The next time some GOP asshole blames Osama's attacks of 9/11 on Bill Clinton, tell them that Bush's buddies in the United Arab Emirates fucked up the best chance we had to take him out BEFORE 9/11!!! Still think that W is looking out for OUR safety??? Read the following, from Huffington Post's Michael Smerconish

"...consider the following, beginning on pg. 137 of The 9/11 Commission Report.
"Early in 1999, the CIA received reporting that Bin Ladin was spending much of his time at one of the several camps in the Afghan desert south of Kandahar. At the beginning of February, Bin Ladin was reportedly located in the vicinity of the Sheikh Ali camp, a desert hunting camp being used by visitors from a Gulf state. Public sources have stated that these visitors were from the United Arab Emirates.
Reporting from the CIA's assets provided a detailed description of the hunting camp, including its size, location, resources and security, as well as of Bin Ladin's smaller, adjacent camp. Because this was not in an urban area, missiles launched against it would have less risk of collateral damage. On February 8, the military began to ready itself for a possible strike. The next day, national technical intelligence confirmed the location and description of the larger camp and showed the nearby presence of an official aircraft of the United Arab Emirates. But the location of Bin Ladin's quarters could not be pinned down so precisely. The CIA did its best to answer a host of questions about the larger camp and its residents and about Bin Ladin's daily schedule and routines to support military contingency planning. According to reporting from the tribals, Bin Ladin regularly went from his adjacent camp to the larger camp where he visited the Emiratis; the tribals expected him to be at the hunting camp for such a visit at least until midmorning on February 11. Clarke wrote to Berger's deputy on February 10 that the military was then doing targeting work to hit the main camp with cruise missiles and should be in a position to strike before the following morning. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert appears to have been briefed on the situation.
No strike was launched. By February 12 Bin Ladin had apparently moved on and the immediate strike plans became moot. According to CIA and Defense officials, policymakers were concerned about the danger that a strike would kill an Emirati prince or other senior officials who might be with Bin Ladin or close by. Clarke told us the strike was called off after consultation with Director Tenet because the intelligence was dubious and it seemed to Clarke as if the CIA was presenting an option to attack America's best counterterrorism ally in the Gulf. The lead CIA official in the field, Gary Schroen, felt that the intelligence reporting in this case was very reliable; the Bin Ladin unit chief "Mike," agreed. Schroen believes today that this was a lost opportunity to kill Bin Ladin before 9/11.
Even after Bin Ladin's departure from the area, CIA officers hoped he might return, seeing the camp as a magnet that could draw him for as long as it was still set up. The military maintained readiness for another strike opportunity. On March 7, 1999, Clarke called a UAE official to express his concerns about possible associations between Emirati officials and Bin Ladin. Clarke later wrote in a memorandum of this conversation that the call had been approved at an interagency meeting and cleared with the CIA. When the former Bin Ladin unit chief found out about Clarke's call, he questioned CIA officials, who denied having given such a clearance. Imagery confirmed that less than a week after Clarke's phone call the camp hurriedly dismantled, and the site was deserted. CIA officers, including Deputy Director for Operations Pavitt, were irate. "Mike" thought the dismantling of the camp erased a possible site for targeting Bin Ladin.
The United Arab Emirates was becoming both a valued counterterrorism ally of the United States and a persistent counterterrorism problem. From 1999 through early 2001, the United States and President Clinton personally, pressed the UAE, one of the Taliban's only travel and financial outlets to the outside world to break off its ties and enforce sanctions, especially those relating to flights to and from Afghanistan. These efforts achieved little before 9/11."
In the footnotes for the above referenced information, there is the report that at the time the United States was considering striking Bin Ladin's hunting camp, Richard Clarke had high-level meetings with UAE military and the ruler of Dubai. They denied that high-level UAE officials were in Afghanistan. Subsequent reporting, however, suggested that Clarke had been misled. Additionally, the footnotes indicate that concurrently with the UAE being tipped off to the CIA's knowledge of the camp, one of the tribal networks major sub-sources, within Bin Ladin's Taliban security detail, was dispatched to the North, further handicapping reporting efforts."


So, a big fuck you to all who still blame al Qaeda on Clinton. Face facts- 9/11 happened on Bush's watch, Osama is STILL on the loose, and George is selling our port security to the guys who are responsible for Osama still being alive!!!

I just came back from Washington, DC yesterday. My wife was speaking at the World Congress on Parkinson's Disease, so we made a family trip out of it. Got to see lots of the monuments, a highlight for me was seeing the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.

