Exclusive!! Colonel Khadaffi Addresses the Nation!

By Peter Rodman

Through diplomatic sources and delicate back-channels, I have just received the exclusive advance text of a speech by Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Kadaffi, who is about to speak to his nation, and the world.  Below is the full text of this historic address, from the besieged leader of Libya:
"My dear, Fellow Citizens of Libya, and All you Rotting Dogs with Smelly Coats and Fleas, who want me out:
First of all, who stole my Girl Scout cookies?  I distinctly remember leaving them on the table, next to my rocket launcher.  I have searched the entire house--plus, every house in the area-- and I know that it’s none of my trusted assistants who committed this heinous act, because I killed them all.
Anyway, I am officially announcing a “no harm your fowl” policy, as regards the immediate return of my Thin Mints.  There will be no questions asked.  Seriously.  There never are! Hah!  See, I can be funny, when I want to be.
Okay. Back to the issue: Many of you seem to have portrayed me as a tyrant. Well, I am not a tyrant. The guy in Afghanistan, that guy is a tyrant--with his green outfit that he always wears. Those are my curtains, I tell you. I spit on my curtains.
Do this uniform look green? NO. It does not.

That is because it is a sleek, brown microfibre--almost like the fringe jacket Neil Young used to wear, in the Buffalo Springfield. Ahhh, but I have added a twist--this beautiful hat! And I have subtracted another twist, well actually 154 twists--that would be the fringes. No fringes!!!
And I say to you, my fellow Libyans, I will not tolerate any further fringe elements in this great country of mine! Ours, I mean.
This is what I have come to discuss with you tonight, in our moment of great crisis. I firmly believe the Denver Nuggets gave away the store, by trading Carmello to the Knicks--and read my lips: I will NOT give away the store! NOT! STORE!!!
Sorry, my passion persists for my countrymen, and the accusations which come from the American dogs who accuse me are wrong. I will take on this man, this 'Obama' man, one-on-one--anytime, on my home court--and we will then see who is ready to win, and who is ready to kill the winner. That'd be me!
Libya has a rich history of being poor.
I have done my best to preserve that history, and keep the outside forces of wealth from infecting the lives of everyday Libyans, who work hard not to make too much money, which as the world knows, is the root of all evil. THIS is why I keep the money. I am a money martyr, like a money market, only not.
I am the person invested in maintaining the type of Libya which other countries depend upon, not just for oil, but for enemies. Without enemies, there is no motivation. I have motivated every western nation on the planet. The planet should thank me, for my motivation. Right now, what I am doing?  This is motivational speaking, my friends!  Joel Osteen is nothing, next to me!  His wife's okay--I once saw them on Larry King--but they should run a car dealership, compared to me!   

Listen up, Jackals!!! It is I, who have taken the mantle of motivation, and passed the baton, or the torch, or if you will, please pass the hollandaise sauce.
And speaking of hollandaise sauce, I will make of every coward this kind of salad dressing!  This I will do, before I will let them sing “The Halls of Montezuma” on the shores of Tripoli, I tell you!!!
By the way, check out this shirt.  How many of you have pictures of Nassar on your shirt, eh?  I'll give you a little tip: Go to SoHo, just south of where that Tower Records used to be, on Broadway.  There'a a teeny-tiny shop there, and they sell all kinds of uniforms, and even toy airplane bombers!  I sometimes get ideas for my real bombers from them.     
People mock my title, and ask me how I got to be a 'Colonel.'
Well, I was inspired by a great man once. I was visiting my friend Chairman Mao in China...  (I almost called myself 'Chairman Mo,' but then I heard that some guy at Warner Bros. Records had taken that one. )
Anyway, as the Chairman and myself looked across the great...what is it?  
...the 'Ten Men Square', I think....
There was a gigantic picture of Chairman Mao there, but I noticed another gigantic picture, right across the square, which I must say was actually rectangular, if you ask me.

It was beautiful.
(The gigantic picture of the other man, I mean.)
Red and white, yet so pure....
A happy man, with a happy white hat.

I asked about the man in this gigantic picture, which was even bigger than Mao’s.
“Who is this man?” I asked.
“That is the man from Kentucky,” they told me, and they related the famous proverb about the man with the herbs, and everything he did for the chickens, and then they said,
“...It’s the Colonel!”
Well, there you have the story.  I am now a Colonel, too!
And if he was 'original'…I am crispy.
This is my struggle. Oh, there are occasional bouts with the diarrheas, but those are small battles, by comparison. Although, I must say the quality of those chocolate covered macadamia nuts from Honolulu has gone downhill--and this could account for some of my troubles.
I will let you know now, my plan is simple:
Once I leave the city, I bomb the city. Once I come back…I stop bombing the city. See?
So, do what you like. I say to you all, "Mubarek THIS!"
All of you who oppose me are on hallucinogenic drugs.  I know this, because my entire stash is missing.  Again, I say to you:  Return it-- no questions asked-- and maybe...hmmmm...a small reward, like I won't cut off your toes before I kill you. 
I am the Cal Ripken of dictators, and you will not break my streak!
And to all the ones who have said my speeches are the incoherent ramblings of a mad man, what do you say to me now? Hah?
In closing, I would like to quote a very touching American folksong which I learned as a young man.
"They’re coming to take me away, ha ha
They’re coming to take me away, ha ha
Ha ha, he he, ho, ho, ha ha…
They’re coming to take me away.”
Peace be on your soul. I will kill you all. I love you. Really, I do.
By the way, don’t forget to tip your waitresses and bartenders! I’ll be here two shows nightly…unless I bomb!!!
…get it?
Ha, heh…love ya, Libya!



The Colonel


________________________________
Copyright 2011 by Peter Rodman. All Rights Reserved. No portion herein may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without express written permission.

"We're broke!" --The New Mantra of the Morally Bankrupt

By Peter Rodman

“We’re broke!”

That’s the new mantra of the Evil-Doers. There. I said it.
When John Boehner gets on Meet the Press and huffs, "We're broke!" in answer to almost every question about fiscal compromise, he is floating the latest trial balloon, in a hundred-year war against labor in this country. Unions which couldn't be broken through negotiation are now being attacked under the guise of a new 'fiscal conservatism' that is as false as was the need for a trillion dollar tax-break for the rich, just two months ago.

First of all...WE ARE NOT BROKE!  Nothing has happened this week which differs from the last, to create a sudden, urgent need to kill all the public unions in Wisconsin.
That is a fact.
Besides, 'broke' countries do not gift wrap trillion-dollar cash gifts to billionaires.
Oh, wait...maybe they do. 
In fact, maybe we did!  Let's see...wasn't that just this past December?

