Hiatus

While the diner seeks an appointed position the Diner Review is on Hiatus. This happens on sitcoms all the time.

Diner review: best of 2008 In Preocess

The Diner review is seeking the help of loyal readers. each year I put together a best of the diner review mix. It strikes me that putting it out in December is too late. It also strikes me that there must of have been some brilliant things out this year that i have not heard. Therefore I am publishing this mix early and accepting contributions and suggestions to modify and augment. These are not sequenced at this point so... forgive me.

Song Artist

Mansford Roof : Vampire Weekend

New York: Cat Power

Angel: The Wood Brothers

Lovecraft In Brooklyn: The Mountain Goats

“Woke up afraid of my own shadow Like, Genuinely afraid Headed for the pawnshop To buy myself a switchblade Someday somethings coming From way out beyond the stars To kill us while we stand here It will store our brains in mason jarsAnd then the girl behind the counter asks "How do you feel today?" and I say "I feel like Lovecraft in Brooklyn!"

Sausalito: Conor Oberst

Sick of Love: Takeover UK

Lost Coastlines : Okkervil River

Big Easy: Rafael Saadiq

Bitch Went Nuts : Ben Folds

Falling Down Again Buick MacKane

Paint the Rust: The Dodos

Few Words in Defense... Randy Newman

You know it kind of pisses me off. That this Supreme Court is going to outlive me. A couple of young Italian fellas and a brother on the Court now, too. But I defy you, anywhere in the world, To find me two Italians as tightassed as the two Italians we got And as for the brother, well Pluto's not a planet anymore either

Handelbars: Flobots

Souled Out: Conor Oberst

Whiskey In My Whiskey: The Felice Brothers

“I put some Whiskey, in my whiskey
I put some heartache, into my heart.
I put my boots, on the old dance floor.
I put three rounds Lord, in my 44.”

Beaumont: Haes Carll

Down Together: Colin Meloy

Emma: Emmanuel Jai

Cowboys: Counting Crows
***
Out of sadness and hopelessness I am also putting this out on Facebook. That is pathetic even for me. For God’s sake....HELP ME. Help me help you. Help America! Do not be a hater.

Post Election Erata....blah, blah, blah

Down in the mouth and not half right
but I can feel the changes comin on
bloom like flowers in bluest night
bloom like the sunlight in my song*


Sooooo... I started writing a little on election night and other then responding to some Facebook posts... I didn’t have anything I thought was meaningful to say. I mean everyone said everything and in a 24 hour news cycle they said it about180,000 times already. So I waited... I watched.... I listened. I learned nothing.
****
Lutheran kids are by a large part angry and somewhat hate filled about the election. That propbably is not fair, I am sure it is just a vocal minority to full of hate but wow. What have these kids got to be so angry about? And why hate Obama? Do their parents hate him that bad? Even if they do shouldn’t the kids be rebelling against that? And what does it say about how we are raising them up as Christians that they have so much angry bile that they are willing to lay out on the web for everyone to see.
****
Mc Cain’s speech was an excellent piece of work. Grace filled. Generous. Funny and serious. It was everything that made me and a lot of other Americans like and admire him for years. It is too bad that such a quality person had to lose. I was worried that they would allow Sarah Palin to break tradition and give her own concession speech. I would not have cared for that.
****
The post election attacks on Palin are embarrassing and unforgivable. And not on her part. I do not think she was ready to be VP much less President but there is no reason to think that she is not spenty intelligent. I have no idea what the agenda is of the poeple who are stabbing at her anonymously but they should be outed, fired and banned from election politics. really unforgivable.
****
all of the words you can't say right
burn my ass with anger to no end
I love my country so much man
like an exasperating friend *


I do not know what Obama is going to do or what he realistically can get done. Picking Rahm Emmanuel is not exactly a reaching acroiss the aisles type move. He sounds like a meticulous, dangerous guy but perhaps he is the guy who can get a job done. We are counting on Obama to surround himself with quality people. Lets hope he is one and that he turns out to be the first of many. I put a number of things on Facebook as a dream for this administration:
I have a dream that Obama gets elected and immediately does the following:
1. Offers Secretary of Defense job to John Mc Cain
2. Makes Petraus head of joint Chiefs of Staff
3. Offers Secretary of Treasury or Fed job to Warren Buffet and urges him to take it as a matter of public service.
4. Announces Hillary will fill next Supreme Court opening.
5. Shuts down our stock market for a week to retool the rules regarding program trading, hedge funds and over night trading and perhaps selling “futures” of things that are not actual commodities.
6. Consider closing the banks for a brief period to review them and open them again so that people have confidence in them.
7. Set aside 700 billion plan and start over. Do not allow the banks to have any money for mergers unless they are mergers directed by the FDIC. Use the money in a way that actually gets banks to lend.
8. Give the first great speech of this Millenium. remind the country that we are the greatest country in the world but help the country to redefine that greatness.
9. Ask Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed to step down from their leadership positions in order to elect new leadership for our new challenges.
That is a lot.

***
I liked Obama’s speech but it was not transcendant. perhaps it did not mean to be. I was moved and not put off by Jesse Jackson’s tears.

yeah, i believe the war is wrong
don't believe that nations can be steered
lead the world by smarts and compassion
by example, not coercion, force and fear*

****
How great is it that Proposition 1 to provide mental health services to youth passed? A tax increase in a time of tremendous economic upset. That is a nice sign about people in St. Louis County and I did not expect it at all.

