fannie Mae - a guy who has already been disgraced by acknowleding he got favorable loan conditions.

It is all rather shameful by the press - the MSN has gotten this all out of whack. The only guy to really get it right is Rick Barnes of Fox who correctly stated this is not an economic problem but a financial markets problem.

By the way - did you see how a former Hillary supporter, and a elite at that, has come out for McCain and actively dissed MSNBC's Cambell Brown in the process? It's here and it's sublime. She said the party left her not the other way around.

Can anyone on TV add 2+2?

I am very worried for this country. And it is not because of the potential financial meltdown now apparently looming. Or because an inexperienced hack might be elected President. It's because nobody on the TV news knows anything about anything. Watching the talking heads even try to ask a knowledgeable question about the current capital markets situation is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Excruciating.

They can't even begin to come up with a proper question. Actually the only question they have is what would Obama or McCain do? They ask that all night long. What would the candidates that we have been castigating daily do? Not like they are journalists that may have followed the subprime mortgage issue to its conclusion. What they should have been asking is why they haven't been following this "other story" (you know, the one about collapsing financial institutions) while they were exhausting airwave hours on pigs and lipstick. In fact, they should ask Obama about it.

Much of the real story can be found here and here. And the real guilty party is cheap unwarranted mortgage lending - overextending lending principles to people who just can't pay it back. And then all financial institutions invested in bundled or securitized mortgage packages - which in large part with the subprime loans, are failing. Thus the rush to shore up several entities (AIG) that hold or are influenced by these securities. In fact, McCain had warned about lax lending a long time ago. And even more importantly, Bush wanted to enforce stronger controls on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac almost five years ago (as discussed here) but was rebuffed by the Democrats.

"Why didn't somebody do something about this?" - the scream will go up. The problem is the ying and the yang. Can you see a Republican politician saying that they shouldn't loan money to lower-income families in order to protect the future of the financial markets? "For shame" the liberals would cry. Give everything to everybody - they would say - and then promptly would have parades in the street. Late night pundits would say that Republicans don't care for the common man. Kanye West would say "George Bush hates black people". Sort of like entering into an unpopular war just to protect the future of America. No one really knows what might have happened over the past five years if we weren't bringing up the fight over there.

And this doesn't just stop at hysterical outlets like MSBNC. Fox's Bill O'Reilly was arguing with Neil Cavuto that he wants a President to warn him about this "stuff" and do something about it. Neil said "you really want more regulation Bill?" and Bill said yes.

Oh, the horror. That's what got us here in the first place - as described in this article from six months ago!

Wow - finally a light in that barren desert

Please read this. Camille Paglia, the queen of feminism, actually likes what she sees in Sarah Palin - and is woman enough to talk about it. This has to be one of the most well balanced, thought out pieces of journalism I have read in the last 20 years. Salute, Camile.

Hard Place, indeed.

And here's a good response for you apathetic readers about your boy Barry, pigs and his natural horse sense - especially when it comes to lip service. And, again, written by a woman (man where do these people come from?)

And this article really wraps it up in a bow. Panic city, baby. It's not so much of what he said, she said - it's how he reacts. And that is not well.

Sooo-heee!

Shame on you Barack - where is the new type of politics? Where is the "change"? Calling a woman rival (Sarah) a pig? (see here)(and the VP rival as well). Wow.

And this is the man you think could stand up to the terrorists? Ha. He is so rattled by the former PTA mom.

And here is a great article from a Democratic commentator (and a woman) who show how Obama's campaign (and the left's reaction to her nomination) look petty and thoroughly discombobulated in throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this steadfast woman.

Rock Star

Well you have all seen the speech and read the news - oh, boy. She's a true rock star who has shook and stunned the media elite and the Obama campaign - she almost drew more viewers than Obama's speech last week and she was actually on four fewer networks (she wasn't on the majors). She was poised, strong and tough. And she zinged the community organizer all over the place - and three days later he's still stumbling over his frequent "uh, ah, uh's" that populate his non-teleprompter driven speeches on the campaign trail. And during her big speech she really didn't have a functioning teleprompter. Take that Barry. (And does anyone remember a line from that speech? We all remember a number of her lines.)

