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The actions of our democracy were outside the chambers last night, sorry to say

This was the first State of the Union address I have missed in several years. I did not miss watching it because of something the President did or didn’t do. I missed it because I knew every good deed that was proposed in the past year was usually grounded because of our pitiful excuse of a Congress.

Here is a full transcript of the 2014 SOTU. Beginning with:

 “Tonight this chamber speaks with one voice to the people we represent: It is you, our citizens, who make the state of our union strong.”

What would the President say? “Man, this whole stinkin’ union sucks!”

During this past year, the minority within the House majority, along with the minority of the Senate minority, caused the federal government to shut down for half a month. We, the workers (part-time ones like me too) were all paid but we worried about whether that would happen because our senior U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R, Texas, held up the legislation allowing us our pay to the end of that sorry saga. I wish someone viable would appear to defeat Cornyn, the piece of dusty furniture that occupies our vaunted Senate succession from the great Sen. Sam Houston, who was for those from another planet was also President of the Republic of Texas and Governor of Texas. That is, until Big Sam was overthrown by Texas citizens of the United States who wanted to undo all the state had fought for by succeeding from this nation over slaves they couldn’t even afford.

No viable candidate brings me to the end of the SOTU. Read it yourself. I will. I have read the excerpts and the pundits, some of them. I rest my case, whatever it was on the SOTU because the scourge of idiocy showed itself outside the great congressional chamber where first, one of Cornyn’s opponents “showed his ass,” as we say down in Texas.

Rep. Steve Stockman, R, Texas is leaving Congress to run against Cornyn. That’s the good news, that he’s leaving Congress. Stockman, unseated congressional legend Rep. Jack Brooks who served 42 years in office. I wasn’t living in that district then. I am living in that district now but because of redistricting we have a brand new piece of Republican Tea Party furniture. Thankfully, I was ably represented back then, in 1995, by Rep. Charlie “Good Time Charlie” Wilson, D, Texas of “Charlie Wilson’s War” fame. Not that I could have done anything to stop the looney tunes Stockman from taking office. During Stockman’s tenure he was reviled for a bizarre incident in which he received a fax from Michigan militia types just after the Oklahoma City Bombing. While Stockman was accused of having received the message before the bombing and not reporting it to the FBI (he did report it), his sanity and ethics were questioned for sending the fax to the NRA. Plus his ties to a Michigan militia seemed also shady.

But Stockman, these days, seems shady-er, shadier. Cornyn’s high-powered Republican operatives have dug deep and found all kinds of dirt about financial shenanigans from Stockman and his missing in action from the House.  

Then there was that whole Stockman, figuratively thank you, showing his ass last night by walking out on the SOTU. The Senate candidate said he did so to protest the President abusing his power yadda, yadda. What a moron you are Steve Stockman.

Finally, the Republicans also made news for the party’s former Marine and FBI agent member of the House who last night threatened to throw a reporter off the balcony of the Capitol and to break the reporter into. That was because the reporter had the gall to ask Rep. Michael Grimm, R, N.Y., a question that was about some campaign finance irregularities rather that something from the SOTU on which the congressman probably had ready for a quote.

It turns out Grimm has a long history of bad behavior toward the press and others as well as many ethical and financial questions trailing his time in Congress.

Both congressional Republican morons think they can speak to reporters on their own volition. But that isn’t the way our democracy works. As it turned out, I made the better decision to just keep a copy of the SOTU handy to read at my own pace. Besides, all the action, if you want to call it that, was outside the chamber. Unfortunately.

Stupidity be thy name, Mr. GRIMM and Mr. STOCKMAN.

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Interviews such as that of the Seahawks’ Sherman need a little context

When Seattle Seahawks defensive back Richard Sherman “went nuts” on Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews, as she would later explain, I was probably like millions of other viewers of the NFC Championship game Sunday left wondering “WTF?”

Sherman tipped a pass from San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick that allowed Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith to grab the game-clutching interception, sending the Seattle team to face Denver in Super Bowl XLVIII. Sherman later explained the adrenalin-amped outburst with Andrews holding onto her mike had as much to do with an off-field slight by 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree as it did with any particular on-field action. To Andrews the raging comments Sherman made was pure gold.

Said Andrews: “He lost his mind and it was awesome for once, you know?”

Forget for the moment that I thought I had been tele-ported to a WWE match. With a little perspective — even counting Sherman’s claim that he is the best at his position in the NFL — I get it as a sports fan and as a journalist. Not as the former that I agree with him.

Thankfully I interviewed very few athletes during my career as a journalist. That isn’t due to any bias but the run-of-the-mill sports-related interview is usually nothing more than a coach-inspired cliche fest. Of course some cliches, like the old north Texas high school coach who told a TV reporter after a severe loss: “They beat us like a rented mule,” will always have a spot in my heart as a classic. But these days the trite bite usually is what you hear from everyone who plays sports from Pop Warner to the pros. What Andrews did not have to say, it gets old as hell.