In truth, at a time when we've just bailed out the "free market" to the tune of trillions, borrowing against the future (at extremely low interest rates, I might add) makes perfect sense.  If we do not begin competing with China, by using their (essentially free, with such low interest rates) money to re-tool our economy against the vicious outsourcing that Wall Street (you know, the guys we bailed out?) has embraced, there'll be no more America, as we know it. 
Already, the decay is everywhere you look: Shuttered shopping malls, bricked-up buildings, foreclosed houses. 
But it's not because "We're broke!"

It's because our national policy of welfare-for-the-rich has finally gone too far.
Where were the Republican complaints about 'borrowing money from China,' when we were funding the entire Iraq War with it?  Were they asleep for a decade or two, Rumpelstiltskin-style?


Republicans who are suddenly enamored of saying "we’re out of money” (Joe Scarborough, Bill O'Reilly, Paul Ryan, Sean Hannity) certainly know a good catch phrase, when they hear one. 
And having stumbled upon "We're broke!," they obviously think they've found some serious traction--enough to defend a series of draconian reforms which would transform this country forever, not for better, if we let them. 
"We're broke!" has become their "Hallelujah" chorus.  And like an under-rehearsed local choir which has discovered that lots of voices singing in unison can make anything sound better, they're stickin' to that catch-phrase.  Everybody, now!  "We're broke!"

The trick is always the same:
If you can hijack the debate at the beginning, even your opponents will be weighing only the options you choose. You set up a Hobson’s choice which doesn’t allow for any other scenarios (such as restoring the tax rates rich people used to pay) or (finally?) making the largest oil companies in America pay some tax, any tax…but not no tax, as they currently do.
I fully realize that at the top of this column, I said Republicans are "Evil-Doers."
Allow me to promise that I will  demonstrate this, by the time you are finished reading. 

For starters, to unilaterally pillage everything from national parks to public broadcasting, in the name of 'budget cuts'--with no debate whatsoever, because "We're broke!"--is a more than a slight overreach. 
The Arts have always been their favorite whipping boy, which is why they always exhume 'Piss Christ' for another beating, whenever they want to scratch that itch, to eliminate public funding for the Arts altogether.
But you know what?
It's never really worked, until now.
Because in every civilized society-- from ancient Greece, to Michelangelo's time, through the British Empire and yes, America--the Arts have been a vital, publicly funded part of what made every advanced civilization great.
So despite the ranting of the Michael Savages and Glenn Becks, the National Endowment for the Arts remains--by popular demand, actually--a feature (albeit, a tiny one) of our government.
But what they couldn't do at the ballot box, Republicans now hope to do by fiat--simply repeating the Evil-Doers' new mantra:  "We're broke!"
It's the be-all, fix-all, impose-our-will-on-all phrase of the week, at least.
But what does "We're broke" really mean?
Here's a brief translation, for the dimwitted:  "We're going to impose our will now, for your own good.  Reduce your pay.  Terminate your pensions.  Quadruple your health care bills. Oh...and eliminate funding for national parks, NPR, and yes...the Arts. But hey, it's non-negotiable! Know why? Because...
"We're broke!"

I call that "evil."
Financial experts in Wisconsin say their budget crisis was far worse two years ago than it is today.  (In fact, the Wisconsin equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office--a neutral agency--has reported that this year, the state is actually running a surplus.)
That's partly because two years ago, when asked to help out,  their state workers gave back huge chunks of their wages and benefits, in order to help keep things afloat. 

And even now, to a man, those workers acknowledge that they will have to give back more, to maintain liquidity for their state government.  In other words, mere "give backs" are not the issue.

That is not what has drawn 40,000 angry state workers to protest at the state capital in Madison, this week.  




Rather, it is their Governor's attempt to brazenly bulldoze away their very right to negotiate, which has so incensed these loyal workers.  And it may even be a legitimate question: Should government workers have the right to organize and negotiate, through collective bargaining?
(Of course, this is settled law, in most states--including the home of the cheese heads--but it may even be a debate worth having.)  
The point is, you do not resolve that question--especially after a hundred years--with a gun to somebody's head, in the middle of budget hysteria, simply by saying, "We're broke! Game over. Gimme back that pension you just worked 35 years for...NOW!  No time to talk, just do it!!!"

That is what's happening right now, in Madison.

In many ways, the labor movement gained its strongest early footholds, in the state of Wisconsin.  Workers' rights there have been carefully negotiated and hard-won, in increments, for over 100 years.  
In 1911, Wisconsin passed the first workers compensation law. 
In 1932, they led the way, in implementing unemployment compensation.
These things did not just happen by accident.
Blood has been shed, in Wisconsin...lots of it. During the nation's first-ever campaign for an 8-hour workday, union workers were fired upon (seven were killed), as 50,000 union members protested...in 1886.
That's about how far back the Republican Party wants to take this country.

After a mere three weeks in office, Emperor  Rookie-Governor Scott Walker simply declared that collective bargaining for state workers was over. Backing him up was a newly Republican-dominated state legislature, which has vowed--with no negotiation, whatsoever--to simply pass a law banning collective bargaining, for anything but wages.
That might even sound reasonable, to some. 
But if I make $20 an hour,"wages" won't help me at all, if the boss says I have to work 10 hours days, seven days a week. If work rules and benefits aren't negotiable, "wages" alone don't mean a damn thing. Without a contract specifying work rules, an executive assistant can literally be made to clean toilets--even if that has zero to do with their job description. 
And "wages" won't help me at all, if I cannot also negotiate the right to (God forbid!) have some sort of health care and retirement, to reward my 30 years of loyal service.
Wisconsin's fiscal crisis is a trumped up as is America's. 
It's all based upon a choice Gov. Walker made, just days ago, to give huge tax breaks to major corporations. So if you create a budget crisis, you shouldn't get to 'solve' it, by killing the lifeblood of state government, which is its workers, and their standard of living.

Where exactly was all this panic, when George W. Bush--who inherited a national surplus--was outspending every single President before him, combined?

When Republicans claim (falsely) that Wisconsin state workers "get twice the pension and health care benefits of workers in the private sector," they're attempting to get other workers to pressure state workers to come down to that (supposed) level.  In other words, it's a Republican "Race to the Bottom," for our standard of living.  But is it wrong to ask why we don't raise our standard of living, or at least hold on to it, instead of step-by-step tearing it all apart?  Or has corporate America so brainwashed us, that we no longer have any hope at all, let alone an 'American Dream?'  

