While there are not many rows left to hoe in the guitar-driven rock sound, there are still plenty of energetic and inventive ways of working that well-worn field.
If you like poppy guitar rock that combines a great rhythm section with hard-edged guitars and and slightly trippy songwriting, you'll probably enjoy both Tapes'n'tapes discs The Loon and Walk it off. These boys can play.
Rolling Stone says (of Walk it off, their solid sophomore effort):
It may strut its funky virtuosity like Prince, threaten to collapse in a drunken heap like the Replacements or rage like Hüsker Dü, but Minneapolis rock is always tuneful — an important comfort to folks freezing their nuts off most of the year. On the follow-up to their 2006 debut, The Loon, Minnesota's Tapes 'n Tapes hew to tradition, conjuring the Hüskers on "Le Ruse," a tirade on betrayal, with guitars and cymbals swarming like late-summer mosquitoes.
From the Pitchfork review of their debut, The Loon:
While strong faith is always convincing, Tapes 'n Tapes succeed by practice as much as passion, articulating a conventional vocabulary with rare erudition. As such, The Loon brings something for everybody. Not that the band's diplomacy is a kowtow: Loving is just their quaint way of asking for love. Credit yourself if you can get down with a program offering up so many been-there-done-that indicators. Or better, credit the band for avoiding the toothless mush that typically results from this sort of populism, and arriving instead at a fresh vision through eloquent pastiche.
Watch a video of Insistor (from The Loon).
Watch a video of Hang them All (from Walk it Off).
Poll: McCain leads Obama on LI (RICK BRAND AND JAMES T. MADORE, September 15, 2008, Newsday)
Republican Sen. John McCain got an 8-point bounce on Long Island after the Republican convention, taking a narrow 44 to 39 percent lead over Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, according to the latest Dowling Polling Institute data.Statewide, McCain also made gains, shrinking Obama's lead in heavily Democratic New York, according to a new Siena Research Institute poll. Obama led 46 percent to 41 percent, down from an 8-point edge last month and an 18-point bulge in June. With the 3.9-percentage-point margin of error, the race is a statistical dead heat.
Palin linked electoral success to prayer of Kenyan witchhunter (Hannah Strange, 9/16/08, Times of London)
The pastor whose prayer Sarah Palin says helped her to become governor of Alaska founded his ministry with a witchhunt against a Kenyan woman who he accused of causing car accidents through demonic spells.
Pakistan Issues Threat Over Raids: Soldiers Have Orders to Fire on U.S. Troops If Incursions Continue (ZAHID HUSSAIN, 9/16/08, Wall Street Journal)
On the eve of a meeting with the top U.S. military commander, Pakistan upped the ante in the standoff over U.S. troop incursions, saying its soldiers had orders to fire on American troops if they entered from Afghanistan on raids.
McCain press pack stages mini-insurrection (Jonathan Martin, 9/16/08, Politico)
Reporters traveling with John McCain are slightly miffed that the senator hasn't had any face time with them in, well, a month and three days (but who's counting?).So, when Straight Talk Air departed Tampa today, a dozen reporters chanted, "Bring Mac back! Bring Mac back!"
Chevy Chase Wants Tina Fey to 'Decimate' Sarah Palin (Fox News, 9/16/08)
"I thought it was extraordinary how well she played her and much she looked like her. I'd just like her — personally I felt we didn't need the Hillary stuff — I'd like her to go even harder," the former "SNL" star told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show."I want her to decimate this woman. This woman is, I can't believe there hasn't been more about it. ... It's just unbelievable to me this woman is actually running for vice president," he continued.
- With White Support, McCain Nips At Obama's Heels In NJ, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Women Stay With Dem, But Men Move To GOP (Quinnipiac, 9/16/08)
Fueled by a surge of support from white voters, Republican Sen. John McCain has narrowed a 10-point gap and now trails Democratic Sen. Barack Obama 48 - 45 percent among New Jersey likely voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.This compares to a 51 - 41 percent Sen. Obama lead in an August 13 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University.
Reid likens McCain to Hoover> (Daniel W. Reilly, 9/16/08, Politico: The Crypt)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid likened John McCain to former president Herbert Hoover on Tuesday, as the Democratic outrage continued over McCain’s statement that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.
Let's just say that some of us (score=32) lack the Unicorn Rider's subtlety.
