If such audacity, not to mention absolute nonsense, is what you’re seeking, why not vote for Democrat Christopher Young for the US Senate? Here’s a guy who will shake things up. Like Laffey, he has no interest in how things are really done in the Senate, and his ideas are just as “populist” and radical.
We’ve seen Chris in action — like when he tossed a table from the stage during a forum of Providence mayoral candidates back in 2002. Young is the real outsider. He’s never held office, has no money (unlike Laffey, who grew up working and then made millions), and is truly “one of the people.”
Is this what you want in the US Senate? A guy who will alienate virtually everyone in the chamber? Laffey promises this, but we believe Young is the one who can really deliver. Go, rebels, go.
Not buying it anymore
It was wonderful to see two of our favorite people, Dubya Bush and Rummy Rumsfeld, get hammered recently.
Boy George’s Mississippi and Louisiana dog-and-pony show on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina was despicable and absolutely transparent. Some major media players for once revealed how the faux emperor is as naked as a jaybird.
Rummy had his beads read and a new fundament carved by soldiers’ wives at a closed-door Q&A in Alaska. The gutless septuagenarian war and torture enthusiast again tried to hide behind lies. But the irate wives, whose husbands have been subjected to extended tours, were having none of it, according to a news report. The worst defense secretary in US history, teamed up with a delusional God-botherer who takes first place in the presidential worst category. Mission accomplished!
Bring the troops home.
Dylan does Pawtucket
Rick Massimo, the BeloJo’s crack pop music critic (and to be honest, the best one they’ve ever had — sorry, Tony), gave Bob Dylan’s McCoy Stadium show a pretty positive review. Dylan, in fact, was truly magnificent. Not only were the opening acts (Junior Brown and Jimmy Vaughan, with the soulful vocal assistance of Lou Ann Barton) tremendous, Dylan himself was at peak form.
Just prior to arriving on stage, the sound system played a few snippets from Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” You may recall that Elvis, in his later years, opened his performances with excerpts from Strauss’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra.” So this was a bit of subtlety for those familiar with the classical canon.
The set list was terrific, with classics like “You Ain’t Going Nowhere,” Masters of War,” Highway 61 Revisited,” “Shelter from the Storm,” “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “Just Like a Woman,” and others. (Let’s face it, no one else can do three or four full-length concerts and deliver nothing but great songs.) Thank you, City of Pawtucket, the Pawtucket Red Sox, and the committee for the Pawtucket Arts Festival, for which this was the kick-off event. It was a glorious evening.
How about Aretha next year?
Not a retiring guy
Anyone familiar with our good friend, the spirited lefty troublemaker Richard Walton, knows that he’ll never retire from his lifelong passions. We’re sure he would tell you how there is way too much to do: advocating for the homeless; working to build schoolhouses and medical facilities in Providence’s sister city of Niquinomo, Nicaragua; clamoring for an end to this monstrous war in Iraq; and seeking justice for those left behind by our wealthy country, among other things. The old rascal (78 years young) will keep going until he is six feet under, which should be a long ways off.