Again, nobody is suggesting that the workers' benefits in Wisconsin cannot be reduced, through negotiation.  
The outrage comes from a governor and a legislature (let's just say it: an entire political party) which thinks it can simply ERASE a 100+ years of labor progress, which wasn't even undone by the Great Depression, in just a week or two--essentially by force, in the name of the evil-doers' new mantra: "We're broke!"

Yeah, you're broke alright.
Morally broke; eethically bankrupt, too.

All of this is not just happening in Wisconsin. In state capitals across the country, mostly where voters are unfortunate enough to have installed Republican governors a mere month ago, state workers are being shown the axe.
And when President Obama delivered a budget on Monday containing "only" a trillion dollars in spending cuts--something no President before him has ever come near--John Boehner puffed out his chest and said, "We're going to cut spending. If that means the loss of 200,000 federal jobs...so be it."  

Where was Boehner, when George W. Bush was spending THREE TRILLION DOLLARS (and thousands of U.S. lives) on not one, but two unnecessary wars?  
Where was Boehner, when Bush gift-wrapped the largest tax cut in this country's history for the rich, amounting to over another TRILLION DOLLARS?
And if we're so broke, how could John Boehner have voted for--in fact, insisted upon--yet another TRILLION DOLLARS, just two months ago, in pure gifts to the richest 1% of America? 

Can I please get a refund?

As it happens, many economic experts in Wisconsin argue that there is no ‘budget crisis’ at all, and that Gov. Walker’s move to radically lop off  the unions' heads is an unprecedented power-grab, having more to do with his party's union-busting agenda, than anything else.

Think of this:
What if the Wisconsin's new Governor had actually run for office on a platform that said, “If you elect me, and make the GOP a majority in the state senate, I’ll unilaterally declare all union contracts moot, within a month! I’ll take away your very right to negotiate! I’ll destroy your pensions, and triple your health care costs…and all, within a month, with the stroke of a pen, undoing the whole last century of worker progress!!!”

...ya think he’d still have won?
I don’t.
　
Just two months after ‘negotiating’ over $2 trillion in additional tax breaks for the richest 1% of America, the Republicans aim to pillage what remains of the middle class, simply by saying "We're broke." 
In Michael Harrington's 1962 book The Other America, he correctly defined the much-touted 'free market' Republicans love to talk about, as "capitalism for the poor, and socialism for the rich." 
Think:  Wall Street bailouts. 
　


Just a week ago, we all watched as Egypt's leadership collapsed in short order--due to the peacefeul pressure of an angry populous who'd been kept down, for 30 years.  Almost nobody saw it coming.  Certainly not Hosni Mubarek. According to Leon Panetta, not even the C.I.A. had a clue. That's how fast it all happened.
In fact, nobody predicted the effectiveness of public protests--mostly peaceful--ending, in the space of only 17 days, an authoritarian regime of 30 years, over 80 million people.  It all came tumbling down rather quickly, I think you will admit.
Let's face it, they were pissed.  

Ask yourself this:  Was it mostly about oppression, or was it really about an underclass feeling left out of the prosperity enjoyed by too few people, at the very top?
I believe it had more to do with class warfare than anything else.

What I am about to say may seem dramatic.
...but I'm going to ask you to think the unthinkable, for just a moment.

I believe it would be very foolish to assume that that will never happen here.  
In fact, my prediction is...
It will. 
I don't know when. It could be thirty years, or it could be twenty. Or it could be two.
I do know this much:  If the Republican "We're broke!" machine is allowed to run roughshod over our standard of living, it will come sooner than later.  Republicans now claim "We're broke" in 41 out of the 50 states. You show me 41 states with a Wisconsin situation, and I'll show you a national revolution like you've never even imagined, lickety split.  
 
Ronald Reagan's first significant act as President was to break the Professional Air Traffic Controllers' Organization (PATCO).  Since that time, unions and wages have gone down like a sinking ship in this country, while bonuses and pay packages and 'golden parachutes' for corporate executives have skyrocketed, beyond belief. The disparity between the average worker's pay and that of his CEO has grown in multiples of 100, over that time period.
This cannot last forever, without the people rising up. 

I am absolutely convinced that the latest wave of Republican cannibalism cannot stand.
If they are allowed to prevail with this clearly evil agenda, a Cairo-style uprising will definitely happen here.
Is that an outrageous thing to say?  Is it any more outrageous than telling some retiree to just forget about all that money they put into a pension, in return for deferring wages? 
Middle-class Americans will not continue to finance Wall Street, the oil companies, job outsourcing, and the military industrial complex while their own houses fall into foreclosure, their own paychecks shrink, their own pensions become "Oh, never mind," and their own health care costs go through the roof.

The Republican formula for implementing their strategy--I'll call it The Audacity of Hopelessness--is a recipe for revolution. 
Normal everyday Americans will not stand by quietly and watch everything go to hell, including government services they rely upon (for everything from daycare, to fixing potholes, to Head Start, to Planned Parenthood) just because some orange-faced guy likes saying, "We're broke!"


Wisconsin will go down in history as but the first, in a long series of peaceful (and perhaps even not-so-peaceful) demonstrations, by frustrated everyday workers, who've are finally figuring out that they are under attack, by some truly evil Evil-Doers.
The very radio talk shows many of those workers have enjoyed over the past few years are finally revealing their ugly reality...which is to turn on them. 
Attacking 'big government' is fun--until your entire future is at stake.  Until their are so few cops and and so few teachers and and so few firemen that basic services simply disappear. 
Until the garbageman only comes once a month, not once a week.
That is the future the Republicans are cooking up for us.
And yes...I am openly calling call it "Evil."
These guys couldn't be more evil to me if they came out with twirly mustaches and black capes, snickering, "Pay up lady, or I'll throw you out on the street!"  (I realize I'm dating myself, but silent melodramas may be the best analogy for exactly how villainous they have become.  In those days, Hollywood drew its heroes and villains in the broadest possible terms, to make it obvious who was who, since there was no sound. To me, it's just that obvious who the bad guys are, today.) 

This charade could very quickly begin to spell the beginning of the end, for this country.
Spend a trillion on two unnecessary, ten year wars; spend another two trillion giving the richest 1% of Americans tax cuts; and then get on TV and say, "We're broke!!!" 
In other words...forget about your pensions?
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) says the demonstrations outside the capital in Wisconsin “look like Cairo."
They should. He has no idea what this country will look like, if the Republican attack on unions, workers, and the middle class is allowed to spread.
Cairo will look like a picnic.