Ir calls to mind my time as a courthouse reporter covering a spat between the local commissioners court and what could be best identified as a “Christian identity” militia type. “The Rev” always had some kind of nugget that otherwise made those Monday mornings at the courthouse snooze time.

“You wear women’s underwear,” the Rev. W.N. Otwell told the commissioners, who told him his group would need a permit to parade along with some Ku Kluxers on the courthouse grounds. This was a week or so after I had been visited by a man who described himself as “the Exalted Cyclops” of his Klan group.

A reporter doesn’t want rage aimed toward themselves, of course. That can get quite dangerous in a hurry. And though Andrews may have protested that she wasn’t scared. I think from the look that she first exhibited indicated she might just pee her pants on TV. It’s okay to be scared Erin, it can keep you alive. I think she handled herself well. And now with some perspective I understand Rasta Man’s outburst too. It was ill-advised but you can understand things when get way over the top. And despite what some high-and-mighty f**ks might think, sometimes an outburst can get you through the intricate problems that cloud your head occasionally. Such exhibitions shouldn’t be a chance an easy chance to rid a valued employee so they can hire one or more wet-behind-the-ears kids on the (way) cheap.

That’s all I have to say about that. Such a great line, Forrest.

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From acorns grow mighty oaks and budding sociologists

A random listicle I was reading last week was one of zillions opining on worthless degrees when it comes to current jobs. Among those areas of study were journalism, of which I am or was one, and sociology. I majored in journalism and one of my two minors was in sociology. I can’t remember whether political science was in the list/story, if so I suppose I could award my self a hat trick on useless college studies.

Sociology was, for me, a true minor with the minimum hours. In my political science studies I added on some additional courses after college, falling a course or two short of a degree in political science. But why, huh?

Corporations in the number business — including non-profit think tanks and universities — as well as government should hire unspecified numbers of sociologists sometime in the future. When and how many I don’t know. The communication explosion of digital technology and the internet has happened in a very brief time, relatively speaking, creating an entirely new set of societal behaviors. Everything from buying apps to texting in movie theaters (and getting fatally shot) to the use of Facebook as opposed to Google+ have made social subjects ripe for study. That the cultural aspects of our society have so rapidly changed may soon become as limiting a factor in our daily life as it is a helpful one. That was kind of the whole enchilada as to what sociologist and author Alvin Toffler wrote in his 1970 book “Future Shock.”

The term “future shock” was used by Toffler to describe the effects of perceiving too much change in too little time. That is a very simplistic definition and the effects are many with varied signs that are too numerous to pass along here. But he hit the proverbial bulls-eye almost 45 years ago when it comes to outcomes of what he termed a “post industrial society” such as stress and disorientation. Such were examples of the “information overload” Toffler foresaw.

In some ways the social aspects may occur too quickly to study but a ultra-micro sliver of life. That is generally how many, if not, most scientific approaches are in studying society. However, it might just test the limits of time. I’ve always thought time as great fodder for sociological study, by the way.

The job-seeker of today, the one with worthless sociology degrees, facing the end of college or living in a post-collegiate world, must study and study with intensity what that person can do for a prospective employer with their study of sociology. A master’s degree, something I never attained, is ideal. But a sociologist with a bachelor’s degree can also think hard about what fields of study might enhance a company and its products. Then, it is up to one’s own guile as to whether he or she can seal the deal. This is basically the journeyman newspaper writer’s approach to a story, complete with often selling the product as a freelancer or even as a staff writer who comes up constantly with stories they’d like to pursue for whatever reason. This might not always land you a cool job or assignment. But it will definitely might just move you ahead provided you don’t somehow screw up outside your narrow life as a sociologist or reporter.

This all is pretty much off the wall and if I miss in a few areas, well pardon me. I can only afford to self-edit and that is often in a flash. So I’ve given you some of my nuggets, well, maybe not nuggets, but whatever I’ve given you feel free to take them and use them how and if you see fit. Don’t call me if it backfires.

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Southwest 737 lands eight miles short of destination

All over the news today, the errant landing of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 at an airport near Branson, Mo.

Southwest Flight 4013 had been scheduled to land at the Branson Airport. It instead landed at the M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport — a.k.a. Clark-Tanney Co. Airport — some eight miles away and with a runway almost half of the size of the Branson facility.  The Springfield News-Leader website reported that the Southwest jet took off today without incident. The aviation website FlightAware.com reported that the plane landed some 30 minutes later at the Tulsa International Airport in Oklahoma.