And then this prompted McCain's speech last night to be even watched by more people than Obama's speech - and also made the Republican Convention the most widely watched US political convention of all time! Who needs a football field and styrofoam Greek columns? McCain is not a great speechmaker - he's much better in town hall settings - but he did what he had to do - would have been nice if it was shorter and not interrupted by crazed left wing loons.

Now the polls are tied - but many of them still have pre-Palin speech days in them so we won't know the full bounce til next week. And what is interesting is how much the Republican support for the ticket now has been fueled as support for the pure maniacal way the left press went after Palin's background right after her selection last weekend - a more ravenous feeding fest that broke every moral bounds of even modest decency has never been seen in such a short period of time. Now US magazine has seen over 10,000 cancelations of its horrendous and devious and outright wrong cover story of Governor Palin. In fact they still don't get it.

The anarchists over at MSNBC were clearly stunned in their reaction to her speech and had actually toned it down the next day for McCain's speech. But tonight on her new show, lesbian pit bull Rachael Maddow let loose a constant barrage of lies, innuendos and already debunked rumors about Palin on her show. Maddow's loonish left rants almost make Obermann look, well, just slightly left of left. And she is clearly jealous. I predict her show won't last two months. I don't know why MSNBC is trying to make themselves the cable station of people who just honestly hate America. Great job Dan.

There is some good news and capitulation finally going on - Sally Quinn wrote a very demeaning column about Palin right out of the box last week and she actually went on O'Reilly and said she was wrong.

And then finally we have Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart bitching about "Baracuda" being played for Sarah - saying they weren't asked for permission. Ann and Nancy - you know I'm big fans - but no one has to ask you for permission and you do get royalties (as John Mellencamp discussed in a recent Time magazine article). Get over it. Heartless.

Now they're playing "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor.

The All Important Vetting Process

And now the tag line is that she wasn't vetted properly. It's now not appropriate to pile on about the daughter being pregnant, or that she skinned a moose, or how small this town is so they will now go to the "well McCain did not do this well" card. (By the way - the Governor of Virginia who Obama wanted was only in office three years and previously was mayor of a similarly sized town). But anyway.

So, the latest, is you can't be VP now if your daughter is pregnant. Katie Couric actually asked somebody yesterday - that's Monday - on why the campaign waited until "now" to let out the news that the daughter was pregnant. Well my answer would have been - hey you overpaid twit - she was just announced on Friday - it's frigging Day 3!!!!

Let's look at the other recent vetting processes of candidates, shall we?

• John Edwards - runs for President for a year, but was having an affair since 2006 - vetted anyone? Katie Couric - why didn't you come forward with this information? Everyone knew it. But you - the press - sat on it for two friggin years. And he was even being talked about for VP and Attorney General and he still wasn't "vetted" for a full month after he was caught red-handed in the Beverly Hilton in LA this summer visiting his love baby.

• Hillary Clinton - looks the other way while husband sleeps with every bimbo known to man. Gets Senate seat in New York principally on pity. And this is what liberal women say is the way to success - not getting it for yourself like Sarah. (And many bloggers decry contempt at even comparing the two - this is just hillarious). Sarah Palin certainly get any political coattails out of her husband. What a joke.
  
  


• Teddy Kennedy - runs for President several times even though it was a major news story that he drove his car into the Chappaquidock River while squiring a 20-something girl, who was not his wife, and promptly killed her. Is a teenage pregnancy a little more minor than this - murder? Ok - I'll settle for manslaughter.
  



• JFK - becomes President with Camelot-type promises and flair even though he's shtooping anything that comes along including the sex symobol of the times - Marilyn Monroe - who then kills herself. By the way - so was Bobby. And JFK got votes from the Mafia run Chicago political machine in a super close election with Nixon.
  