If Americans don’t speak out, hypocrites (like Ryan) will merrily proceed to continue pillaging the middle class out of existence.  They've declared “We’re broke!” and make no mistake:
They aim to take it out of the hides of working Americans.
You don't hear any cries from the Evil-Doers about rescinding that trillion dollar tax cut, do you?
You don't hear any talk of restoring corporate taxes (now at an all-time low, in this nation) to anywhere near where they were, just 15 years ago, do you?
Guess we're not really "broke" after all, when it comes to subsidizing the rich.
  
So-called Republican 'moderates' (like Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough) go completely unchallenged, when they glorify the likes of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for abrogating hard-won union contracts, and demonizing not just the word “union," but also the word...“pensions.”
　
Really?
Is “pension” a bad thing now, in America?
How about “contract?”
Does that word mean anything to ya?
No?  "Promises?" ..anything?

I am reminded of Imogene Heap's lyric, in the song, "Hide and Seek," condensed here:

Where are we?
What the hell is going on?
The dust has only just begun to fall
Crop circles in the carpet
Sinking feeling

Spin me around again and rub my eyes
This can't be happening
When busy streets a mess with people
Would stop to hold their heads heavy

Hide and seek
Trains and sewing machines
All those years
They were here first

Oily marks appear on walls
Where pleasure moments hung before
The takeover, the sweeping insensitivity
Of this still life

Mm what'cha say?
Mm, that you only meant well
Well of course you did

Mm what'cha say?
Mm that it's all for the best
Of course it is

Mm what'cha say?
Mm that it's just what we need
You decided this?

Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
Mid-sweet-talk newspaper word cutouts (paper word cutouts)
Speak no feeling; no, I don't believe you
You don't care a bit
You don't care a bit

In that poem, I hear union workers building railroads.  I hear garment workers, with "sewing machines." And I hear "ransom notes," falling out of Republicans' mouths. 
And you know what?
They don't "care a bit."

It’s not hard to see how ruthless they will become. The other night, I saw Bill O’Reilly, railing against federal funding for breast-feeding pumps. (“We can’t afford it!”) This only hints at exactly how low these cannibals will go, in decimating the American Dream.

Worse still are the outright lies.
Stuart Varney, the Australian lackey for Rupert Murdoch's 'Fox Business News', got on Fox & Friends just this morning and said,
“The White House is organizing these protests.”
Really, Stu?
Really-really???
A more preposterous allegation would be hard to make, but in ‘FoxWorld’ it passes for unchallenged fact, and if they talk fast enough, nobody seems to notice.  (Well...I did.)


Rush Limbaugh went to great pains yesterday afternoon, to inform his listeners (of the protest in Wisconsin) that, “This is not a democratic protest of the citizens! This is…they’re busing people in, folks! From all over the country! This is not what it appears to be!”

His desperation was palpable. 
People simply must not believe that any of this is legitimate!
It recalled a famous movie line we all grew up with:
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
From behind his curtain, this small man (well...figuratively speaking) has probably done more to foment distrust and hatred in America than any single human being on Earth. To some, he is a giant. But once you get his ‘act,’ you realize that the game is very, very simple:  Like a spider spinning his web, Mr. Limbaugh believes his powers of persuasion are limitless.
He truly believes that--no matter what the topic--he can convince his audience of literally anything--and he's right about that, a disturbing amount of the time.
'Up is down' and 'down is up,' in RushWorld.


[To wit:
Just one day after Ted Kennedy died (and before he was even buried), Limbaugh actually got on the air and claimed that Kennedy would have switched his vote to vote against health care reform, had he heard of that day's change in the process.
Imagine....a man’s entire life's work, turned upside down, by The Man Behind The Curtain, stirring his  endless brew of human outrage--a steaming daily pot of righteous indignation, which pits normal American citizens against their own system of government.
Likewise, on the health care issue, Fox News plastered their bought-and-paid-for “polls” on the screen after it passed, declaring that “most Americans oppose this” for weeks on end, as if our congressional vote was not legitimate, even though elected officials in both houses of congress, from every corner of this democracy voted on behalf of their constituents, and passed it, fair and square.
The truth is, President Obama got elected, largely because of his position on health care reform.]

The right wing in this country stumbled upon a treasured truth during the past decade, courtesy of the war in Iraq: 
If the facts do not support your position, simply make up new ones.

There will almost certainly be more protests around the country, in weeks to come.
And no, they are not going to be "coming from the White House."  They are going to come from an angry citizenry that finally realizes they are under a full-on attack by Republicans, who are seeking to finally eliminate the middle class in this country altogether.

I know it’s popular these days, to say “Don’t demonize your political enemies.”
But tell me…what exactly do you do, if your enemies behave like demons?
Is it even possible, to 'demonize' a demon?
Because if I told you that they’re so evil they’re attacking mother’s milk, you’d tell me I was making that up.
Not so. This very week, Sarah Palin and Bill O’Reilly both went after (get this) the First Lady (something traditionally thought to be a political ‘no-no’), simply because she proposed that mothers be able to more conveniently breast-feed their children in the workplace--and have better access to breast pumps, and the other supplies needed to do so.
In normal times, her suggestions would be entirely non-controversial.  But in a time when barbarians are at the door--almost literally attacking everything that makes us a civil, reasonable society--yes, even mother’s milk is under attack.
If that’s not evil, I don’t know what is.


Few have stopped to consider the motives behind all of this.
So, allow me.
One reason the feeble-minded so eagerly buy into some of these lies and myths, is that is actually makes them feel smarter.
It’s how Limbaugh makes a living.
People who who do not understand an issue are much more likely to swallow some guy saying “Aha! It’s all a trick!” on the radio…and Limbaugh understands that.
He understands that if everything isn’t what it appears to be--if ’up’ is actually ‘down,’ every time he speaks--this makes him appear smarter than everyone else, and by proxy, the listener then gets to say, “I ain’t buyin’ it, either! You can’t fool me, up IS down!!!” to just about everything--especially anything to do with "big government."
The foundation upon which their presumptions are based most often are totally false, but that simply doesn’t matter. “I’m not fooled by that!” See?  It's easy. Limbaugh understands that.
It’s the man behind the curtain, screaming that he is “the Mighty Oz.”
Pay no attention, to those pesky facts in front of you!

If we are broke, the way to fix it will involve additional spending investment;  should involve increased revenue, through taxes; and must involve big government.  (We're a big country!)
But using this so-called crisis to achieve political goals (like union-busting) is not only unfair, it's profoundly dishonest.  Nowhere will Wisconsin save a dime, in the pending budget bill, if collective bargaining is outlawed, as an amendment to it. 
That is not only dishonest, it's underhanded.
Unfair.
And yes...
Evil.


