It seems like an eternity since I hit the gym — Jan. 30 to be exact — because of a stubborn cold that has affected my sleep and makes it difficult to breathe. I decided, however, I had to get back to the gym even if running was out of the question. So I did.
It was a day of weights and I hope the beginning of a new commitment. Then again, I’ve thought that before.
It is, without any doubt, not a day to stay inside. I know that's what the dogs are thinking as they explore the yard and listen to the random sounds — the bird songs and hawks cawing, the airplane overhead, the trickle of creek water and hum of cars passing on nearby streets.
I'd love to just hang out with them in the yard all day, especially because they seem so calm and well behaved at the moment. It's been a bit of a rough patch of late, most of which is our own fault. We've — or at least I've — been allowing frustration to show, forgetting that they are still just 16 weeks old and have not been taught some of the things we think they should know. But we'll get it and they'll get it — with the help of a trainer, some patience on our part and some much-needed sleep.
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A Populist Caucus is forming in Congress, according to The Huffington Post.
Rep. Bruce Braley, an Iowa Democrat, will officially announce the formation of the caucus later this week, with 21 founding members — all Democrats. The initial purpose will be to influence legislation from within the Democratic caucus, but Braley did not rule out opening the group to Republicans.
Braley said that the caucus will give voice to the populist anger created by the plummeting economy and opaque bank bailout.
“As someone who has been out holding town hall meetings and getting a faceful of that populist rage, I know that it is real, it is a force that needs to be dealt with, and it needs to be given a voice,” said Braley.
It won’t be all pitchforks, though, Braley said. “We want to give voice to those cries and at the same time work constructively with other individuals in Congress to craft policies that are going to respond to those concerns.”
The Populist Caucus will make its first major play by advocating for the inclusion of a “Buy American” provision in the stimulus package. Fair trade, healthcare and middle-class tax policy will also dominate the caucus’ agenda, said Braley, a sophomore member.
No New Jersey Congressman appears on the list of founding members, which is a crime — I want to encourage the U.S. representatives who represent the communities we cover — Democrats Rush Holt and John Adler and Republicans Chris Smith and Leonard Lance — to get on board. (Of course, the chances that Smith or Lance would lend their names to such a project fall somewhere between none and none.)
In fact, I’m surprised to see only one New Jersey Democrat listed — Donald Payne, who represents Essex County — on the roster of the Progressive Caucus. What’s up with that, Mr. Holt?
For this week’s poetry podcast, I offer “American Poem (starting with a line by Williams),” which was published in the Aquarian Weekly in the 1990s. It is available as an mp3.
Click here to hear the poem.
I am hoping to do these weekly, or until I run out of my own poems to read. I’d love to post poems from others and see how this thing takes off. E-mail me here if you have a recorded poem to share; I’ll review it and we’ll see what happens.
The critics noticed. Hal Boedeker, who writes the TV Guy column in The Orlando Sentinel, summed up the show’s failures rather succinctly:
Jon Stewart knows how to do slashing comical commentary. He weighs in on what’s happening, such as the media’s bizarre coverage of Anna Nicole Smith’s death.
David Letterman knows how to do slashing comical commentary. He takes President Bush’s awkward speeches and contrasts them with the lasting words of John F. Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt.
Fox News Channel does not know how to do slashing comical commentary. The channel debuts “The 1/2 Hour News Hour” at 10 p.m. Sunday and repeats it at 10 p.m. Feb. 25. This show was meant to be a conservative version of “The Daily Show.” It is a botch.
“The 1/2 Hour News Hour” does not comment on what is happening; it simply takes swipes at people. These people include Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and Ed Begley Jr. Other joke topics are the ACLU, Time magazine, children’s books and global warming.
Laughter, of an awfully canned variety, greets all the gags. Nothing happening on screen justifies these outbursts.
Hey, I’m all for a good dig at the high and the mighty. But these satirists fall short of hitting their targets with wit, timeliness or punch.
So, why am I writing about a show that disappeared into rightful obscurity 18 months ago? For an answer, I’ll quote a press release I received earlier today from Richard Viguerie, a pioneer of the conservative movement:
ConservativeHQ.com is launching a new daily comic strip that is the conservatives’ answer to political comics like “Doonesbury” and the strip-turned-animated-cartoon “The Boondocks.”
“Liberal comedians and cartoonists have expressed great anguish at the rise of Barack Obama to the presidency, because having a perfect president makes it impossible to make fun of Washington,” says Richard Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com. “‘The Gentleman from Lickskillet’ is conservatives’ response.”
“The strip is for people who can’t help but laugh at the politicians in Washington,” says Viguerie.
“The Gentleman from Lickskillet” is the first conservative comic strip to interweave humor and satire with continuing storylines and a large cast of characters. The strip runs daily, Monday through Saturday. A Sunday version is set to launch next month.
The strip stars Randall Dill, a member of Congress; his family, including his wife (an assistant district attorney) and their young daughter; his congressional staff; his friends and constituents back home; and the politicians, bureaucrats, and politically correct people that they encounter in the course of their adventures.
The strip, which appears at ConservativeHQ.com, began unofficially three weeks ago with a sequence satirizing the inauguration of the new President. The current week, with a link to the complete archive, can be found at http://conservativehq.com/lickskillet/.
Seems fair. Except that the strip — like the 1/2 Hour News Hour — just isn’t funny.
Here is a sample from the conservativehq Web site, though I’d suggest giving the entire run a quick read to get the full flavor of Lickskillet and its awful aftertaste:
Given the evidence — and Dennis Miller’s steep descent into utterly humorless irrelevence — one has to wonder if conservatives lack the humor gene.
