You can run a red light*

* Johnny Lang "Live at Ryman's"

Many moons ago a teenager from Fargo, North Dakota captured the ears of rock critics, playing a blistering guitar. For years Johnny Lang played clubs accompanied by his parents. When I first heard him, I thought he was one of the most stunning rock guitar players I had heard. Still in his teens he recorded the album "Lie to Me" and then went in and out of the scene as his school required. I heard him here in Washington only a few years ago and he didn't disappoint but the audience was a drag, rich yuppies out for a night drinking. Sometimes his Stevie Wonder vocalizing gets in the way of his guitar but this white boy can rock. Live at Ryman's is album recorded in 2008 and only released now. Backed by his friends from Minneapolis, Lang lets loose with his standards from his past albums. There are only a few new songs but he has transformed his others. The guitar work on "Quitters Never Win" is just masterful. Sometimes I hear hints of another great rocker Stevie Ray Vaughn. Still only in his mid-20s, Lang is another reason why America is great. My son and I have gone up and down over the years about Johnny Lang. We've been disappointed by the production value and some of the material. But across the Plains, he just wrote me ,"Wow."

Another thing that made America great is Good Humor ice cream. Its celebrating its 90th anniversary. If you buy their toasted almond bar, you get a chance to win $10,000. Three down and I still get "try again".

Americans now believe for the first time in eons that American cars are the best. The Toyota and Honda recalls may have helped. Today, General Motors announced its paying back the government loans early and also hiring more workers in Detroit and Kansas. Imagine if the Republicans had gotten their way--16% of our economy would have vanished with no chance to recover.

The great Commonwealth of Virginia is trying to slip mandatory gun safety lessons into the grammar school curriculum. Naturally, the lessons are an NRA program.

Eleanor Holmes Norton , the DC representative in the House, pulled her DC voting bill after Republicans attached an NRA-written amendment that would have allowed people to openly carry assault rifles in the city, a city which currently has the highest murder per capita. Democrats had figured a tamer amendment would have been acceptable. Holmes refused to buy the insane language of the NRA.

Arizona is competing with Virginia for the most insane state. Arizona has passed in one chamber a "birther" bill, which would demand that presidential candidates--read Obama--would have to furnish birth certificates to justify their qualifying for the ballot. Then the Secretary of State would use his "discretion" to determine whether the candidate qualified.

The state also passed a law to require police to check on the immigration status of anyone they suspect of criminal behavior. Although this theoretically applies to anyone, it will be applied to the large Hispanic community in the state. The newly appointed Catholic bishop of Los Angeles said the bill encouraged "Nazi-like and Stalinist police tactics". And he's Opus Dei so he should know. John McCain supports the bill because "illegal immigrants are deliberately causing car accidents." Arizona Democrats are urging a national boycott of the state that is heavily dependent on tourism and the convention trade. The Southwest is beautiful so travel to New Mexico.

Polls are showing horse races in the California, Florida and Texas governor races. All three are held by Republicans.

Charlie Crist anounced today he would run for the Senate in Florida as an independent. Polls show he would win a three-way race against Meeks and Rubio by a slim margin. Marco Rubio is being investigated by both the FBI and IRS for his misuse of the Republican Party's credit cards.

Georgia has imitated Virginia by passing a "Mark of the Beast" law, which would prevent government agents from implanting electronic devices in your body. The key witness claimed agents of the military inserted beeping devices in and around her anus and vaginal areas. Her ID number has been sent around the internet and people can access these devices, which she finds annoying because the devices beep.

Glenn Beck, who is promising us all his Plan for America, says that God has been speaking to him. He prays and then selects bible passages and the Plan becomes clear. The Left has picked up on his direct communication with God but I picked up his explanation of how he reads the Bible like a Ouiji board or a horoscope. And why did I go to Harvard Divinity to study biblical hermaneutics when this is all you have to do? What if he stumbles on Leviticus' prohibition about eating shell fish and crustaceans? Will the Plan call for the death penalty of everyone that eats crab cakes and lobster? It is one way to eliminate the people around the Beltway.

When will Glenn Beck throw the Mormans under the bus and become a "born-again" Christian?

By the way, I have to disappoint everyone but there is literally no evidence whatsoever in any of the Bibles you choose for the Rapture. In fact,the Christian version of Hell itself was a fifth century creation. If you love the Book of Revelations, rent Ingmar Berman's The Seventh seal and if you like Hell read Dante's Inferno.

The Muslim Revolution website has threatened the producers of South Park because they created an episode making fun of the dispute of whether one can portray Muhammed. And, here, I have to disappoint everyone but yes you can and the Muslim world has repeatedly done so through centuries.

Pat Buchanan, the author of a recent revisionist history of World War II, which blames Churchill for causing the conflict, has re-entered the culture war sweepstakes with a column in Human Events. Pat is claiming that the tea parties represent an embryonic form of ethnonationalism, which brought such delightful results in the Balkans. He claims these people are not the guilty country club Republicans of yore but unapologetic whites, who embrace the great lost causes like the Confederacy and are linked to America's noble past. He says that Blacks are united now, but the Whites will soon become so.

I believe the tea party crowd are more like the Ghost Dances of the Plains Indians. A revivalist cult that marked the extinction of a culture.

And, yes, as Johnny Lang sings, "You can run a red light."

Born on a Mountaintop in Tennessee

A NATION MOURNS. Fess Parker, the TV figure "Davy Crockett", died at the age of 85 in his home in Santa Ynez Valley. How will we go on?

Radio Free America continues undetected by the authorities. The midwest-based radio show has recruited new "listening cells" in Boston, Baltimore, Princeton,Washington,D.C. and southern Virginia. Wednesday's show highlighted the Buzzcocks, the Stooges and the Dead Boys. And, yes, local high school students have caught on to the music.

Just don't tell Glenn Beck. Jim Wallis of the Sojourners wrote an extremely polite letter to Mr. Beck requesting a sitdown to explain to him the Christian view of "social justice". This man is extremely tolerant, polite and kindly. He comes off as a gentle soul. So what was the response of Glenn Beck? He could have accepted; he could have turned the request down. No, he unleashed FOX NEWS to investigate everything Wallis has ever done, all his writings and his "associates"as if Wallis is the "opposition". So be prepared to have a man who looks like Santa Claus attacked regularly on television. Even Joe McCarthy never had such a wide audience to broadcast witch-hunts.

Yesterday Glenn Beck had the Christian revisionist historian on Fox to show a letter by Thomas Jefferson signed in the "Year of our Lord Jesus Christ". While I always thought this was just a customary sign off from an older age. Historians claim this letter--which Mr. Barton claims is an original--is a forgery and that there is absolutely no historical record that Thomas Jefferson ever signed any such letter and certainly not with such a slogan. They also point out that the extensive record of Jefferson's correspondance reveals he never wrote such a letter. Yet, Beck is on the air deliberately spreading malicious lies. He didn't tell his audience that Thomas Jefferson has been expunged from Texas history books because he advocated a separation of church and state.

The Free Republic crowd has announced there are holding a Second Continental Congress --this time in Dallas, Texas. They sent a letter to Homeland Security, claiming they have no intention to overthrow the government but want to form a parallel structure and hope to co-exist. In their release, they advocate adopting the same Constitution, minus the Amendments adopted immediately after the Civil War providing for equal protection and the rights of black Americans. If you didn't know what you were looking at, you would miss that this Constitution is the project of the white nationalist movement and has been hanging around for years.

It goes back to the sovereign citizen notion. Because I am white, I have all natural rights. Anyone given rights "artifically" by the constitution are truly second-class citizens. Therefore, Barack Obama is not a legitimate President of the United States. This really is the argument of Moldova-born Orly Taitz, Queen of the Birthers, concerning Obama's eligibility. Our Free Republic crowd realised one slight problem--the rights of women--so they accepted their right to vote.

Rep Broun of Georgia lambasted the "Yankee aggression against the South during the Civil War" in a speech yesterday in the House, ostensibly about healthcare reform.

This debate now has become the civil rights struggle all over again. Chris Matthews had the head of Americans for Prosperity on Hardball and told him that over 30,000 Americans would receive health insurance for the first time. The response--"Why are we wrecking the finest health care system in the world for those people". Those people are not African-Americans as the conservatives suggest and want people to believe, but predominantly,white middle class people as Obama has pointed out. By and large,the poor are taken care of through Medicare.

Last week, the Republicans attacked the Senate parliamentarian--who they themselves appointed; this week it's the Congressional Budget Office. When the CBO figures showed the healthreform bill more than paid for itself, Republicans attacked the CBO as lying and unreliable. They also claimed that the healthcare bill didn't cut the deficit enough. The CBO has put out figures on some of the Republicans major initiatives in the past. The lowering of the top income tax bracket would increase the national deficit by $1.5 trillion; Medicare Plan D increase the deficit for $385 billion the first year; and the first Bush tax cut by another $380 billion the first year. All the current Republicans in both the Senate and the House voted for all of these well aware of the CBO's findings.

The most problematic for everyone is the attack on the CBO by Republican Pat Ryan, whom I've mentioned before. The CBO has cost out his Republican budget proposal and found it running huge deficits for ten years and destroying Scoail Security and Medicare. If--God forbid-- the Republicans take over the House anytime soon, it is Ryan's budget that the GOP will pass. From yesterday's performance, it's quite clear the GOP will attack the CBO and its findings. It is extremely important that people be aware of the fatal dangers the Ryan Plan poses for the future of the country--that is no exaggeration.