All 3 documents are pretty faded, but they've done a great job of keeping them up, especially where Bush and cohorts have been pissing all over the Constitution and Bill Of Rights.

As we were driving home, some old fart with Marine Corps League license plates flipped me the bird, probably over the sign in my back window that says "America Stands With Cindy," referring to peace mom, Cindy Sheehan. Well, I guess free speech even extends to dumb fuck jarheads who are too stupid to realize that Cindy is fighting to keep our troops from being sent to fight for lies and bullshit, instead of noble causes. I salute that Marine for doing his duty, he looked old enough to have been in either Korea or Vietnam. Hopefully, he earned his indignation, instead of being some REMF. I also offer him back that same one-finger salute, just for being a mindless "My President, right or wrong" drone, and for being so tactless as to flip me the bird in full view of my wife and kids, and his own wife sitting next to him. Brilliant debate, Marine! Semper Fi!

I DO occasionally write about other stuff besides politics, here's an excerpt from a recent post on the OTJ Forum that I wanted to share...


"...just the act of putting the mouthpiece into the horn at all, let alone endeavoring to produce a sound out of it, starts us down the path of resolving one problem, only to discover another. Thoreau said that "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." Then, there are trombonists, whose lives are not quiet, but are no less desperate..."

Osama video surfaces...

"The reality shows that the war against America and its allies has not been limited to Iraq as he (Bush) claims. Iraq has become a point of attraction and restorer of (our) energies." So, Osama thinks that Iraq is a great recruiting tool, and perpetuates terrorist hatred of the US. Well, DUH!!!

Bush and his sycophantic toadies keep promoting Iraq as defeating the "War on Terror," always forgetting to mention that the insurgent violence pretty much goes up and up the longer it continues. They say that the media doesn't report the "good news" going on in Iraq, without mentioning that reporters would essentially be committing suicide if they left the uniits wherein they are embedded, or left the Green Zone. (A not entirely safe area, either. Too bad their missiles missed Paul Wolfowitz, a main architect of PNAC and proponent of the war, when he was there in the Green Zone. That would have been sweetly ironic...)

Whether or not you agree with W and his policies, one cannot argue with the fact that Osama is still at large, even though the Shrub vowed to get him, Dead or Alive. How can the US fail to find a 6 foot, 5 inch Arab, schlepping around a dialysis machine? This September coming up will be 5 years since the attack, but by George's own admission, "I don't spend much time on him."

This one is from September 21, 2005

A friend and legend passes...
This first part is from the ITG website...

"William Vacchiano died on September 19, 2005. During his long and distinguished career in the New York Philharmonic, Vacchiano played under the baton of such noted conductors as Leonard Bernstein, André Kostelanetz, Dmitri Mitropoulos, Leopold Stokowski, Igor Stravinsky, and Bruno Walter. In 1935, Vacchiano auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic on the same day, and was offered contracts with both orchestras. At the Philharmonic audition, Toscanini asked him to play a soft passage at the end of Debussy's La Mer. The maestro asked him to return several times, after short breaks, and repeat the excerpt. After the third time, Vacchiano was offered the job. When he called to tell Simone Mantia, the manager of the Metropolitan about receiving two contracts on the same day, Mantia told him, "Go with the Philharmonic; it's a better job, and God bless you."

Vacchiano is credited as being among the first to use a variety of trumpets pitched in different keys to fit the demands of the music. During his 38 years with the New York Philharmonic (7 years as assistant principal and 31 as principal) he never missed a concert in which he was scheduled to perform.

Vacchiano's affiliation with the Juilliard School began in 1931: the school was called the Institute of Musical Art at that time. He studied there with Max Schlossberg, and went on to teach at Juilliard for an astonishing 67 years (1935-2002). He also served on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music (1935-2002), and the Mannes College of Music (1937-1983). In 1995, Vacchiano estimated that he had taught more than 2,000 trumpet students. Many of these students went on to play in virtually every major orchestra in the United States."

My wife studied with Bill, and went to see him last week. I got to know Bill through her, and we will miss him deeply. He used to play in two of the concert bands that I perform in, and it was a real treat to hear THAT SOUND coming from right behind you. He'd just quietly sit down in the 2nd trumpet seat. If you asked him if he'd like to play 1st Cornet, he'd tell you that he was too old for that stuff, let the kids have a chance. We used to give him a ride home sometimes, and the stories he told were incredible. He got a kick when I would try out my meager Italian on him, and he loved telling bawdy jokes. Even in the last few years, he would still go and play occasionally with the band at Queens College, although I think he just enjoyed hanging out with his students! He was 93, and still sharp as a tack, although he couldn't hear too well. We should all be so lucky to live so long and so well, and to be loved by so many! He's probably already showing Gabriel how to transpose and working on his sound.