_________________________________
This column is Copyright 2011 by Peter Rodman, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part, without the author's express written permission.

Recommended Song:  Imogene Heap, "Hide and Seek":
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4OLQB7ON9w
Recommended Reference:  http://www.wisconsinlaborhistory.org/?page_id=52

Julian Assange: Of Men and Mice

By Peter Rodman

Let's face it, most of my posts follow a left-wing line, with fairly predictable consistency. 
So this may shock some of you, I know--but I'm just not ready to jump into lock-step with my fellow liberals, who seem ready to canonize 'Wikileaks' founder, Julian Assange.
After viewing his 60 minutes interview with Steve Kroft, I'm more convinced than ever, that what we have here is a mighty pale imitation of the brave whistleblowers he counts among his forebears.

And while it's true that we ought to eventually address the substance of the leaks in detail, I must say it's also entirely appropriate--and a much bigger story-- to attempt to decipher the logistics and the ethics (if any) behind how this much 'classified' information found its way on to Wiki-leaks, in the first place.

Like I say, on most issues, I'd proudly categorize myself as a 'far-left' kinda guy, but I see, in Julian Assange, a cheap-suited, garden variety 'rat'--and although I'm basing this almost entirely on my internal 'Bull-O-Meter,' it appears to me he's playing what seems like a game to him, with virtually no guiding principles, except a personal determination to exploit worldwide anti-Americanism, for his own self-aggrandisement.

My feeling is, if you believe 'classified documents' should even exist at all, then you have to accept the premise that not just anyone can or should release them, and then be able to hide behind calling themselves a "publisher." That is assuming one accepts the posit that legitimate law exists, disallowing such release, and even providing serious punishment, for same.

The outcry from the left concerns the lack of media attention given the substance of his leaks.
But anyone shocked by shady back-door diplomatic deals, legal grey areas, or even 'Spy vs. Spy' bunglings and murders in matters of international intrigue, needs to rent a few James Bond movies.
One friend of mine expressed shock, that "illegal spying, bombing, war making, and coup facilitating" was detailed, in the reems of pilfered and posted material, on Wikileaks.
Really?
I'm sorry, but that is not as big a story (if it's even a story at all) as is the inability of this nation to protect its secure secrets, period. And if those things weren't a part of our world, and sometimes even integral to our survival, why the hell would we even need "classified documents," in the first place?

In fact, it's his very lack of interest in what he's releasing,  that makes Julian Assange (to me, anyway) the much bigger (and far more dangerous) story, than any of the actual content released, thusfar.

Mr. Assange, upon realizing he was being actively hunted down for his willy-nilly, indiscriminate release of millions of classified US documents (on hundreds of random topics) purposely released the latest batch to ACTUAL publishers (something he had not done in previous dumps), like the New York Times, hoping to cloud the issue, in his own defense--once it became obvious how seriously the Attorney General was going to take this, in going after him. 
This allowed him the meek defense (on 60 Minutes) that he, "like all publishers," has special exemptions from prosecution, or even (one presumes) scorn.

He may be more imp than wimp, but a towering worldwide figure, as he seems to imagine himself? 
Not so much. 
(Then again, in the age of Sarah Palin, who can tell, anymore?)


Is he at all a "publisher," like the New York Times? 
No. Not even one like the tiny, renegade beat-poets who founded City Lights. 
Not by a long shot.
In fact, he doesn't actually "publish" anything...he simply copies and spews--spitting it all out in grain-silo volumes, like some Quaker Oats jackpot, for armchair conspiracy theorists.


If anything, Assange is counting upon the appeal of his sheer audacity, to mitigate his Kinko's Gone Wild act.

I thought Steve Kroft let him off easy in the 60 Minutes piece, by not following up on the moral distinctions in any depth. Kroft's assertion that the press community, as some sort of presumed monolith, "feels" a certain way about Assange, was preposterous--and should have had no part in the story. I suspect Kroft will find himself roundly criticized on that score in the next few days, as he came off more like a cheerleader than he should have, and cut Assange huge amounts of slack, on the open issues of legality (and morality) about these leaks, issues that even liberals like myself find unsettling, and eminently debatable.

I recently viewed the remarkable video of a 1968 conversation on Canadian television, between Norman Mailer and Marshall McLuhan.  In it, their shared prescience for the internet age was uncanny.  But even more shocking was the insightful realization that we may actually be subsuming our collective conscience, in a mindless tsunami of information--too mind-boggling to even allow for such trifles as 'moral distinction'...as personified by Assange, himself:

MAILER: "I think that there's a kind of totalitarian principle present, in this sort of avalanche of 'over-information,' if you will.  There's a lack of form, and order, and category in the modern experience, which speaks to me of nothing so much as entropy."
McLUHAN: "An electronic world re-tribalizes  man, yes."

Again, I have no doubt that large chunks of the revelations on Wikileaks do deserve closer scrutiny, vis a vis any wrongdoing behind closed doors, in our government.
But I nonetheless remain a serious fan of the country Assange couldn't give two shits about (America), and I root AGAINST hackers like him making the decisions for us all, about what is to be released, or not released.
His goal seems to be nothing more noble than the very "re-tribalization" McLuhan spoke of, in 1968. 
In effect, Julian Assange is an anarchist.
Random Doc-u-man, merry prankster, mischief maker, pick your nick-name...but please, let's not imagine for a second that this guy is any kind of hero.
The sheer randomness and volume of his releases smacks more of vandalism than valor, and shows no evidence whatsoever, of any discernable moral 'sorting mechanism.'
In other words, I don't think this guy even pays attention to content.  Just give him more, and he'll release it.
Just give him more attention, and he'll leverage it to get more to release.  And so on.

Unless you believe nothing should be held away from public view, you've got to find Wikileaks troubling, if not threatening, on at least as large a scale as the merely embarrassing diplomatic conversations contained in his millions of scattershot, stolen documents.
But it gets a little more serious than that, no matter how you feel about Afghanistan (and I am against the war, myself): Because--by Assange's own admission--informants valuable to our own 'side' may have DIED, because of these leaks.
And I'm just not sure his "Oh, well" shrugs are enough for me.

PR (center) with Pentagon Papers
whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg (right)
and jazz flutist Paul Winter(left) ,
in Boulder, circa 1981.

In fact, his whole act seems cowardly, not principled--completely the opposite of, say, Daniel Ellsberg, whom I got to know fairly well, for a brief time, a few decades back.  Ellsberg personified virtue;  Assange, on the other hand, seems virtually free of it.

I guess I'm saying something about this Assange guy strikes me as more weasely than wily; even the name 'Wiki-leaks' seems to befit a wimp with prostate problems, rather than the whistleblowing hero of 'the common man' he pretends to be. 

