Weekly Wilson

The new illustrated cat book "The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats."

I’m pretty excited: the proofs for “The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats” have arrived, and the book is really cool. I will have it at all the appearances I’ve booked here in the Quad Cities during the holidays, and, if you’re reading this in some far-flung part of the world, order a copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble! (It does not exist as an E-book title, yet, but may, in the future.)

I wanted to put this out here to encourage any readers that are interested to please come to the signing(s). The December 10th signing at Northpark Mall will also feature illustrater Emily Marquez from Venezuela, who will come from Chicago for that signing. Other places I plan to be are as follows:

November 21:  4:30 to 10 p.m.- Sizzlin’ Soiree at the downtown Radisson Hotel in conjunction with the Festival of Trees.

December 2:  Gallery Hop in Rock Island from 6 to 9 p.m.

December 3:  12:30 to 1:30 at the East Moline Public Library.

December 3:  2:00 on at Barnes & Noble, Northpark Mall, for a Midwest Writing Center fundraiser

December 7:  7:00 p.m. at the Bettendorf Public Library, which is going to involve a humorous reading from “Laughing through Life,” a piano, an accordion and refreshments. Please come so I don’t bomb on Pearl Harbor Day.

December 10:  Signing at Barnes & Noble at Northpark that will involve Emily Marquez, one of the book’s illustraters from Venezuela, beginning at 11 a.m..

December 10:  The Victorian Christmas Walk in Geneseo, beginning at 5:30, in the window of The Four Seasons, again with Venezuelan illustrator Emily Marquez present.

If you have any interest in humor OR an illustrated children’s book with a good lesson for children to learn, come to any or all of the above events.

Tim Stopulos, Assumption High School (IA) & Wake Forest Musician, on tour with new album "Songs of Separation."

Tim Stop…used to be the Tim Stopulos Trio, then the Tim Stop Trio. Now, just Tim Stop (www.timstop.com) Whenever Tim plays in Chicago and I’m there, as well, I try to stop by, as when he played “Market” on Randolph Street. I wondered about band member Seville Lilly (the hat guy).  Justin Hooks and Michael Tahlier are still onboard. (Justin just for the album, it seems.)

Tim’s CD back when I first wrote about him was “The Long Drive Home.” Now, he’s released a new set of “Songs of Separation,” and the universal theme should hit home for anyone who has loved and lost. The 27-year-old Davenport Assumption High School graduate puts all the emotion out there on the tracks. Therapeutic.

 Most of Tim Stopulos’ new album “Songs of Separation” (released October 18th) focuses on the heartache and heartbreak that is  impossible to avoid when you’re young and in love. Or old and in love. Or young and falling out of love. Or old and falling out of love.Boy meets girl. Boy dates girl. Boy and girl have a long-term relationship. Boy and girl break up to go in different directions. It’s a story as old as Adam and Eve. 

The new CD out from Bettendorf’s Tim Stopulos (“Songs of Separation”) begins a favorite, a song entitled “Half A World Away.” Lyric:  “You’re safe at home, you’re safe and warm, And I’m longing for one day when I find my way.  I will find my place, even if it’s half a world away.” Melancholy. Minor key. One of my personal favorites on the album. Lyric: “Now I’m anxious as these thoughts inside my head begin to swirl about a history that’s only just beginning to unfurl. And I long for adaptation to an unfamiliar world.”  

Coming from Stopulos in a John Mayer pop ballad vein, the songs on this new CD  chronicle the age-old and familiar terrain of falling in and out of love. Influenced by such musicians as Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Ben Folds, Coldplay, Billy Joel, Radiohead (Thom Yorke) and Jeff Buckley, you can hear the Wake Forest graduate’s 22 years of piano lessons paying off in his composition and performance, and, more importantly to this writer, the lyrics are impressive, too. 

The rhythms pick up on “A Little Bit Better,” the second song, which has some interesting and expert guitar work. It’s one of the most upbeat songs, despite this lyric:  “It’s a different kind of alone when you’re locked and trapped inside your mind.” [Reminded me of a Sheryl Crow lyric: "I'm a stranger in my own life."]  

