You See a Pattern Here?

When I got home from work late last night, I turned on MSNBC.

And I found out, from watching The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, that Taggart Romney- the new de facto campaign manager for his dad, the ex-governor of Massachusetts- appeared as a guest on The Bill LaHaye Show, heard on a North Carolina talk-radio station. (The appearance took place shortly after this year's second presidential debate, held this past Tuesday in Hempstead, NY.)

Bill asked for Taggart's reaction to "the President of the United States calling your dad a liar."

Taggart told the listeners that he wanted to jump out of his chair at the debate site and...punch out one Barack Hussein Obama.

And he would've done it if it hadn't been for all those Secret Service agents.

Well, Taggart Romney would have to punch out a whole lot of people...starting with Lawrence O'Donnell himself. (And Lawrence said so toward the end of his own show last night...and even invited Tagg to take a swing or two or three!)

Tagg, you might as well catch a plane to come here to Omaha to punch me out, too.

After all, the last time I put up a post, I mentioned that your father (whose own dad- your paternal grandfather- used to be Michigan's governor, and had that job from 1963 to 1969) struck me and millions of Americans as an out-and-out liar.

George Romney had more class in his right pinkie than Willard M. Romney has in his entire body.

When Romney the Elder ran for this country's presidency in 1968, he proved he could afford to run for what was then Lyndon Johnson's job by releasing a tax return of his from each of the previous dozen years.

Willard Romney doesn't have the guts to turn in more than a pair of his own income tax returns.
(I STILL believe he's got something to hide!)

How about WMR's taking credit for the recovery of America's auto industry- the very industry that helped George and Lenore put food on the table for little Mitt and themselves, let alone made the family wealthy?

Yep, we're talking about the same Mitt who grew up to, a year after his stint (2003-07) as the governor in the Bay State ended, put an editorial in The New York Times to call for that very same industry to go bankrupt!

Getting Taggart's father to commit to one stand or another on abortion is harder than nailing Jell-O to a brick wall. Same for getting him to take a stand on the Lilly Ledbetter Law...the first thing BHO signed into law.

But what really took the cake this past Tuesday night was- besides his constant bullying at the debate- his lack of command of the facts on the Benghazi uprising.

Taggart's father/political client got away with pushing PBS NewsHour anchor Jim Lehrer around during the first 2012 debate (at Magness Hall in Denver, CO)...but couldn't get the same results with the next debate moderator, Candy Crowley (who hosts CNN's State of the Union program).

All Crowley wanted was the truth about how the White House handled the killing of four Americans, including the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stephens. 

After all, if you're going to cast a ballot during an election, don't you want to know the truth about the people vying for the offices that are up for grabs?

The truth is: Willard M. Romney says and does anything to win an election. He enjoys saying different things to different groups of people on the campaign trail.

And that means he said something completely different in Denver on 10-3-2012 (with 68 million viewers watching on TV) than he did in Boca Raton, FL about five months earlier (in a closed-door speech meant for 25 of his fellow bluebloods...a speech that, as things turned out, got televised around the world, for crying out loud!).

I don't like being bullied, coerced, or forced into anything...and I've got the feeling that US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and his new puppet (that's right- Willard M.) will do lots of bullying, coercing, and forcing to America's rank-and-file citizens should this year's Republican ticket take the Big Prize.

According to a composite of the various opinion polls out there, that very thing could darned well happen. (They've got WMR leading BHO, 47.7% to 46.7%...even if the composite doesn't take this week's debate into consideration.) 

And if that result holds true on 11-6-2012, I feel it's going to be the beginning of the end for America as an independent country, let alone the world's most influential, most powerful, and most talked-about nation.

The stakes are too darned high.

I can't help but ask: "Do you REALLY want a bully in there at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?"

Dear Mr. President:

I'm glad you're in there.

I'm so glad you came along when you did.

