"This is an important election..."

How many times have we heard that? Only every election, right? However, we now know this is a truthful statement sometimes.

Only bad thing is, we can now see it was 2000 (and/or 2004). The deregulation chickens have come home to roost. Big time. We really need to know what happened to our economy. This is sickening.

Rams-blings

Marc Bulger should demand to be traded. Now. I don't know if he should do it publicly or privately, although I think he's smart not to talk about his benching publicly, as then his trade value might be diminished if he is branded a "problem" player.

The Arizona Cardinals are on St. Louis TV before the Rams inevitable crushing at the hands of the Bills later this afternoon. And there is our old pal, Kurt Warner, still playing for the Cards. He's been through a lot, and I can't say I always was confident in his playing (relative to Bulger's abilities or otherwise). But I think all Kurt has ever wanted to do was play ball. He wants to get well paid, too, I'm sure, but he strikes me as more of a throw-back (no pun intended), in that really, bottom line, he just wants to get in and play ball. And he may not be Johnny Unitas, Peyton Manning or Bart Star (or even Kurt Warner, circa 1999-2000). But he is still at least moderately effective most of the time, still may fumble a lot, but also brilliant at times. Good for Kurt. I am happy for him. I really am.

One thing that has been consistent with the Rams, even in the glory years of 1999 to 2001 (with the good blip in 2003 as well)--they've never protected the quarterback. Warner got pounded, as did Bulger (not to mention our old buddy Trent Green, the guy starting for Bulger today who went out because of a devastating sack in pre-season '99 that paved the way for the former Hi-Vee grocery clerk). If Warner had stayed with the Rams, does anyone doubt that he'd have retired years ago from too many concussions, too many aches and pains (and maybe worse) to the body? We've let Bulger just get bloodied up, and yes, while he has not been effective this year (and a lot of last), it is just not reasonable to ask or expect anyone to get blistered and still be effective throwing the ball.

So for Bulger to preserve his career, he should do what Warner did--run as fast as he can from the Rams to preserve his body and his brain. Warner's decision was tougher--he went from a winning organization to a perennial loser (or pretender). But the Rams are just a stinky football team now, probably the worst (or certainly in the bottom 3) in the NFL. Why stay?

Run, Marc. Run fast. Before it's too late for you.

Bubbles Bursting in Mid-Air

Well, the economic scene was fascinating and scary this week. Seems like we came close to a complete melt-down. Nothing like a little socialism injected into our society that cannot do a lot of good. Heard a commentator say (and I don't know if this is pretty close to the truth) that its a good thing we have Paulson as president these days. Where is Mr. Bush anyway?

I had the feeling earlier that the McCain/Palin bubble is bursting too. Could have just been a good week for Obama on the stump (but maybe we've turned a corner)? Seems like it was a lot of things--(1) blatant flip-flopping on "I'm a deregulator/I'll clean up Wall Street and go after those fat cats" (2) press calling Mr. McCain to account for his misleading ads (MSNBC not shy about using the "l" word) (3) even a lot of conservative commentators (Brooks, Will, even the inane Krauthammer, as I understand) flipping out about Ms. Palin not being ready for prime time. And I'm sure other things.

What do you think, folks? Should the government be bailing out financial institutions? I don't know that they had any choice. But when will we figure out that what we like, expect and think works in this country is regulated capitalism?

Gregory Ascendeth

This summer I predicted that David Gregory would be tapped for the Meet the Press gig (see post on June 23). Looks like he might be gathering steam, as he will now host MSNBC's election night coverage, rather than Olbermann and Matthews. Also looks like he's being "groomed" for the MTP spot, per this article.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i425366f6874393a74ad59e9c25b234b7?imw=Y

Band Dad's Musings

Here is new one for me--sitting at a BreadCo blogging while waiting for Nathaniel's bass lessons. He's doing a band now, followed by private lessons, so I was trying to figure out what to do with myself for two hours. I figured I could go to a BreadCo with wireless, log on and get some work done. That'd be great, except I forgot our website to log in on! I go from a saved link at home that has recently changed, so here I am blogging away. (This should be a new post on a blog about blogging, like Jeremy Duncan has in Zits.)

Saturday was recording session #2 at Benton Park Studios. The Voodoo Band is feeling very comfortable in the studio now, and we fixed up a couple of boo boos from session #1 and laid down four more good tracks. We are focusing on originals this time out, to save $$ on license fees for covers, but mainly to show off the pens of Raul and Blind Willie, who have written some of the band's best songs. The working title is "Sundown", after a Latin-tinged, bluesy number penned by Raul. We are having a ball.

Strange twists so far on the Republican veep situation. I don't know what to make of it all. But one thing's for sure: what a strain this could put on the poor Palin family. I wished we lived in a world where their privacy could be respected, but we do not. I feel for the young daughter going through a pregnancy in this environment.

Voodoo Blues Slideshow

Our August recording session: