We've come a long way

There was a thought provoking column by Bob Herbert in today's NY Times. He laments that we have changed from a country under JFK that thought it could accomplish anything in the public arena to a country that can't even build a tunnel under the Hudson River

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/opinion/23herbert.html?ref=opinion

So it made me think that we have come a long way from JFK "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" to the Beastie Boys "You gotta fight, for your right, to Paaarty!"

Radio below 92

People have been saying for a long time that there is "nothing on the radio". For commercial radio, this has been largely true regarding interesting music. Now there are so many alternatives to terrestrial radio such as the internet (Folk Alley from Kent State Univ)or satellite radio (I like XM stations such as Outlaw Country (12) for alt country like Steve Earle, Willie's Place (13) for older country, The Village (15) for Folk, The Loft (50) and Coffeehouse (51) for singer/songwriter format, E Street Radio (58) for Springsteen.

However, sometimes all you have available is old fashioned AM/FM radio. You could tell your kids "when I was your age we had to walk ten miles in the snow to school, were subject to corporal punishment, and were forced to listen to Top 40 radio"

There are some really good things in the NY metro area if you look below 92 on the FM Dial. Here are some examples

WBGO 88.3FM: This is primarily a jazz station operating out of Newark. I particularly like their soul music shows on Saturday mornings

WKCR 89.9 FM: This is the station from Columbia University sometimes referred to as "the blowtorch of the Northeast" . It is primarily jazz and for students of jazz the Jazz Profiles show on Sunday afternoons is quite good. I like their country shows which feature older country music. On Sunday morning (10am) there is a bluegrass show called Moonshine and then at noon is the Tennessee Border featuring Honky Tonk from the 50's and 60's like Hank Williams and George Jones.

WFUV 90.7FM: This is the station of Fordham University in the Bronx. Sometimes hard to get a good signal in the house, usually better in the car depending on location. Primarily a folk/rock and adult alternative station. I like the Pete Fornatale Mixed Bag show on early Saturday evenings


WFMU 91.1 FM: This station used to be affiliated with Upsala College in East Orange NJ which no longer exists. WFMU lives on listener supported. Somehow, they managed to get call letters WMFU for their satellite station in Mt Hope NJ. An incredible array of alternative rock formats, my favorite being Teenage Wasteland with Bill Kelly Sundays at 3pm. Referring to his show as The Black Hole of Rock and Roll it is primarily garage rock from the 60's plus some great rock hits (e.g Searchers) from the past.

There are also several good non commercial stations above 92. WNYC is the NPR station at 93.9 FM.Prairie Home Companion Saturday evenings. WBAI is the left wing Pacifica radio station at 99.5 FM. One particularly good show is Democracy Now with Amy Goodman weekdays at 9am. Classical station WQXR has moved to 105.9 on the dial and is now non-commercial partnering with WNYC. I also listen to Air America radio at 1600AM

Health Care public option

As predicted on this blog on June 17 (37th anniverary of the Watergate break in) the proposed public option has been reduced in scope in some proposals by excluding those who can get group health coverage from an employer. Of course, it appears that the public option is not going to survive.

I think it is important that we make some progress this year on health insurance. Even if we don't get what some of the more serious health coverage proponents want (the public option), we should not sacrifice the good to wait for the perfect.

There is no law that says the progress made this year can not be revisited for improvement down the road

Shadow Jay Leno

Great Britain has a concept of a shadow cabinet which follows the actions of the party in power.Since Jay Leno is not on the air right now, I would like to submit a joke he might have used on the Tonight Show

The FAA announced today that it would be investigating the safety practices of Colgan Air, the regional carrier that had the tragic plane crash outside of Buffalo. President Obama says he backs the FAA decision and is in essence admitting that the government may have been lax in its oversight. Dick Cheney commented on the President's remarks saying " You have got to back up your agencies and never admit a mistake. He should have immediately shown confidence in the FAA's previous oversight by announcing that Colgan Air would now be flying Air Force One"

Health Care The Public Plan...The incremental option

Conservatives are having a field day implying that any government plan will wipe out the private insurance industry. We could mollify the critics by restricting the government plan to those who can not get acceptable coverage from the private market. This could include retirees who are still carried on their companies policies until age 65, but are paying increasing costs as their former employers are not sharing the cost burden as they do for active employees. Also those not currently able to join a group (like a major company or union) could join the government plan as individual health care policies seem prohibitively expensive or coverage can be denied due to pre-existing conditions.

Those who are currently covered by group company plans, unions or other groups would not be eligible for the public option.

I have written an email to one of my senators (Robert Menedez). He is not on the pertinent committee, but I asked him to forward my email to Sen Sherrod Brown of Ohio who is on the committee. As an Ohio State Buckeye alumnus I think I should have incredible pull with Sen Brown (lol?)

Sotomayor A question of balance

The new Supreme Court nominee has drawn fire from the right for supposedly suggesting that a Latina woman would make a better judge than a white male. I think what she needs to do is to qualify this thought and reframe it as a question of balance. Then she could have a lawsuit with the Moody Blues who used it as an album title.

Siriusly, she simply needs to convey the idea that the Supreme Court, like any center of American power has to be reasonably reflective of the population over which it is exercising that power.

Dr Evil as Treasury Secretary

Referring to my last post about Dr. Evil, I think that he would be a much more effective spokesman than Tim Geithner to announce the latest financial rescue efforts. Imagine Dr Evil pronouncing an outrageous sum every few days. People would definitely tune in. If anyone is talented with video, there could be something viral(whatever that means!) here. Dr Evil could even release the fembots to force the AIG execs to give back their bonuses!!