Thinking about some of my favorite unsung heroes of rhythm & blues -- unsung because they were black and their biggest hits were either restricted to race records in the early 50s (until Alan Freed broke down those walls and introduced young white kids to the real deal) or were covered by white musicians who made all the money off the tunes, or they died young, like Jackie Wilson and Little Willie John.

Maybe some of these can't be strictly called r&b, but whatever they are, they're some great American music.

Gotta start with Mr. Excitement, Jackie Wilson, "Lonely Teardrops":

Just a ramble for a Thursday night.

Friday, end of wageslave work week draws nigh, and we are having beautiful warm weather here in New York City, makes a person kind of dizzy.

So I thought I'd speak of the difference between force and power.

Why not?

See, I think that the Bush misAdministration never had their own power.  Whatever power they had was always stolen.  They are crooks, after all.

I've always had a hard time with this day.  I've always had a hard time with the military, understanding my own feelings about those who, with the power of government behind them, put guns in the hands of young men and women and teach them how to kill.

Here we are in the 21st Century, and we are still doing this, putting weapons in the hands of young men and women, sending them out to kill human beings.

We hear the usual sayings, "they chose to serve," "to protect and defend," "those who died are heros," all those things.

I wonder what Americans really want when it comes to protecting and defending.

Memorial Day has become in our modern world a day to remember those who died for the sake of protecting and defending our country.

I see the names, I read the IGTNT diaries here at Daily Kos, showing the pictures of those killed in war, showing their families and friends, telling of their lives, their interests, dreams, ambitions.

Protect and defend.

They chose to serve

Over at Standing Firm you can read the terrible story of how our federal government is dealing with the problems of immigration -- by coming into small towns and raiding them, tearing families apart, and terrorizing an entire community.

On Monday, May 12, federal immigration authorities raided the Agriprocessors, Inc. meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa. This massive raid led to the arrest of more than 300 workers and quickly threw this small town of less than 3,000 people into chaos.

Throughout the last week family members have been desperate to get information about their loved ones, children are staying away from school for fear of leaving their homes, attorneys have been attempting with limited success to gain access to workers being detained by federal authorities, and the entire town faces an uncertain future. Fears are growing that the detained workers will soon be shipped across the country to be prepared for deportation without being able to speak with attorneys or family members.

It's late, after midnight, and I am going into speculative territory here about John McCain.

There's something bugging me about him.  Yes, I know the press treats him as they do all Republicans -- with even a little added approval because he knows how to play them.  The press loves the whole "maverick" conceit, keeps them from having to think about who he really is and analyze what he says and does from a rational point of view.

But the more I think about who John McCain is, the more I come up with a blank, a disconnect I find disturbing.

Once again I am going to shamelessly indulge myself here at Daily Kos.  There will be no links or fine intellectual analysis.  I'm still a little too punch drunk to meet the high standards of the premier political blog in the land, or at least one that gets a very high number of hits.

Yes, one of the few forlorn members of the battered Democratic base once again wishes to say a few words.

You see, I am too punch drunk to pull punches any more.  What the hell.

Oh man, during the Reagan reign we had a Dem majority that had been in power for a few decades, fat and complacent even as it had some stars and characters and movers and shakers.

The party itself, not so fresh.

And then we had Clinton going one way and the party going another after 12 years of demoralizing one-two punches to our body politic by the very same folks who would, eight years later, gain even more power and cause even more suffering.  Not opposite directions, mind you ... just different ones, kind of reeling still from the chore of cleaning up after those pigs.

And now we are nearing the time of another Presidential election  And our party is reeling in the ring, down but not out.

I remember reading a story in the New York Times magazine, in October of 2004 about terrorism and John Kerry's view on it.

Kerry had a far different view of what should be done to counter terrorism:

But when you listen carefully to what Bush and Kerry say, it becomes clear that the differences between them are more profound than the matter of who can be more effective in achieving the same ends. Bush casts the war on terror as a vast struggle that is likely to go on indefinitely, or at least as long as radical Islam commands fealty in regions of the world.

I know there are a lot of folks here who have little sympathy for the struggles of undocumented workers in the United States.

I’ve heard all the arguments, the fears, the anger, and the confusion.

This diary is not intended to address any of that.  Whatever you feel about folks coming in to the United States illegally is something I will argue about at another time, in another diary.

Right now we have legislation pending written to treat immigration as a local law enforcement problem.

There have been a number of excellent posts by McJoan and KagroX, among others, over the FISA battle.  We’ve all been on the crazy ride of elation/outrage, seeing our Democratic representatives capitulate over and over again to the corrupt and criminal crew currently occupying the White House, as well as their Republican henchmen in Congress.

