Longtime readers to the 9th Green may not realize it, but the astute reader may notice the occasional political reference I try to drop into my otherwise pop culture reference heavy posts. Even though I rarely talk about it at lengths here, I am a big time political junky to the point that I would much rather hook up with Holly Bailey than Jessica Simpson, Jessica Alba or Jessica Tangy (if you don’t know who Holly Bailey is it is time to turn off E! and work in MSNBC every once in a while).
Of course the only problem with being a political junky these days is the politicians that get elected seem to get worse and worse with the last two presidential elections instead of voting who I thought would be the better leader, I was forced to instead vote for the dude I thought would mess up the country the least. This lead me in recent years to realize that all politicians cannot be trusted and the longer they stay in office the more corrupt they become (look at the two-term presidents since the institution of term limits, each had a major scandal: Scooter Libby, Monica Lewinski, Iran-Contra, Watergate, Tea Pot Dome).
And so I started my anti-incumbent stance when it came to election in that I would never vote for any candidate with that big (I) next to it. The only problem this time around is that there won’t be an incumbent to vote against in the presidential race. And the primaries, starting tomorrow, are extra important this year because there is an overabundance of horrible candidates this year which could lead to another Douche vs. a Turd Sandwich type showdown between Rudy Giuliani and Hilary Clinton.
So if you are an independent like me, is it very important this year, if your state has open primary elections (i.e. you do not have to be registered to either party, you just go in and say which ballot you want), that you make your voice heard so us in the middle, as in the vast majority of the country do not have to again choose between the person who we think will suck the least. Considering I won’t be able to vote until March, I’m not sure which primary I will be voting in, mostly likely the one that isn’t already predetermined at that point, but here are the two candidates, from both sides of the aisles that I am officially endorsing and hopefully you will be taking a look at more closely are your primaries near closer:
John McCain (Republican)
One of the main reasons I became so disenfranchised with politics eight years ago was McCain would have made for a much better candidate than either George Bush or Al Gore and we would not have gotten in the mess had Karl Rove and his hoodlums hadn’t spread nasty rumors in South Carolina back in 2000. Now it is time to right that wrong by putting McCain in the White House. He is by far the most experienced candidate in the field and in a time a war, what a novel idea to have an actual military man, one who actually knows what torture is and is not unlike Mitt Romney, as commander in chief. And we can blame the recent Walter Reed scandal on having sixteen years of presidents who, not only did not serve their country in a time a war, but did everything they could to avoid fighting.
Another plus to McCain is that he, unlike virtually every other candidate is above pandering, as he is the only voice of reason in Iowa who doesn’t try to get votes by promising biofuel subsidies to the state when he knows that that grain being converted to fuel is better used to feed the world and that biofuels are not that much more efficient than oil based fuels. Speaking of fuel, he is also one of the few republicans that admit that global warming is a real thing, and since he isn’t in bed with oil complains he can make it easier to wean ourselves off the stuff and make the country more energy efficient.
Again on the pandering, unlike every presidential campaign that all the sudden is a lifelong hunter, John McCain, when asked if he was a gun owner, gave the best response in that he knows how to use a gun, have used them in the past, but no longer has a need for them. A much better stance than Mike Huckabee who’s solution to inner city gun problems is right to carry permits. That’s right, to lower the murder rate, more guns are needed. Gee, how about increasing the availability of cold medicine to curb the meth problem? And let’s not forget Huckabee’s ethics problems he faced as governor. (An Arkansas governor with questionable ethics, where have I heard that before?)
Joe Biden (Democrat)
(Scooter's Update: Um, yeah, just ignore this part) Whenever I see the democrat poll I always wonder if I have entered some bizarro world because the second tier candidates like Biden, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson are much better candidates than the first tier of Barak Obama, Hilary Clinton, and John Edwards. Sure Clinton is right in that Obama, who would make a much better vice president than commander in chief, is too inexperienced but that is a little too much of a kettle/black situation as if her time as First Lady really qualified as experience. If so the English National Team would be calling Posh Spice on to play in the next World Cup.
