Random Thoughts as I Un-Ass a portion of the Connected World

I'm tired of being a product, tired of being sold to bidders who want me to buy stuff i don't need. I'm tired of when a facebook friend invites me to play Candy fucking Crush my stuff is put up for sale again. I'm tired of quizzes that data mine me , my family and friends, sure they're fun but, they slice and dice us even more, but most of all II'm tired of the lack of security of our personal information, Zuckerberg's attitude is, "That's What You Signed Up For" Facebook doesn't need me and I need them even less. Buh-Bye.

I was in the radio business for a huge part of my life, my generation put rock on FM at a time when the so-called smart/big guys didn't care about the FM band at all. They were blindsided by it's success.

Two things happened to radio, the first was deregulation that gutted the ownership rules and the ensuing increase in station evaluations. The investment bankers and venture capitalists poured into the business with huge bags of borrowed money and now the loans are due and they can't pay them. The VCs and Bankers never missed a paycheck but the employees have and will. I hope the station values crash and creative people can get their hands on them again.

In the past few weeks, Mitt Romney's company Bain Capital has declared bankruptcy for three of their major investments, IHeart Media, Toys R Us and Guitar Centers. Romney,s MBA financial engineers extracted over 400 million dollars in fees from IHeart alone, toss in the other two companies and the fees approach a billion god damn American dollars. Once again who will pay the price for these colossal fuck ups? The employees and the small shareholders.

Elliot Broidy, the deputy finance director of the Republican National Committee is a convicted felon. Let that sink in for a minute. Okay?

From the NY Times:  

An investor and defense contractor, Mr. Broidy became a top fund-raiser for Mr. Trump’s campaign when most elite Republican donors were keeping their distance, and Mr. Trump in turn overlooked the lingering whiff of scandal from Mr. Broidy's 2009 guilty plea in a pension fund bribery case. After Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. Broidy quickly capitalized, marketing his Trump connections to politicians and governments around the world, including some with unsavory records, according to interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Broidy suggested to clients and prospective customers of his Virginia-based defense contracting company, Circinus, that he could broker meetings with Mr. Trump, his administration and congressional allies. Mr. Broidy’s ability to leverage his political connections to boost his business illuminates how Mr. Trump’s unorthodox approach to governing has spawned a new breed of access peddling in the swamp.

Like I've said a million times, "You Can't Make this Shit Up"

You can keep in touch with me on this blog...

Republican Panties in a Twist (again)

Mariela Castro Espin

If you are a Republican, you've aligned yourself with the biggest bunch of duplicious bastards in the country.

Marela Castro Espin (Raoul's daughter, Fidel's niece) was granted a visa to speak at a conference in New York. Here's what your presidential candidate had to say about the visa: Mitt accused the Obama administration of “a slap in the face to all those brave individuals in Cuba who are en...during relentless persecution.” 

Here is what the usual Republican suspects had to say: Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), David Rivera (R-FL) and Albio Sires (R-NJ) wrote a strongly-worded letter to the State Department saying:

"The administration’s appalling decision to allow regime agents into the U.S. directly contradicts Congressional intent and longstanding U.S. foreign policy." 

If it’s “longstanding U.S. foreign policy” to deny Mariela Castro a visa to enter the U.S., someone forgot to tell President George W. Bush. The Bush administration granted Castro not one but three visas to enter the U.S. in 2001 and 2002.

Oh, that's right, Republicans have no recollection of George W. Bush!

Mitt was a terrible governor (and a jerk)

This is Mitt Romney. He was my governor once upon a time. He has been running for office since 1992. He is a professional politician.

He is not an outsider. He has never been a businessman or as he likes to say a "job creator". He was and is a Venture Capitalist, not a banker. Bain Capital isn't a bank and Mitt wasn't a nice, friendly banker that you might meet at the local Vet's Club on Friday night.  

Romney appears to know what he is talking about until the moment he is asked a question that is not been pre-scripted. In his run for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in the early 90's Mitt was doing fine, he was even ahead in the polls until he met a very vulnerable Ted Kennedy in a live debate at Fanuel Hall. Romney fell apart and lost the election, Teddy kicked his ass, big time. Mitt is not fast on his feet.

Massachusetts has always elected moderate Republican Governors, guys like Frank Sergeant, Bill Weld, Paul Celluci and many, many others, that's what we thought we were getting with Mitt. We didn't.