Frankly, it’s about time for me to step off that merry-go-round.

We speak of reforming the Democratic party, and I’m very much in favor of that.  Get rid of the Blue Dogs, change the way we finance political campaigns, make the party more responsive to the people. All worthy goals.

I’d like to look back for a moment, look back at America immediately after September 11, 2001.

(This is the third diary in a 24-hour fundraiser for Gilda Reed, Democratic Candidate for Katrina-Burdened LA-01.)

GILDA REED WILL NOT ABANDON US

Livingston.  Vitter.  Jindal.   When it comes to Louisiana's First District, none of them stuck it out.  There's no stability to be had when an entire community of American citizens is used as a political stepping stone.  Gilda Reed will not abandon anyone, ever.  Imagine that.

As for the Republicans running for LA-01 today, we can see from the Times-Picayune, the new crop of candidates are just as interested in "seat-hopping" as the old:

As Bobby Jindal drops his title of U.S. representative in favor of Louisiana governor today, voters will begin posing a number of questions to the candidates who hope to succeed him in Congress. Among them:

-- What qualifications do you have to be my voice in Washington?
-- What is your position on the war in Afghanistan and Iraq?
-- How can you bring home the bacon?

Here's a poem about Ash Wednesday.

Didn't realize it was today till I saw folks walking back to work from St. Patrick's with ashes on their foreheads.

To all those who observe this day and the days that follow, may your contemplations be sweet and your prayers mighty!

I have a simple reason for having great indifference towards endorsements in the 2008 Democratic primary.

All I've ever had is one wish and that was that someone would oppose the Bush misAdministration. Really oppose them -- as in stop them.  And keep them from continuing their illegal, immoral and monstrous behavior.

And no one has done that.  There have been some very good folks who have tried to stop this nefarious machine that took over 30 years to build.  I do not underestimate the task.  Kind of like those fairy tales where you see the hundreds of broken bodies of heroes while the actual hero walks his way to his victorious adventure.

In Can You Help? NOLA's 9th Ward Needs Us! the excellent ikrisarus starts the big challenge:

A group of bloggers over at Docudharma have been actively writing about NOLA after Hurricane Katrina and we have decided to do a week-end marathon fund-raiser for the 9th Wards' NENA (Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association)

The Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (NENA) was established in the aftermath of Katrina to play a lead role in rebuilding New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward.

Organized and controlled by residents of the Lower Ninth Ward, NENA addresses not only the immediate recovery needs created by the storm's destruction, but also the institutional neglect and disinvestment that plagued the neighborhood long before Katrina. NENA works with current Lower Ninth Ward residents, displaced residents living in other parts of New Orleans, and the broader diaspora who want to return to the neighborhood.

Many of us (though, sadly, not all) know by now that the damage to New Orleans was not caused by a natural disaster but by human error -- the errors of the Army Corps of Engineers.

That's why back in February of 2007, New Orleans federal court judge Stanwood Duvall ruled the ACOE couldn't claim immunity:

The Army Corps of Engineers can't assert immunity in a lawsuit over the catastrophic flooding following Hurricane Katrina, because of the plaintiffs' claim that flooding stemmed from the agency's negligence in fixing defects in the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet navigation project that it had known of for years, a New Orleans federal court judge ruled Friday.

This won't be a long diary.

I never watch Mr. Bush, I can't stand to hear his voice or see his face.

But I do read the transcripts of what he says.

I was wondering if he'd mention it tonight.  He certainly didn't mention it in 2006.  And if he did mention it last year, I don't recall.

But he did mention it this year.  How kind of you, Mr. Bush.

This is no jibe against folks who are passionately involved with the candidates of their choice in the Democratic primaries.  Frankly, I wish the present environment of our 2008 national elections were worthy of this amazing committed passion.

This isn't even a jibe against the candidates themselves.

This is, however, a jibe at the 2008 elections.

I started writing a journal when I was 13 years old.  I still have that raggedy old spiral notebook.

Here's what I said about Viet Nam.  Please don't hate me for my prodigy-like brilliance:

I wonder when World War III will be.  I'm almost sure there'll be one, because of all the fighting going on in Viet Nam.  You see, it all started because we didn't want South Viet Nam to become Communist (a form of government where the government owns and controls everything) so we fought the Communists so that Viet Nam would be a democracy (an individualistic government, where it is run by the people, for the people).

Well so far, all that has happened is a lot of killing!  Also, Presidential elections are coming up in 1968 (November).  I sure hope Johnson isn't re-elected.  I'm rooting for Bobby Kennedy or McCarthy!  (Even though I can't vote, I'm only 13 years old!)

I wish that wars wouldn't "be."  We have such a short time to live, why does it have to be spent in fighting?