We Piddle Around.

If you recognize that term, you must be as old as I am. That was what the average man on the street called President Roosevelts "Works Projects Administration" - the W.P.A. - throughout the 1930s.

Part of the New Deal solution to the depression, the W.P.A. was supposed to put people to work, get money into the economy AND, improve the infastructure!

Even today you can occasionally find an old shelter house at a national park, or perhaps a foot bridge somewhere, that bears the logo of the W.P.A.! So, yes, the effort did do something toward rebuilding the infrastructure. You may also argue that it made welfare recipients work for their handout. But you will be hard pressed to find anyone who will say the W.P.A. stimulated the economy.

What everyone who remembers the 1930s can tell you is that everything the W.P.A. did was done in slow motion. They piddled around.

Now Congress is again talking about stimulating the economy by pouring billions into "shovel ready" projects to improve the infrastructure. I suspect the only thing those shovels are ready for is being leaned on.

Ho hum.

The politicians also learn slowly.

Get Out of Jail FREE!

I have to vent. Thirty nine years ago, in 1970, I applied for a job. At the time I was 41 years old with an impressive record of success in public relations. I applied for a PR job. A then friend of mine, U.S. Senator Bob Dole, recommended me for the job. The folks doing the hiring, looked at my academic background and rejected me out-of-hand. Lacking the desired college degrees, I was not to be considered. Fair enough. Their decision. They decided. End of story.

Fast forward to the new century. Numerous academecians have written that today's college students have no interst in learning. They spend lecture periods text messaging or goofing around with Facebook or My Space or some other social networking service on their laptops, completely ignoring the lecturer. When they get their possibly failing grade, they meet with and plead to their professior for an exception.

Eventually they pass the course, and eventually they get their degree. They have learned little more than how to manipulate the system. Many then go into their father's business and spend a life of luxury screwing off as they did in their college classroom.

Still, as I have always advised young persons... the academic credentials are the key that will open the door. Once it opens, you have the opportunity to make it big.

Today the United States Senate gave America's youth another important reason to stay in school and stay in school and stay in school and stay in school. Keep building up those degrees.

When you have a long, long string of academic credentials, doors will pop open for you everywhere you go. You won't even have to knock... if they see you coming, the doors will pop open, like the automatic doors on retail stores. You do not have to do a good job at anything you do. The old adage "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit" really kicks in.

Now, a new chapter has been written. With the Senate confirmation of Timothy Geithner as U.S. Secretary of The Treasury, we are shown that academic credentials are a "Get Out Of Jail FREE" card. He flat-out broke the law as regards paying personal taxes. Even after his employer (the I.M.F.) specifically advised him that the taxes were due and, as I understand, gave him a check with which to make the payments. Never mind. Republicans like Utah Senator Oren Hatch say his credentials are such that he must be approved.

Geithner is described by some as part of the problem that got us into the current financial crisis. Accomplishments??? Everyone admits he has broken the law. Never mind... his qualifications are too great to consider any of this.

So, kids, no need to study or learn or work hard. Just learn to manipulate the system. Learn the "baffle them" lesson. forget about breaking the law. You will be above it.

Inauguration Day, 2009

It's been a big day in America. "We inaugurated our first African-American president". And how I hope I never hear that stupid statement again.

In the first place, it is not what millions of Americans have celebrated today. What they have celebrated is the color of the new president's skin, and his age. My neighbor, Jeremy, a chemistry professor at New Mexico State University, is an African-American. Born and raised in South Africa, Jeremy has real African heritage, which Barack Obama does not. But, Jeremy's skin is as white as mine, naturally. No one sees Jeremy as a "African-American", which he truly is.

Africa has no monoply on people with dark skin and not all Africans have dark skin. All around the earth, in the tropical zone, people have dark skin. On the Asian sub-continent, in parts of South America, in New Guinea. It is a product of the relentless sun on human skin. Has nothing to do with anything else.

Back before broad-brimmed hats, long sleeved shirts and SPF-15 sun screen and before we learned about nutrition, dark-skinned people who moved to northern, or far southern latitudes, no longer needed built-in protection from the sun. Children born with dark skin in these colder climates, were deprived of the beneficial effects of the sun's rays. Those odd ball kids born with lighter colored skin lived longer and thus re-produced more. Gradually the skin of the population lightened. White races of African-Swedens, or African-Norwegians were created.

Scientists believe modern humans originated in Africa and spread throughout the world. We are all African-something-or-other.

The first African-American president? Give me a break.

Americans, thanks to advertising, movies, magazines, and a love of athleticism, worship youth. Old folks are just not popular with Americans - at least until you become one. So, every generation gets excited about persons of authority who are closer to their own age.

George W. Bush ascended to the presidency in a close contest, which many Americans believe was not legitimate. He was disliked by many from the day of his own first inauguration. He came to Washington as a "Uniter, not a Divider", and did everything he could to unite. He joined with the liberal Senator Ted Kennedy on some legislative matters, and was rewarded by Kennedy standing up in the U.S. Senate to declare that "Bush lied, lied, lied..."

But, clear-thinking Americans saw the real George Bush and re-elected him for a second term. His opponents were now enraged beyond all reason.

For the 2008 election cycle, there were a number of credible candidates of both parties. But Barack Obama seemed to represent the farthest possible thing from George Bush. He was young. He did not talk about his religious faith. He declared that we should get out of Bush's war in Iraq. And, "did I mention that he is black?" The liberal American press fell in love with him and saw to it that the public heard all the good stories about Obama but only the bad ones about George Bush.

So, what we did today was to inaugurate a well-educated young man who is totally unknown by the American public. Inexperienced, compared to others, yes. But I have come to think less of experience, as I see more and more "experienced" politicians caught up in some sort of scandal.

Obama may turn out to be a great president. I sincerely hope he does. What concrerns me most about him today is that he does not seem to understand that the policies of F.D.R. only deepened the recession of the 1930s. Perhaps he will prove that he does understand our history. Perhaps he will make the right decisions to help us end this current lull in our economic growth.

And perhaps, just perhaps, people will quit calling him our first African-American president.

An Open Letter To My Friends In Europe

Last summer some friends of mine flew to Europe to visit friends there. One of those friends is a prominent person who is constantly observed by the press. This person asked my visiting friends to please not talk to the press, and above all, "do not mention that you voted for George Bush."

Wow. Do they really feel that way? What have they been told by their own press?

Let me say as emphatically as I can, that I did, indeed vote for George W. Bush, twice, and I think he has been an incredible president. Has he always done the correct thing? Hell, I don't know, and neither do you. What I do know is that he has an unshakeable love for America. He is an honest and a decent man. He did his job as best as he knew how to do it. What more could we ever ask?

Did he always act in the best interest of Europe? Don't know that, either... but that was not what we elected him to do.

I like to tell the story of Harry Truman who, after he left office, was once asked by a reporter if he had made any "wrong" decisions as president. He said absolutely not. At the time each decision was made, the evidence for making that decision was overwhelming. He did add words to the effect that future events may have changed things, but they did not apply at the time the decision was made.

Harry Truman, was a small time politician in Jackson County, Missouri, before he went to the Senate and later the presidency. I was born and raised in Jackson County, Missouri, a place that had seen considerable corruption in politics. I did not like Harry Truman when he became president. It took me about 60 years to come around to appreciating him.

Under Beorge Bush's presidency, America suffered one major attack from terrorists. Other nations have sustained repeated attacks, but there have been no more attacks in America.

Some 50 million Iraqis and Afghans have been liberated from murderous dictators and fledgling democracies are growing. Are they "there" yet? Of course not. But look at our democracy, the oldest on earth. It took us a long time to get it "right"... we even killed 364,512 of our own citizens in a bloody civil war (who thought up that name, anyway?), some 80 years after we started.

America has given more money to Africa during Mr. Bush's presidency than has any other nation, including our own, at any time or under any other president.