Mitt began running for president about 15 minutes after he was elected governor. He would get on a plane go somewhere in one of the Confederate States and refute everything he'd told the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. When his comments were reported, he'd say he didn't say them, when video was produced he'd say that wasn't what he meant and then he stopped talking. Mitt is a liar.

Mitt did something else, no governor had ever done in the Commonwealth, he made the the governor's offices off limits to anyone who wasn't on his list. There were velvet ropes in the hallway and big burly security guards posted. Gone were the days when a Democratic Senate President could stick his head in the door of the Governor's office, walk in, sit down and solve a problem. Didn't happen with Mitt.

Every campaign stop Mitt rolls out this lie. "I balanced the budget when I was governor, every year for 4 years." (notice no mention of which state he governed) The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a constitutional requirement to balance the budget and has since it was an English Colony. The budget has been balanced every year since then. Mitt is inept.

The Commonwealth leads the nation in education, lowest divorce rate, has a solid modern economy and the best health care with the highest percentage of coverage in the country. And 'Taxachusetts" is around 14th in tax rates out of 50. Its a pretty good place to live and work and one would think that a former governor would be proud of that, Mitt isn't.

We got hip to Mitt's act very quickly, after a year in office his approval ratings were in the 30's. Mitt is a jerk.

Getting some shit off my chest!

If I hear another interview on NPR, where obvious
misinformation isn’t questioned, I’m going to rip the audio system out of my
dashboard! (Notice I didn’t say radio!) I know, I know, NPR has changed its
policy from on “on the other hand” to allowing their hosts and news people to
question what factual basis their interviewees are using…they still don’t push
it, do they?


Am I the only one who thinks Mitt Romney may be more
uncomfortable in his skin than any human in history? He is the single most tone
deaf, least empathetic person in the world. Proto-typical venture capitalist! He is one of
the most bald faced liars in the history of US politics, Romney said to an
audience in Ohio last week, “I am proud that as Governor of Massachusetts, I
balanced the state budget for 4 straight
years”…total bullshit. A balanced budget is a requirement, by law, in the
Commonwealth since Massachusetts was a colony. Every goddamned governor,
Republican or Democrat, has balanced the Massachusetts budget for several
hundred years. And before that so did the colonial era governors.


Perry Michael Simon the news/talk editor at All Access did a
bullshit article on Limbaugh the other day, not exactly excusing Rush’s attack
on Sandra Fluke, instead PMS bemoaned the fact that radio “talkers” are not
discussing the issues that matter. Hey, Perry when is the last time Rush had an
insightful, nuanced discussion about anything? Play me the tape. Limbaugh
obviously doesn’t have a clue on how birth control works. What an asshole.
Somehow to Rush, the Bishops, the Religious Right and Pope Santorum the fact
that insurance covers boner pills and they’d rather it not cover birth control doesn’t
seem to be the least bit incongruous. The fact Rush was hooked on hillbilly
heroin could give him some cover, the rest of them, I’m not so sure.

It’s going to be interesting when the blood test results on Andrew Breitbart are released
in a few weeks, anyone who saw his behavior at CPAC knows there was something more than alcohol in his bloodstream.


In other news…

I hope Peyton Manning goes to a team with a big, strong offensive line. I’ve only had one operation on my neck like the 4 he's had and I know my neck isn’t normal. BTW, the nerves grow back under ideal conditions at the rate of an inch a month, my right arm wasn’t completely back
for almost 3 years after the operation, if I remember his last operation was in September of 11…figure it out.

All white NBA players who shave their heads or have really, really short hair should be required to get a spray tan before every game to avoid looking like they are on chemo.


St. Patrick’s Day

The first St Patrick’s Day New England Broadcasters
Association luncheon I attended in the 70’s the entertainment was Carmel Quinn
and Dennis Day. We later congregated at the bar at the Ritz Carleton and were
asked to leave within an hour. The last one I attended was in a bar in the
basement of the Prudential Tower and at 11pm, I found myself with an Irish-Portuguese
lass sitting on my lap facing me, over her shoulder I could see her husband
drunk at the bar. Was I nervous, no, because I knew she would defend me.

Lastly, when my Uncle Gary (a legend in his own time)
returned from Ireland after a farm tour, he was quoted as saying, “if I wanted
to see women with no tits, two stomachs and flat asses, I could have just stayed home”.
Aunt Liz was not pleased.


Thanks for listening and here’s a special tune for Mitt Romney…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=CvwQmxLaknc