Gots The Sickness

Still not feeling well. In retrospect, doing a show last night probably wasn't the smartest thing I could have done in the world since my throat was already raw. When I woke up this morning, it felt like I'd been gargling with shredded razor blades. Now I got little more than a squeak going on. The cats are looking at me funny.

Got the throat, upper-respiratory infection yuckiness...and a relentless tiredness that has just sucked the life out of me. Got meds, got blanket, already called out sick. Looks like a day of tea and sympathy on tap (possibly mixed with James Bond movies) and soup.

Just as well. I need the break anyway.

Vote Rangling

Not a huge surprise that Charlie "Ethics" Rangel won big last night. When you're core constituents are kept dependent on the government, you can't expect them to break away from the status quo (even if you are living the high life with their money while they get your table scraps). Hopefully the courts will something that should have been done years ago and put Choo-Choo Charlie out on his fat, dishonest ass (something voters in Harlem are simply too indoctrinated to do).

I give the Dems credit for one thing: they know how to pick their spots. Whenever they have a scheme in mind that involves painfully un-electable candidates, they find the proper nuthouses to run them in where even a sack of guano would get elected if it had a (D) next to it (New York, California, Minnesota...). Find the crazy people and give them someone they can relate to.

The big so-called "Tea Party" wins in DE and NH last night are already being written off by the mainstream media as losses for the GOP in November, which only shows that they still don't get what is going on. Both states showed double the estimated turnout for Republican voters last night (dwarfing Democrat voters almost 2 to 1). I don't think that happened by accident. People are pissed off with the status quo, yo. Only the media and the Republican hierarchy refuse to acknowledge it.

They keep saying these grassroots candidates can't win primaries, yet they win handily. Then they tell us they can't win general elections. We'll see. Right now nothing is "in the bag" for ANY candidate. As a result, the Big Bag O' Dirty Tricks is already being dipped into by the Dems and their willing accomplices in the media. It will only get louder and nastier as we approach November.

Tea Trumps Kool-Aid

They laugh. They scoff. They belittle. They call names. Good. That means they have no idea just how much things have changed. Jonathan Rauch has a great piece in the National Journal showing just how little the detractors understand:

How Tea Party Organizes Without Leaders

Strange though it may seem, this is a coordinated network, not a hierarchy. There is no chain of command. No group or person is subordinate to any other. The tea parties are jealously independent and suspicious of any efforts at central control, which they see as a sure path to domination by outside interests. "There's such a uniqueness to every one of these groups, just as there's an individuality to every person," Wildman says. "It has this bizarre organic flow, a little bit like lava. It heats up in some places and catches on fire; it moves more slowly in other places."

It's a new world, a different paradigm now (as the hipster doofuses like to say) and I don't think there's any turning back. If anything good came out of the wreckage of the 2004 - 2009 political climate it is that the PEOPLE started to care again. The sleeping giant re-awakened. This is good news for everbody (except for pergressive elitists, who as we all know, know better than everyone else). Let them keep laughing. Keep pretending it doesn't matter.

PS - I still feel like crap after a week of feeling like crap. At this point I just want to either get a full-blown cold or have this goes away. Soon.

Never Forget

Meh

It's official, folks - the morning news is so depressing that I just can't bring myself to watch it anymore. I can no longer subject myself to daily reminders of how far down the shitter this country keeps going interspersed with puff pieces about Lady CaCa and Justin Beiber's quiffy quaff. I'm starting my days DEPRESSED from all this crap. Even Good Day New York (which used to be a safe haven in the morning) is getting me down.

From now on - or at least until we have a massive paradigm shift in the direction things keep going lately - I am no longer watching news in the morning. Hell, I might not even watch TV anymore until my shows kick off their new seasons. I just don't have the intestinal fortitude to start my days by looking at this shit anymore. When all there is is BAD news, you're better off getting no news at all.

I'll wait until I get to the city then look at the papers. At least by then I've managed to choke some Lucky Charms down without regurgitating them back up again.

I'm Alive (A General Update)

I know what you've been asking yourself: where the Hell has Pete been? Doesn't he EVER update this freaking thing? Well, for starters I've been extremely busy. I can barely keep new updates on Facebook current (I haven't even touched Twitter in months - it's a waste, anyway).

If it were up to me, I'd have new blog updates, new FB updates, new Podcasts on both my site and the WHOT site, I'd write a book, climb Mount Everest and build something. However, life is not up to me. By the time I get home from work I have roughly an hour and a half to spend with the Mrs., watch a little TV and pet the cat community. Then I try to spend a little time working on the WHOT archive, read some boards, watch a little baseball. The bottom line is, there's not enough hours in the day. If days were say, 30 hours long instead of 24...or, even better - 40...then I could get all kinds of crazy things done. Unfortunately, until we figure out how to inhabit the planets withe longer days, we're stuck with 24. As the kids say, it is what it is.

