10.19.09 / Politics

Nation’s headline writers prepare to break out the weed puns again

In a move that surprised no one, considering that it was actually announced months ago, the Department of Justice officially issued its new medicinal marijuana policy today, effectively reversing the Bush-era crackdown on state-level medicinal programs:

The memo advises prosecutors they “should not focus federal resources in your states on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.”

Meanwhile, in California (where medicinal marijuana has been legal for years and has grown into a thriving industry) a 2010 ballot proposal to legalize the drug outright is gaining a head of steam, spurred on by increasing acceptance of the drug for recreational use and by the prospect of a massive tax windfall to help bail out imploding state budgets.

A Zogby poll from a few months ago held that 52% of Americans want it legalized for recreational use, a number that climbs to 60% among Californians.

Should be an interesting election night in November 2010.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / 4 Comments
Tags: Barack Obama, Drug policy, Medicinal Marijuana

10.12.09 / Music

Music Mondays: Every Ghetto, Every City

In the last edition we heard a track from Cream’s 1967 album Disraeli Gears. Today, we have something from Lauryn Hill’s 1998 debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill:

Following the explosive success of their classic 1996 offering The Score, The Fugees quickly began to unravel as egos grew and the relationship between members Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean became strained. By 1997, all three members were working on solo projects, beginning with Wyclef’s 1997 album The Carnival. Lauryn Hill swept the 1999 Grammys with Miseducation, solidifying her place as a bright star in the hip-hop/R&B firmament.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / 5 Comments
Tags: Lauryn Hill, Music Mondays

10.10.09 / Politics

Prize Fight

Yesterday, President Obama became the 3rd sitting president to win the Nobel Peace Prize:

Mr Obama was sound asleep in the White House when the Norwegian Nobel Committee made the shock announcement. It said that he was being honoured for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”.

In a clear swipe at his predecessor, George W. Bush, the committee praised the “change in the international climate” that the President had brought, along with his cherished goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

Some are puzzled by the choice, but abandoning the Bush administration’s civilian-slaughtering, deficit-ballooning, ally-alienating, profiteer-enriching, prisoner-torturing foreign policy is probably the best thing anyone could have done for the cause of peace in 2009.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize, World Affairs

9.30.09 / Cartoons

The digital gap

Every cartoon that I produce is first drawn on paper, in pencil, before being inked in Sharpie. The pencil is erased, and the cartoon is scanned into Photoshop, where it is prepared for print. Most of the time, this processing is minimal: filling in areas of black, correcting typos, etc. But in today’s cartoon, most of the work was done in Photoshop, making the initial drawn image a blank slate:

Sparse.

The finished cartoon.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Editorial Cartoons, Sketches

9.28.09 / Music

Music Mondays: Strange Brew

This week we have “Strange Brew” from Cream’s 1967 album Disraeli Gears. Considered the first “supergroup,” Cream was formed by drummer Ginger Baker (of the Graham Bond Organization), bassist Jack Bruce (from Manfred Mann), and, of course, Eric Clapton (then from The Yardbirds).

Recorded in New York City in the Spring of 1967, Gears was Cream’s breakout album in America, reaching the Top 5.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Cream, Music Mondays

9.23.09 / Cartoons, Politics

A Game of Inches

After a long crazy summer, the debate over health care reform has officially entered the home stretch. Last weekend, President Obama performed a full Ginsberg, appearing on every major Sunday talk show to spearhead the final push for reform.

The director of the Congressional Budget Office has said health care reform will be here in six weeks, which has set political prognosticators to salivating. At this late stage in the debate, the reform package will be massaged and rewritten several times before finally being voted on, so every effort to keep critical provisions like the public option alive is crucial.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Barack Obama, Editorial Cartoons, Health Care

9.21.09 / Music

Music Mondays: Moonage Daydream

Set your phasers on funky:

Bowie at his spacey best. You have to love any song whose first verse goes like this:

I’m an alligator, I’m a mama-papa coming for you
I’m the space invader, I’ll be a rock ‘n’ rollin’ bitch for you
Keep your mouth shut,
you’re squawking like a pink monkey bird
And I’m busting up my brains for the words

This song was on Bowie’s 1972 concept album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Though it is perhaps overshadowed by “Ziggy Stardust” (the titular track) and “Suffragette City” (another single from the album) “Moonage Daydream” never fails to satisfy.

Press your space-face to mine, love!

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: David Bowie, Music Mondays

9.21.09 / DQ @, Politics

The Call is going to the G20

Above: The G-20 leaders convened in Washington for 2008's summit.

The G-20 Summit, a convocation of the world’s major economic powers, will be held in Pittsburgh from September 24-25. President Obama and 19 other heads of state will meet in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown, where they will be tackling international challenges such as recovering from the 2008 economic crash, coordinating development and aid policy to the third world, and trying to keep the global financial system in working order. The Call will be reporting from the summit later this week.

From the first summit in 1999 until last year, the G-20 was a relatively low-profile meeting of finance ministers and bank governors. But following the collapse of global markets in last year’s economic crash, the meetings have been attended by the G-20 nations’ heads of state and have become a high-profile incubator of global policy.

They have also attracted larger and larger numbers of anti-globalization protesters, and larger numbers of police to maintain the crowds.

Stay tuned later this week for our dispatches from Pittsburgh.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: G20, The Clarion Call

9.16.09 / Cartoons

The Masque of the Red Death

I lost my trusty black Sharpie halfway through working on this week’s editorial cartoon, and had to switch to red. I was fairly pleased with the results:

It kind of made me sad to lose all that red goodness for the final version. Click the following link to see it in greater detail.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Editorial Cartoons, Sketches, Swine Flu

9.13.09 / Music

Music Mondays: Uneasy Rider

It’s Monday, and that means a new music video presented in a little feature called Music Mondays. Last week, we heard a track from Big L’s Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous. This week, I bring you “Uneasy Rider”, Charlie Daniels’ 1973 hit from Honey in the Rock. The song tells the tale of a long-haired hippie stranded in a redneck bar called The Dew Drop Inn:

Thankfully, this song was recorded before Charlie Daniels turned into a bloated old reactionary draped in the Confederate flag. He has come full circle: he is now Ol’ Green Teeth.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Charlie Daniels, Music Mondays

9.9.09 / Et Cetera

Watch Out

I apologize for the lack of posts. There’s been much to do here at The Call to prepare for the new semester. I’ll be posting political commentary, cartoons, and whatever is distracting me here as the new year goes on. The other Call Blogs will be starting up soon too, so check out the blogroll on the right hand side of this page.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Meta

9.7.09 / Music

Music Mondays: Put It On

It’s Monday, and that means a new music video presented in a little feature called Music Mondays. Last week, we heard a classic 1977 single from Earth Wind & Fire. This week, we have “Put It On” by the late rapper Big L (and featuring Kid Capri), from his 1995 debut solo album Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous (warning: explicit lyrics):

This song is an example of Big L’s incredible ability to combine poetically complex lyrics with a machine-gun flow. The track’s stripped-down beat lets L’s flow speak for itself. It’s packed with a lot of clever lines, many you may miss on the first listen. If you think you can handle the kind of naughty words that are contained in rap lyrics, join me after the link and follow along with the song: More »

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Big L, Music Mondays

8.31.09 / Music

Music Mondays: Serpentine Fire

Welcome to the third installment of Music Mondays. Last week, I brought you “Chocolate Jesus” from Tom Waits’ 1999 album Mule Variations. This week I bring you “Serpentine Fire” from Earth Wind & Fire’s 1977 album All ‘N All:

This is a classic funk track, complete with a bombastic horn section, a fat slap bass line, and a generous helping of falsetto in the chorus. The single spent a month and a half at the top of the R&B charts. Its music video also depicts the band singing the song inside a pyramid. So there’s that.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Earth Wind & Fire, Music Mondays

8.24.09 / Music

Music Mondays: Chocolate Jesus

Welcome to the second installment of Music Mondays. Last week, I brought you a cut from Elvis Costello’s 1989 album Spike. This week I bring you “Chocolate Jesus” from Tom Waits’ 1999 album Mule Variations. Waits performed the song in 2006 on Letterman:

This song is classic Tom Waits: the four-packs-a-day growl, the use of early 20th century blues-inspired instrumentation, the megaphone. This version of the song was performed on the Late Show with David Letterman, amid a controversy over a chocolate sculpture of Jesus. Titled “My Sweet Lord,” the sculpture was eventually forced to be taken down in 2007 following pressure from Catholic groups.

I may be mistaken, but I almost positive that this track on the studio version has chickens clucking in the background. If anyone can confirm this, let me know.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Music Mondays, Tom Waits

8.23.09 / DQ @, Politics

DQ @ Netroots Nation: Day 1

(Photo: matthewfilipowicz via Flickr)

My sister Emily and I arrived downtown Thursday afternoon. Moments after crossing the Fort Duquesne Bridge, we were heading down the narrow alley separating the David L. Lawrence Convention Center from the office building our father works in.

My dad, a tall wisp of a man in reflective sunglasses, rounded the corner into the alley, parking garage access card in hand. The hand-off was made, and we disappeared beneath the city streets.

The new geek Jesus.

Walking down the block to the convention center’s entrance, our path was crossed by polling statistics guru and founder of FiveThirtyEight Nate Silver, manically tapping away on his Blackberry.

“That was Nate Silver,” I mentioned to Emily.

“Nate Silver?” came a voice from behind. I turned to see a large man with a bushy beard and thick glasses, fidgeting with his bright orange convention lanyard.

“Since when did he become the new geek Jesus?” More »

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Bill Clinton, Netroots Nation

8.23.09 / Et Cetera

Back To School

Ironically, in his college days Rodney Dangerfield majored in Respect Acquisition Management.

I’m moving back to Clarion on Monday. With less than two weeks to go before the new semester kicks off, I thought I’d share a classic scene from Back To School, a 1986 Rodney Dangerfield vehicle about a middle-aged man enrolling in college with his adult son.