...so must CEOs think they're invaluable.
Why Experience Matters (DAVID BROOKS, 9/16/08, NY Times)
Philosophical debates arise at the oddest times, and in the heat of this election season, one is now rising in Republican ranks. The narrow question is this: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be vice president? Most conservatives say yes, on the grounds that something that feels so good could not possibly be wrong. But a few commentators, like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Ross Douthat demur, suggesting in different ways that she is unready.The issue starts with an evaluation of Palin, but does not end there. This argument also is over what qualities the country needs in a leader and what are the ultimate sources of wisdom.
There was a time when conservatives did not argue about this. Conservatism was once a frankly elitist movement. Conservatives stood against radical egalitarianism and the destruction of rigorous standards. They stood up for classical education, hard-earned knowledge, experience and prudence. Wisdom was acquired through immersion in the best that has been thought and said.
Warren G. Harding: a one term Senator
Herbert Hoover: a Cabinet Secretary
Alf Landon: Governor of Kansas for 4 years
Wendell Willkie: a utility company lawyer
Thomas E. Dewey: NY County District Attorney
and Dwight D. Eisenhower: an army general
A serious person would be embarrassed to argue that they were some kind of experiential elite.
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'Creationism' biologist quits job (BBC, 9/16/08)
Professor Michael Reiss has quit as director of education at the Royal Society following the controversy over his recent comments on creationism.Last week Prof Reiss - a Church of England minister - said creationism should be discussed in science lessons if pupils raised the issue.
New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (STEPHEN LABATON, 9/11/03, NY Times)
The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.
The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.
The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates. [...]
Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.
''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''
Bashing God by Dissing Sarah (Jeffrey Lord, 9/16/2008, American Spectator)
This election is now being fought openly between, as Whittaker Chambers once described the same fight in a different era, "those who reject and those who worship God." Between those who believe "if man's mind is the decisive force in the world, what need is there for God?" -- and America's own Joan of Arc, Sarah Palin.Sarah Palin not only believes in God, she belongs, to the horror of her liberal critics, to the Assemblies of God, an evangelical church. For many liberals this is the equivalent of The Making of the President meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Worse she lives out in practice what Dr. Josh Moody, the senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in New Haven, calls, in his book by the same title, The God-Centered Life. Which is to say, in the now abruptly famous case of her Down syndrome son Trig, Palin knowingly refused to opt for an abortion. Nor did she respond to the news of her 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy with anything other than loving acceptance of a new life and encouragement of marriage. Twice over in two now ongoing and very public situations, Sarah Palin has focused on the love of God rather than herself. To those who have vested their life and career comfortably believing there is little need for God because what of what rolls around aimlessly in their heads and those of their like-minded friends at any given moment, to those who view government and the power of the state as an object of worship, this is taken as a serious, gut-level threat. A threat to the existence of their own very carefully structured non-religious secular value system.
They may say they are opposing Sarah Palin. What they really want to defeat is the idea of God.
The Governor also quite vibrantly exemplifies something else, a something else that rattles the American left to its very core. She is indeed a feminist. In the words of Obama supporter and feminist Camille Paglia, Palin represents "an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day [of her selection by McCain], she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist. In terms of redefining the persona for female authority and leadership, Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment."
This is another way of saying that Palin terrifies the left precisely because her election to the vice-presidency -- and potential later elevation to the presidency -- would not simply shatter the glass ceiling but redefine feminism itself as the glass explodes. Gone for good would be the image of the pant-suited, pro-abortion, secular-centered Powerful Woman. In her place would be a skirt-wearing, vibrantly pro-life, God-centered woman who is neither afraid of her own femininity or, importantly, ashamed of her working class roots and the religious values that come with them. She loves her husband, is thrilled by her kids and is not in the least intimidated by the pretensions of those who hilariously presume to be her betters, whether that be intellectually, socially or politically. Most dramatically, she enthusiastically loves and worships God.
GOP's Gaining (Dick Morris and Eileen McGann, 9/16/08, FrontPageMagazine.com)
The most dramatic manifestation of this reversal is, of course, in the head-to-head ballot test of John McCain vs. Barack Obama. While Fox News had Obama ahead by 42-39 in its August 19-20 survey, its poll for September 8-9 shows McCain ahead by 45-42. Obama hasn't changed, but McCain has moved up six points.It's way too early for slight changes in the head-to-head ballot test to matter, but there has been a basic trend away from the Democratic Party in recent months. In an April 28-29 sample, 44 percent of voters said they were Democrats while only 30 percent said they were Republicans.
That 14-point gap in favor of the Democrats closed to a 9-point gap at the end of July and collapsed to only 7 points by September 8-9. Now, 41 percent say they're Democrats while 34 percent identify themselves as Republicans. It's still a Democratic year, but by only half as much as it was four months ago.
Inflation Eases on Oil Price Drops (BRIAN BLACKSTONE, 9/16/08, Wall Street Journal)
U.S. consumer prices fell last month for the first time in nearly two years reflecting a rapid drop in oil prices as well as lower prices for automobiles and housing, which slid for the first time in over five years.The figures, which included a tame rise in core prices excluding food and energy, should make it easier for Federal Reserve officials to address severe strains in financial markets by cutting interest rates if needed without having to worry about an inflationary outbreak.
Crude oil prices plunged again today, falling below $91 a barrel at one point this morning as traders and investors worried about lower oil demand from a weakened economy and the prospect that troubled financial firms would curtail oil trading or liquidate positions. The dip in prices follows a 5.4 percent drop yesterday that brought the cost of oil below $100 a barrel for first time since Feb. 15.
Who are the British creationists? (Julian Joyce, 9/14/08, BBC Magazine)
The revelation that US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin says creationism should be taught in schools, alongside that of evolutionary theory, has raised few eyebrows in the US. An estimated 47% of Americans reject outright Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, accepting instead the Bible's account of the creation of the universe - as laid out in the first chapter of Genesis.But in Britain, where a portrait of Darwin appears on the back of the £10 note, his theory of life evolving from primitive to complex structures by means of natural selection appears to be unchallenged orthodoxy.
Not so, say those on both sides of the creationist divide - a point amply proved by the existence of the Genesis Expo museum, to date Britain's only creationist museum. The museum is the work of Britain's oldest creationist group, the Creation Science Movement, which has built Genesis Expo to visibly challenge the theory of evolution . [...]
A 2006 survey for the BBC found that more than a fifth of those polled were convinced by the creationist argument. Less than half - 48% - chose evolution.
Iran ill-prepared for reformists (Sami Moubayed, 9/17/08, Asia Times)
It is more likely that [Khatami] would prefer to stand back, and support the reformers as something of a "godfather" figure or chief ideologue for Iranian change-seekers.His camp includes:
Mohammad Reza Aref (67), currently a professor at the Engineering Department at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. A veteran academic who served as chancellor of the University of Tehran in the 1990s, he was chosen as vice president by Khatami during his second term - 2001 to 2005.
A Stanford-trained electrical engineer, he also served as minister of communications in 1997-2000. A cosmopolitan man with strong exposure to the Western world, he teaches cryptography and coding theory at Sharif, and pledges to right all the wrongs done to the Iranian people as a result of Ahmadinejad's confrontational approach to the US since 2005.
Mehdi Karroubi (71), a cleric and hardliner turned reformist statesman produced by the Iranian revolution of 1979. He served as speaker of parliament from 1989 to 1992, and then again, under Khatami in 2000-2004. He ran for parliament in 2004 and withdrew his candidacy, and nominated himself for president in 2005, losing to Ahmadinejad.
Karroubi walks a fine rope and stands a much higher chance than Aref, since he is close to both Khatami and the Khamenei. He is also marketing himself as a loyal disciple of the founder of the republic, grand ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He served as an advisor to Khamenei, who appointed him a member of the Expediency Discernment Council.
After he lost the elections of 2005, Karroubi accused a network of mosques, members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and paid agents of conservative politicians of orchestrating Ahmadinejad's victory.
His words were echoed by ex-president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was also defeated for presidential office in 2005. In a fit of fury, Karroubi explicitly named Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the supreme leader, as involved in a conspiracy. Showing just how close he actually was to Khamenei, despite the tension on the surface, he was neither dismissed nor persecuted for his views.
Rather, the grand ayatollah wrote him a letter, saying that such accusations were "below his dignity". Still enraged, Karroubi resigned from all posts to which he was appointed by Khamenei, in a public letter, run in all reformist newspapers in Iran. The move was seen as going beyond acceptable red lines.