I can give some general updates (horn fanfare)...the archive is rolling along again after a brief break. The WHOT cassettes, for all intents and purposes, are done. I still have some stragglers, and I have to get the reel-to-reel airchecks and VHS HiFi tapes done, but those are few. Then I am going back through MY tapes and filling in the gaps. I also need to get into the cavern and start digging for missing tapes in Brooklyn. I know exactly what is missing: it's just a matter of finding them.

The show is still rolling along on the HNJ Network (Wednesday nights at 9PM ET, give or take a few minutes). We still have fun. I try to get podcasts of the shows up every week, but you know - that time thing gets in my way a lot. I still have tons of CDs to burn, tons of MP3s to tag, files to convert. It never ends.

That in mind, it's back to doing something productive...I just don't know what (yet). Until next we meet...

The Comparison Is Striking...

‎

*Sigh*...I miss The Gipper...truth be told, liberalism should have been crushed in this country after the Reagan Revolution, left as a smoldering remnant of foolishness past. The problem is the Right got complacent, sloppy and fat in the position it was in. The same goes for after 1994. When you become too comfortable, when you become too smug and complacent, you make yourself weak and beatable. That's what happened in 1992, 1996 and 2008.

The OTHER problem is...when you abuse the position you are in and forget how you got there, that's how we end up in the mess we are in now. The end result is everyone suffers and the country suffers more irreparable damage. When you have something with so many positives that it should sell itself, don't screw it up. Just ask Coca Cola. Don't become stagnant; remember how you got where you are. The Left will never be able to do that without using fear and trickery. Conservatives don't have to do that.

Maybe one day the politicians that are supposed to be acting in our "best interests" will remember that.

This Just In...

Looks like Liberals and Progressives are taking a break from complaining about Nativities and crosses in public buildings at Christmastime and trying to censor the internet and Conservative talk radio to lend support to the building of a Mosque one block from Ground Zero in Manhattan as an exercise in "freedom of religion" and "free speech".

And they said it was impossible to talk out of both sides of your mouth at the same time!

More details as they become available. Film at 11.

Remembering George Steinbrenner and Reflecting On Life

Having just celebrated my 43rd birthday back in June, I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about the life that I have lived up to this point, full of laughs and interesting events and (thankfully) very little regret. With the passing of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner yesterday at the age of 80, I took a few moments and thought about all the Yankees games I have been to in those 43 years and how I can tie specific points in my life to them. From the 70’s team, the lean years, the comeback years and the new Dynasty, I can mark time by them.

The first Old-Timer's Day I ever went to, Roger Maris, Elston Howard, Mickey Mantle were all alive and present. Once The Mick died, I realized that there would come a day when DiMaggio wouldn't be around anymore...and that one day Phil Rizzuto would be taking the George Washington Bridge to the eternal 7th inning. We all followed what was going on with Bobby Murcer and prayed for the best. I saw that Eddie Layton and Bob Sheppard were getting up there and I knew I should treasure them both.

Then Joe D got sick and went soon after that. Phil retired and he left us as well. Bobby fought the best he could but lost the battle in the end. Eddie Layton retired and then he too was gone. Bob got sick and never returned. Throughout all this I'd had George in the back of my head but kept it buried there. When Bob Sheppard died at the age of 99 this past weekend I started to think about George again. When I heard on the news yesterday morning that he'd had a heart attack I knew it didn't sound good.

George Steinbrenner was such a larger than life character you almost expected him to transcend things like illness and mortality. I'd always had this image in my head of an aged, 90-something-year-old Boss, barking orders at Cashman like Mr. Burns does to Mr. Smithers…and Cashman responding with a “Yes, Boss”. Alas, it was not to be and now one of the last great icons - perhaps the last great 'king of the jungle' we'll see in professional sports - is gone.

After his reinstatement to baseball George changed. Once beyond unbearable and abrasive, he mellowed out somewhat and sought to rectify some of his past transgressions later in his life (not unlike Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge - not due to visits from three spirits, more likely due to the visit of one suspension). He became likeable (almost loveable) and while still in control, he allowed his staff leeway to run things. He did commercials. He allowed himself to be lampooned on Seinfeld. In death, the level and magnitude of his philanthropy and charity is just now being truly revealed.

This makes his passing all the more melancholy. I sometimes try to explain to people that do not follow professional sports (or have narcissistically labeled themselves too good to do so) how when you live and die with your team day in and day out they essentially become your extended family. George morphed into that crazy uncle (or grandpa) that was never approachable in the past but was now the first one at the family gatherings to start telling jokes. When he's not around anymore, you're sorry that it took so long to get to know him. So it is with George.