When it comes to actual experience on the democratic side, Joe Biden tops the list. While Clinton and Obama knock each other foreign policy experience, Biden is currently the chairman of Foreign Relations Committee while spending thirty-two years total on it. And much like McCain, Biden isn’t beholden to big corporations and unlike the last two presidents who were, we won’t have to wonder how many criminals that will be pardoned because they or family members were big contributors (Norman Zhu anyone?).
Also like McCain, Biden is that candidate that candidate that can appeal the center. Seriously, isn’t twenty years of Bush-Clinton partisanship enough? You really don’t want to extend that to twenty-eight years, possibly thirty-six if Jeb eventually throws his hat in the ring in one of the next races. In fact a Biden-Obama ticket would be the best chance for the Democrats as long as they do not face a Repuiblican ticket headlined by McCain.
Most importantly Biden is foursquare (Scooter’s Note: For Christmas I received a Word of the Day calendar and that was today's, so if you see large words in the months ahead, that is most likely the reason why). And here is a fun fact for you The Office fans out there: Joe Biden, born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
For those who still need more research on these and other candidates, check out the YouTube video below with question from both YouTube debates:
This being the Most Mediocre Year Ever, there is no band that sums that up better than Paramore. The bad got a big push from MTV and their record label thanks to being one of the first bands to sign a 360 degree deal. Yet with all the marketing muscle behind their three singles this year, the band wasn’t good enough to show up on this list nor were bad enough to land of the Worst Songs of 2007 list. So congratulations Paramore, with all the mediocre music put out by bland artists such as OneRepublic, Lifehouse, and Sean Kingston, you managed to be the most mediocre of them all. Although the problem with the most mediocre of them all, even though this is the Most Mediocre Year Ever, you will most likely be forgotten by 2009. Sorry.
Onto the songs that did make the list, the reason this is the Most Mediocre Year Ever is the great songs were really thin at the top this year. Most of these songs wouldn’t have cracked the top ten in other years. With that said, even though there was a lacking of great songs, there was an overabundance of good songs this year to the point that there were ten to twenty songs this year that deserved to make the top one hundred when most years ninety through one hundred are an afterthought most years. But here are the ones that made the cut for this, the last post of 2007. Hopefully I will see you all back here in 2008.
In a story I broke last week, 2007 is the most mediocre year ever. Case in point, last year’s Best Albums of the Year list had fifty albums on it, this year it was hard to scrape thirty this year. Yeah there were a couple albums that could have gotten on this list but I never got around to listening to the whole thing and thus never reviewed (Linkin Park, Jay-Z), but for the most part I got hold of most everything I wanted to review, it was just not that much music this year and of those that I did review there really wasn’t anything great.
Two albums you definitely won’t be seeing on this list are Konvicted by Akon and T.I. vs. T.I.P. even though I got both for Christmas. Should I be offended that someone thought about me, “Now there is someone who would like listening to Akon”? But anyways. If you are interested in reading my original review of these albums, check out the link below the album and if you are interested in buying them on iTunes, click on the album link. If you want to buy the physical CD, head over to Scooter McGavin’s Amazon Store where you can order them there:
One of the coolest musical innovations in recent memory is the mash-up. For those that may not be familiar with the term, it can best be described when you take the vocals from one song and place them over the instrumental from a different song. The artform may have not gotten as much press this year as it has in past years but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great new mash-ups floating around the internet. I tried to give credit to the creator of the mash-up, but due to some poor labeling, some have gotten lost and I even had to create a name for a few mash-ups that I discovered nameless. Also some of these songs may have been created earlier than 2007 but this is a list of songs I’ve found this year.