The state responded by shutting down the newspaper that originally ran his letter, and halting the distribution of others that reprinted it. Orders were given by the prosecutor-general of Tehran, Said Mortazavi. But Karroubi is a respected man who carries weight in Iranian society, which explains why nobody has vetoed his candidacy today, and why it is none other than Khatami who is supporting him for president.
Considered by many to be a fine and true Iranian patriot, Karroubi advocates the most pragmatic approach to relations with the US, saying, "With regard to America, I must say that American statesmen should stop their current ways of intimidation and approaches vis-a-vis Iran. If this happens, then I will not oppose relations with America." His candidacy will split the reformers in half, with some voting for him and others voting for someone like Aref - which in effect will serve the interests of nobody but the conservatives.
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Palin pick means McCain is like Bush (PAUL BEGALA, 9/16/08, Politico)
As the political class prattles on about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, we are overlooking the most important aspect of her selection as the GOP running mate: what it says about John McCain.And what it says is, he’s just like George W. Bush.
In choosing Palin, McCain was in full Bush mode. Like Bush, he followed his gut, ignored advice from experts and acted on impulse. In fact, McCain’s rash and reckless choice of Palin makes Bush look downright careful by comparison — so McCain may well be more Bushian than Bush himself. If you liked eight years of a president who went with his gut, acted on impulse and gambled our nation’s future on a hunch, you’ll love John McCain.
They're missing the margin by which similar legislation passed the US Congress, a point that drives home how extremely pro-Death he is.
Does France Have a Prayer?: Papal French. ( John F. Cullinan, 9/15/08, National Review)
The three-fold aims of Benedict’s pastoral visit were to (a) encourage the local church; (b) further dialogue with secular European cultures and institutions; and (c) remind the universal church, mainly through his own personal witness, that a highly intellectual faith is entirely compatible with traditional forms of devotion.Benedict’s first and foremost aim was to encourage French Catholics, now emerging from a long period of decline and demoralization as a more compact, committed, and dynamic community. Roughly 75 percent of France’s 60 million citizens are baptized Catholics, though far fewer identify themselves as Catholics or practice their faith. Only 5 to 10 percent attend Mass on a weekly basis (versus perhaps one-third in the U.S.).
France’s trajectory from “eldest daughter of the church” (la fille aînée de l’Eglise) to “mission country” (pays de mission) — as one senior cleric acknowledged as early as the 1940s — has particularly French causes rooted in modern French history, culture, and politics. The upshot is that committed French Catholics are such by choice, rather than by tradition or convenience, and are therefore noticeably more forward-looking, hopeful, and “evangelical” than their immediate predecessors.
This “creative minority” — Benedict’s term for committed Catholics in an increasingly secular Europe — was the pope’s principal focus. In fact, Benedict’s presence brought more Catholics into the streets than any event in the past quarter century, recalling the spontaneous demonstrations that erupted against Francois Mitterand’s unsuccessful back-door attempt to close down Catholic schools.
Still neck and neck in Colo. (The Denver Post, 09/16/2008)
Colorado continues to be too close to call when it comes to the presidential campaign.A Fox News/Rasmussen Report poll released Monday found that Democrat Barack Obama was trailing Republican John McCain by 2 percentage points in Colorado.
Obama's facing some tough skeptics out here, though, and comments like the ones he made in Duryea, Penn., earlier this month don't necessarily help. [...]"The bottom line is this. If you’ve got a rifle, you’ve got a shotgun, you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it away. Alright? So they can keep on talking about it but this is just not true. And by the way, here’s another thing you’ve got to understand. Even if I wanted to take it away, I couldn’t get it done. I don’t have the votes in Congress."
That "I don't have the votes in Congress" line has ricocheted around the country…
Cash-poor Obama says no to Reid (JOHN BRESNAHAN, 9/16/08, Politico)
Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a personal appeal to Barack Obama: Help me grow the Democrats’ Senate majority by sharing some of the $77 million you’ve got in the bank.Obama’s campaign said no.
Although Democratic insiders say a better deal could still come, the Obama campaign so far has agreed only to let Senate Democrats use Obama’s name — as well as those of his wife and running mate — in mail and online fundraising pitches. The campaign has planned no joint fundraising events with House or Senate Democrats, and insiders say none is likely to be held before Election Day.