You've done a lot of great things for the United States, starting with that loan to General Motors and Chrysler. (Sorry, Republicans; it wasn't a bailout. It was a loan...and while GM's still paying off its debt, Chrysler already has paid its loan back.)

America's had 31 straight months of job growth, and now, according to information I got from reading www.factcheck.org, the nation's had a net of 325,000 gigs since you took the oath of office on 1-20-2009.

Helping out this country's auto industry WAS a bold, bold move...as was pushing for the Affordable Care Act of 2010. (I'd been saying all along: "With America's knowhow, why should this country be the only major nation still without a universal or equivalent type of health-care insurance plan for all its citizens?")

ACA really does save lives.

Then you've got DADT, the Dream Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, and...Osama bin Laden and Muammar al-Qaddafi aren't here anymore and can't check out what happens in next month's US presidential election.  

To top it all off, the stock market has skyrocketed on your watch (something the Republicans absolutely refuse to admit)...and, contrary to what the so-called GOP teaches, you've shown that you're NOT going to take people's guns away.

You really DO care about the country's low-income and middle-income households...and you really DO want all of us (including America's 300,000 wealthiest citizens) to pay our fair share to help keep these 50 states on the map. 

Mr. Obama, I voted for you on 11-4-2008...and I'm going to do this again on 11-6-2012.

I know you and the other Democrats (as well as independents and other non-Republicans) have a whole lot of things you'd like to do to help get America back on its feet.

And I support what you're doing. Big time. 

Now if you can really take it to Willard M. Romney next time you and he debate (and expose him for the out-and-out liar he strikes me and millions of other Americans as)...

GO GET 'EM!!

Sincerely, Jim Boston

Dear Mr. Romney:

Allow me to introduce myself.

You see, four months ago, when you spoke at a fundraiser in Boca Raton, FL, you referred to a certain group of people who want the US government to feed them, house them, provide them with health care, etc., etc., etc.

You labeled them as Americans who don't pay their taxes.

You said that these people make up 47% of this country's population.

And you stated that they're going to vote to keep Barack Obama in the White House.

What's more, Mr. Romney, you made it clear that you're giving up on trying to reach them (in spite of your recent claim in Miami, FL, that you were going to be the President of 100% of the nation's population).

Yes, I'm one of the country's low-income wage earners; and yes, I voted for Obama in 2008...one of 69.5 million to do that on 11-4-2008 (out of 131.3 million who voted that day...when the United States had 225.5 million eligible to cast ballots).

That's actually less than 31% of this land's eligible electors four years back...not 47%.

And as a matter of fact, I actually DO pay my taxes.  

Okay, Mr. Romney, I've received money back from the State of Nebraska every year since I moved back here in 1997 from my birth state of Iowa...but it's been years since I got a refund from the Internal Revenue Service. (Okay, all right...for tax year 2011, I received a tax refund check of $109 from our state's Department of Revenue...while paying the United States Treasury $62.)

And I didn't go for the one-time US senator from Illinois because I wanted to be a freeloader.

I filled in the oval next to Obama's and Joe Biden's names because I thought the 2008 Democratic ticket could help more Americans than that year's Republican ticket...you know, John McCain and Sarah Palin.

By the way, when you gave that speech to 25 of your fellow bluebloods down in Boca Raton this past spring, you said you couldn't convince the so-called forty-seven-percenters to take responsibility for their lives.

Well, guess what?

I most certainly DO take responsibility for myself AND for my own life. 

I know you're some kind of busy right now, but if you get a chance to read this blog (or its predecessor on http://www.freeblogit.com), you'll find that I've been at the same place of work (a factory) since 1-26-2004, and that I'm also an independent performer (old-time piano- check out http://r2rfestival.webs.com).

Last time I checked, that DIDN'T sound like someone not taking self-responsibility.

I remember when you made a campaign appearance late last year (at the height of the Occupy movement); a man attending the rally identified you as one of America's 300,000 wealthiest people. (Okay...he called you a one-percenter.)