The film is notable for being one of Robert Downey, Jr.’s earliest major roles, as well as for its cameo appearances by Danny Elfman’s 80s rock band Oingo Boingo and author Kurt Vonnegut.

In this scene, Dangerfield recites Dylan Thomas’ classic poem, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” As far as I’m concerned, this is hands-down the best reading of any poem, ever (note: there is a naughty word at the end of this clip. Parental discretion is advised):

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Dylan Thomas, Rodney Dangerfield, Video

8.22.09 / Et Cetera

Netroots Nation update

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I attended this year’s Netroots Nation, the annual convention of liberal and left-leaning bloggers, movers, and shakers.

I had originally intended to post daily updates from the convention, but with a lack of time to write lately and the pictures from the convention trapped in an old digital camera that refuses to cooperate, I’ve decided to write a long-form report on it, to be posted here before the beginning of the school year.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Meta, Netroots Nation

8.17.09 / Music

Music Mondays: God’s Comic

Welcome to the first (and hopefully not last) installment of Music Mondays, where I’ll bring you some good music to get your week going. This week, I’m happy to showcase one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite artists: “God’s Comic” by Elvis Costello, from his 1989 album Spike. Costello performed the song on what is apparently a BBC knockoff of MTV Unplugged:

This is a song about a comedian who dies and goes to heaven, fearful that God has never heard of him. The second verse describes one of the best scenes ever set to music, that of the comedian beholding god, lounging on a waterbed:

So there he was on a waterbed
Drinking a cola of a mystery brand
Reading an airport novelette
Listening to Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Requiem
He said, before it had really begun, “I prefer the one about my son”
“I’ve been wading through all this unbelievable
junk and wondering if I should have given
the world to the monkeys”

I imagine that God drinks his dollar store pop from a straw so silly, only He could have made it.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Elvis Costello, Music Mondays

8.14.09 / Politics

Re: Tom Toner on health care reform

I was reading Tom’s post over on his blog from earlier this week, and made a particularly long comment I feel bears repeating here:

We’ve had to suffer through decades of conservative policies designed to “starve the beast,” including massive rollbacks in needed oversight and regulations, dramatic cuts in corporate and capital gains taxes, and a general flattening of our progressive tax system. The current top marginal tax rate, set in the Bush era, is 35%. Obama is proposing a 39.6% top marginal rate, rolling back Bush’s cuts. That’s still only half of what it was in the 1950s and 60s.

The simple fact is that the most wealthy have not been carrying their fair share of the tax load for decades. This has resulted in shrinking public coffers and vital programs being cut, while billions are wasted through corporate giveaways and dumped into a small black hole in Virginia called the Pentagon budget. It also shifts the more of the tax burden onto the middle class.

A modest increase in taxes on the most exorbitant incomes would not only easily offset the cost of health care reform, it would go a long way toward paying down the deficit and funding much-needed programs that have fallen by the wayside.

As for Obama and the public option, I don’t know where you’re getting that 30 million would remain uninsured with the introduction of a public option. Even if that number were true (and I don’t think it is) with nearly 50 million Americans uninsured already, a near-instant 40% reduction in that number would be welcome.

Also, where are you getting the idea that Americans have a 50-100% better chance of surviving cancer than nations with public health care systems? Rudy Giuliani made a similar claim in 2007 and the Washington Post did a good job of knocking it down as false.

After I finish the piece I’m working on for Netroots Nation, I’ll be working on a health care series where I’ll explore this issue in more depth.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Health Care, Tom Toner

8.12.09 / Politics

The power of prayer

The doctor will see you now.

I was watching the replay of today’s Arlen Specter town hall in State College on PCN this evening, and was struck dumb when a local man stepped up to the microphone and told his health care horror story.

He was laid off. Lost his insurance. Soon after, his wife needed a heart transplant. With no money and no coverage, things were dire. He prayed to God to spare his wife’s life, and his prayers were answered when the VA and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania stepped in. The crowd, sensing pro-healthcare sentiment, jeered. Thanks to the state’s assistance, his wife got her transplant and was saved.

Or so one might think! As it turns out, it was only because they prayed that she was saved, and things like the VA and Pennsylvania’s social programs are socialism that should be dismantled for the good of the nation. Then he mumbled something about euthanasia and “Obama’s goons”. The crowd went wild.

(I’ll have the video of this as soon as I can find it.)

I can’t fathom how someone could tell a story full of references to how the social safety net saved his family from certain doom, and then turn around and decry the same safety net. The amount of cognitive dissonance required to hold those two contradictory ideas simultaneously boggles the mind.

To Arlen Specter’s credit, he later demolished this poor man’s argument, simply by pointing out that so-called socialism is what saved his wife’s life. From what I could see, Specter handled this town hall much better than his last one:

I hope this guy never has to have the cops save him from an attacker, because then he’d yell at Arlen Specter to abolish police departments. Because Jesus. Or something.

By Mike Ramsey / Permalink / No Comments
Tags: Arlen Specter, Health Care, Teabaggers