Don't get me wrong: I'm always glad, when tyrants--including in my own government!--are exposed as phonies, a la Ellsberg.

But I'd say this, to the 'Terrabyte Terror':

You wanna play 'cat-and-mouse' with the Big Boys, Julian?
With no regard for any specific topic, other than a generalized aim to rattle some cages, for fun?
Do you really want to test the biggest power on Earth, with your grandiose and vague threats to release more stuff--in fact, anything you please, regardless of any potential life-or-death consequences to others--just to preclude anything happening to YOU, personally?

Then don't be surprised, when the big cat you've taunted finally does decide to engage you...and in short order, just goes ahead and plays with you for awhile, before doing what cats normally do to mice.

______________________________________

This column, and all photographs and graphics contained herein, are Copyright 2011 by Peter Rodman.  All Rights Reserved.  No portion may be copied or retransmitted in any form without express written permission from the author.

Partied to Death

October 22, 2010

By Peter Rodman

I recently received, from a conservative couple I am close to, a clipping about how retirees' health benefits are becoming unsustainable.   
To be clear, they are folks who consider President Obama a socialist, and the single worst thing to ever happen to America; who believe all undocumented aliens should be apprehended and deported; who think taxes are too high, and government spending should be drastically cut;  oppose gay marriage; think 'affirmative action' has outlived its usefulness; hate the public school system, and would rather people not have to pay into it, if they prefer private schools; who are actually stockpiling canned goods, in anticipation of the coming collapse of our economy; and who further signaled their hard-right turn by actually attended a Tea Party rally in Washington, last year.

Now they are worried--like we all are--about social security, medicare, the national debt, and the escalating cost of "retirees' health benefits."
Attached was a seemingly innocent note that said, "So what do we, as a nation, do with this dilemma?  No politics involved."
Considering their vehement opposition to everything I believe in politically, I took a long breath...and finally decided to give them my unvarnished opinion:

Glad you asked.
But please...let's not pretend "it's not political"...or that having a frank political discourse is necessarily a bad thing.

We 'as a nation' have undergone a massive, wholly destructive re-thinking of what it means to be a good citizen, ever since Ronald Reagan declared "Government isn't the solution;  it's the problem."   Had he simply gotten elected on that clever slogan, it might not be so bad.  But coupled with its intrinsic disingenuousness (Reagan grew the government and the deficit more than all of his predecessors combined), the popular mindset it engendered has set this country back a hundred years.
Instead of feeling like a part of the greatest nation of Earth, building interstates, traveling in space, doing scientific research, etc., we now feel like everything should be free.

Every road should fix itself.
Every school should hold a bake sale for books.
Every citizen should decide for themselves whether to pay that $75 a year, for fire protection!
Welcome to Private Sector World.

Our taxes, since Reagan's time, have been slashed to cripplingly  low levels.
You now have the lowest tax, relative to your standard of living, in American history.
And in a way, you're right:
It's not political, any longer:  it's endemic.
In fact, it's entirely symptomatic of a selfish populous, so infected by the handed-down anti-government Reaganisms that they are no longer interested in world affairs (other than to wage war); they give ONLY lip-service to paying cops and fireman and teachers, but are in reality unwilling to pay them a living wage; and so concerned with corporate freedoms and anti-unionism that we've finally cut the average American out of the picture altogether, and exported all but our service industry jobs--creating a fatally diminished revenue pool that is shrinking faster even than our taxable income pool.

I say 'pool,' because you are right, that it's a serious dilemna.
I think we can all agree...we're drowning.
But I would argue that it's less from our national debt than from an anti-civic movement that will disable us from all repair thereto.
It's the perfect storm, for a populous that cried 'wolf', until it went literally down the drain.

Each entitlement we decry is our own hard-earned rung, on a ladder of civilization and civic pride that was carefully built over hundreds of years of finely honed thought by the best minds this nation had to offer, and by respectful debate--by two parties, willing to sometimes sacrifice their dogma, in the long-term interest of the greater good.
Yes, it is political.
All of it.

Words like "fairness doctrine" are now considered terrible to you--yet, as American citizens now get pounded away at--day by day, 24/7-- with nothing but anti-government invective and "Where's mine?" philosophies, the entire notion of "one nation," (under ANYTHING) is evaporating, before our myopic eyes.
As we speak, President Obama's tax rates are--all of them---LOWER than Bush's, still lower than Clinton's, lower than 41's, etc.etc.--and that's the fact.
Yet, the caterwauling continues, and nothing but greed--both corporate and personal--is behind it.

The fact is, taxes were far, far higher--all of them--under Eisenhower!
Remember that socialist...Ike?
Remember actually building schools and university systems?
Remember growth?
Remember how "handouts" (like the G.I.Bill, for starters--a far bigger entitlement/welfare program than any other) jump-started the post war economy?
Remember our post war reconstruction efforts in Europe...pure giveaways of American tax dollars, supported by the public, simply because it was the right thing to do??

Remember when bailouts saved us, not just in 1932, and 1976 (Ford to NY: DROP DEAD!), but just this year...as GM returned to viability, and the whole damn thing got paid back?  Remember that??
It was one of the truly great moves by any president in history, to save a major symbol of American industry and manufacturing on OUR soil, at a time when the national psyche most needs it, which should have been regarded as being in the great tradition of benevolent leadership, but...but....instead...what happened?
The cartoon whack jobs of Fox News and hate-talk radio made their marching orders clear, to impressionable minds everywhere:
This was socialism.
"Obama is taking over Chevrolet!"
And so, even as ALL the money got paid back in record time, "big government" once again got no credit, only blame, and Americans further resolved to continue shouting it down, just in case anything good ever comes up again.
Lovely.

The answer to your question is a complicated combination of taxes and revenue streams which could be easily generated in a heartbeat--simply by restoring HALF of the (thought to be temporary, ten year) Bush tax cuts on the richest 1% of this nation.
Key word:  'Complicated'...but do-able, yes!
Under Clinton, those rates were famously 39%.
Problem is, with the politics of beauty-pageantry and bumper-sticker philosophies being foisted upon us by the 'sound bite right', detailed thought and complex answers have no room at the table, anymore.
If Joe the Plumber (who was not a plumber) can't grasp it...heck...let's just elect him to something!

Under Eisenhower, and for most of our lives, personal and corporate income taxes were as high as 95%!  Obama's tepid suggestion that we go from the current all-time low of 15% back up to 'near 20%' is not nearly enough, yet even that  is being shouted down--and (in true tea party, Bizarro World fashion) it's now actually being blamed for the whole corporate unwillingness to lend, because (so the narrative goes) "Wall Street hates uncertainty!"