****
So.... where was i when Barack Obama made history? I was in my shower I believe when they called the elction for him. Granted it was a foregone conclusion before then. We sat at home all night and watched returns come in. I was looking for Indiana, Ohio or Florida to tip for Obama and that would seel it. the fact that they called Pennsylvania so quickly was a sign and the close races in Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana and Missouri which all were supposed to be Red states also boded well. When they called Florida and ohio it was over. The west coast was just gravy.
Looking at the map was a little depressing. It looked almost like a civil war map. Creepy.

****
There is of course the inevitable talk of a new alignment of politics in our country and it just seems so absurd to me. Obama won for among other reasons that the republicans have had the White House for the last eight years. He also was a tremendous campaigner, an unbelievable speaker and someone who catalyzed something in the American populace. The idea that in four years or eight years that this Democratic mandate will continue is delusional. This was a case of people being sick of the administration and having a bright young star to chose to put their hopes in. This honeymoon will likely be over even faster then prior ones, especially if the Democrats in the House have their own agenda.

****
One of the problems with the expectations and hopes people have for Obama is the obvious thing that he cannot change anything. Only we can change things by changing what we do every day. We do not want to change. We do not want to conserve. We do not want to pay more taxes. We want to elect someone to do all the hard things for us but this is America. It comes down to us. That is really annoying.

***
In any case... this is still the greatest country in the world to live and we are all blest. Pray for our leaders. They are going to need it.

*Lyrics of "Move On" by Mike Doughty

DINER REVIEW ELECTION PREVIEW 2008

Sooooo... it is election eves, eve. The talking heads say Obama is lock but Mc Cain has momentum so it is not over. I do not know how those things gibe. The say Mc Cain has to run the table but figuring they have called some of the races wrong I will say if Mc Cain loses Ohio, Pennsylvania or Florida.... he is toast.

He was hilarious on SNL last night. He can make fun of himself and he does have timing. Somehow he let the campaign run him as a grumpy old man (and that is perhaps who he is) but that seems unfair. I like John Mc Cain. I like that he fights for what he believes in. I like that he got his reputation of speaking truth to power but i am voting for Obama because:

1. Mc Cain sold out his “crossing the aisle” I am a consensus maker and builder reputation when he chose a V.P. to pander towards a base which had no where else to go and he adopted the extension of the Bush tax cuts which he had made a career of opposing.

2. The choice of Palin also was just a poor choice for this election and the way she was handled is embarrassing. I am confident that she is smart, ambitious and has the best interests of the government at heart but... the way she was rolled out and pandered to the base was a mistake for a candidate who clearly has a lot going foe her.... even if I think i hate her.

3. He did not surround himself with people who could help him make good decisions in difficult time. Surrounding yourself with people who do not have good instincts is...Bushlike. Obama clearly ran a better, smarter campaign. Perhaps running a campaign is whole lot easier then running a government but if you cannot do one...

So I will show up at 6 in Webster and cast my vote. I have predictions.

1. Voter turnout will be huge but even with a massive increase in young voters (18-25) they will not show up and make the effort to vote.
2. Obama wins in landslide with 58% of popular vote, without the youth vote.
3. He has huge electoral college win leading idiot Democrats to do the same thing Karl Rove did and predict a fundamental turn in the electorate and a permanent democratic majority. This is...idiotic. Our country is deeply polarized and politics is cyclical. It is the Dems year and it is only because Obama is a charismatic leader. With anyone else at the top of the ticket (even Hillary) this is a nail biter and they do not win all those states.
4. The Dems have 59 in the Senate.
5. Obama is one term President.
6. Obama is so wrapped up in recession/depression problems that there is no timing or funding for health care reform or almost anything else.

The Republicans could still win this election. They need to promo Sarah Palin at a 50,000 person rally in Branson to get the whole crowd chanting “Obama, Pelosi and Reed...OH MY!” to the tune of “Lions and Tigers and Bears”. That is a scary thought. That could turn the whole thing around with a few prime time TV buys and huge You Tube press. Seriously, that could do it. Instead they will try and scare people in stupid and unscary ways like Bill Ayers and “socialism”...yawn. they deserve to lose. They have no imagination and that is the unkindest thing I can say.

****

MY DREAM
I have a dream that Obama gets elected and immediately does the following:
1. Offers Secretary of Defense job to John Mc Cain
2. Makes Petraus head of joint Chiefs of Staff
3. Offers Secretary of Treasury or Fed job to Warren Buffet and urges him to take it as a matter of public service.
4. Announces Hillary will fill next Supreme Court opening.
5. Shuts down our stock market for a week to retool the rules regarding program trading, hedge funds and over night trading and perhaps selling “futures” of things that are not actual commodities.
6. Consider closing the banks for a brief period to review them and open them again so that people have confidence in them.
7. Set aside 700 billion plan and start over. Do not allow the banks to have any money for mergers unless they are mergers directed by the FDIC. Use the money in a way that actually gets banks to lend.
8. Give the first great speech of this Millenium. remind the country that we are the greatest country in the world but help the country to redefine that greatness.

****

I don’t ask for much.
God’s Blessings. Go vote.