friday random ten

Photo by Ryan McManus

friday random ten


1. "Pack You Up" - Black Tambourine [Complete Recordings]


2. "Razor" - Boyracer [Boyfuckingracer]


3. "Blisters" - The Nightingales [Pigs On Purpose]


4. "In Bluer Skies" - Echo and the Bunnymen [Porcupine]


5. "Dancing Under Influence" - Bedroom Eyes [Embrace In Stereo EP]


6. "Save My Soul" - Wimple Winch [Maximum Freakbeat]


7. "I Was Born (A Unicorn) - The Unicorns [Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?]


8. "Sad Song" - Au Revoir Simone [The Bird Of Music]


9. "Claps" - The Sugarettes [Sugarettecity]


10. "Map" - The Microphones [The Glow Pt. 2]

listen

RPM '07 Challenge

The State of the Impeachment

After Downing Street

On the same day that Bush delivered his state of the union address, eight state senators in New Mexico introduced a resolution (Senate Joint Resolution 5) that if passed would require their state government to send a petition to the U.S. House of Representatives asking that impeachment proceedings immediately begin against Bush and Cheney.

Over 100 citizens showed up for the introduction, and there were over two hours of citizen speeches at the announcement event. Reporters from every New Mexico newspaper and the Associated Press were there, as well as ABC and NBC cameras. What they saw was a bottom-up movement for impeachment, exactly what inpeachment is supposed to be.

Jim Webb's SOTU response

Jonathan Alter

For the first time ever, the response to the State of the Union Message overshadowed the president's big speech. Virginia Sen. James Webb, in office only three weeks, managed to convey a muscular liberalism—with personal touches—that left President Bush's ordinary address in the dust. In the past, the Democratic response has been anemic—remember Washington Gov. Gary Locke? This time it pointed the way to a revival for national Democrats.

Webb is seen as a moderate or even conservative Democrat, but this was a populist speech that quoted Andrew Jackson, founder of the Democratic Party and champion of the common man. The speech represented a return to the tough-minded liberalism of Scoop Jackson and Hubert Humphrey, but by quoting Republicans Teddy Roosevelt (on "improper corporate influence") and Dwight D. Eisenhower (on ending the Korean War), he reinforced the argument that President Bush had taken the GOP away from its roots.

28%

CBS News poll

Mr. Bush’s overall approval rating has fallen to just 28 percent, a new low, while more than twice as many (64 percent) disapprove of the way he's handling his job.

[snip]

Mr. Bush's approval rating is much lower than it was one year ago, when 42 percent of Americans approved, and far lower than the ratings he received in polls prior to his previous State of the Union addresses. Those ratings have fallen steadily since a high of 82 percent in January 2002, shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

His job approval is also far below those of other modern two-term presidents at this point in their second terms.

In January 1999, for example, just after his impeachment by the House of Representatives, President Bill Clinton's job approval rating was 65 percent. In January 1987, President Ronald Reagan's was 52 percent. In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson received a 47 percent approval rating, even as debate about the Vietnam War raged.