It's been a tough week for Yankees fans and for all of baseball. It IS nice to know that George goes out a winner, the way he would have wanted it. His team is the reigning World Champion, the last game he saw was a win (an 8-2 drubbing of the Mariners) and many of his players are proudly representing his team at the All Star Game he did not get a chance to see. I also chuckle knowing that George stole the spotlight from the "midsummer classic"...even in death, he's making Bud Selig's life miserable.

Love him or hate him, the guy liked to WIN. He was more than just an owner, he was a fan. He found himself emotionally involved with the team’s daily goings-on to a fault, for better or worse. As a result, he knew you had to spend money to make money (unlike some of his contemporaries that sit around and bitch about disparity while they tuck into another poached lobster purchased with wasted revenue sharing money). For that we Yankees fans should all be grateful.

In a world where things don’t seem to mean much anymore, it meant a lot knowing that while we cared about him, he also cared about us and did his darned best to put a winner out on the field year in and year out - not just for himself, but for the fans. Thanks for that, Boss.

Enjoy those calzones.

B.S. Is As B.S. Does

I'm getting pretty sick and tired of reading op-ed pieces from axe-grinding douchebags in the media that keep trying to portray Tea Partiers as violent, angry racists by using cure little code terms like, "where was all this anger during the Bush years" and equally cutesy-wutesy Left-Wing, MSNBC-distributed talking points. The latest bit of garbage that is being gobbled up as "proof" of this is a bullshit poll taken by CBS and the NY Times (which in and of itself is a joke) that claims most Tea Partiers are rich, white folks that don't like that bog ole black Pres'dent.

Cut me a freaking break. First of all, I'd LOVE to know how See-BS and the Time "massaged" these poll numbers. Thier stances on such things speak for themselves, as do their reputations (you know, the same folks that brought you forged documents as news and Jayson Blair working together like the League of Doom). So any poll numbers they present - working TOGETHER no less - send my Bullshit Detector well into the stratosphere.

Second, any moron that takes these BS poll numbers and uses them as an excuse to further paint the Tea Party movement as a bunch of rich white folk or lyinchin' Klansmen (interesting combo there, BTW) is more full of shit than a Port-O-San at a construction site. Where was the anger three years ago? If any of them BOTHERED to do five minutes worth of research, they would might have learned that the Tea Party Movement was BORN during the Bush era in response to the spending largesse of the administration - and started to gain ground after the insaity of the TARP bailout.

The main difference then was there was not a House and Senate interested in creating untolled trillions worth of increased debt like we are seeing now. Spend, spend, spend and let the great-grandkids pay it off. What a great way to "fix" problems - like putting chewing gum in a dam leak. All the while smiling like the cat that ate the canary. THAT'S why people are pissed off now, you dumb media bastards.

Maybe some of these numnuts that keep running around like Chicken Little screaming "racism" like fire in a movie house, should give this a watch:



Not that they'll pay any attention...as Forrest Gump so correctly stated, stupid is as stupid does...and the mainstream media seems to be full of plenty of stupid these days.

How 'Bout That Hughes?

For the second time in the last two weeks, another Yankee came close to making history. Not a bad season so far!

Electric Hughes nearly no-hits A's
Bid for history spoiled in eighth, but Yanks win sixth straight

OAKLAND -- Phil Hughes couldn't help but know that he might be possessing no-hit stuff. If the Athletics' feeble swings and quick trips back to the bench weren't telling him, the scoreboard glaring into the Yankees' dugout surely was.

Sweet.

Pete Sayek's Day Off

OK, so I am not Ferris Beuller, but that doesn't make taking the day off any less enjoyable. Unlike Mr. Beuller (Beuller...Beuller...), mine is a sanctioned day off so no need to resort to creative trickery to cover it up.

Coming off a great weekend, Monday "off-days" are the best. It's a beautiful spring day, the windows are open (how about that...?) and the breeze is nap-inducing. I may take it up on it's offer.

In the "big picture", it's all good...Yanks are 4-2 and come home tomorrow, Rags got eliminated yesterday (in a shootout, no less) and I don't have to hear the name "Tiger Woods" again - at least for a few weeks. Shopping is already done, washer is chuggin' in the background and the afternoon is my oyster. Or erster, depending on where you come from.

It's easier to sit back and drink these things in when you're not workin'.

Feeling The Love

What a great gane today. CC Sabathia comes within four four outs of pitching a no-hitter against the (dirty) Devil Rays, and the Yanks threw them a 10-0 ass-whupping to boot. There were so many outstanding, phenominal defensive plays in this game that it was like watching a year's worth of highlights all in one afternoon.

It's after games like this when my love for baseball is reaffirmed, and why despite all it's shortcomings it's still the most complex and enjoyable sport to watch. There's a reason why I defend (and enjoy) the game of baseball and it's afternoons like this. Rock on.

How Do You Know It Will Work If You Haven't Come Up With The Plan Yet?

