Revelations from USA Today should put the issue of impeaching President George W. Bush on the table for real.
By: Hank Kalet
USA Today breaks an important story this morning, showing that the Bush administration’s domestic spying program is far more intrusive than the administration is willing to admit. If this is true and the president denies that it is it should put impeachment on the table.
Yesterday’s editorial in The New York Times is worth reading. Read it here.
A couple of interesting pieces in Slate on music criticism, taste, race and what it all means.
Basically, the two stories come at the same issue from slightly different angles, but the lesson is or should be that we like what we like and we shouldn’t apologize, provided we know why we like it.
(Does that make sense? If not, blame the music critic in me.)
Speaking of tunes, here are some thoughts on a few new releases:
Paul Simon, "Surprise": It is the best thing the rhymin’ man has put out in years, at least since "Rhythm of the Saints." The disc, which is produced by Brian Eno would seem to offer an odd pairing, but Eno knows how to create the sonic landscape that best fits the singers he works with and he does nothing to impede the wonderful tones of Simon’s voice. Lyrically, it is consistent with he more recent work, though I haven’t spent enough time to offer a cogent analysis. I’ll offer more at a later date.
Yonder Mountain String Band: The self-titled disc is decent background music, but nothing more. While billed as a groundbreaking mix of bluegrass, contemporary country, folk and rock, it manages to borrow the least interesting aspects of each genre, ultimately resulting in a pedestrian effort from a band with a big reputation.
Neil Young, "Living With War": Now that I’ve had a chance to live with the disc a week or so, I can say that it is as raw and passionate as I first thought, though Young’s muddled politics trouble me more now than they did on first listen. This is not an antiwar disc so much as an anti-Iraq War disc and an anti-Bush disc. (A good analysis on the record’s politics comes from a surprising source Bloomberg columnist Andrew Ferguson.)
A good piece that should stop all the glorifying of Babe Ruth at the expense of Barry Bonds and just about everyone else.
Arlen Specter may have some backbone, after all.
Some local residents are doing their part to get us out of the debacle in Iraq. Read this week’s Dispatches.