I remember you calling him a divider.

As far as I'm concerned, the remarks you made this past May in that fast-growing Sunshine State city (86,445 lived there in 2009, up from a 2000 total of 74,764) are totally divisive. 

If telling folks that Hispanic people giving their 2012 votes to the one-time Illinois state senator would ruin this nation isn't divisive, then...you were never governor of Massachusetts!

One more thing...I feel that this presidential election cycle, the way the Republicans have been running it, is the culmination of 48 years of- let's not kid ourselves- your party courting and attracting proven racists and sexists (in response to Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964). 

By the way...every schoolboy and schoolgirl knows (or is about to learn) that America's government works best when all three branches- executive, legislative, and judicial- actually participate in decisions. And that goes for BOTH major political parties!

Your GOP buddies in the US House and the US Senate made it clear, right from the start of the current administration, that they were going to block every piece of legislation that BHO proposed...even if previous Republican lawmakers (or the current ones themselves) championed that legislation before.

The Republicans took back control of this country's House loudly proclaiming that jobs would be what they'd be working on.

It hasn't happened.

IN FACT, THIS STRATEGY HAS HELD THIS COUNTRY'S RANK-AND-FILE CITIZENS HOSTAGE!!

You knew darn good and well that if you refused to work to bring America's economy back up to snuff, you'd get enough sympathy from citizens at large to get The Prize back.

Speaking of economy...if the trickle-down economic philosophy Republicans have espoused since 1980 is so darn great...why hasn't the money trickled all the way down to us rank-and-file Americans? 

After all, CEO pay here in America has skyrocketed since 1981 (and the pay for middle-income and low-income Americans has flatlined or, at times, even gone down).

That's not jive. That's research from Mother Jones. 

To wrap it up, I'm going to vote the exact same way I did on 11-4-2008. (The Democrats- and independents- not only, as a whole, are talking the talk when it comes to putting America back on its feet. They're walking the walk.) 

Barack Obama knows what and who he is.

Now, if you can just puh-leez figure out who you are...

Thank you for this opportunity to address you.

Sincerely, Jim Boston

Hey, Don't You Remember Being Sixteen?

It's been several weeks since the 2012 Summer Olympic Games (the third ones ever held in London, England) came to an end. I'm still raving about the performances of several teams and of four athletes:

(1) Both United States basketball teams- Mike Krzyzewski's men and Geno Auriemma's women- picking up gold again; (2) America's women's soccer team, which got revenge on Japan; (3) the nation's gold-winning and silver-winning women's beach volleyball teams; (4) the US setting a world record in the women's 4x100 relay; (5) American swimmers Michael Phelps and Missy Franklin; (6) South African runner Oscar Pistorius; (7) America's women's volleyball team; (8) the first US women's gymnastics team to get the team gold since 1996 (when the Summer Games were held in Atlanta, GA).

And then there's the biggest name on that 2012 US Olympic women's gymnastics squad...a sixteen-year-old Virginian named Gabrielle Douglas. 

All Douglas did was become just the third consecutive American to pick up Olympic gold in all-around competition in women's gymnastics (and the fourth American to do it)...and the first American female gymnast to claim a team medal and an individual all-around one in the same Olympiad.  

And coming into this year's Summer Olympics, Michigan's Jordyn Wieber was the name sports fans were supposed to rave about when it came to women's gymnastics.

Still, what a team Douglas, Wieber, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, and Co. turned out to be in London. I'm still celebrating.

What hurts so darn much, though, is just about right after Douglas made history in the all-around competition, some people got on Twitter...to complain about Douglas' hairdo.  

When I turned on my TV and found out how some people on the social network were dissing Gabby, I found myself asking: "WHY??"

I don't remember people going online to complain about 2004 all-around winner Carly Patterson's looks...or about those of the next all-around champion, Nastia Luikin.