Third song on the CD, “Rollin’“, has the line, “I know I should leave you, but my heart won’t let me go.” Next up, “Unconditional:” “Wherever you are, I love you. Whatever you do, I always will.  I hope some day you’ll find me. My love is…Wherever you are, just call my name.  I’ll race across this empty state.  I’d leave tonight to find you, ‘Cuz my live is unconditional. It’s unconditional.” (Wow! You’re a better man than me, Charlie Brown. I remember some break-ups that left me feeling pretty bitter; this guy’s much more forgiving.)

Next up was “Something’s Gotta’ Give,” (which, judging from the sound of young Tim’s weekend at the Iowa Hawkeye game, written up on his blog, may well be his health. Sounded like a long, crazy weekend!) 

“Professional,” a song with a slightly more cynical slant about a girl who “doesn’t change for anybody” was less devoted than “Unconditional.” I liked “Professional” a lot. [Maybe I've grown more cynical in my old age. You think?] 

 ”Malaga,” the 7th song, is the only one that didn’t seem to focus on the break-up of a relationship. A bit more of a “carpe diem” philosophy, expressed musically.

“Whisper in the Wind” is a melancholy melody that references  the death of a young friend from cancer and wonders where she is (“Did she find God or does she wander in the wind to remind the world of a life that could’ve been but never was.”) After spending Halloween night at a local funeral home— [thankfully, not for a person cut down in their prime]—I could relate. (And, by the way, there’s no place creepier to spend Halloween night!) This song has a wistful air of melancholy, and is performed beautifully. 

“After You” opens with a ticking sound. Liked it. Lyrics:  “I recall she said that if I left I would go alone..she wouldn’t have the strength to follow me, and now I’m gone, so alone is what I chose to be.  But I didn’t choose this life, I told her, it chose me.” That one sounds very autobiographical for a musician on the road trying to make it in the music business. 

There is no mention of “Every Day” on my liner notes, but that is the last song on this impressive, original CD, “Songs of Separation.” Tim just played with Deas Vail at Legends of Notre Dame and he’s set to hit the following venues in the next few days or weeks: 

11/3 – Janesville, Wisconsin, Timeout @ 9:00 P.M.

11/4 – Lindey’s, East Troy, Wisconsin @ 9:00 P.M.

11/5 – Lindey’s, East Troy, Wisconsin @ 9:30 P.M.

11/9 – Crow Valley (Country Club), Davenport, IA

11/10 – Rockit, Chicago, IL 9:00 P.M.

11/23 – Jersey Grille, Davenport, IA

Time off for the holidays, then:

1/20 – The Livery, Benton Harbor, MI

1/27 – The Redstone Room, Davenport, Iowa

Stopulos wrote all the words and music on this expertly produced CD, with help from Michael Tahlier on electric guitar, Tim Seisser on bass, Khari Parker on drums, Matt Nelson on Rhodes/organs, Justin Hooks on percussion with Packy Lundholm on “Something’s Gotta’ Give.” The artwork is by Josh Nelson and photography by Matt Wince, with production by Tim and Bob DiFazio, Engineering/editing mixing by DeFazio, vocal production by El Thornton and Justin Hooks and mastering by Danny Leake at Urban Guerillas. 

Among other accolades thrown around about the handsome young singer are: “energetic, soulful, sophisticated songwriter, wonderful voice, mesmerizing stage presence” Hard to top those already-used descriptions. Let me just say: “Ditto.”

 Check out his songs on YouTube. Better yet, buy a copy at www.timstop.com or Cdbaby.com. But don’t worry about his broken heart. Something tells me there’s someone out there eager to help nurse it back to health.

The locals watch Obama on television from the Wyffels' Seed Factory in Atkinson, Illinois on Wednesday, August 17, 2011.

I took off for Atkinson, Illinois at 10:30 a.m. President Obama was to visit this village of 1100 people at 11:30 a.m. After 2 presidential campaigns, where the time of arrival is usually off by at least a half hour (His 3:30 stop in Alpha, for instance, did not occur until 5:00 p.m.) I was pretty sure that I’d beat the President to the flag-draped town 8 miles east of Geneseo.

I drove past Geneseo on Interstate 80, an approximate 30 to 40 minute drive, in the Grasshopper (my 2005 green Prius) and, at each overpass, I noticed police with police and highway patrol cars above me. At each turnaround there was a large orange piece of heavy duty equipment that would prevent anyone from doing a “turnaround”—even if turnarounds were not specifically prohibited by signage.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011.

So, picture me humming “dum de dum dum” (although I was actually listening to the late, great Amy Winehouse sing “no, no, no” to the idea of going to rehab. )Up came the exit for Atkinson (pop. 1100) and I exited. I made the turn onto the overpass to the left only to have a highway patrolman frantically wave at me to “go back.”

Initially, I began back-pedaling like a kid stung by a wasp, but then I thought, “Wait a minute. How am I going to get into Atkinson if this is the exit and this guy won’t let me use the road?”  (At that point, I had not yet thought of back roads.) I put the Grasshopper into Drive and slowly and cautiously inched forward to ask the nice highway patrolman where he suggested I should go. he didn’t say, “To hell,” but he might as well have, given the level of hysteria he projected.

“You’re on the entrance ramp!” he screamed, quite unnecessarily. “You’re just ahead of the motorcade!”

This was exactly as I had hoped would be the case: me waiting for a brief time, rather than spending my whole morning standing around in the hot sun waiting for a large black bus to breeze by me. One man I spoke to later said he had been outside since 8:00 a.m.

Federal stimulus money helped underwrite the construction of the village's new fire station, currently under construction.

I finally backed up and took the ramp heading east towards Chicago, not quite sure what my next move should be.  As I was speeding along on Interstate 80 to the east, I saw one of the turn-arounds that had, for some inexplicable reason, not been barricaded by large orange trucks. Despite signs suggesting that I not make a turn-around, I was headed in the wrong direction and getting nowhere fast, so I chanced it. Now I was, at least, heading back toward the overpass I was not being allowed to use to enter Atkinson. Since the first Smokey (yes, they were wearing those peaked hats) had been quite set against allowing me access to the delights of the village of Atkinson, I needed to figure out how I was going to access the town. I didn’t expect to be among the 300 people crowded into the Wyffel’s Seed Facility: those seats went fast and people got in line as early as 2:00 a.m. and still got shut out. I just planned to wander around in town and see what the mood of the populace was.
Would there be demonstrators, for or against the president’s visit? Would there be unpleasantness of the sort I had recently been subjected to, where a know-nothing graduate of Jefferson High School (in Independence, Iowa), a Bible-thumping seller of reverse mortgage programs who was “so proud” to be in the industry had called me both “stupid” and “godless” because I was not down with the Republican presidential candidates. I could envision some of these reverse mortgage engineers (think Fred Thompson), driving trucks with gun racks, getting in my face (or someone else’s face who had actually managed to gain admission to the tiny town) and being unpleasant. This was what I hoped to find out: just how unpleasant or pleasant would the populace be? What would the mood be “on the ground.”

I began heading back towards the overpass. It occurred to me that, since the first Smokey the Bear policeman had told me that the motorcade was right behind me, I could perhaps get a snapshot of the motorcade on its way across that very ramp, heading into town (something I was not having much luck doing.)

I drove as slowly as I could drive while on an Interstate and, about a mile from the overpass, while braking sharply, 2 cameras 2 maps, 2 notebooks and my purse all fell off the passenger’s side seat and fell to the floor. Turning on my signal, I pulled over to the shoulder of I-80 to pick up my camera equipment, et. al. By the time my head came up from under the dashboard, I was greeted by the sight of yet another Smokey the Bear look-alike burning rubber while accelerating his highway patrol car in reverse, heading towards the Grasshopper at warp speed.

This conversation took place with the highway patrolman guy, who was as impressed with his lot in life as anyone I’ve met.

“MA’AM! WE CAN’T HAVE THIS!”

“I know. My cheap Canon fell on top of my expensive Nikon!” (me)

(Smokey) “NO! I MEAN WE CAN’T HAVE YOU HERE!”

(Me) “But I AM here. I’m just waiting till the motorcade goes by so I can get into town.”

(Smokey) “WE CAN’T HAVE THAT! MOVE ALONG!”

(Me) “Can I just pop out and take a picture of the overpass as the motorcade drives into town?”

(Smokey) Dumfounded. Incredulous look.

So, I once again drove down Interstate 80, this time driving back to the west, towards Geneseo.  Since I was still laboring under the misconception that Obama had spent the night at the Blackhawk Hotel in downtown Davenport and, therefore, would be coming from the west, I briefly considered staying in the parking lot of the convenience store at the intersection and taking a photo from that vantage point.

Then I remembered that there was a back road to access Geneseo. I reasoned there must be a back highway to access Atkinson and I plugged in the Atkinson Town Hall as my destination of choice. Sure enough, Highway 6 would take me to Atkinson, and I began following the nice lady’s voice to drive town the flag-lined road and roam the small village.

As I drove aimlessly about in Atkinson, I was struck by the small-town look and feel of the boulevard-like main street, which, I noticed, had a corner tap that was open for business.  I parked my car and strolled in to order a Diet Coke and test the waters.

There was a bar stool open at the bar, next to a couple, Mr. and Mrs. VanOpdorp, who lived in Atkinson for years but now live in Rock Island.

“My grandfather came through here on the train when he arrived from Holland. He got off the train at this very bar, which has been open since the 1800′s, and had his first beer in America and he just decided to stay.” So, if he had bought his first beer in New Mexico, Mr. VanOpdorp might have been living in a much warmer climate.

Without asking anyone’s political designation, I asked Mr. and Mrs. VanOpDorp and others seated near me in the bar who they liked in the 2012 presidential race.   “Do you think the Republicans will nominate Romney to run against Obama?” I asked, as the two plasma TV sets behind the bar showed President Obama’s remarks, live, on KWQC Channel 6.

“Naaah. The Republicans don’t have a dog in the fight, so far,” said Mr. VanOpdorp.

“You don’t think the Republicans have any good candidates?”

“Naaah.” Mr. VanOpdorp and his wife both shook their heads no.

“What about Governor Perry of Texas?”

“Naaah.”

Apparently, the crowd inside the Corner Tap in Atkinson was either firmly Democratic or simply disinterested in the outcome of the election, but everyone in the bar was very interested in what President Barack had to say this day. All were listening intently and respectfully.

Later, on the streets of Atkinson, fathers held their young children on their shoulders to catch a glimpse of the President of the United States as he drove out of town in his big black bus, waving to all of us standing on the sidewalks waiting to catch a glimpse of him.

In the wake of Michele Bachmann’s pulling out all the stops, including bringing in Travis Tritt and “meat sundaes” to her tent at the Iowa Straw Poll, is it any wonder that, after 17,000 votes were cast, she was pronounced the winner by a slight margin (200 votes or so) over Ron Paul, who also had his “Dump Bernanke” tank and the “dollar slide” AND the best tent position. Add to that Bachmann’s claims to being “a 7th generation Iowan” and it doesn’t seem too surprising that she won the straw poll, which is about as unscientific as you can get and seldom predicts the winner, anyway.

That is why this line from Matt Strawn, Iowa Republican Party chairman, seems disingenuous:  “I think for the first time in a long time, there’s probably more uncertainty over what the ultimate finish will be in Ames.”  My reaction to that: “Ha!” I wrote a piece that appeared yesterday that pointed all the above out and drew the obvious conclusion that Bachmann would do well. She did. What is Matt Strawn smoking or eating over there in Ames?

If you missed the notice in the Chicago “Tribune” today (Thursday, August 11, 2011), the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 25 requested documents of Deere & Company regarding a possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in Russia. A Deere spokesman told Bloomberg that the company is cooperating with the SEC request and gave no further details.

It would be nice to see what candidates Deere bankrolled in the recent political elections and which they will bankroll in 2012.

