“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

New York Times Editorial: Politics and the Court

When it comes to pushing the line between law and politics, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas each had a banner month in January.

ustice Scalia, who is sometimes called “the Justice from the Tea Party,” met behind closed doors on Capitol Hill to talk about the Constitution with a group of representatives led by Representative Michele Bachmann of the House Tea Party Caucus.

Justice Thomas, confirming his scorn for concern about conflicts of interest and rules designed to help prevent them, acknowledged that he has failed to comply with the law for the past six years by not disclosing his wife’s income from conservative groups.

Gail Collins: The Siege of Planned Parenthood

As if we didn’t have enough wars, the House of Representatives has declared one against Planned Parenthood.

Maybe it’s all part of a grand theme. Last month, they voted to repeal the health care law. This month, they’re going after an organization that provides millions of women with both family-planning services and basic health medical care, like pap smears and screening for diabetes, breast cancer, cervical cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.

Our legislative slogan for 2011: Let Them Use Leeches.

Robert Reich: The Jobs Report, and America’s Two Economies

At a time when corporate profits are through the roof, the Dow is flirting with 12,000, Wall Street paychecks are fat again, and big corporations are sitting on more than $1 trillion in cash, you’d expect jobs be coming back. But you’d be wrong.

The U.S. economy added just 36,000 jobs in January, according to today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Remember, 125,000 are needed just to keep up with the increase in the population of Americans wanting and needing work. And 300,000 a month are needed — continuously, for five years — if we’re to get back to anything like the employment we had before the Great Recession.

Greg MItchell: Bradley Manning: Forgotten No More

Nearly nine months after he was arrested for allegedly leaking classified material, including diplomatic cables, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was very much in the news this week. His supporters and attorney David Coombs continued to charge that the conditions of his confinement were overly harsh and punitive, while the Pentagon continued to deny that. Amnesty International protested the conditions and so did Rep. Dennis Kucinich, among many others. Coombs revealed that Manning did not, as some had suggested, have dual British citizenship. Manning, he said, was proud to be an American and an American soldier.

With Manning gaining wide attention today, it’s worth recalling that two months ago he was largely forgotten. How did so much change?

Jeff Biggers: Arizona Gone Wild: Does New Bill Give State the Right to Overthrow Federal Government?

How did this latest episode in “Arizona Tea Party Gone Wild” get by the state’s attorney general Tom Horne?

While the Canadian immigrant Tom Horne has been obsessed with banning Tucson Unified School District’s academically successful Mexican American Studies program for allegedly promoting “the overthrow of the United States government” and “resentment toward a race or class of people,” the state’s Senate President Russel Pearce and his Tea Party legislators introduced a bill this week to grant a committee the right to nullify “existing federal statutes, mandates and executive orders.”

Or, as long-time Arizona Republic columnist E.J. Montini notes, it gives Arizona the right “to secede without officially doing so.”

Robert Alvarez: Food, Egypt and Wall Street

The dramatic rise in food prices is fueling a great deal of discontent in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. It is a deep under current propelling many of the poor, facing prospects of starvation to resort to the streets and to violence.   According to the United Nation’s Food Agency (Food and Agriculture Organization — FAO) world food prices are up for the 7th month in a row and are likely to remain close to the record high reached in December 2010. There’s no end in sight to this destabilizing battle with food price inflation in places like Egypt, where more than half of an average income goes for food.  According to the U.S. State Department, more than 60 food riots occurred worldwide over the past two years.

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The independence of the judiciary means that the Courts should be free from improper influence from outside interests.  What a great idea for having a transparent, fair judicial system.  It’s a concept that has so much promise.  But in practice the present Supreme Court and its members may be driving it off a cliff. Today’s news about Justice Thomas’s wife’s lobbying business may signal its ultimate demise.

The New York Times reports that Justice Thomas’s wife,

who has raised her political profile in the last year through her outspoken conservative activism, is rebranding herself as a lobbyist and self-appointed “ambassador to the Tea Party movement.”