Long John Nebel asked that very question a long, long time ago. Well, no more worries: the Obama White House announced TODAY - April 7, 2010 (mark that date down) - that they have FINALLY come up with "A PLAN" for being "the most transparent administration in like, the history of forever, man"!

Yes, you heard correctly - they haven't announced they ARE now open like a screen door with a broken hinge - no, they've FINALLY come up with "The Plan" to be open! A little over one year and three months into this presidency, after 10.5 Trillion dollars in "bailouts" that allowed unfettered government takeover of the mortgage, auto and banking indusrties - and after forcing through one of the most secretive, backroom-deal-laden, Constitutionally bankrupt bills in U.S. history (so we could "find out what is actually in it"), NOW the White House has come up with A PLAN!

Isn't that awsome? I guess I was wrong about Obama all this time.

I'll probably have even less hair on my head and be a day older before this "plan" ever gets put into place (if ever). It's kind of funny that they keep telling us how "transparent" they PLAN on being because it's painfully easy to see right through them.

Lots of Win-Wins

This evening gets files under "good"...I FINALLY got PodOMatic's tech team to fix BOTH podcast pages...I was able to successfully install MS Front Page (after many tries)...the weather has been beautiful for days (and tomorrow will be great, too)...and the Yankees have win #1 under their belts against the Dread Sawx.

In addition to everything else (which takes a load off my mind), I shall float to sleep tonight on a river of sweet, nectar-like tears of Yankee haters everywhere. Like a free-floating waterbed.

Good evening, indeed.

A Random Observation

People make my f*cking head hurt. I'm just sayin'.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! What a great day (so far): great weather, great dinner, off shortly for dessert with family and friends and Opening Night tonight. Not to mention all that 50%-off Easter candy the stores will have on sale tomorrow. Woo hoo!

In other news, I'm entering my second week of working with PodOMatic's tech team to try and fix the file storage issues. You tell them what is wrong and they ask you questions that have NOTHING to do with the problem. Very frustrating.

The good news is once they get their act in gear I'll be able to get new archived shows up. Woot!

Enjoy the remainder of your day...happy egg salad!

March Going Out Like A Lion

The record-breaking rainfall continues here in the Garden State. The nearby creek looks like the wild water rapids ride at Dorney Park. Crazy. Won't be too sad to see this month come wheezing to an end.

Nothing really new right now...I'm a bit political-ed out right now, just too much overload in the wake of Death Care Reform. So I've been working on the archive and trying to figure out what to do with the RFNY site (which is in dire need of an upgrade) and the future of podcasts (since Pod-o-Matic seems to be flaking out).

Last weekend was Beatlefest weekend and with money being scarce and way too much work to do, I missed it for the second year in a row. I hope to make it back in 2011...I don't want the memory of my last Beatlefest to be what my last one was actually like - riddled with illness, crazy happenings and drama. I'd like to make it back to at least one more Fest so I could actually ENJOY myself without any peripheral jazz (like the last one I attended).

In the meantime the WHOT archiving is officially in the home stretch. After six years of archiving casettes, reels and video tapes, the light is at the end of the tunnel - at least for the WHOT tapes (proper). There are four ten-boxes left and that's it.

Now, I still have to find the missing tapes which are still dangerously AWOL and all hailing from the early-80s. I live in perpetual fear that these tapes are gone. I catalogued them shortly after the WHOT bust in 89-90, so they definitely DID exists - old tapes of WGUT shows, WQXQ and the WKRB Halloween show. All from 80-82. I hope they can be tracked down. I'd estimate there are about 40 tapes missing in all from this era.

Of course, once I finish THESE I move on to Phase II: the original Radio Free New York shows. There's some great stuff in there from 90-95, basement jam shows and other great stuff...AJ and I doing sports call in shows...these should be a breeze to go through compared to teh HOT tapes (all mono).

Anyway, that's what's new and exciting, which is not a whole lot. Feeling beat so I'm gonna hit the haystack. Hopefully I'll have an update on the RFNY Site and podcasts soon.

Do As They Say, Not As They Do

You have to laugh at stuff like this because if you don't laugh, you'll cry...

A little secret about Obama's transparency

The current administration, challenged by the president to be the most open, is now denying more Freedom of Information Act requests than Bush did.

"The Democratic administration of Barack Obama, who denounced his predecessor, George W. Bush, as the most secretive in history, is now denying more Freedom of Information Act requests than the Republican did".

Who here is REALLY surprised by this? Show of hands...anyone? Anyone? Beuller...?

The nut jobs are running the asylum while we all sit back and twiddle our thumbs and toes. The prospect of what is next frightens the bejesus out of me. It should scare the crap out of you too (unless you watch MSNBC every night and drool on yourself).

Good Morning, Amerika...

Velkomm to new paradigm, komrades...

You vill get health coverage from Dear Leader!!!