"Tan Man" Boehner reiterated the GOP's "commonsense health plan". This would involve getting rid of malpractice suits, having insurance sold cross state borders, and the usual pap. The CBO actually costed this one out and found that it increased the deficit and only enlarged the number of insured by 2 million. And, besides, most of the key points are already in the bill.

Barack Obama poured it on at George Mason today to a joyous crowd.In addition to the usual arguments for his plan, he tried to invoke our "better angels" and a vision for the greater good. But he put some knives in also--he referred to the healthcare plan as the largest middle class tax cut in history and the largest deficit reduction bill since the 1990s. A little ju-jitsu on his Republican opponents.

His tactic is now reminding me of the days leading up to securing the nomination. Hour by hour they are leaking out more "yes' votes from the undecided Democrats. Sort of like the release of the superdelegates during the primary process. Finally, he seems to be choreographing the events the way he used to.

When the CBO figures came out yesterday, 200 advocacy groups and medical associations jumped into endorse the plan. These are groups with real living and breathing individuals as members as opposed to the corporate front groups.

The Republican madness continues. Senator Tom Coburn threatened that he would put a hold on any Democrat who is defeated this November , who voted for healthcare reform, and is appointed to a federal position. Tom, you might be in jail by then. Coburn is part of the whole Senator Ensign scandal, which has moved into the Grand Jury stage, and Tom was the guy who negotiated the pay-off to the cuckholded husband.

The hysterical lying by the Republicans has caused me to wonder if they will ever pay a price for this. Judd Gregg, whom I always thought was at least honest, has simply lied and lied repeatedly about the reconciliation process, which he advocated on C-Span for years. The constant lies--everyday and around the clock--by almost every elected Republican have to be factored in this fall elections. If the Democrats don't pounce on this, they are missing a golden opportunity. Why vote for this guy, you can't trust him because he's a liar. Deficit reduction--who can believe him? Just pick an issue. Health Care Repeal--how would that affect the deficit?

Is this having any effect? A recent poll in Florida indicates there may be some movement caused by this tea bag, obstructionist, lunatic nonsense. The Democratic candidate for Senate is one Kendrick Meek, whose campaign so far mirrors his last name. He is extraordinarily weak. He will be running against the young darling of the teabag movement and conservatives, Cuban Marco Rubio. Rubio is crushing Charlie Crist in the Republican primary. But polls show the Meek-Rubio contest is almost a toss-up. Maybe there is hope that there will be a backlash against politicians who both lie like crazy and are obstructionists.

Back to the issue of Israel. Netanyahu's brother-in-law called Obama an anti-semite and a threat to Israel on their army radio. Bibi himself is a Facebook friend of Orly Taitz, the birther Queen. Shimon Peres actually came out and critized the Israeli government for jeopardizing the relationship with the United States. What do Israelis themselves actually believe? Three polls done in the aftermath of Biden's visit and Bibi dissing the Vice President show that 70% and some actually higher believe that Obama has taken a "fair and balanced" approach to Israel.

For the record, it would truly be strange if Obama were anti-semitic since he kicked off his political career at the Southside Chicago home of a rabbi. The rabbi was a neighbor and Barack would teach classes at the Synagogue. This is contrary to the urban myth that he declared his candidacy for Senate at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn. But you never know because as Bibi said, David Axelrod is another "self-hating Jew". And David didn't serve in the UDF.

Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League must have heard the Bibi's dog whistle and attacked General Petraeus for his "dangerous" remarks on Israel before the Senate Armed Forces Committee. Politico speculates that the Jewish community will vote against Democrats this fall to "punish" the administration. Now how real is that? Abe Foxman himself warned in an ADL report that the teabaggers were infiltrated by neo-nazis, anti-semites and white supremacists. Now the Jewish community is going to run to embrace that?

Meanwhile Bibi has called Hillary to kiss and make up. Bibi is flying to Washington for a meeting and says he's preparing some initiatives to re-start talks with the Palestinians. Let's hope but I believe this little fracture can lead to bigger problems for Israel down the line.

Well, the last great tea party rally this weekend may have some problems capturing air time. the March for Justice will be happening the same time. This is the march for immigration reform. I hope they turn the corner and march into the teaparty gang, who will flee to avoid contamination with immigrants. Also, there is the first spring anti-war rally. I wonder which Fox will cover?

Meanwhile I wait for the new one from Johnny Lang. If you haven't listened to him before, just find Lie To Me,which is one of the finest rock albums ever.