Virginia Thomas, the justice’s wife, said on libertyinc.co, a Web site for her new political consulting business, that she saw herself as an advocate for “liberty-loving citizens” who favored limited government, free enterprise and other core conservative issues. She promised to use her “experience and connections” to help clients raise money and increase their political impact.

Can you read that sentence again?  “She promised to use her ‘experience and connections‘ to help clients raise money and increase their political impact.”  Her connections.  Well, her biggest, if not her only connection is her husband, who has more than once imposed his wackadoodle analysis of the law on the nation to benefit those who appointed him to the high court and whom he holds close to his heart:  Bush v. Gore and Citizens United are only the top of the heap.  Her connections indeed.

Of course, lawyers and law professors and others note that this is an ethical outrage:

Ms. Thomas’s effort to take a more operational role on conservative issues could intensify questions about her husband’s ability to remain independent on issues like campaign finance and health care, legal ethicists said.

Justice Thomas “should not be sitting on a case or reviewing a statute that his wife has lobbied for,” said Monroe H. Freedman, a Hofstra Law School professor specializing in legal ethics. “If the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, that creates a perception problem.”…

Arn Pearson, a vice president at Common Cause, a liberal group that has been critical of potential conflicts at the Supreme Court caused by Ms. Thomas’s work, said her new position, combined with Justice Antonin Scalia’s recent address before a closed-door seminar of the Tea Party Caucus, provided further evidence of “the politicization of the court.”

“The level of bias we’re seeing is really troubling,” Mr. Pearson said.

Mr. Friedman is too kind.

And how is it that Ms. Thomas got herself in this position?

Ms. Thomas’s founding of her own political consulting shop, Liberty Consulting, was first reported Thursday by Politico, which said she had begun reaching out to freshmen Republicans in Congress.

The move comes a few months after she gave up the top spot at Liberty Central, a conservative Web site that she founded in 2009 and that has strong links to the Tea Party movement.

An anonymous $500,000 donation to start up Liberty Central came from Harlan Crow, a Dallas real estate investor and Republican financier, Politico reported.

Mr. Crow, reached by phone Friday, would not say whether he was the source of the money. “I disclose what I’m required by law to disclose,” he said, “and I don’t disclose what I’m not required to disclose.”

You can be sure that Mr. Crow’s $50,000 is just the first drop, and that there will be a torrent of money from others who want to buy influence from Ms. Thomas.  And her husband.

And what’s this about reaching out to “freshmen Republicans in Congress,” the very people who are presently trying to repeal the health care bill either all at once (fail!) or piece by piece by piece?  And what’s this simultaneous news that the Virginia Attorney General is trying to take the Government’s appeal that state’s crazy health care decision directly to the Supreme Court?

Just coincidences, I’m sure.  Just coincidences.  I’m sure the Court can mind its own ethics.

———————–

simulposted at The Dream Antilles

(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The end of George Bush. The end of the Democrats. The end of Obama. The end of home ownership. The end of Hosni Mubarak. The end of the Amazon. The end of US agriculture. The end of the world food supply. The end of sanity. And the end of Advanced Civilization.

The Kinks. And everything you always wished you never knew. It’s all here. 😉

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 329 days remaining until the end of the year (330 in leap years).

On this day in 1917, with more than a two-thirds majority, Congress overrides President Woodrow Wilson’s veto of the previous week and passes the Immigration Act.. The law required a literacy test for immigrants and barred Asiatic laborers, except for those from countries with special treaties or agreements with the United States, such as the Philippines.

The Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, added to the number of undesirables banned from entering the country, including but not limited to “idiots”, “feeble-minded persons”, “criminals”, “epileptics”, “insane persons”, alcoholics, “professional beggars”, all persons “mentally or physically defective”, polygamists, and anarchists. Furthermore, it barred all immigrants over the age of sixteen who were illiterate. The most controversial part of the law was the section that designated an “Asiatic Barred Zone”, a region that included much of eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands from which people could not immigrate. Previously, only the Chinese had been excluded from admission to the country. Attempts at introducing literacy tests had been vetoed by Grover Cleveland in 1897 and William Taft in 1913. Wilson also objected to this clause in the Immigration Act but it was still passed by Congress on the fourth attempt.