"Laughing through Life:" enough laughs to keep you from yawning.

With the recent release (as a paperback) of “Laughing through Life” and the various anecdotes that make up this stroll down memory lane, I felt it apropos to share with you an amusing anecdote that is similar to those in this book

Here’s a new one for you. My nephew’s 4-year-old daughter, Sophia, decided to do a header by shoving her tiny body through a play tube that was never meant to hold a 4-year-old. She did a tremendous “clunk” to the  floor below, where she immediately moaned and began crying. (Fortunately, she landed on a carpeted surface).

Her father and mother, Chris and D.J.,  ran to her side and asked her if she was “Ok” and did it hurt.

She was crying intermittently and then looked up at us and said, “It hurts all the way to God.”

[Out of the mouths of Babes. OR from "Laughing through Life!" (Try it, you'll like it!)]

Supposedly, what follows was an actual answer to the question on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term exam.  The answer by one student was so profound that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which I now present for your reading pleasure:

“Bonus Question:  Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?”

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant thereof.

One student, however, wrote the following:

“First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time.  So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving Hell.  I think we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave.  Therefore, no souls are leaving Hell.  As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell.  Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.  With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.  Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately, as souls are added.

This gives us 2 possibilities:

1)  If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2)  If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So, which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, “It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,” and take into account the fact that she slept with me last night, then Number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.  The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is, therefore, extinct…leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a Divine Being, which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting, “Oh my God!”

[The student received an A+.]

Chicago, IL, July 31, 2011  Sunday, July 31, was my son’s birthday. When he was a teenager in the ‘70s, I took him to see Paul McCartney and “Wings” at Ames’ Hilton Coliseum. Tonight, I took my daughter (age 24) to see Paul McCartney, paired with his new sidemen, who include a fierce-looking drummer with earrings and a bald head  (Abe Laboriel), Paul “Wix” Wickens on keyboards, and Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on guitar. Even with slight heels, McCartney was by far the smallest musician, physically, but the biggest talent onstage.

I first saw Paul McCartney “Live” at the San Francisco Cow Palace in 1965, and I was struck with how often he would toss his head. He and Ringo seemed to have all the moves, while George was an absolute stick-in-the-mud and John did little of the crowd-pleasing physical stuff. I next saw McCartney “Live” in concert in Ames, Iowa in the 70s, with my son in tow. It was son Scott’s 43^rd birthday this day, and he pronounced Paul to be over-the-hill, so I took his much younger sister, who will remember this concert many years from now.
It was a sultry, hot night and Sir Paul sweated through his long-sleeved blue shirt and removed his blue jacket by the time he reached the 6^th song (of 37, total).  His first song was “Hello, Goodbye” and later on, Paul would relate a story about how, when playing in the Soviet Union, a man came up to him and told him, “I have learned the English language from your records.  Hello. Goodbye.” After the first song, “All My Lovin’” followed, with Paul telling the eager crowd that he was “glad to be a part of the history of Wrigley Field.”

“Baby, You Can Drive My Car,” his fifth song, was a hit, with the people in the infield seats standing the entire time. Jacket removed, Paul swung in to “The Night Before” (“Treat me like you did the night before.”).  A priest in the crowd held up a sign that said, “I’m a priest. I’d like to do your wedding,” a reference to the recent announcement of Paul’s intention to marry his girlfriend Nancy Shevell.

Wrigley Field Concert on Sunday, July 31, 2011.

Moving from a normal guitar to a red psychedelic one, Paul played “Let Me Roll It” (Wings) and, in a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, “Foxy Lady.” He shared with the crowd a memorable night when Jimi Hendrix asked Eric Clapton, sitting in the crowd, to come up and tune his guitar. Paul switched back to a more normal-looking guitar, declaring it to be the one he had used on “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

“Paperback Writer:” ended with one of the guitarists showing the word “Thanx” to the enthusiastic crowd and Paul then moved to the piano to   play “The Long and Winding Road.” That was followed by “1985” (Wings); “Let ‘Em In”; “Maybe I’m Amazed”; “I’ve Just Seen a Face” (Beatles); “I Will” (Beatles); “Blackbird” (Beatles); “Here Today”; “Dance Tonight”; “Mrs. Vanderbilt” (Wings); “Eleanor Rigby” (Beatles); “Something” (Beatles); “Band on the Run” (Wings); “Ob-Ladi, Ob-La Da” (Beatles); and a rocking “Back in the U.S.S.R.”