• Barry Obama - do nothing skinny guy who gets a pass from the entire mainstream media because they hated Hillary alot more. He was complicitly involved with the Chicago political machine and did not challenge it (like Palin did in Alaska) and got a nice house out of it. Got elected to Senate by running against nobody! (Republicans had to fly in has-been Alan Keyes to run against him) . He took his young daughters and got them pregnant on negative anti-American diatribes from radical preacher Jeramiah Wright. And now he is less than one heartbeat from the Presidency.

Where's the vetting America? Press? MSNBC?

Wow - what a pile on

The latest bullshit buzz on CNN against Gov Palin is above the pale. Larry King - who has now shown his colors as the most liberal anti-progress man with braces (that's suspenders) is fairly obvious now. His show on Labor Day was all about Palin and how horrible she is. And before that his show about how great Obama was had overtones of mesianic delibrium.

And this is after terrible, unsubstantiated shit about her and her daughter from the Daily Kos - a left wing hatchet job website. How fucking dare they?

She's Hot

To be honest when I woke up this morning and heard Sarah Palin's speech droning on the TV I thought one thing - "My god what has he done - he has lost the election!"

I picked myself up and drove to work (west coast ok?). I remember this woman from an article about her pending ethics deal about her tyring to fire her sister's ex-husband. I thought there was no way she would be picked ad VP even as many were mining for women to match the Hillary vote.

Then I see her - I see her steadfasteness at her coming out party - and I learn more.

And now I am jazzed. this woman is more experienced than Obama and more erudite. And she will crush Biden in a debate.

Dumb and Dumber

Wow – a dumber bunch I could not imagine. But they were able to cram in 70,000 morons into Invesco Field in Denver and listen and applaud and feint over a man who had done nothing, virtually nothing in his life, but graduate from an Ivy League school and get a house bought for him by a convicted felon. And then he has the “audacity” to go out and blame others for the ills of the world and then provide an unconscionable list of so-called “solutions” that are not solutions – but flat empty rheotoric.

By the way – is Obama running against Bush? Sure sounds like it. And was McCain President all of this time? Sure sounds like it. (And man, last night Obama was ANGRY at McCain – what did he do to him? He was never ANGRY at Hillary – because he needed Bill that’s why). Fake, fake, fake, fake.

“Stale tactics”? you say. Sounds like your speech Obama. “Don’t have a record to run on?” – do you Obama? (None). And wait – a reverse on the old Seinfeld bit? “It’s not me, it’s you?”

Obama is one of the greatest fakes of all time. He seriously does not understand issues of any magnitude at all – in fact all he understands is how to talk louder, longer and in bigger places.

How about the Dead Sea?

Meanwhile at MSNBC, the Barama All the Time channel, complete vitriot Keith Olberman asked/told ex-patriot the Reverand Sharpton if he agreed that Barack actually had substance to his speech. "I have counted at least 29 detailed points of what and how he is going to do things" Obermann asked. Well if that is true Keith you are truly a complete idiot. What slimey lagoon you crawled out of should be immedialty reported to the EPA.

Shame. Keith. Shame.

"Ah did not have sex with that woman...."

Man, I have never seen Bill Clinton lie his ass off so much - not when he was in office, not when he was trying to hide the blue dress, but last night when he said he loved Barack and said he was ready to lead. Liar. Every sentence, every phrase, every hyperbole. Like Elaine Benes said "Fake, Fake, Fake, Fake"

Man, he's good.

And talk about poor deluded souls, there's something about Joe Biden I like - and I think its because he got hair plugs and looked like a doofus in the Senate there for a bit. And his family history played out well - but his complete discombobulation of the facts he presented when he attacked "his friend" John McCain - well it was almost Clinton-esque.

Of course when you play to a room full of post office workers and insurance salesman what do you expect.

Flip Flop Flub

Let's just say the race is on. No pun intended. Our man Obama has just backtracked on his most principled stand on the war in Iraq. Now he says he may stay a bit longer - after he blistered Hillary over voting for the war.

The man is a liar. Now he is going over there and "evaluate" his stand. He got the primary because he was "for change". And just watch - he will be so centered by November it will make liberals cringe. Why so many people are falling over such a fake man is besides me. Please look at yourself America.

Baird Men

I spent a hot sultry week in Texas in late August with 20 sweaty men. And no, I am not a Senator from Idaho.

Somehow sandwiched between two appointments in Texas I was able to fit in our 18th annual fantasy football draft in an armpit now known as New Ulm – about 60 miles west of Houston. Well in actuality it was a simple little place that we Texans like to call country – but it had its challenges. Namely it didn’t have internet or cell phone coverage. So it was black out city. And that was ok. (but different). And it certainly wasn’t the casino in Louisiana that we had gone to the past two years (but was now gouging us for big dollars on hotel rooms).

Doesn’t matter. This fantasy draft thing is really an annual reunion of guys I have known from high school, college and bidness. The oldest relationships go back as far as when I was 15 with Mud, Dave and Jim. We’re all 49 – that’s a fucking long time.

We were staying in bungalows to have the draft and golf and what not. Ronnie, Todd, Mark and myself came up the night before to have a boy’s night out. Ronnie (TAMU class of 81) is as much a pop culture advocate as I am. So it was there as we were kibitzing about on the porch over adult beverages that we realized we had simultaneously witnessed a pop culture gem while in two very different states (that would be California and Texas).

Rock: I watched Scent of a Woman the other night. It has to be a top ten movie for me.
Ronnie: I did too! “I’m going to take a flame thrower to the place!.”

And so on. If you don’t know this movie that Al Pacino won his lone Oscar with – then run don’t walk. It’s a touchstone. Scent of Women is the tale of a young college guy, Charlie Sims, who goes on a weekend in New York with an older blind ex-soldier (Frank Slade) to make a few bucks while in college – and he’s also getting hosed by his buddies in a political snitch confab. And Slade only wants to go to New York to commit suicide – and poor Charlie has to stop him. And when he does, Slade saves him back (sound like Pretty Woman?) by representing him at a court-like proceeding at the Baird school where he is being incentivized to ratting out some classmates.

Of course you know the movie. And the whole point of this post is that our draft group got it as well.

What is interesting to us guys is that we can pretty much identify with both the characters – Charlie and Frank. Charlie, as the young college student full of ideals trying to make the next step, and Frank Slade the washed up old veteran who has seen the years. We are now both of those men.

While the movie is great it is nothing without Al’s pulsating monologue at the end. It is everything and it is here. And it was everywhere during the draft – and realize this is a bunch of guys calling out football players names for 6 hours – but it was pelted with comments like “Baird men” and they’re just “minnows” or “ you’re going to crucify his soul!”.

The universal feeling that we got from several of the guys about this movie was a bit overwhelming. I will admit that this is one you don’t want to talk about – it’s a bit touchy feely – but everyone was a fan of Al’s speech. And that is a guy thing – don’t want to admit it but its there.

The reality was we were all “Baird Men” and, then, not. Most of us were Aggies. That’s a good group.

Baird men.

Hammering Hank

I remember when Hank Aaron hit 715. And I didn’t want to see him hit it. It wasn’t because he was black. Aaron was a good guy. It was because I didn’t want the Babe’s record erased. Babe was baseball. He was black and white footage that made us all feel really friggin’ great. And while Aaron was also baseball no one knew who he was. Who else should break this thing? Willie Mays, maybe. Mickey Mantle, certainly . But who knew this Aaron guy?

No one ever talks about this. In this age of 24/7 sports coverage, no one talks about the fact that at the time no one ever cared about this guy. Again, not because he was black – but because he was so colorless. He was pale to the glory of eons of baseball history He was an average celebrity who was doing great things. And he kept on hitting homeruns such that we had to eventually take notice.

And then in 1975 he did it. He belted a ball off of Al Downing and then had stupid kids follow him around the diamond in what should have been a more dignified trot around the bases. And even all of us who didn’t want to see this knew that a new home run king was anointed. Babe was dead – and he was, anyway. Hammering’ Hank was the new king.

I write this as the apparent successor Barry Bonds is one home run away from tying Hank.

