Author: hankkalet

The great Patti Smith apparently still has it
— at least according to David Fricke in Rolling Stone. I am a longtime fan, but I have never been lucky enough to catch her live where she apparently brings a level of power and mystery to her work that she can only hit at on records. (Check out the anniversary edition of her seminal Horses, which features a live recreation of the album as a second disc.)

Patti is on the short list of bands/artists I still hope to see, which includes: Blondie,
Tom Verlaine, Pere Ubu, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, X, XTC, the Blasters, Roseanne Cash, Tom Waits, Neil Young — the list is pretty long and grows longer as I find new bands, hear new songs.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

I meant to start this yesterday, when I ran four pretty good miles in about 37 minutes on the treadmill and then spent about 20 minutes doing some deep stretches. But I forgot.

Today I managed three miles on tight legs and a sore left knee. My right foot is bothering me and I got very little sleep last night because I was having difficulty concentrating on my writing (columns for the Post and the Progressive Populist due). But I got through the run in about 28 minutes listening to an interesting mix on my iPod Nano that included Roseanne Cash, Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, Artbrut, Bob Dylan, Wilco — well, I think you get the picture.

Tommorrow? I’ll shoot for five miles and then hit the weights — but it will depend on how early I get up.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

The eerie calm of consensus — it is disturbing to say the least. The president wants to send more troops into Iraq, the leading Republican candidate for 2008, John McCain is touting an increase as well, and many Democrats — a party elected to the majority because America is tired of the slow upward tick of the body count in Iraq — either follow along or remain silent.

I mean, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid is on board and the leading Democratic contenders for 2008 — Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — seem willing to keep their yaps shut.

As Daniel Froomkin says on his Washington Post White House Briefing blog, “Where’s the outrage over escalation?“

Keith Olbermann, of course, offers outrage. Thankfully someone is.

Steve Gilliard’s News Blog also offers outrage.

The strategy smacks of a mix of bravado, stubbornness and ego. Robert Parry calls it a last-ditch effort by the president to salvage his crumbling legacy — and if it is, how does he jibe his willingness to send more American soldiers into harms’ way so that he might be viewed positively by some unborn historian in a future century?

How does he sleep at night? I couldn’t if I were him.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

The findings are in and now it will be up to the state Legislature. The special commission empaneled to review the state’s capital punishment statute will recommend abolition of the death penalty.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, found no compelling evidence that New Jersey’s death penalty, which has not been used in more than four decades, serves any purpose. It also found the death penalty costs taxpayers more than paying for prisoners to serve life terms without parole.

“There is increasing evidence that the death penalty is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency,” the report states.

A second story, filed by the Ledger staff, offered this:

With one dissenting vote, the 13-member commission found capital punishment serves no legitimate penological interest, is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency, is not worth the risk of “an irreversible mistake” and costs more than incarcerating murderers for life.

The commission said the savings from replacing capital punishment with life imprisonment without parole could not be quantified, but recommended they be used to provide services and benefits to survivors of murder victims.

This is pretty much what I and other opponents of the death penalty have been saying for years.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

City Belt, which has ceased its print publication for now, is running its year-end wrap up. Go here to read my picks for the five most significant political stories in the state in 2006.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick