The title of this was the title of a piece on Reuters UK today on Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speech about Barack Obama. “Iran's supreme leader said on Thursday the United States was deeply hated in the Middle East and told U.S. President Barack Obama that "beautiful" speeches alone would not improve its image in the Muslim world.” More specifically, “Even if they give sweet and beautiful talks to the Muslim nation ... that will not create a change.” Khamenei said.

So I suppose this confirms the hypothesis in a previous article of mine where I mentioned that Obama loves to give his speeches but unfortunately people don’t want to listen to poetic talk, they want action. Obama still wants to sit down with Iran? Why would he waste everyone’s time? It’s clear they could care less about the U.S. And they certainly could care less about Israel. Khamenei made reference to them as a “cancerous tumor in the heart.” That is very flattering.

Obama’s speech today, again, was apologetic to the Arab world. Obama is trying to sweet talk Muslim nations so that he can be responsible for a big peace effort in the Middle East. (Another Jimmy Carter) But what Obama does not realize is that the majority of Muslim nations in the Middle East are not interested in peace. They are so peeved, and have been for over 30 years, at the United States, that sweet talking them and pandering to them will not solve this problem. Obama cannot solve the Iran nuclear issue this way. Moreover, Obama is alienating the one jewel of the Middle East which is Israel. He basically dissolved George W. Bush’s policy that permitted Israel to increase the number of settlers in communities that Israel wants to retain if the Palestinians establish an independent state. Above all else, Obama is snubbing Israel by not even including a stop there during this trip to the Middle East.

Obama’s inexperience is showing and no matter how many speeches you make you can’t change the facts that there are real threats in this world that care more about themselves than you. They are willing to blow themselves up for their religion and they are willing to create Armageddon to obtain their goal of martyrdom. I really don’t think Obama is checking his email account on that Blackberry otherwise he would have gotten the memo on this.

This week, Obama announced a new Army Secretary. During this time there was news from Arkansas about a slain soldier who was working as an army recruiter. It could have been a great time for Obama to speak about this event. The White House was silent. The new secretary, John McHugh also said nothing about this event. I find this a bit bothersome. They both knew of this because the FBI was already investigating this, and the FBI reports incidents to the White House and other departments. Are they trying to hide the fact that the person who did the shooting and the killing was a Muslim convert? He told investigators that he attacked soldiers "because of what they had done to Muslims in the past" and aimed to "kill as many people in the Army as he could."

Meanwhile, Obama is in the Middle East hanging out with his buddies and no doubt apologizing to them for America. . I couldn’t tell if he bowed this time to the King of Saudi Arabia, the White House did not allow any photos of the meeting. I wonder why. Every time he goes overseas it seems like it’s an excuse to say “I’m sorry for the way America is.” Is he ever happy to be an American? After all he is America’s #1 spokesperson, isn’t he? Building relations with Muslim nations seems like a top priority for this administration. Where as taking care of a major threat in North Korea or securing our borders here at home are a distant second. No matter how many people get sick at home or even could potentially die from an attack in the future, Obama will still be just “talking.”

It seems whenever an extremist does something to America, Obama turns the other cheek. He seems to want to wait to get a consensus on what to do or just doesn’t care. Could it be that he sympathizes with their cause? Could it be Obama lied when he said he wanted to get tough on terrorism and hunt the correct suspects? Or could at be that Obama cares more about himself than he does about the people he represents? When you have terrorists in your own country, perhaps you should start there and remove them. The guy they caught had it all, “Material seized from Muhammad's truck and apartment — including guns, ammunition and Molotov cocktails — led federal agents to caution that copycat attacks could not be ruled out.”

Other information obtained via the AP,
“New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said investigators found Google Earth images of various places, including Times Square. In Atlanta, FBI Agent Stephen Emmett said Muhammad had information regarding a "Jewish entity within our jurisdiction."

Still no response from the White House. Will there be a response when a larger terror strike occurs within our borders or will Obama and his “security” advisors laugh and say something like they have been saying when events occur, ‘We are still looking into this’ or ‘we need a special committee and Czar to take over the investigations.’ Maybe Obama should visit William Long’s family and apologize for not giving a damn that their son was murdered for (and while) serving his country. Not go overseas and apologize for Americans protecting themselves against potential threats.

Read more info here:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gQACNshVFYt6M9CDykHq6DKqPhiwD98JEEOO2

Last week Obama announced that he is creating a whole new department to be headed by a Cyber-CZAR. Yes, this department will investigate and figure out what to do about cyber crimes. Another bureaucrat is going to tell us what we can and cannot do online. Is he going to suggest software that everyone must install on their computers so that the government can monitor everything you do online? Internet regulation aka censorship is on the way. The socialist united states are ready to have state run media take over at a moments notice. How exciting. This is ironic, they want to work on getting rid of internet crime, but at the same time they cant stop someone who accidentally posted a 200+ page document on the web indicating locations of our uranium storage and other nuclear information.

Read about it here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090603/ap_on_go_ot/us_us_nuclear_list

It seems to work for our government you have to be the stupidest person alive and not have a clue how to use a computer. How in the world can you mistakenly post a 200+ page document online??? The file is huge, its pretty obvious you read what you post on a site isn’t it? Or maybe they don’t. The White House response “Someone made a mistake” You think?

I certainly hope they don’t give this person a position in the new Cyber-Crime Department. Otherwise all of our social security #’s will be leaked along with your driver’s license number.

Good grief.

I got my copy of Bruce Springsteens new album, Working on a Dream today. No it has nothing to do with Barack Obama, thank God, but what the dream is I’m confused. Bruce is late in his career and I think he realized his dreams already, but then again there’s always room for another one. The album isn’t as bad as many critics claim. Those same critics thought Magic was decent, and I thought its concept was over the top but the music was decent. On this release Bruce seems rushed. I realized this album was done quickly like Magic (I thought that was rushed also) but it doesn’t seem like he took the time to listen to his mix and didn’t do many lyric rewrites like he used to in his Glory Days. Brenden O’Brien loves strings way too much. I love strings in my music too, but the over production is a bit much. The funny thing about this album is that it doesn’t really sound like Bruce. It sounds like the Beach Boys, the Byrds even Roy Orbison. The funny thing is that Bruce’s guitars on many songs are very similar to the style I admire from Marty Willson-Piper of the Church, who loves the 12 string, the Rickenbacker guitar, the Beach Boys and the Byrds. I just feel the production is a bit much. Although I think this album is better than Magic, it lacks Bruce’s keen writing ability via his lyrics. It seems like his masterpiece The Rising has never been duplicated and may never be. I have liked pretty much every album he has released until Magic and this album I can say I enjoy listening to, but its not really Bruce. Maybe another tribute album would have been a good idea but I digress.



The songs:

Many critics blast The Queen of the Supermarket. The song isn’t that bad. There’s much worse on Magic in my opinion, but the concept of the song I don’t understand. Musically its fine, but its not Bruce.



Outlaw Pete’s string line is almost an identical copy to the song I Was Made for Loving You by Kiss. Listen to it and you will probably agree. But like that or not the song sticks in your head. 8 minutes to open an album is a bit much.



Working On a Dream, the song itself, if it’s the single, which I guess it is, isn’t worth a single status. Its not bad again musically, but the lyrics are so basic, I would expect maybe a brand new 15 year old songwriter to write these. Not very deep, not very Brucelike.



This Life is the Beach Boys ala Bruce – never heard Bruce use harmonies like this, not bad, and the band sounds like E-street. It’s a pretty song.



What Love Can Do sounds like it should be on Magic, same style of many songs on that record. Poptastic. Nothing wrong with it. Would like to listen to it a bit more. More of the 2000s Bruce Springsteen -- nothing awesome, nothing bad.



My Lucky Day is your typical Bruce Springsteen song. The drums, keys, guitars are very E-Street and the reverb on Bruce’s voice matches Bruce’s songs from years past. Not a bad song at all, like this one. Good one for the concerts.



Good Eye – I was not aware Bruce was a blues singer. Interesting concept here, but I think I will be leaving this one to Muddy Waters or even Led Zeppelin.



Tomorrow Never Knows – Very short little country song here. I like the beat, like Nils’ steel guitar. Nothing wrong with a simple song. Good for middle of the album, good placement, no crazy production thrown at this.



****Life Itself – Probably my favorite song on this album, the problem with this one is that the chords remind me of a sped up version of My City of Ruins from the Rising. Listen to the lyrics, slow them down and put My City over them and see if you think the same. Or even very similar to Paradise as well from The Rising. I guess it’s the minor chords. The guitar distortion is a bit strange to me, not sure I would have used that one.



**Kingdom of Days – This ballad is very similar to songs from The River, one of my favorite Springsteen albums, and this song does not disappoint. Another good one. But I wonder what some of the lyrics mean and again Brenden Obrien’s Strings are a bit much, he could learn something from Brian Eno. Brenden, check out Coldplay’s latest album buddy. I still like the song.