While this can be chalked up to one of those “Oops” moments — and was by some news outlets — the safe landing had the potential for disaster as the 737-700 came to rest only “a few hundred feet” from a 50-foot gravel embankment at the end of the runway, according to the News-Leader story by Thomas Gounley. The story and the initial one by Claudette Riley provided the best coverage of the incident I have seen in reading some of the Missouri, AP and network stories on the Web. Hey, trust me, I was a journalist  for some 20 years and covered several of these breaking news events that received national attention. And you can believe me because I’m always right and I never lie.

Southwest has suspended the pilots. Buses took the passengers, who spent about 75 minutes on the landed aircraft, to the Branson airport. The story today had the interesting footnote, one subtle yuk, that Southwest had to “find Branson for another five months.” The airline plans to cease flights to the airport in June.

The 2010 Census estimates say Branson has 10,520 people although the city has long been known for its many theaters catering to country music lovers and an older crowd such as Roy Clark, Glen Campbell, Andy Williams and the Oak Ridge Boys. Frontier Airlines is the other carrier currently operating out of Branson. Even with the extensive tourist trade its hard to imagine a city with 10.5 thousand folks having an airport with two major airlines serving it. Our airport here in the Beaumont-Port Arthur and Orange, Texas vicinity serves a regional population of a half-million people, however, it is only an hour-and-a-half from Houston and its two major airports. It currently has American flying to and from Dallas-Fort Worth International. United Airlines still has a bus service to George H.W. Bush International Airport in Houston back and forth to Jack Brooks Regional Airport in Nederland from its merger with Continental

Private and public entities had to put a $1.5 million revenue guarantee for American to begin flying its regional jets from Southeast Texas from its D-FW hub. American became the most recent airline over the past 40-something years in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area.

Southwest pulled out of Beaumont-Port Arthur after a little more than six months in 1979. My third airline flight, flying from what was Houston Intercontinental in 1974 to BPT, was on a turbo-prop Convair 880 that was part of the Texas International Airlines fleet. Texas International, previously Trans-Texas Airways, eventually merged with Continental.

Back and forth. Up and down. That’s the airline biz.

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Neil Young, Pocahontas and Me

First I am reading about the dawning of the pot rush in Colorado. Where else would I find this, I mean, besides on the internet? High Times? Well, I’ve not gone there but I’m talking about Rolling Stone.

I have read RS on and off since my teens. I think I first had a subscription in college and it pretty well continued into the end of the century. The internet is where I have found selected pieces, enough to remind me that it is still probably the best music magazine that was ever published. This despite its turn in the 21st century toward celebrity gossip. Maybe not gossip, but it might as well be gossip.

My two paragraphs are spent not on what I’d intended, so much. It is memories of Neil Young which surface from a story I read this afternoon in Rolling Stone about Young playing Carnegie Hall.

I probably first heard his work when “Heart of Gold” was on all the radio stations, we didn’t get that many stations back then. Well, I’m sure I heard Buffalo Springfield on the radio before that, but it would be a bit later before I knew of his helping to found the great group. Offshoots would include Poco, a favorite, and Loggins and Messina. Then Woodstock and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young came along, later the album “Deja Vu,” I think it is the group’s best work. But Neil Young was a separate music entity. Unlike musical acts I “rediscovered” in recent years — the Allman Brothers Band principal among them, I had listened to Young since I was a long-haired country boy. This was back before I joined the Navy and saw, at least, a pretty nice portion of the world.

What is so wonderful about Neil Young is also the most exasperating. That is Young the musical chameleon. Remember “Trans?” The Carnegie concert features Young, without a doubt, on some of his best work. Many of his popular songs — “Mr. Soul” from Buffalo Springfield before I was a Young fan — are coming to life again. As if they ever lacked life. The review notes that Young, at 68, only shows a few minor cracks in his tenor voice, although those cracks on his high-notes have been there for years.

As is probably the case with many popular music acts who have been around for eons, a fair amount of Young’s songs are not always the most popular ones. “For The Turnstiles,” “Don’t Let It Bring You Down,” and “Pocahontas” to name a few. I think I mentioned here before the oddity of traveling from Houston to Galveston one day, passing the Astrodome along the way. On the island, a stop at a convenience store revealed the day’s news that Marlon Brando had died. I immediately found the irony from “Pocahontas:” and its Canadian frost:

 “And maybe Marlon Brando
Will be there by the fire
We’ll sit and talk of Hollywood
And the good things there for hire
And the Astrodome
and the first tepee
Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me
Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me.”

I also thought, for a time, Young was too quick to jump on something topical. “Let’s Roll,” from the terrible saga of 9/11, for example. But topical is what I do, man! So why should I get on Neil Young’s case?

I’m going to leave links to a few vintage Young favorites. If you looking for cheery, well … I hope you enjoy these half as much as I have. Have a great weekend while you are at it.

“Comes A Time”

“Pocahontas”

“Powderfinger”

“Needle and the Damage Done”