It was some time in the middle of Paul’s touching rendition of “Blackbird” that a very loud man in the upper stands began shouting (“A______”) at a person standing in front of him, and that was to the detriment of all, but motivated by the older crowd who came to hear the 69-year-old Beatle play only to have their view blocked by members of the younger generation who stood up in front of them well before the final songs.

“I’ve Got a Feeling”; “A Day in the Life;” “Give Peace a Chance” and “Let It Be” followed (ironic that 4 girls—all young—began fighting in the stands near me soon after this).  Then came the pyrotechnic high point of the evening, “Live and Let Die” from the James Bond film, complete with fireworks and flash pots exploding behind the proscenium.  (This was Song #30)

Paul and the band left, but were soon lured back by enthusiastic applause to sing “Hey, Jude,” “Lady Madonna,” “Day Tripping,” and “Get Back.” When that 4-song encore didn’t shut the crowd up, Paul and company played a second encore of “Yesterday,” “Helter Skelter” (Remember when it was said that playing this backward you heard “Paul is dead?” Not to mention the fact that Charles Manson will forever be associated with the title); and, finally, “Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight.”

The concert, scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m., lasted over 3 hours and Paul McCartney, like his contemporary Mick Jagger, has not lost a step in all of his 69 years. A truly memorable  concert.

Connie Wilson’s Contributor Profile – Yahoo! Contributor Network – Yahoo! Contributor Network – contributor.yahoo.com

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R, Ohio).

As the debt ceiling talks stall, I am reminded of the “Rolling Stone” article I wrote on Speaker John Boehner back in January. If you haven’t read what is essentially a synopsis of an extremely informative article in “Rolling Stone” by Matt Taibbi, there’s a link above. It would be a good idea to read it, in light of the unprecedented crisis he and his party have thrust upon our country with the failure to pass an extension of the debt ceiling, something done 18 times for Reagan and 7 times for Clinton. Bush the Younger, who got us into this mess by blowing through the surplus that President Clinton left and getting us into multiple conflicts worldwide also had the debt ceiling raised several times, whether the leadership was Republican or Democratic.
But our first black president cannot catch a break from the Tea Party tribe recently installed in the hallowed halls of Congress.  I saw the potential for impasse up close and personal in 2008 at the Ron Paul Rally for America in Minneapolis’ Target Center. I remember saying then, “If the Republicans can harness all this energy and enthusiasm and youth, they have a shot at revitalizing their party,” which, let’s face it, was looking pretty old and white and homogeneous across town in St. Paul at the RNC. That harnessing, unfortunately, has led us to the brink of financial ruin, as the group that emerged became known as the Tea Party.

Here’s a quote from today’s (July 28^th) Chicago “Tribune” regarding Speaker Boehner and the current impasse:  “He is the party,” said Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R, Ohio), a longtime ally.   “If he’s diminished, the party is diminished.” Given the way they’ve been acting, all I can say to that is a resounding, “Good!”

A few more quotes from a different Chicago “Tribune” article by Lisa Mascaro and Kathleen Hennessey of the “Tribune’s” Washington bureau. (And make no mistake about it: the “Tribune” is pro-Republican most of the time and praised Boehner’s bone-headed 2-step tax proposal, which would put “we, the people” through this mess all over again in 6 months’ time…a bad idea in and of itself.)

Page12, July 28, “Nation & World” section, “Boehner Steers A Rocky Path:”  “Earlier this week, the plan was relegated to life support when an analysis showed it would not cut as much as advertised, threatening to take Boehner down with it amid warnings of dire economic consequences for failing to act.  In a quickly changing atmosphere, though, little is certain.”