And nobody here in America complained about the physical appearance of the first female US gymnast to snare the all-around gold medal, Mary Lou Retton, who got it done in 1984.

Matter of fact, many were probably wondering how soon Retton could go after the job Ronald Reagan had at that very moment.  

But here we are in 2012, and instead of celebrating the accomplishments of a teenager who's spent the last two years training in Shawn Johnson's stomping grounds (West Des Moines, IA)...we want to know what the hell is wrong with the hair of the Olympic movement's new all-around women's gymnastics champ.

And now, they want to dismiss Douglas' experiences training at one of the facilities in her birth city of Virginia Beach, Excalibur. At that training center, one (or several) of the other gymnasts treated her like a slave.

Listen, I take Gabby Douglas at her word. 

Here in America, we adults spend so much time minimizing anything said by our country's preteens and teenagers. We far too often turn a deaf ear when they're hurting inside. 

So before you start accusing Douglas of playing the so-called race card or start complaining of her physical appearance, stop and think about what it was like when YOU were sixteen years of age.

Was your sixteen all that sweet?  

I don't feel mine was...but that's a whole other story.

Meantime, Gabrielle Douglas' sixteenth year on Earth (she'll turn seventeen on 12-31-2012) has been some kind of sweet. Her two gold medals are the icing on the cake.

And I'm going to keep saying: "RIGHT ON! All the very best to you!" 

I Still Have Trouble with It

Last Friday, as I was heading home from Film Streams, I saw a cement mixer that had, attached to the back end, one of the most memorable bumper stickers of all time:  

"America: Love It or Leave It."

I've always had a problem with that message...even going back to when the sticker first hit vehicles in the early 1970s.  

To me, the message implies that if you don't like anything about the United States (and would like to remedy those things you don't like), well...that's just too darned bad. You're told you've got to live with America's warts. 

Now, if you were around during the 1970s (especially if you grew up during that decade), you might remember what America was going through...starting with the Vietnam War and working through the nation's struggles with inflation, the energy crisis, the Watergate scandal and the resulting fallout, the nation's Establishment wrestling with explanations about new attitudes (especially about civil rights and feminism) here in these fifty states, ecology becoming a mainstream issue, and...and...and...

Back then, I was more attracted to another bumper-sticker message: "America: Change It or Lose It."  

I mean, what good does it do to abandon a nation when it's got problems? 

You parents out there: Would you be willing to abandon your children whenever they've exhibited problems in their lives?

Think about the problems this country's facing at the present time (some of them holdovers from the 1970s, for crying out loud!). If you and I really care about America, wouldn't we fight to do whatever it takes to keep it on the map? Wouldn't we fight to take care of the issues that threaten to implode this land of ours? 

With a Congress that's less effective than a day-care center; states whose Republican-led legislatures are out to destroy (okay, at least hamper) the right to vote; bluebloods like Sheldon Adelson and Charles and David Koch trying to buy this year's presidential election instead of letting We the People make our choices; education no longer a real priority here in the US; and inflation, unemployment, and energy still issues out there (to say nothing of feminism and civil rights), really...is this a good time to leave America's warts intact?

Doggone it, let's GET RID OF these warts!!  

And Now, Back to OTPP

Now to turn the calendar back six more weeks and pick things up where we left off when it comes to the 2012 World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival.

It was Sunday, 5-27-2012...and the spotlight was on ten Regular Division contestants.

That's right...the only ten Regular Division contestants left for 2012.

And this was a year where just three judges watched all the pianists at Peoria's Sheraton Four Points Hotel. Circumstances forced Helen Black Tapp to sit out this year's OTPP...leaving Brenda Clark, Patrick Holland, and one of the arbiters you saw in "The Entertainers," Raymond Schwarzkopf, to fend for themselves. (Well, actually, the threesome got real help from Linda Earlywine, Harriet Wall's replacement as contest judging assistant.)

