This is the definition of what a website should be, according to me -



Its clean and attractive looking, its extremely easy to navigate, it has a cool chanting sound and its about beer. Can I ask for more?

Still though. Abbey beer rocks and I'm a very thirsty man.

I think that the thing my father is the proudest of, concerning (e:jason) and I anyway, is the fact that we have a great love of music of all kinds. Most kinds of music, anyway.

Some of my fondest memories are of riding in my dad's white Oldsmobile 2-door listening to The Police, Phil Collins/Genesis (not that fucking 'Invisible Touch' crap), Peter Gabriel with or without Genesis, U2, Pink Floyd, Tori Amos, Yes, Supertramp, Frank Zappa, The Eurythmics, The Grateful Dead, Herbie Hancock, Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis, The Alan Parsons Project - I've forgotten most of it but you catch the drift. Dad looooved Tori Amos. I think he found her very sexy, and she is - especially when you see her perform. But she was fucking freaky - not Annie Lennox crazy freaky, but just enough that you have to wonder whether or not you would 'take the plunge' if you had the chance. Anyway, I digress.

The best thing my father ever did for (e:jason) and I, and I think he would agree, is plant the music seed in us. He was an all-state caliber trumpet player when he was in high school and so we ended up being similarly killer musicians as well. I even enrolled at Fredonia to major in Music Composition (nobody knows that about me but now you do!) but promptly left to go to UB since it hit me that Music Comp wouldn't be the best career move. My knowledge of the classical repertoire is entirely my own - dad doesn't listen to much classical. I think his proudest moments are when he gives me music, which he does all the time knowing that its going to collect dust for a year, and after that year I come to him on my own and ask for more from particular artists.

Nowadays my father is in full bore hippie mode - tie dye and all. He is NEVER without tie dye. I actually have his rain stick and his didgeridoo. He would cut my throat if I tried to take his drums and other instruments. He is heavily into new age/world music, the newer jazzy stuff like MMW and jam band material. He is a 49 year old man that goes to hippie music festivals. He's seen Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead, in original format, live. That is a fact that makes an extreme amount of jealousy boil up in me.

He votes Democrat and cannot understand for the life of him why I chose to register as a Republican at 18 - he wrote in big block letters "I'M AN ASSHOLE" over my brother's picture of President Bush.

His co-workers call him "The Big Kahuna," or simply "Kahuna." He can whistle so loud that he could almost puncture an ear drum if you stand too close. He is a single digit handicap golfer. He refers to my grandma by her first name. The raunchiest thing he has ever told me about was the infamous "Three Hole Tammy" story (if you don't catch the drift, it should be fairly obvious!). He gets tears in his eyes when he listens to my solos at the 1995 All-County Jazz Festival. Since I was first, he wisely named me after my grandfather; (e:jason) got the shaft in this regard and he LOVES IT when people ask him what his middle name is. (sarcasm, guys... sarcasm).

Obviously the man has had an enormous influence on me and I love him a great deal. He along with my grandparents laid the foundation for me to be the man that I am, and God willing, the father that I will be one day. The only thing that I wish he would have done is push a guitar into my hands when I was younger; this way, I would be a great player right now! When I have kids, I will encourage them to not only excel and participate in organized musical activity but strike out on their own as well; my world was classical for a long time but I think I would have been a better musician had I joined a band outside of school.

Looking at the evidence, if people had a choice between a 28-year old Josh and a 28-year old Mark, Mark would be cooler and get all the chicks. Luckily there is just enough of him in me that the chicks still like me (occasionally!). Anyway - here is my tribute to my father!

I called my grandmother last night and had a loooong talk with her - 1 hour 40 minutes! I told her that I voted "D" for all the local and state stuff (minus Hillary, NYSAG post and judges), and she was tickled. "I can't wait to tell your dad!" Haha. We'll see about whether or not I regret it.

Today I am cleaning out the corner of our kitchen that I've avoided for years now. Its a vortex where all of our unused junk has collected. Boxes, old computer parts, 4 year old mail, bags, a toaster oven I've had for 5 years but never have used, collapseable shelving, paper and plastic bags, even an old coat that I didn't even know I still had. Its unbelievable. This is something I never, EVER want to do again. :(

Well, maybe not quite, but I think you all may be surprised by my outlook on it... at least at parts. I generally agree with what (e:jason) says.

One of the things that has bothered me is the fact clearly the leadership at the Pentagon has been inadequate, yet President Bush has stuck with him. Mr. Bates has served 6 previous Presidents and I think will be a fine addition to the cabinet.