I could go on listing Mr. Bush's accomplishments, but the Bush haters would continue hating him. And, by the way, they are not all in Europe... we have plenty here at home. Maybe in 60 years, as with Harry Truman, people will come around to appreciating all that George W. Bush has done.

President Bush held his last news conference as president today. I am so proud of this president. So proud that I supported him. I wish every success for our new president, but I will miss George W. Bush!

Goodbye, Mr. President. Thank you.

January 10, 2009

Today is a little anniversary for me. One I am especially proud of.

On this day, 63 years ago, January 10, 1946, at cold and snowy Ft. Leavenworth, KS, I raised my right hand and took the oath to become a soldier in the United States Army.

I wasn't old enough to buy a beer. I wasn't old enought to vote! But now I was a real, genuine United States soldier! What more could a seventeen-year-old farm kid ever want?

Radio's Payola Scandal - The Real Story

In the mid 1950s an event in radio broadcasting became known as the Payola Scandal. Deejays were alleged to have played records for pay, without informing their listeners they were being paid.

At the peak of the reporting, a teenage girl lamented that she had bought a record because her deejay said it was a hit, but she now hears that he only said that for pay. What a crock.

Here is what the scandal boiled down to. In the 1950s, everyone was trying to make a hit record. A teenage garage band would create a song, play it until they liked it a lot, then convince parents to bankroll a recording session and an initial pressing of the record. The disk then went on consignment to some record distributor who tried to promote it.

He would also be trying to promote records produced by more experienced artists and producers, some of which were really good. But when a promoter walked into the studio and handed a deejay 25 or 30 records, no one knew which was which.

I liked the promotion men who visited the station. They were good guys, doing a tough job. One day a promoter named Myron Levy gave me a real gift... an advance copy of a record by a guy called Little Willie John. Dated April 30, 1956, it was the first copy of the record to hit Kansas City. I was to have exclusive play until copies arrived for other deejays in the city. On one side was a song titled "Letter From My Darling". The flip side was called "Fever". The promoter thought "Letter" was the hit side.

At this point, you have to understand that we were called "Disk Jockeys" because we spent our entire show shuffling records around. There was the music, on little 45s. All commercials were recorded on 33 1/3 rpm, 12" acetate disks, as were station ID jingles, news, weather and sports intros, contest intros, promos for other things happening on the station, etc. We worked with four turntables and every disk had to be "cued" in preparation for air play. That is, each record was placed on a turntable and the stylus placed in the first groove. The output was switched to an off-the-air "cue" amplifier and the turntable rotated by hand until the sound started. The record was then turned backwards, one-quarter turn past the very start of the sound, the turntable output switched back to an on-the-air channel and the turntable set to the correct speed for that record. When it was time to play that record. you just hit the switch to start the turntable, brought the gain up and the audio started almost immediately. When any record finished playing on the air, the record was snatched off the turntable and replaced by the next recording to be played in the sequence.

And, of course, you had to be aware of what you were going to say on the air between all these events... comment on a song, read the weather, a traffic report, read news or sports headlines, do a live tag for a recorded commercial. At the end of a three hour shift, you were exhausted.

We did not really have a chance to listen to everything we played. To this day I occasionally hear a record I introduced on the air some 50 years ago. I hear a lyric I do not remember, and ask my wife if that lyric was on the original record. Usually she says it was.

Back to Little Willie John. I started including "Letter to My Darling" in a segment devoted to new records. Some days after my exclusive possession of that record had expired, I discovered I had been playing the wrong side and "Fever" became a big hit.

In December, 1955, I received a letter from Johnny Cash, thanking me for listing his first record and asking me to play his second record.


I have no idea why I initially saved that letter. It probably got shuffled in with other papers and was saved accidentally. Later, I found and read it, and have saved it since because Cash was promoting the wrong side of his own record. "Folsom" became a hit. I doubt you can find anyone today who remembers "So Doggone Lonesome".

In December, 1955, neither Johnny Cash, "So Doggone Lonesome" or "Folsom Prison Blues" meant squat to me. Cash had had one record at that time, and a decent one. That's all.

