Damn, but they could sing!

Righteous Brother Hatfield dies.

Singer Bobby Hatfield, of the chart-topping vocal duo The Righteous Brothers, is found dead.

I was a young pup when the Righteous Brothers started having hits. I remember people being astonished both at the power of their singing and, what, these guys are WHITE? Some white performers, like the dreadful Pat Boone, certainly did rip off black music, water it down, and turn it into mainstream pap. 

However, by any estimation, the Righteous Brothers took Black soul, made it their own, and created amazingly powerful music that nearly four decades later, stands the test of time.

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We look forward to Alice Cooper running in Arizona

In Michigan, Ted Nugent considers gubernatorial bid.

“Ted Nugent has been politically active for years, but now he may be taking his activism to a new level,” WZZM-TV reports. In an interview, “Nugent put his odds of running for Governor at 50/50.”…

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Saddam caved, Bush invaded anyway

Our soldiers are dying in vain - Saddam capitulated and was rebuffed by Bush.

It’s stories like this one, coupled with an announcement of another major call-up of reserves for next year, that spell the beginning of the end for George W. Bush.

 According to both ABC News and the New York Times tonight, Saddam Hussein virtually capitulated to Bush’s demands in the weeks before the war, and made an offer of full US inspections, and assistance with the capture and turnover of a major Al Qaeda figure.

As if any of that mattered to Bush… Saddam was never the real reason for invading anyway.

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Oligarchs investigated, indicted

In corporate America, this was Hairshirt Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors simultaneously indicted one of the most high-profile figures in recent corporate scandals, targeted the world’s largest retailer for its alleged violation of immigration law and decided to retry a former star banker on obstruction of justice charges.

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Knee pain from arthritis? try oligarchs, er, leeches

A new study shows the ancient medical practice of using leeches may provide a new arthritis pain reliever.

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A stand-up guy

Martin McGuinness vowed he would “rather die” than reveal the names of IRA colleagues after he was threatened with legal action for refusing to co-operate with the Bloody Sunday inquiry yesterday.

McGuiness has been called the “IRA godfather of godfathers” and was  “second-in-command of the IRA in the city at the time of the tragedy.” He is now an elected member of Parliament.

Some history. “On January 30, 1972, soldiers from the British Army’s 1st Parachute Regiment opened fire on unarmed and peaceful civilian demonstrators in the Bogside, Derry, Ireland, near the Rossville flats, killing 13 and wounding a number of others.” One died later, making 14 murdered. This was Bloody Sunday.

On his second day of evidence the Sinn Fein chief negotiator remained defiant on providing the inquiry with the necessary information on IRA weapons dumps and the names of IRA members on Bloody Sunday.

He asked: “Am I going to be the only person in prison as the result of the murders of 14 people and the wounding of 13 others on Bloody Sunday?”

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Alice in Wonderland logic in DC

The Environmental Protection Agency is likely to stop taking action against coal-burning power plants that the agency itself had accused of violating air-pollution laws.

We look forward to the FBI announcing they know the identity of several murderers but have decided not to prosecute.

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The mortars that “seemed” to attack

While the vote was being rocked in Boston, the US compound was being mortared in Baghdad. Three big blasts were ignited by mortars although the New York Times headline would only go so far as saying “Blasts Seem Aimed at U.S. Compound.”

Seemed? This headline prompted the ever-vigilant Daniel Patrick Cassidy, himself once a news assistant at the newspaper of record, to wonder: “That ’seems’ seems objective. Perhaps the mortars were aimed at the 12 Samoan Coalition troops holding a Stoly-sponsored Farewell Vodka Luau for 300 Ukrainian Coalition Troops in the parking lot?”

Hmmm, the possibilities are endless. “Antiwar protests seem aimed at Bush”. “Helicopter seems to have been hit by enemy fire”. “The NY Times seems to be a quite silly newspaper”.

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