The “Tribune also said, on the same page, “If the GOP majority ends up falling in line, Boehner will emerge as a cool political operative who found a way to steer his caucus and its unruly freshman class to momentary unity.  If the bill fails, Boehner will have proved the conventional wisdom:  Neither he, nor possibly anyone else on his team can control the rambunctious tea party-aligned GOP ranks that are redefining what it means to be a conservative in this country.”

Later in the article (and at great length in the original January piece. link above), the comment was made:  “Boehner’s hold over these newcomers is fragile.”

Let’s face it: NOBODY has control over the Tea Party loose cannon element in Congress. The nation is pretty sick of it.  Quoting folks who live near the Beltway, Faye Fiore of the “Tribune” papers quoted 66-year-old Warren Cohen of Fairfax as saying, “Lunacy” and announcing his willingness to pay more taxes on his $250,000 in income.  That comment was made “as the country barreled toward a financial cliff.” Noted Fiore, “They’ve (citizens interviewed) had it up to here with politicians who listen to the fringes of their parties, then expound about what ‘Americans want.’”

I just signed a petition authorizing President Obama to invoke the 14^th Amendment and, if necessary, raise this debt ceiling on his own recognizance. He has tried to “lead from behind,” as the pundits put it, being reasonable with a group of intractable Congressmen who act like two-year-olds and putting up with a lot more ridiculous behavior from the Tea Party crowd than any informed, intelligent, dedicated public servant should have to put up with. It seems like most of them deserve a “time out.” This former Senator and Harvard grad , who is now the President of the United States,  is at the mercy in the case of my own district (17^th Congressional, Illinois) of a guy with a 2-year degree from Black Hawk Junior College and not much else on his resume, other than owning a pizza parlor, being firmly in the pocket of big contributors in this area such as John Deere, and having once served his union. He and the man he defeated (Phil Hare) were both staunch Catholic graduates of Alleman High School in Rock Island, but only Bobby Schilling has 10 kids. (Hare had only 2). Only Hare had 27 years’ experience as Lane Evans’ right-hand man until he had to retire with Parkinson’s disease, also, and that, too, shows in this most recent idiocy. Schilling is among 5 first-term GOP House members from Illinois. He was endorsed by the Tea Party when he ran and you can bet your endangered Social Security dollars that he is going to have a real fight on his hands during the next run for office, given his performance to date.

Here is how Faye Fiore in McLean, Virginia put it:  “They (the citizens) want this debt game over.  It’s getting old: rich lawmakers playing chicken with the lives of people who can’t afford it.” Senator Harry Reid has already announced that the plan, even if it were to pass, is DOA in the Senate, and there is also the matter of a presidential veto that would be likely. But getting this group of Republicans to agree on anything is like herding cats, and not particularly bright cats, at that.  Does the old cliche “Lead, follow or get out of the way” carry any meaning any more? The Republican “followers” seem unwilling to “follow” their own leader and the ostensible leader has never been noted for leading much of anything but the group leaving the 18th hole for the country club bar. Ergo, get out of the way seems apropos.

It Came from the ’70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now is on tour in July and August. Here are the book blogs that will be reviewing “It Came from the ’70s” and when they will have information up about the book:

1)  “Under My Apple Tree” – July 11, 2011

2)  “Dan’s Journal” – July 12 Review. Also a Guest Post on July 13.

3)  “She Treads Softly” (Lori) – July 13 Review and Guest Post on July 14, 2011

4)  “Reading, Reading and Life” – Kendall – July 15 Review

5)  “5 Minutes for Books” – Elizabeth – July 13 Review and July 17 Guest Post

6)  “To Read Or Not to Read” – Marcie – July 18 Review and July 19 Guest Post

7)  “Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers” – Gina – July 19 Review and July 20 Interview

8)  “Books, Books, the Magical Fruit” – Sue – July 20 Review and July 21 Guest Post

9)  “Emeraldfire’s Bookmark” – Mareena’s – July 21 Review and July 22 Interview

10)  “Babbling About Books & More” – Kate – July 25 Review

Check out these varied book blogs to see what these book reviewers thought of “It Came from the ’70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now.”