Are you kidding me?

That is just ONE answer to your question--and a tax based one, at that.
I mentioned it first, because it's the quickest solution to solving the "dilemna" of honoring our long-standing promises to the retirees who've EARNED their benefits.  More systemically, the decreasing revenue stream caused by the cutting of your dreaded 'union wages' (read: the whole middle class's wages) is another key reason we find ourselves in this national pickle.  And it may well be the most important one, too:
When incomes fall, yes...corporations do better. But America does worse, as do those same corporations, in the long run...because nobody has any money to spend!!!

So here we are:  The ultimate in deregulated society, happily legislating guns in bars, but unwilling to even face punishing punishing BP, without somebody on the right saying we're "stifling business."  

The man who destroyed America, by appealing to our basest instincts to hate immigrants, revere corporate greed, outsource jobs, export war, and cripple the middle class--all the while increasing government spending on everything from imaginary safety nets in space (remember 'Star Wars'?) to financing small time dictators who then used OUR weapons to kill our own soldiers, time after time (Saddam, Chile, Contra...shall I go on?) has lived to haunt us still.
We hired an actor to do a serious man's job, when we hired Ronald Reagan.

We have since set about methodically demonizing the very best minds in America.
When they say things we don't like, they're "elitists!"
With...uh oh...a "Harvard education!!!"
And that's  somehow scarier to you, than Christine O'Donnell or Jan Brewer?
I'm serious:  America is in deep, deep trouble if we continue to look at shiny things (Sarah Palin) and shun serious ones (from Paul Krugman to Elizabeth Warren, to the president himself).
So go ahead, enjoy your daily cartoon party, imagining that the "founding fathers" would have loved this hatred of government, then offering up only friendly shrugs, to accompany the overall "dilemna" that creates.

Like everything else in our society, it seems that now, we can no longer even afford to take care of our elderly--and you want to blame everything BUT the most destructive and obstructive rhetoric in American history, which comes from your political camp--not mine.  Because while this nation--this whole big, once-wonderful tribute to imagination and ingenuity-- is sinking like the Titanic, it appears the chorus of cackles from the mindless right will continue--also sinking the hearts, and the hopes, of millions in our nation--as they insist, "We simply cannot afford to be who we once were."

How lovely, to see that Raleigh, Nashville, San Francisco, and a few other cities are beginning to outsource crime investigations from the police to the 'private sector' (hiring people off the street!) so that...what?
A real  incompetent  can investigate your home burglary?
Why?
Because YOU say..."Hey...we can't afford it!"

How far-sighted, to alienate (pun intended) the more than 12 million undocumented laborers we've grown to count on,  as a nation--as their families (and the future majority in this nation, Hispanics) grow. 
Why do this? So that they will ultimately resent their mistreatment enough to finally put the last nail  in our current system--knowing it hates them, and does not include them?  Knowing that it does them no good to prop up an old order, for the bigoted white nostalgia that is its primary proponent now?
But YOU say..."Throw the bums out!!"

And how wonderful to hear your deep concerns--at this late hour--over how we're going to pay for such frivolous 'entitlements' like...health care,  for our retirees!--when we all  know, deep down, that it is our own fault:
We have lost our moral, ethical, and civil compass to a band of gypsy broadcasters, who stole our hearts, simply by amusing us to death.

Now, the Fox/Limbaugh machine has seized upon the (admittedly unjust) firing of Juan Williams, to demand the complete shut-down of NPR.  No wonder.  Why wouldn't  they want to close down the last vestige of liberal thought on the radio, in America?
With no 'Fairness Doctrine' to hamper their invective, why not use the argument that "political correctness" is a worse scourge than the daily barrage of racist, hateful, jingoistic slime they proffer?  Instead of calling for the firing of the lady who fired Williams, they want to erase this entire outlet of civility on the air.
"Let no bastion of reason slow our merry march toward oblivion!"  
(Nobody said that...but they might as well  have!)

Think about it:
Over these things, you'd rather have a 'Tea Party' and watch everything fall apart, than seriously begin paying into our nation's future, before it slips away for good?
It sure looks that way, to me.

So let the band play on--even as the whole ship sinks.

"Patriots, or pinheads?"

We report; you decide.


______________________________
This article Copyright 2010 by Peter Rodman. All Rights Reserved.

Remembering Kenny Edwards

August 22, 2010

Earlier today, someone sent a link to a 'remembrance page' for Kenny Edwards.  I don't know exactly who I was writing this to, but this is what came out...

I first met Kenny Edwards with Karla Bonoff, in 1978, when they came out to play Boulder.

  KBCO had helped 'break' Karla's solo debut album there (although we didn't know it quite yet, it was the first-ever 'triple A' radio station), so it seemed to make good sense, for her to kick off her new 'major label' solo career, in one of the few places where everybody already knew her name. 

The Glenn Miller Ballroom was packed that night, and we broadcast the entire show 'live.'

Karla remains a timelessly great singer/songwriter, to this day--but at that time, she was a slightly reticent, almost 'green' solo performer.  Across the stage, but always within her sight-line, Kenny Edwards stood tall--essentially right beside her, casting encouraging glances to this shy performer, the whole time.
He'd known her for a decade or more by then, and as surely as an Olympic coach 'spots' his gymnast, Kenny was right there, to make sure she'd never fall.

The show was history making--and seemed to literally launch her whole career.
At the end of their set, they'd played the whole debut album and a couple other songs, but the crowd kept stomping their feet, and screaming wildly: "More! More! More!" This went on for like ten full minutes--a remarkable thing, for college kids responding to what were, for the most part, essentially introspective, quiet songs.
Karla was totally stunned.
Heck...we all were!

But Kenny smiled his usual smile, sensitively leaning down to huddle with her, at center stage...and there, bathing in the din of adulation, they whispered a few words back and forth, to the effect of, "Geez...what else do we know?"
Finally, they settled on one last Karla Bonoff original. "We only know one more song," Karla said sheepishly, "and we hadn't planned to play it, but it's all I have left."

She wasn't kidding: It was a CHRISTMAS song, of all things!
"Everybody's Home Tonight" was received joyously, and moved many in the crowd to tears, even though Christmas was nowhere in sight.
Having wrapped the show perfectly, the crowd filed out into a balmy Boulder night, and it was clear they had given these performers as much as they had gotten. That's what all great shows do. It's a fluid exchange, between art and the love of art.
As a footnote, Karla's amazing Christmas song subsequently became a much sought-after collectors' item, and wasn't even officially released, until almost 20 years later.  To this day, it remains one of my favorite Christmas songs ever written.  But it would never have been played, had she not had Kenny's quiet sense of confidence behind her, on that magical Boulder night, so long ago.