Anxiety in the United States about immigration has often been directed toward immigrants from China and Japan. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese from entering the U.S. The Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907 was made with Japan to regulate Japanese immigration to the U.S. The Immigration Act of 1917 is one of many immigration acts during this time period which arose from nativist and xenophobic sentiment. These immigration laws were intentional efforts to control the composition of immigrant flow into the United States.

 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.

1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.

1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.

1631 – Roger Williams emigrates to Boston.

1778 – South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

1782 – Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca.

1783 – In Calabria a sequence of strong earthquakes begins.

1810 – Peninsular War: Siege of Cadiz begins.

1818 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.

1852 – The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.

1859 – Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state.

1869 – The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the “Welcome Stranger”, was found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.

1885 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.

1900 – The United States and the United Kingdom sign a treaty for the Panama Canal

1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis performed the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.

1917 – The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

1917 – The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. Also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, it forbade immigration from nearly all of south and southeast Asia.

1918 – Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane. It is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.

1918 – SS Tuscania (1914) is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland, it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.

1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.

1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the “BBC pips”.

1937 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.

1939 – Generalisimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th “Caudillo de Espana”, or Leader of Spain.

1945 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.

1946 – The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea.

1958 – Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.

1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

1962 – French President Charles De Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.

1963 – The European Court of Justice’s ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law.

1972 – Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

1976 – The 1976 swine flu outbreak begins at Fort Dix, NJ.

1988 – Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.

1994 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

1994 – During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell slams into a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.

1997 – The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.

2000 – Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya.

2004 – Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35 cockle-pickers are trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England.

Twenty-one bodies are recovered.

2004 – Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaives, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.

2008 – A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States leaves 57 dead, the most since the May 31, 1985 outbreak that killed 88.

2009 – The United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal runs aground off Oahu, Hawaii, damaging the ship as well as a  reef.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Agatha of Sicily

         o February 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Constitution Day (Mexico)

   * Kashmir Day (Pakistan)

   * Liberation from the Alberoni Occupation (San Marino)

   * Weatherperson’s Day (United States)

   * Runeberg’s Birthday, where Runeberg’s tart are made specially for the holiday. (Finland)

   * Unity Day (Burundi)

The Square That Is The Center Of Their Universe  

CAIRO, Egypt – Dozens of Egyptian women spilled out of a mosque in the Dokki neighborhood Friday, only their eyes visible from black veils that flapped in the breeze.

Marching in formation, they set off for downtown Cairo, where they hoped to join hundreds of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square who were calling for the removal of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

When pro-Mubarak youths jeered at them from a balcony overhead, the women raised their voices louder. “Go home!” the youths yelled at the women, who replied by chanting, “He’s leaving! We’re not leaving!”

The Past Comes Back To Haiti

Ex-leader writes in the Guardian that his seven-year exile is at an end

Haiti’s former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide vows to return

The former president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, today gives his firmest indication yet that he will return to the country in a move that could further shake up the already febrile political climate.

Writing in the Guardian, Aristide says that his seven-year exile, most recently in South Africa, is at an end. “I will return to Haiti,” he writes.

His statement of intent comes just days after the ruling Haitian government removed the major impediment to his return by promising to grant him a passport. Calls within Haiti and around the world for the former president to be allowed back have grown steadily in recent weeks

The City That’s No Longer Its Self

The city’s population has plummeted and is whiter, according to long-awaited figures

Census reveals devastating effect of Katrina on New Orleans

The shrinking of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina has hardly been a secret, but now the evidence is there for all to see. According to newly released data from last year’s National Census, it lost a staggering 29 per cent of its population between 2000 and 2010, more than anyone has hitherto been willing to admit.

While some may contest their accuracy, the numbers are the most reliable snapshot of what has happened in New Orleans since the great storm of 2005. Not only is it smaller by almost a third – for the first time dropping out of the top 50 US cities – but it is also whiter, more affluent and a bit older.

The Truth Must Be Hidden  

For decades, Saudi Arabia’s powerful clerics have waged a bitter battle against pagan faiths, idol worship, heresy, alcohol – and archaeology.  

Analysis: Saudi Arabia’s war between god and archaeology  

News that David Kennedy an Australian scholar, has succeeded in identifying almost 2,000 unexplored archaeological sites using Google Earth has focused attention on the wages of that battle: the destruction of Saudi Arabia’s own heritage More than 90 per cent of the archaeological treasures of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, experts estimate, have been demolished to make way for hotels, apartment blocks and parking facilities.

The $13 billion project that led to a wave of demolitions in the middle of the last decade was part of an effort to modernise infrastructure in the ancient cities, where millions of pilgrims gather for the Hajj each year.

We’re Just Like You So Don’t Notice The Differences  

Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme religious leader, addressed Egypt’s protesters in Arabic on Friday, calling President Mubarak a ‘traitor dictator’ who has betrayed Egyptians.

Iran’s Khamenei praises Egyptian protesters, declares ‘Islamic awakening’

Istanbul, Turkey

Iran’s supreme religious leader spoke out about Egypt’s antiregime protests Friday, declaring an “Islamic awakening” across the region that is resulting in the “irreparable defeat” of American and Israeli influence.

Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, addressing Egyptians in Arabic after delivering the Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, portrayed himself as “your brother in religion,” while praising the “explosion of sacred anger” and warning against any US role in the outcome.

Describing close US ally President Hosni Mubarak as a “traitor dictator” who is working for Israel and guilty of “great betrayal” of Egyptians, Ayatollah Khamenei said the regime-changing events in Tunisia and now Egypt were natural extensions of Iran’s own Islamic revolution in 1979.

Every Once in Awhile Those Pesky Facts Just Cause Problems



Assange’s extradition may turn on a crayfish party

Will the most high-profile rape case in the world hinge on the events at a beer and lobster night? It certainly looks that way. On Monday the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, will appear in Belmarsh Magistrates Court, London, as the Swedish prosecution service attempts to extradite him for further questioning on four sex crime accusations. He is yet to be charged with anything.

A summary legal defence paper made public by his lawyers in January says Assange will oppose the request on just about all grounds – arguing not only that the accusations against him do not amount to a crime in Britain, but that the extradition is politically motivated.

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Well, he’s a tax raiser, an amnesty giver, a cut-and-runner, and he negotiated with terrorists. Why is he a hero to conservatives? I don’t think you understand it.

The transcript can be read at Mike Stark’s here web site, The StarkReport

The Kinks are likely the most important British Invasion band that most folks remember only slightly, if even at that.  They were quite good, but completely different from the BIG THREE (The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones) in that they just never seemed to get things completely right.  I mean no disrespect to them by that statement.

I really like that band!  The problem with them was that they never really penetrated the American psyche like the previously mentioned ones did, although they DID have lots of hits.  I guess that part of it was because they did not have quite the level of genius in writing that The Beatles had, nor the outstanding musicianship that at least three of the four of The Who had, or the showmanship mastery (and good writing) that The Rolling Stones had.

Before we start, a little housekeeping.  I have not mentioned for a long while that I have not bought a pack of cigarettes since 2008.  I DO smoke cigarettes, but am very happy with my Prince Albert tobacco and Top papers.  In the coming weeks I plan to ration them, cutting down my cigarette intake from ad libitum now to 20 next week, and two fewer per day per week until I quit.  I offer solidarity for any reader who needs just that bit of impetus to begin to quit, and hope that any who are ready to quit assist me here, and on Pique the Geek, in the comments for encouragement.

With that said, The Kinks were more than anything a collaboration by two brothers, Dave and Ray Davies.  Dave (David Russell Gordon Davies) was born 19470203 (happy just now belated birthday to him!) in London and was one of the singers and the lead guitarist for the band.  He is still with us, just now turning 64, about which Sir Paul wrote.  His brother, Ray (Raymond Douglas Davies) was born 19440621, so he is a few years older.  He is also still with us.  He is also what we Americans call “knighted” being a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).  That is pretty cool.