Surprise, Surprise - It’s the BYRDS! No wait, its Marty Willson-Piper from The Church! Oh man, when I heard this and Marty was talking to me. I was waiting for his voice to sing this. Wow. I cant hate this song, I really don’t hate much of Bruce’s work at all, even though the lyrics are basic. The chords are almost exact as a few tunes penned by Marty. For those of you who don’t know him, check out The Church and then link to his Myspace page. www.thechurchband.com



The Last Carnival – This song is for Danny, and I can see why. I loved Danny very much, growing up listening to his keyboards, he was definitely an influence on my music. The way he can just add parts at just the right spot, amazing. Great keyboard player.



***The Wrestler – BRUCE!!! Yeah this is Bruce’s Oscar Song. Good one. I like it, but then again who doesn’t. Its typical Bruce and probably one of the better songs on here.


All In All I Give this 3 out of 5 stars. Its not bad and its not great. I think I gave Magic 2 of 5 simply on the music from the E-Street band alone even though the tone of the album didn’t sit well with me. This album has some production problems, perhaps Bruce should seek out another producer, but I doubt it. Where was Clarence’s Sax? This album is missing the Big Man! I thought the whole thing seemed rushed. The songs were written too quick, not typical of Bruce. Its almost like he wants to release as much as he can these days. Sometimes its best to wait several years and come out with another The Rising. I do not agree with Rolling Stone this is not 5 stars and its not a classic, sorry guys. Bruce is slipping back to the 90s when his albums were tolerable and had several decent songs with a hit or 2, but as whole they were average. Same with this one.

This is worth listening to and enjoying though.

Songs to download – Life Itself, Kingdom of Days and The Wrestler

This is a very interesting story. Our friends at the UAW have really overstepped their bounds. Its bad enough that they have jacked up salaries and hourly wages for the workers it represents over the past 30 years, now it seems to want more from the government to cover the companies of the workers they represent. The last time I checked the UAW is not GM or Chrysler. It’s a ‘Union’. A union of what we have no idea. And unions do what they wish. And what they’ve done over the past 30 years is make these auto companies pay outrageous wages to their workers while other companies from overseas have moved in and started plants in the United States. These companies do not belong to this union, why? Because they are from Japan. And what do they pay their workers? An honest wage for an honest days work. They give them full benefits and very nice vacation time. And many Americans work for them and enjoy life. But this isn’t enough for the UAW, they need more. Because without their union dues they wouldn’t exist. And why raise union dues? Because your workers make more and yes they will thank you by paying you more in dues. What happens if GM or Chrysler loses jobs? You lose union employees and our UAW bosses lose money. Poor them. This whole thing stinks. Remove the UAW now. Get them out of the picture so that GM and low ball Chrysler can get back to work. Remove all the executive salaries that are $250,000 - $1million a year. Start restructuring your company like the airlines did several years ago. Lets remember, those airlines are now looking in the next quarter to make a profit for the first time in 8 years. The UAW is at fault along with the executives of these companies. I agree its not the worker, but when you pay a worker $60/hr to do a job that Toyota pays a worker $25/hr for, then you have problems. And this is exactly what we are seeing. Its gone on far too long. Ford does not want loans, doesn’t need it because their executives get paid correctly and no one is trying to take funds they don’t deserve ( so far ). The problem with the UAW is that they are trying to say they cut wages from $28/hr to $14 for first time employees recently and they cut benefits. Wow! Really? Why are you telling companies what they should pay their employees? Lets talk about first time employees. Where is their training? Is this before or after training and how many hours on the job? Everyone in Michigan would love to start a job at $28/hr. Sign all the unemployed up! The UAW is cash hording, and everyone knows it. The problem is in order for them to make money, they need to have their members make more. Its been going on for far too long. End it now. Don’t ask the federal government, which did nothing to hurt these companies by the way, to fix your problem. UAW? Unemployed Auto Weasels. If they really cared about the companies they worked with they would have fixed this 25 years ago. Lets not forget that Chrysler years back was pretty much bankrupt. If it hadn’t been for Daimler and then Cerberus Capital Management that bought it all, they would be lost already. So lets remember that these companies, minus the unions are at fault as well. Get rid of the union. Get rid of the overpaid execs. Start fresh and see what happens. Sounds to be like a bankruptcy may be the best way to go. Yes some people will lose their jobs, and in my opinion the ones that should are the top brass, not the lowly worker. But unfortunately they may lose out. But hey, they can always go to Toyota.