So, when the record promoter walked in and gave you 25 new records. On his heels, another promoter gave you 25 more new records, you were overwhelmed. How could you listen to all those records... both sides? Would a single listen tell you much about the recording?

One day a promoter stuck a $10 bill in my shirt pocket and said "Let me buy a couple of hours of your time at home tonight. After dinner, listen to my records and see if you like them." The average local radio guy made less than $100 a week at that time. It took you four hours on the job to earn that $10! So, you listened to records at home that night.

No deejay worth a damn (the only ones being solicited) ever actually played a record for pay. Who would blow off their audience and jeopardize their career for $10? You played what you earnestly believed would build your audience.

The "buy your time at home" arrangement worked until the record promoters started reporting these expenditures as expenses on their tax returns. The IRS stumbled across that fact and began checking to see if the deejays were reporting the income on their personal tax returns. Many were not. The IRS visited them at home with a bill for unpaid taxes.

But for my one-time boss Peter Tripp, then at WMGM Radio in New York, the local law stepped in and charged Pete with breaking some sort of law against commercial bribery. Pete was fined and ultimately lost his job over the non-scandal.

Except for the IRS, which lost a little tax revenue at first, the whole Payola scandal was bogus. But newspapers, always happy to give a little grief to their competitors at the local radio stations, piled on to the story.

Songs Of War

They don't write songs of war any longer. Maybe it is because television and film have brought the reality of war into awareness and it is no longer considered a romantic conquest. I believe it is more than that.

But wars gave us some memorable songs in the past. Along our Southwest border, the term Gringo has a specific meaning... derived from an old song, once popular with American soldiers. When they sang "Green Grow The Lilacs" the Spanish speaking Mexicans did not understand what they were singing about. They only remembered the sound of the lyric: "Green grow". In Spanish, the vowel "i" is pronounced like a long "e" in English. The consonant "r" is always trilled. As the English speaking soldiers sang "Green grow", without a trill for the "r", the Spanish speaking Mexicans heard "Grin Go". The soldiers became Gringoes... prounced greengoes.

That song, incidentally, is an old Irish tune, but will forever be associated with our military in Mexico.

During the Civil War, marching men sang a ditty about the body of abolitionist John Brown, then said to be "mouldering in the grave". Yuk.

At one point, the Reverend James Clarke remarked to Julia Ward Howe that the "Republic"... those states remaining united, needed a Battle Hymn. Legend says the new lyric to the old song came to her in the middle of the night and she got out of her bed at Washington's Willard Hotel to pen them:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
I have never quite understood how that lyric related to the Civil War, but that became the Battle Hymn.

World War One brought us several great songs, most notably George M. Cohan's "Over There". The closing lines of the chorus:
We'll be over, we're coming over
And we won't come back till it's over, over there
are still inspiring... a sort of affirmatin of the American can-do spirit. The reality of that war was not so inspiring. My Dad and his brother went "over there". Dad returned. His brother was killed.

There were many songs penned during and for World War Two:
Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition, Coming In On A Wing And A Prayer and I Had A Little Talk With The Lord among them.

I don't remember a song from the Korean War. Instead, that war spawned M-A-S-H, a comic movie, which later spawned a never-ending TV series. I hated that program because it taught (is still teaching) a generation of Americans that the U. S. Army is little more than a bunch of clowns.

I knew people who were in Korea both before and during that conflict. Unlike the M-A-S-H characters, they were serious, dedicated people, some of whom suffered greatly. Nearly 37,000 Americans died in Korea. Do you think Klinger's attempts at a Section Eight discharge a fitting tribute to them?

By the time of Viet Nam, America's entire entertainment industry, along with most of its major media organizations, were so deeply into the anti government, "America is wrong" tank that nothing patriotic survived.

Have you heard any songs about the heroism and patriotism displayed by Americans in Afghanistan or in Iraq? Not that there is any lack of inspiring truth there... some 50 million people freed from tyranny! What a subject for songs never written.