In rejecting a direct request from his Senate leader, Obama has put a fine point on the financial pressures he’s feeling as the presidential race turns toward the fall.
On Sex-Ed Ad, McCain Is Right: What was that Illinois sex-education bill really about? (Byron York, 9/16/08, National Review)
What, specifically, was the bill designed to do? It appears to have had three major purposes:The first, as Ronen indicated, was to mandate that information presented in sex-ed classes be “factual,” “medically accurate,” and “objective.”
The second purpose was to increase the number of children receiving sex education. Illinois’ existing law required the teaching of sex education and AIDS prevention in grades six through twelve. The old law read:
Each class or course in comprehensive sex education offered in any of grades 6 through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention, transmission and spread of AIDS.
Senate Bill 99 struck out grade six, changing it to kindergarten, in addition to making a few other changes in wording. It read:
Each class or course in comprehensive sex education in any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV.
The bill’s third purpose was to remove value-laden language in the old law. For example, the old law contained passages like this:
Course material and instruction shall teach honor and respect for monogamous heterosexual marriage.
Course material and instruction shall stress that pupils should abstain from sexual intercourse until they are ready for marriage…
[Classes] shall emphasize that abstinence is the expected norm in that abstinence from sexual intercourse is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against unwanted teenage pregnancy [and] sexually transmitted diseases…The proposed bill eliminated all those passages and replaced them with wording like this:
Course material and instruction shall include a discussion of sexual abstinence as a method to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
Course material and instruction shall present the latest medically factual information regarding both the possible side effects and health benefits of all forms of contraception, including the success and failure rates for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV…The bill gave parents and guardians the right to take their children out of sex-ed classes by presenting written objections. The bill also specified that “all sex education courses that discuss sexual activity or behavior…be age and developmentally appropriate.” And, after covering a number of other provisions, the bill addressed the issue of inappropriate advances:
Course material and instruction shall teach pupils to not make unwanted physical and verbal sexual advances and how to say no to unwanted sexual advances and shall include information about verbal, physical, and visual sexual harassment, including without limitation nonconsensual sexual advances, nonconsensual physical sexual contact, and rape by an acquaintance. The course material and instruction shall contain methods of preventing sexual assault by an acquaintance, including exercising good judgment and avoiding behavior that impairs one’s judgment. The course material and instruction shall emphasize personal accountability and respect for others and shall also encourage youth to resist negative peer pressure. The course material and instruction shall inform pupils of the potential legal consequences of sexual assault by an acquaintance. Specifically, pupils shall be advised that it is unlawful to touch an intimate part of another person as specified in the Criminal Code of 1961.
The wording of that provision suggests lawmakers were at least as concerned with protecting children from each other as from adults, and it doesn’t seem directed toward the youngest children, as Obama maintained. But there is no doubt that the bill did address the question of inappropriate touching. On the other hand, there is also no doubt that, looking at the overall bill, the “touching” provision did not have the prominence that Team Obama has suggested it had, and it certainly wasn’t the bill’s main purpose.
Orchestrating a Process Neither Neat Nor Fair (Steven Pearlstein, September 16, 2008, Washington Post)
Ever since last week, when it became apparent that Lehman Brothers had lost the confidence of investors, the Treasury secretary was ready to gamble that financial markets could withstand the collapse of one of its most venerable investment banks.By that time, regulators had had enough time to comb through Lehman's books and determine that its assets were likely to cover most of its liabilities at the end of an orderly liquidation. [...]
So when the masters of the financial universe gathered at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over the weekend and told him they wouldn't participate in a Lehman rescue without some sort of government guarantee limiting their losses, Paulson was ready to call their bluff. He said to them, in effect, if you're not worried that a Lehman failure would trigger a market meltdown that would take you down with it, then neither am I.
In the end, it was the financiers who blinked. Although they weren't worried enough to underwrite a Lehman rescue, they were worried enough to commit resources to restoring stability to the markets and complete the restructuring and recapitalization of the industry. Bank of America, spotting what looked like a bargain, ponied up $50 billion in stock for Merrill Lynch, the next likely Wall Street domino to fall. And a group of the biggest banks agreed to make $70 billion available to any financial firm in need of short-term cash.