I will say this now and many times. Barry Bonds is a cheat, a liar, a drug user, a steroid freak and an abomination to major league baseball. And yet he is allowed to chase one of America’s most hallowed benchmarks – the home run title – and I wonder where is the outrage? Where is the disgust? Why isn’t America rioting against this?

Baseball is America. Why is it allowing a proven cheat to trot around the same bases as Hank and Babe did to get a cheated glory?

Shame. Shame. Shame.

I thought it was brilliant.

I used this word as I walked through the office today talking to our admin about last night’s Soprano’s finale. I haven’t been a religious fan – it has been tough to follow with all of the scheduling irregularities, and I can barely make out the good mobsters from the bad, but we all knew the family - and I was looking forward to how one of the many excellent HBO scripted series (and it was the first) would end. And having spent some formative years in New Jersey I felt some kinship to the clan. My parents are both New Yorkers – and while not Italian (we’re Irish) – there was a bit of this series that felt like home. Not my home – but the general feel of Jersey I felt while living there. Gritty and real and home. Not a Texas feel and certainly not a California feel. Guys in Jersey have something to prove.

There’s another story to tell there – but let’s get on with the show. I went on a MSNBC blog about the show’s ending and couldn’t believe some of the vitriol – it was almost split between people using the same word “brilliant” (almost like the Guiness beer ad cartoonish guys) and others who felt greatly cheated by the ending – or non-ending. It was almost bipolar. Either you thought it was the greatest ending for a very cerebral show that always kept you guessing or it was a total let down for people who somehow wanted a Godfather-like bloodbath.

What the creator and final edition writer David Chase left us with was a rich tableau of a final saying good bye to many characters with a firm wink of the eye to many long-time followers of the show. After being scattered into safe houses because many characters got whacked, Tony called for a meeting and got permission to whack Phil which many fans wanted to see. And since Phil went down they all move back into their safe environments (back home) and life is apparently the same. But as we know indictments are going down and Tony will have a heavy future coming to him anyway you look at it.

And I’m not even going to talk about the cat.

So now on to the restaurant. A typical eastern seaboard eatery that I do remember from my childhood. Ones with jukeboxes right at the tables. And very simple but good. The family is all meeting there – and frankly this show was all about family – both of them.

As a rock and roll child of the seventies I’m not even going to tell you how I loved that one of my favorite songs of all time (Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”) was the song Tony picked as he sat down to await his family to join him for dinner. And all of the lyrics worked perfectly for the ending – “just a small town girl, living in a lonely world” had its focus on Carmella as she sat down, then moves to Tony (Just a city boy...took a midnight train going anywhere') – “the movie never ends” as AJ comes in – “streetlight people” as Meadow crosses the street (and there is ton more here - listen to the song!) – really, how perfect is this?

The final three minutes are gripping in sheer depth as you know something has to be going on – they have to do it now – and the “shadows searching in the middle of the night" coming into the diner. And the Godfather-like move of the guy going to the bathroom to get his gun. Strangers waiting, looking on the boulevard.

Being on the west coast I had the opportunity to witness this a couple of times. I was watching college baseball when I realized I could catch the east coast feed of the show before it aired normally at nine out here. I switched to it and saw that I was in the final five minutes and they were in the restaurant. Should I watch now or wait – oh hell I said – check it out. So I saw the end – and like many said “hmmmm”.

So then I waited to see the nine o’clock to see it all the way through and the ending was even much better. To those who thought their cable went out – well I’m sorry but you’re just idiots – and to those who thought they needed to “see” much more – well you were watching the wrong show. What they did is let you think – as the show always did – and if you don’t like it, watch something else – but this was a smart show – not a blood an gore show – and if you didn’t get it, then that’s your problem. You're a goombah at best.

It’s fairly obvious to me that Tony got whacked – and with his whole family. As the family came to further embrace Tony’s lifestyle (AJ getting a freebie job after his bout with adolescence hubris – and Meadow, believing that representing mobsters would be a more noble calling than caring for babies, and Carmello just capitulating, albeit with a high level of status) well they all got whacked. And as said in many episodes – you don’t see it coming. It just goes to black.

And it was brilliant.

Idol Sucks

This is bullshit. Melinda was the best.