Republicans having lost the House will mean gridlock, period. Forget about all the niceties that people are exchanging and promises of good will - very little is going to get done in the next two years. Subpoenas will likely start flying like confetti, because although it was moderate and conservative Democrats who brought the House to Pelosi, the senior leadership that will be running the different comittees are among the most liberal in the party. Pelosi is crazy, but she's no idiot - as a skilled politician she knows that if certain kooks in her midst aren't restrained, everything that Republicans and Conservatives have been saying about the Democrats having power will show to be true.

There are a few things that I hope get achieved within the next two years, and are very plausible -

1. Substantial increase in the federal minimum wage. I'd love to see ANY politician make it on $5.15 an hour. Many Americans earn this level of money, but not nearly enough to suggest that somehow this will mean a substantial increase in the quality of life for the middle class. It should be done simply because its the right thing to do.

2. Some kind of agreement on stem cell research. Science shows that the embryonic variety has promise although its yielded less results. If embryos that exist are going to be destroyed, why not use them for research? I see no problem with this. However, creating embryos specifically to destroy them for research will not fly. To be honest this is a long shot since a similar bill already got vetoed.

3. Immigration reform. Build a wall, create a method by which the border can be tracked 24x7, set up a guest worker program, and create an arduous but meaningful method by which the illegals we currently have can be naturalized. Any bill that comes short of the absolute best way to stop the flood of illegals will be unacceptable.

4. Taxes are going up. And by that I mean that the tax cuts that were implemented as they stand will not be renewed. We'll see exactly how this turns out, but generally this will likely be bad for small businesses - which is also why Democrats are talking about aid specifically for small businesses - paid for by the rich. Taking money from one person to give to another is absolutely deplorable. However, can somebody explain to me why oil companies need tax breaks?

Here are a few things that are certain NOT to happen -

1. Strategic redeployment in Iraq. Everybody knows that this is an effective pullout and will guarantee the collapse of a fledgling Iraqi government. President Bush will never allow it, so therefore its not going to happen, regardless of what Pelosi wants. We made our lunch in Iraq and we are going to eat it. By the way, the polls that many Democrats are quoting about the American people wanting a partial or full pullout from Iraq are the same polls that suggest an equal amount of people want none or only a few troops to be moved out.

2. Impeachment. Not only would this be a betrayal of the wishes of the voters who actually carried the House to the Democrats, but Americans in majority have no desire to see President Bush get impeached. Impeachment is a minority desire stressed by liberal special interest groups and do not reflect the majority of even the Democratic party. Pelosi has already stated that there will be no impeachment proceedings.

3. Social Security reform. Anything that Conservatives wanted to do with SS is certified dead as of today. There wasn't much political will to partially privatize SS anyway, and now that Democrats are in control of the House its a certainty that this will never happen. For me, I think its a wonderful idea just to leave it alone, but the big problem will soon be how to pay for the benefits that the baby boomers are going to be collecting. Although this may not happen in 2 years, *something* will have to happen within the next 4-8 years; none of the options are good.

In general, nobody is going to get the things that they really want and no big decisions are going to be made. This is officially a lame duck government until '08, which is why most political operatives, as of today, are working on the election in '08.

Nancy Pelosi preparing to contest the validity of the count if the Democrats do not win -

This is getting entirely pathetic. Harold Ford Jr. is already complaining. Defeat is unthinkable - its as if they don't win, its not their policies or ideas; its got to be that somebody cheated!

If Democrats are this frazzled before what looks like should be a House takeover, I am frightened over how they will handle power of any kind. Luckily there will be no Democrat agenda being created that will pass - the purpose of the Democrats, if they control the House, will be to be ubstructionists for 2 more years.

By the way - Rep. Alcee Hastings is somebody you will be hearing about soon. He was acquitted on bribery charges as a federal judge, although his co-conspirator was actually charged. What did he (allegedly) do? He (allegedly) agreed to take money in exchange for reduced sentences. Nevertheless, then Judge Hastings was impeached by a vote of 413-3 in the House and 69-26 in the Senate. Why is this important? This is the person that Nancy Pelosi, who by the way voted to impeach him, is going to have run the Intelligence Committee, thereby skunking Jane Harman.

So he was acquitted, but still was massively, massively voted against in an impeachment. Now he may run a Congressional Committee? Jane Harman is the #2 craziest politician in California behind Rep. Pelosi, so the thought of Harman getting overlooked is fantastic. On the other hand though, are Democrats really going to have an (alleged!) criminal head the Intelligence Committee? Oh, my friends, this surely will not last long.