Helen's OTPP judging debut came in 2000, when the contest was still held at the old Holiday Inn Select in Decatur, IL. After all the competition that year came to an end, she treated me to...what sounded to me like a kangaroo court. (Okay, it was billed as constructive criticism.)

And so, coming into 2012, I'd been reluctant to ever again play for Helen.

Okay, enough of that. Let's get to the ten who played for Raymond, Patrick, Brenda, and...a highly enthusiastic audience. 

First of all, John Remmers went up to bat. His ability to play exactly what the composers intended came through in John's versions of "The Strenuous Life" and "Alabama Slide."

Martin Spitznagel was still cookin', what with the job he did with George Gershwin's "Someone to Watch over Me" and a number from Jelly Roll Morton, "The Perfect Rag." (You couldn't accuse Jelly Roll of being bashful.)

It was "Perfessor" Bill Edwards' turn; he went with "Jim Jams" and "Row, Row, Row." (No...not "Row, Row, Row Your Boat!")

The tag-team setup Ted Lemen and Adam Swanson put together the day before continued strong, with Adam putting on a clinic. And this time, the newest undefeated RD champ- now a student at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO- cruised through a Tom Brier rag, "Razor Blades."

After that, it was Will Perkins' turn to cruise...and he did, with "The Entertainer" and "After You've Gone."

Ethan Uslan was next...and he showed why he's referred to as "The Innovator" in that documentary about OTPP. Our father of two brought out "Charleston" and "Poor Butterfly." (And he turned them on their heads!)

Well, five down...and five to go. (I'll be back to finish this one!)

It's No Longer a Secret Anymore!

The 2012 Ragtime to Riches Festival turned out to be the most successful one yet.

And it couldn't have happened if Nora and Mark Hulse (the husband-and-wife duo also known as Ragtime Razzmatazz- she plays piano, he plays banjo) hadn't brought their considerable talents to Omaha's First Central Congregational United Church of Christ.

The success of 7-8-2012 also wouldn't have come if Nick Holle hadn't brought the movie he and Michael Zimmer codirected, "The Entertainers," to R to R 8.0.

On top of all that, this year's event wouldn't have succeeded without the 38 people who came to savor the workshop, the documentary about Illinois' World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival, and the two R to R concerts. Because of the fans' enthusiasm for ragtime and old-time piano, the Great Plains Ragtime Society raised $380.

But the whole thing started out slowly...and I was really nervous about that, even with more publicity about the festival than before and the added attraction of a documentary, part of which was filmed here in the Big O.

Last year, we sold just ten tickets to the R to R get-together (the first one-day Ragtime to Riches Festival ever; this started out as a three-day event before we had to shed Fridays in 2009).

And by the time Nora and Mark got well into their workshop at this year's festival, only six people had paid to take in the festivities. (A camera operator from one of the local TV stations came by and taped footage...only to leave a few minutes later.)

But by 2:45 PM (Central time), more and more old-time piano fans (and people who were curious about the existence of a ragtime event in Huskerland) started to trickle into First Central's Memorial Hall.

Fifteen minutes later, the Hulses shifted from talking about the banjo's place in America's early pop music scene (and sprinkling the workshop with a spotlight on some of the 500 women who'd written at least one rag apiece) to giving the first of two R to R concerts for 2012.

And Mark and Nora put on a real humdinger! 

The Lawrence, KS couple started it all out with "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight," then turned to a composition written by one of those 500 women, "The Missouri Girl March." They then strung together "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," "The Band Played On," and "The Sidewalks of New York" before mastering "Dill Pickles," "A Spanish Serenade," and Ed Claypoole's "Ragging the Scale."

It was reminiscent of when our piano-and-banjo duo did their thing at the old Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Columbia, MO during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

And it was FUN!