United States citizens can NEVER be knighted, unless that person renounces her or his citizenship.  However, because of the very close relationship that the UK and the US has, honorary knighthood is possible, but not the full one that British citizens can enjoy.  Actually, it is just sort of an honorary title, with no money nor anything else, but a nifty sort of recognition for contributions.

The Kinks formed in 1964, somewhat later than the BIG THREE, mostly from pillow talk betwixt the brothers.  I mean no sexual innuendo by this statement, but all of you with siblings of the same sex near the same age know that they often sleep in the same room and spin their dreams to each other.  Dave and Ray did more:  the made them come to life.  By the way, they had SIX sisters!

At their secondary school, William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School, they formed a high school band that included another pimply faced guy by the name of Pete Quaife (He died 20100623).  This was in 1962, and they had several other artists play and sing with them.  One that you might remember is Rod Stewert!  Nicky Hopkins from Quicksilver Messenger Service also did some session with them.

Now is where it gets interesting.  Around the same time, in the 1963 to 1964 timeframe, an American record producer by the name of Shel Talmy inked deals with both the Davies brothers and another upstart band, The Who.  Talmy is still with us, and is sort of an ultimate a**hole.  He took advantage of everyone with whom he worked, and I know well that if The Who had not gotten away from him that poverty would have been their outcome.  Fortunately, Townshend proved to be way smarter than Talmy, and with the help of Kit Lambert and others was able to get out of a horribly punishing contract.  Talmy is quite self aggrandizing, and often boasts about being in The Triple Nine Club, where folks who like to think of themselves of geniuses go to gloat.  I suspect that Pete is in the five nines club!

Anyway, The Kinks got going commercially around 1964, around the same time as the BIG THREE came to the United States.  Their other member was Michael Charles Avory (born 19440215, and still with us), who was the drummer.  So here is the original lineup of The Ravens (soon to change their name to The Kinks before their first commercial release):

Ray Davies:  lead songwriting, lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica, and some keyboards

Dave Davies:  some songwriting, lead guitar, backup vocals, and occasional lead vocals

Mick Avory:  percussion and drums, and

Pete Quaife:  bass guitar and backup vocals

Note that I pushed the writing to the front where possible, because I truly believe that writing is the genesis of the creative process.  Their first release was not well received.

It was a cover of Long Tall Sally, the Little Richard (Richard Penniman) hit.  It did not go very far.

Here is a live version.  Not very professional, but you can see that they were loving what they did.

Here is how it is supposed to be done:

By the way, this is one of the most covered songs in the history of R and B, and R and R.  The Beatles covered it, Elvis Presley covered it, and lots of other big acts covered it.

Their next attempt was You Still Want Me.  It was better, but had Talmy all over it.  Yet, not a bad tune.  Please tell me what you think.  I could not find a live version of it, but notice that Dave’s guitar was getting better.

Their third single got them noticed.  The irony is that the covers, particularly the one by Van Halen (gag me with a spoon!) were bigger sellers.  Here is You Really Got Me as it should be enjoyed.  This appears to be quite live, with no lip sync.  Notice that the girls in the audience are very likely now to be grandmums and even great grandmuns.

Here is another take:

This one might by synched.  You tell me.  Just one more:

In my opinion, this much later version is an exercise that is often called “trying to gild the lily”.  It was much better in its earlier versions, with the rawness, but that is just me.

Their next hit pretty much solidified their sound.  It is called All Day and All of the Night, but most folks think that the title is Girl, I Want to be with You.  Please enjoy the studio version now:

Here is a live version, and I think that it is actually live.  Please tell me what you think:

This song pretty much was the drop forge for their sound.  The previous ones had the same drive, but they were not satisfied with it.  Just as I am not satisfied with my limited writing skills, they wanted to be better in their musical skills.

Their next hit was Tired of Waiting, still with the Talmy influence but less of it.  It was a big hit in the UK, actually #1, and made #6 in the US.  Here is a “live” version:

Now the studio version.  This is an extremely poignant song, and the studio version hints at much boarder music that they finally attained, but not quite yet.  I love this song, and every time I listen to it I get a bit teary eyed.

They had a bunch of songs after that, but this is getting too long.  Their next big hit was Sunny Afternoon, a stark rebuke of the UK tax system that set the marginal tax rates at 95%.  George Harrison wrote about the same thing for The Beatles in his excellently crafted song, Taxman.

I would not be Translator if I did not give my opinion on marginal tax rates, and here it is, for what it is worth.  The current ones are OK, except for the highest income earners.  It should be at least a 50% marginal rate for anyone making more than a million dollars per year, and the rate for capital gains and dividends should be one’s top marginal rate as well.  It is obscene that Warren Buffet pays a 15% rate (his income is mostly dividends and capital gains) and most working folks pay 20% or more.

Back to the show.

They had more minor hits until 1969, when Lola came out, so to speak.  This was the first time that a band had actually written a song about a transsexual that made hit charts, and this one was in a good light.  Now, The Who had written about masturbation before (Pictures of Lily), about sadistic things (Cousin Kevin), and even about child abuse (Uncle Ernie).  But this was the first, to my knowledge, popular song to talk frankly about not only transsexuals, but actually loving a transsexual.  This is a milestone, and good on them for doing it.  I have friends whose son is essentially married to a post surgical transsexual.  So here we go with the justly famous Lola!

That song was extremely daring for 1969 (this video is from 1970).  Like Donovan, whom I wrote about a week or two ago, there were some extremely subtle lyrics about sex that most folks could not have had on AM radio at the time.

I pushed her away, I walked to the door, I fell to the floor, I got down on my knees…

I rest my case.

Here is a more recent rendition of Lola:

Interestingly, their last Top Ten in the US is my very favorite song of theirs.  In late November 1970 the extremely wonderful Apeman hit the charts, and it was actually the first Kinks song that I ever heard (after that, I wanted to hear more), on the Fort Smith, Arkansas 100,000 watt FM station, KMAG.  KMAG finally went to country and western, and for a long time people would use the term, “…when KMAG was really KMAG…”.

Please, if any of you are inebriated enough, sing along with me.

One is not enough.  Try this one as well.

We ALL LOVE the old 45 RPM vinyls!  We are all apemen!

They sort of faded out after that one, sadly, but did have one more big US hit.  Well, it was big for me.  I LOVE that band.  Actually they had two, this being the last.  The one before is sort of going to be my goodnight to everyone.

That just did not have the feel that the second to last hit had.  I hope that all of you remember this one.

Come Dancing was pretty much the last of them.  That is sad, because I think that the brothers have several more things to say, just like Translator does as well.

I hope that you enjoyed visiting with this wonderful band and with me as well.  It is a horrible burden to write Popular Culture, with the requirement of listening to great old songs and seeing vintage video!  LOL!  Please feel free to post any clips that you particularly like in the comments, and as always your thoughts are welcome.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Dailykos.com, Docudharma.com, and Antimedius.com

Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
  

• Muse in the Morning by Robyn
• Six In The Morning by mishima

Featured Essays for February 4, 2011-

• Is Mubarak in De Nile – or is he in Tel Aviv yet? by RUKind
• Social Security: Where’s Our Tahrir Square? by fake consultant
• The Video That Sparked Egypt’s Revolution by Edger
• "The True Face of Hosni Mubarak" is Now Being Televised Across the World by Edger
• World Wide Tahrir coming to a street near you. by dharmasyd
• Reporting the Revolution: The Day of Departure Update:1800 hrs EST by TheMomCat
• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to Honduras: Stop the Killings of Transwomen by Robyn
• The Most Common Mosquito-Borne Virus: Dengue by TheMomCat
• Original v. Cover — #64 in a Series by curmudgeon

DocuDharma

Almost solid premiers, must be a sweeps month.  You may find better uses for your time (unless you’re a Smallville fan.

No Fate.

• AMC– Terminator 2: Judgment Day x 2 (my personal favorite of the series, along with Aliens it makes up my action women of the 80s double feature)
• Bravo– The Green Mile x 2 (I understand some people like this movie)
• Disney– Wizards of Waverly Place, Fish Hooks (premiers), Phineas and Ferb
• Discovery– Gold Rush (last week’s and new), Flying Wild (premier)
• E!– The Soup (premier)
• ESPN– Hoopies, Mavs @ Celtics, Jazz @ Nuggets
• FX– The Incredible Hulk, Hellboy II: The Golden Army
• National Geographic– Dog Whisperer (premier)
• Oxygen– Grease Sing-A-Long x 4
• Sci Fi– Merlin (premier)
• Style– One Fine Day
• TBS– The House Bunny x 2
• Turner Classic– The Heiress, The Bridge on the River Kwai
• TLC– Say Yes to the Dress marathon (with premier)
• TNT– Speed 2: Cruise Control
• Toon– Generator Rex (premier), Clone Wars (Part 2 of the Mortis Trilogy, premier)

You’re already dead, Silberman. Everybody dies. You know I believe it so don’t fuck with me!

Later-

The hardest thing is deciding what I should tell you and what not to. Well, anyway, I’ve got a while yet before you’re old enough to understand the tapes. They’re more for me at this point… to help get it all straight.

• AMC– The Terminator (not so good)
• Disney– Phineas and Ferb Rollercoaster: The Musical
• Sci Fi– Being Human (this week’s), Merlin (Instapeat)
• TBS– Spanglish
• Turner Classic– Ryan’s Daughter
• TNT– The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, D.O.A.: Dead or Alive
• TV Land– Hot in Cleveland marathon
• Vs.– Skiing, FIS Freestyle World Championships
• VH1– New Jack City

Dave hosts Justin Bieber, Martha Stewart, and Robert Plant.

The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it, for the first time, with a sense of hope. Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 48 Top Stories.

1 Mubarak stays put on ‘departure day’

by Ali Khalil, AFP

15 mins ago

2 Mubarak ‘would like to step down, but fears chaos’

by Samer al-Atrush, AFP

Thu Feb 3, 6:55 pm ET

3 Huge crowds turn out for Mubarak ‘departure day’

by Ali Khalil, AFP

Fri Feb 4, 2:31 pm ET

4 Myanmar picks junta insider as president

AFP

1 hr 54 mins ago

5 Two dead in Thai-Cambodian border clash

by Suy Se, AFP

2 hrs 51 mins ago

6 Drive to unify euro economy as rescue roadmap set

by Sophie Laubie, AFP

1 hr 9 mins ago

7 Germany, France launch drive for cross-border governance

by Sophie Laubie, AFP

Fri Feb 4, 7:57 am ET

8 F1 driver Button plays down Alonso’s Schumacher fears

by Ryland James, AFP

Fri Feb 4, 12:35 pm ET

9 England hold on to down Wales in Six Nations rugby

by Rob Woollard, AFP

31 mins ago

10 Ruling party candidate out of Haiti race

by Clarens Renois, AFP

Thu Feb 3, 7:10 pm ET

11 World food prices reach record high

by Dario Thuburn, AFP

Fri Feb 4, 7:35 am ET

12 German-French drive to unify euro economy hits obstacles

by Sophie Laubie, AFP

Fri Feb 4, 1:49 pm ET

13 Pakistan cricketers charged with corruption

by Julian Guyer, AFP

Fri Feb 4, 12:15 pm ET

14 U.S. proposes Mubarak’s immediate resignation

By Jonathan Wright and Marwa Awad, Reuters

Fri Feb 4, 12:32 am ET

15 U.S. urges "concrete steps" on Egypt transition

By Arshad Mohammed and Matt Spetalnick, Reuters

Fri Feb 4, 3:18 pm ET

16 NY Mets owners hit with $300 million Madoff lawsuit

By Jonathan Stempel and Ben Klayman

1 hr 47 mins ago

17 SEC warns budget threats give swindlers upper hand

By Sarah N. Lynch and Dave Clarke, Reuters

36 mins ago

18 Special report: Jamie Dimon wants some R-E-S-P-E-C-T

By Elinor Comlay and Matthew Goldstein, Reuters

Fri Feb 4, 10:00 am ET

19 Investment banks square bonus circle with doughnuts

By Sarah White and Ben Berkowitz, Reuters

Fri Feb 4, 9:50 am ET

20 Tyson Foods profit surges on higher meat prices

By Bob Burgdorfer, Reuters

Fri Feb 4, 1:18 pm ET

21 EU states frustrated by Paris, Berlin summit deal

By Jan Strupczewski and Julien Toyer Jan Strupczewski And Julien Toyer – Fri Feb 4, 3:12 pm ET

22 SEC eyes flash crash reforms

By Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters

Fri Feb 4, 11:25 am ET

23 "Flash crash" panel mulls big market changes

By Jonathan Spicer, Reuters

Fri Feb 4, 3:45 pm ET

24 Bernanke warns of catastrophe if debt limit not raised

By Mark Felsenthal and Pedro da Costa, Reuters

Thu Feb 3, 10:04 pm ET

25 Verizon may curb heavy iPhone data users

By Sinead Carew, Reuters

Thu Feb 3, 7:50 pm ET

26 House Republicans seek $32 billion in spending cuts

By Richard Cowan, Reuters

Thu Feb 3, 4:07 pm ET

27 Amid protests, views of post-Mubarak Egypt emerge

By LEE KEATH, Associated Press

32 mins ago

28 Obama challenges Mubarak: Consider your legacy

By MATTHEW LEE and BEN FELLER, Associated Press

35 mins ago

29 Egyptian journalist shot in clashes dies

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press

Fri Feb 4, 3:53 pm ET

30 US intelligence on Arab unrest draws criticism

By KIMBERLY DOZIER, AP Intelligence Writer

Fri Feb 4, 3:31 pm ET

31 Husband: Giffords would embrace flight decision

By MARCIA DUNN and JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press

32 mins ago

32 Sen. Hatch: Kagan should sit out health care case

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

53 mins ago

33 Michigan mosque plot suspect fires lawyer in court

By JEFF KAROUB, Associated Press

24 mins ago

34 Stocks shrug off mixed unemployment report

By DAVID K. RANDALL and MATTHEW CRAFT, AP Business Writers

1 hr 15 mins ago

35 Storm turns some Super Bowl plans into Super Mess

By SCHUYLER DIXON, Associated Press

8 mins ago

36 Injury fill-ins keep Super Bowl teams patched up

By JAIME ARON, AP Pro Football Writer

Fri Feb 4, 5:47 am ET

37 Madoff lawsuit: Mets owners owe victims $300M

By TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

47 mins ago

38 With no room to put snow, Eastern waterways beckon

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press

Fri Feb 4, 1:56 pm ET

39 Yanks’ Pettitte retires, ‘hunger’ is not there

By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer

2 hrs 52 mins ago

40 Alaska lawmakers propose ditching pipeline plan

By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press

7 mins ago

41 Judge orders mediation in SweeTango apple lawsuit

By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press

38 mins ago

42 USDA: Farmers can plant genetically modified beets

By MICHAEL J. CRUMB, Associated Press

46 mins ago

43 Canada PM urges US to approve oil pipeline

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press

55 mins ago

44 Baltimore cuts off funding for Poe House

By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press

1 hr 20 mins ago

45 SPIN METER: Not much savings from stimulus money

BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE, Associated Press

1 hr 56 mins ago

46 Judge bars passport from ex-CIA operative’s trial

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

2 hrs 3 mins ago

47 Zuckerberg dad: Mark got computer exposure young

By BETH J. HARPAZ, Associated Press

Fri Feb 4, 3:17 pm ET

48 Bison slaughter on hold as park reviews lawsuit

By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press

Fri Feb 4, 2:50 pm ET