I've known Karla and Kenny ever since.
Seen 'em dozens of times, in several different cities--and never was there a doubt, watching them, that this was a lifelong team. I cannot say that about almost any other act, in the 40 years I've been around music. But with them, you just knew this was forever. As though they'd grown up in the same house, almost.

Rarely would she venture out to perform without him. (And don't get me wrong:  Karla Bonoff is a tough-as-nails, World Class  solo performer.  It's just that Kenny's presence seemed to allow her to 'exhale'...i.e., plumb deeper emotions onstage, something essential to all great singers.)  His rock-solid bass playing, superb sense of harmony and dynamics, and most of all, his sense of safety and reason, helped her to not only navigate the records, and the road--but even to filter through some of the oddball adulation a female singer can sometimes encounter out there, with some sense of sanity, if not surety.
You always got the sense that if there was any 'heavy lifting' to be done, Kenny Edwards would be happy to do it for you.

The only time I ever saw her do a week of shows alone was at The Fairmont Hotel in Chicago, around 1990 or so.  Since I was living there at the time, Karla invited me to come 'sit in on a few shows' for the week (not playing... just to sort of be there) with her. I decided I'd go to them all. Clearly, not having Kenny Edwards there was somewhat disconcerting--even for such a pro, as this--because she was just so used to the 'comfort zone' he provided, both onstage and off. And after that week, I never saw her perform without him again.


By 1992, I was living in Santa Barbara, and had kept in touch with Karla from there.  I remember her telling me on the phone that I really should come down to L.A., to meet this guy named "Billy Block," whom she said was almost single-handedly assembling a very casual (but elite) music scene, at a small place called Highland Grounds, on Santa Monica.  "We're all going down to play this week.  Why don't you come down?"  So I did.  And so did Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman, and of course a very happy Kenny Edwards--'Bryndle Rekindled', if you will.  I remember Alannah Myles ("Black Velvet") was there, too...and a very  young Kevin Montgomery!

"For the first time in a long while," Karla had told me, "there's a scene developing, here." She was right--and Billy Block was the catalyst for that scene--just as he would be later on, here in Nashville.

As it turned out, the night I was there was their very first night back together, (onstage, as Bryndle) in 20 years.  And there--again--right by her side (and Andrew's and Wendy's and a few others, during the evening), stood the gentle bassman, Kenny Edwards--serving up support, with chops to spare.


A couple years later, I landed here in Nashville on Lightning 100, and a more polished 'Bryndle' came to town.

Bryndle with Peter Rodman, circa 1995.
(l to r) Wendy Waldman, Kenny Edwards,
Karla Bonoff, Andrew Gold, Peter Rodman

They played the Ryman, now reviewing each of their solo hits ("Saved the Best For Last," "Lonely Boy", etc.) and brimming with confidence. Our history was deep. (It's scary to think how long ago it was now, but my first radio interview with Wendy Waldman had been way  back...in 1975!  And I still have the tape.)  Anyway, to see the four of them "officially" together onstage, was just an astonishing delight.  They played off of each other, that night--Wendy's outgoing and ebullient stage presence; Andrew's versatile pop sensibility; Karla's endearing class; and the 'straight man' for all the patter, pretty much leading the band...Kenny Edwards.


After that, there were shows in Boulder and California, equally fun...and always, as the spotlight shifted from songwriter to songwriter, one thing remained ever-constant:  Kenny Edwards. No matter what the style-shift or harmony requirement, he was their "utility infielder" --and in that role, truly deserved a 'Golden Glove'.
As the years rolled on and I left radio, I'd see them individually here and there (Andrew played on a record project of mine, etc.)...but the group seemed to dissipate.
Still, Karla's shows invariably had Kenny in there, somewhere.  But as Bryndle wound down, it seemed Kenny finally turned towards his own music, whenever he wasn't touring with Karla.
Now, finally, he was starting to feel free to create his own brand, his own way.


Kenny did come to Nashville a few times on his own, when trying to launch that fledgling solo career. Over the years his warmth, and his quiet, dependable talent had generated many lasting, collaborative friendships.  Sometimes, he looked a little tired on those trips--understandable, for a guy who'd been preoccupied by other projects for years, before ever getting around to his own!  It was almost as if he thought of his own career as 'moonlighting.'

On one such solo visit by Kenny, I vaguely remember being upset about something a mutual friend had done, and he patiently listened to my tale of woe, as we drank our beers. When I was finished relaying the story, I said, "Gee, you know what? I think just sitting here with you, literally drained all the hostility right outta me, Kenny! How'd you DO that?"

He smiled a knowing smile, as if to say, "You're not the only one I do this for. This is me. I do it all the time. Don't worry about it; this is what I do."  What he did say was, "I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to share it with me. I understand. And I'm happy it helped you to let it go!"

And it was true: I had  let it go!  (In fact, I can't even remember what it was that was bothering me, now!)  
THAT was Kenny Edwards, to me.
I thanked him profusely--now flustered and embarrassed at the silliness, of my tirade--and then swore him to secrecy about it. That was another thing he did well. (I never had any worry in my head, about it leaving his lips.)

The BIG 'secret' about Kenny Edwards was how unflinchingly supportive he could be offstage.  Receptive, fair minded, conscientious, and positive.  These priorities pre-empted personal grandeur, for Kenny Edwards--the ultimate 'team player,' and the bestest confidante a person could ever ask for. 

That nobody ever knew he'd kept my confidence--that one night in Nashville--is kind of the whole point, about Kenny.

You could almost forget his production credit (on the Karla Bonoff albums), as finely polished and handcrafted as the work was; you could nearly miss the stellar co-writing efforts ("Trouble Again"), or the effortless mandolin work. He just plain did not CARE about taking credit, even if people might forget all about him. To say his contributions were 'understated' is an understatement, all its own!

Kenny was all about helping everyone around him to be their best. Their best songwriter. Their best performer. Their best singer. And yes...their best person. And in that-- for so many he touched-- it turns out that Kenny Edwards was that rarest of birds, in the music business...their best friend. God bless Kenny Edwards. I've never met his Mom, but I hope somebody tells her, she really raised a good one.

My heart goes out to her, as well as of course Karla, Wendy, Andrew, Linda Ronstadt, Val Garay, and everyone else who knew and loved this fine, gentle man.
I'm happy our paths crossed.


Love to All Always,


Peter Rodman
Nashville, Tennessee