Nora and Mark pulled out one of their Shakey's showstoppers, "Hava Nagila," following that up with "The Piano Roll Blues" and Dick Hyman's "Ragtime Razzmatazz-" the piece that gave the duo their nickname.

And then a photographer from another local TV station (Fox affiliate KPTM) came in to get footage...and stayed long enough to seek an interview: "Who's the organizer?"

I raised my left hand and the photographer- Eric- motioned me into the hallway to take part in that interview...while more people kept coming into the church to dig the festival.

That did it.

By the time the workshop presenters ended their concert with BOTH "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Stars and Stripes Forever," every seat in Memorial Hall was filled...in anticipation of "The Entertainers."

I wasn't sure how the film would go over when put in front of Omahans' eyes. It'd already passed five tests since its unveiling on 4-20-2012 (in Madison, WI)...but how would Nick Holle's and Michael Zimmer's presentation do in a city where one of the movie's six main subjects lives?

The documentary went over fine! 

The film actually rolled at 4:30 PM so that technical glitches could be ironed out. Once the movie came to an end 93 minutes later, a Q-and-A session ensued...and it lasted longer and was livelier than the Peoria counterpart. (Nick fielded most of the questions.)

After dinner, it was time for one more concert...and that one got started at 7:08 PM.

I wanted to take a page out of Burns Davis' book and build my own show around a theme...and it stemmed from a missed opportunity to use such a theme on 4-15-2012, when the Great Plains Ragtime Society held a meeting at Omaha's Hollywood Candy/Fairmont Antiques store (at 1209 Jackson St.).

That April weekend marked the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (you know, the ship that was supposedly too big to sink). And I had a chance to do some of the songs that were popular in 1912.

Well, almost three months later, I went ahead and played ten of 1912's most popular cuts...starting with 1911's final Number One song, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart." ("Sweetheart," recorded by the Peerless Quartet, was the top song in the land for seven weeks...as was the recording that knocked it off the top of the charts, Harry MacDonough's "Down by the Old Mill Stream.")

After doing those two songs, I went ahead with "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" and 1912's most successful song, "Moonlight Bay." (When the American Quartet- probably the New Kids on the Block of their day- cut "Moonlight Bay," they took it to Number One and kept it there for eight weeks.)

I stuck in "Alexander's Ragtime Band" because Charles Prince's Orchestra tried the tune on for size in 1912...but had nowhere near the success Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan did with the song the previous year. (That duo's recording of Irving Berlin's first real songwriting triumph enjoyed a ten-week run at the top of the charts!)

It was then time for a couple of actual rags: Imogene Giles' "Red Peppers" and the Brandon Walsh-Charles Straight number, "Mockingbird Rag."

All this time, I'd sneaked in information about some of 1912's biggest news events. For instance, I told the audience- the biggest one I'd ever played for at an R to R Festival- that New Mexico became a state of the US during "Sweetheart's" chart run...and that "Beautiful Doll" peaked at Number One eleven days before Arizona got in...and that the Girl Scouts of America were founded while "Moonlight Bay" was on the charts...and that Charles Prince's ork's version of "Alexander's" was on the charts at the time the Titanic fell into the Atlantic Ocean.

More of that to come, with three more tunes: "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," Bob Roberts' smash (tops for six weeks) that came out as William Howard Taft sent US troops to Nicaragua over a debt that country owe America and some European lands; "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee," another number that spent six weeks on top (by the Heidelberg Quintet, which was actually the American Quartet Plus One) while the Boston Red Sox were stopping the then New York Giants in the World Series; and "The Ragtime Soldier Man," one of Irving's lesser-known tunes and one that I wanted to send out to today's members of this country's military.

What a time everybody had at this year's Ragtime to Riches!

Finally, the club has a bank account (and now, I can tell people who want to contribute financially to GPRS that they can make their checks out to the club...and I can really mean it).

More important than that, the sky's the limit for Great Plains and for its signature event.

Thanks, Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue, for removing R to R from the area's list of secrets.