Please do not ask for me to send you any of these songs because for legal reasons I cannot confirm or deny that any of these songs actually exist (but I will point out there is a Google search box on the sidebar as well as other helpful links). You know, because I would not illegally download copyrighted material even though that material has been altered from any version that could be bought anywhere. If you want the unaltered album version of the songs, on the second line I will list the main songs that make up the mash-up (note some have more songs than I’ve listed):
1. Dip it Joe - Pheugoo
Christina Milian (Dip It Low) vs. Jimi Hendrix Experience (Hey Joe)
10. Mercy for the Scientist - Bobby Martini
Peter Gabriel (Mercy Street) vs. Coldplay (The Scientist)
11. Drop it Like it’s a Whole LottLed Snooppelin - Party Ben
Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell Williams (Drop it Like it’s Hot) vs. Led Zeppelin (Whole Lotta Love)
It is really hard to complain about MTV and VH1 no longer showing videos anymore because who these days wants to wade through videos that they hand pick when you have almost every video ever made at your disposal whenever you want on sites like YouTube? And here are the best of the best of from the past twelve months. I have embedded the first couple videos, the rest you can click the link to follow to YouTube and if you are interested in buying the videos, click the iTunes links. Now I should mention some of these videos are not safe for work but really nothing on YouTube is all the safe for work because I’m sure you boss wouldn’t be thrilled even if your watching a video of a cat playing with a ball of yarn. But anyways:
1. Can't Tell Me Nothing - Kanye West
2. Trapped in the Closet Chapter 1-12 Recap - R. Kelly
Before I get to your favorite songs of the year I first want to mention that just before Christmas I had ordered a gift for someone through Amazon and among the usual spam advertising slips that they stuff into their boxes there was an envelope where you can place old cell phones to send to the troops. So if you got a new cell phone for Christmas or are just like me and is a pack rat who keeps everything for no reason and had three just lying around collecting dust, please check out this website: Cell Phones for Soldiers to see where you can send any of your unused cell phones. They say the phone can be in any condition and don’t even need to still have a battery.
Last year was the first time I ever let you my readers influences the 9th Green (aside from the occasional pandering for comments) and this year I got four times more responses than last. Thanks to each and everyone who took time to compile your favorite songs of the year to make this list possible. With the more responses I think this ended up being a better list for the most part than last year. This year Rihanna was as close to consensus as it got this year being the only artist appearing on more than half of the lists I received. Keep in mind this list is solely your opinions and I in no way influenced it as I will be unveiling my favorite 100 songs of the year coming this Sunday. But here are your favorites:
It seems as the years go by the music on the radio gets worse and worse thanks in part this year to karaokers, mom rockers, pseudo-punk rockers, and ringtone rappers that polluted the air worse than any Hummer. And can we please stop inviting Akon to sing on every song? In honor of the top 40 radio stations that have ruined radio here are the forty worst songs of the year even though I bet playlists are down to 25-30 songs these day.
Before I get into the worst of this year, I would like to make a special mention of Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya) by Ahslee Simpson which is too new to make this list but has certainly set the bar pretty high (or low depending how you look at it) for the Worst Songs of 2008. But anyways. Feel free to leave the songs that really irritated you this year in the comment section and of course if you disagree with any of my selections, you have the power to influence the 9th Green Reader’s Favorite Songs of 2007 Poll:
One of the main reasons I became so disenfranchised with politics eight years ago was McCain would have made for a much better candidate than either George Bush or Al Gore and we would not have gotten in the mess had Karl Rove and his hoodlums hadn’t spread nasty rumors in South Carolina back in 2000. Now it is time to right that wrong by putting McCain in the White House. He is by far the most experienced candidate in the field and in a time a war, what a novel idea to have an actual military man, one who actually knows what torture is and is not unlike Mitt Romney, as commander in chief. And we can blame the recent Walter Reed scandal on having sixteen years of presidents who, not only did not serve their country in a time a war, but did everything they could to avoid fighting.
Whenever I see the democrat poll I always wonder if I have entered some bizarro world because the second tier candidates like Biden, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson are much better candidates than the first tier of Barak Obama, Hilary Clinton, and John Edwards. Sure Clinton is right in that Obama, who would make a much better vice president than commander in chief, is too inexperienced but that is a little too much of a kettle/black situation as if her time as First Lady really qualified as experience. If so the English National Team would be calling Posh Spice on to play in the next World Cup.
- Jay-Z