Arrivederci, Gugliemo! Gioc bene la vostra tromba! Li amiamo!

Originally posted February 25, 2004


Wherein our hero ponders leadpipes, Part the Second
A while back, in the first installment of this topic, I wrote about trying out the #3 leadpipe that came with my YSL 691. I've had it in there since Christmas, and honestly forgot that I had changed it until re-reading my earlier blog posting! It's doing everything I ask of it, lets me play louder without distortion than the #2 did, with a darker sound. I can also play softer. It took a while to get to the point where I forgot it was in there, due to the different resistance and intonation. The weirdnesses are gone, and it fits in nicely tone-wise with the usual Conn/Bach/King mixed-up sections that are the norm in the freelance scene. Think I'll stick with this setup for a while...

Originally posted January 7, 2004

Wherein our Hero ponders leadpipes- Part, the First
For the longest time, I've been using the #2 pipe that came with my YSL691 (.508 bore, straight tenor). At Christmas, I got this urge to switch to the #3 pipe, and have noticed some changes. The first is that the tone is a little mellower, darker. I can play a little bit louder before it gets totally nasty. These are good things, to be sure! I had tried this pipe when I was still playing trombone with the Westchester Band, and Ed Aim, the 3rd trombonist, didn't notice that I was using the 691 until the next to last concert. He thought that I had been using my 682 (.547 bore, with F attachment), because it sounded that dark and big. The smaller horn was definitely a lot less work; the band has about 15 trumpets, and only 3 trombones, so dynamics for the trombones were kicked up at least one notch to balance with the trumpets. The #3 pipe also seems to fit in better in the Iona College Pep Band. This group has NO students, all local pros. 4 trumpets, 3-4 bones, electric bass, and drums. Most are using small bore horns, like King 2B's 3B's, Conn 6H's, Bach 16's and 36's. Just something about the overtones with the #3 gets the chords ringing in a way they didn't with the #2. I'll see how it fits in this rehearsal band I do on Wednesday nights, once they start up again. I play lead, so it may or may not work. We shall see... Negative things I've noticed are that the horn's intonation and slotting are totally different from the way it played with the #2. I have to tongue a little harder to get the same point at the start of a note. It has a little more resistance, so that I have to adjust the amount of air I put into it. To give it a fair trial, I'll probably have to play on this pipe for another couple of months. After all, I've been playing the #2 almost exclusively since I got the horn, about 4 years ago. As I get used to it, the intonation and slotting will be less of an issue, I'm sure.

This one was the most recent (1/13/06) from the old blog format...


Bush has to deal with a bigger deficit than he planned!
Of course, this assumes that he actually plans anything...

"WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - The White House acknowledged on Thursday that the budget deficit would climb back above $400 billion this year, erasing the brief improvement last year and complicating President Bush's vow to cut the deficit in half by 2009."

Most of the extra deficit is due to spending on Hurricane Katrina, and something DOES need to be done to bring the budget in line, but the Republicans are cutting back on programs that serve the poor and middle-class. In the meantime, they want to make the tax cuts permanent for people like Paris Hilton, Michael Eisner, and Bill Gates. Also recently announced is that the Iraq War is projected to end up costing US, the taxpayers, about ONE TRILLION DOLLARS!!! (This will include caring for all the veterans who got wounded, assuming BushCo doesn't do away with the VA altogether. He's working on it...)

Relying on trickle-down economics, where the rich get taxcuts, and are then inspired to create good-paying jobs doesn't work. See the Reagan economy for proof. What, in my opinion, would turn the economy around, is government provided healthcare. Then, companies don't have to spend profits on providing coverage, and employees actually make a living wage. America is the ONLY industrialized nation that doesn't have national health coverage, but yet we complain about jobs going overseas and wonder why. Job gurus speak about the next boom in jobs being in the service industries, which is techno-babble for retail, restaurant, and custodial help, jobs that Americans don't want, and are happy to have filled by illegal aliens. Critics of universal healthcare use scare tactics, saying that it will bring a massive, wasteful government bureaucracy, and they point to Medicare and Social Security. However, in fact, Medicare and Social Security use only 1 or 2% of their budgets in operating costs, the rest goes to benefits. Contrast that with outfits like Blue Cross or Aetna, where over half goes to administrative costs!

Taxcuts sound like a good idea to me, too, but how much of those cuts actually make their way back into our working class pockets? Ask yourself that question, and answer it honestly. Don't forget to figure in the state and local tax increases as a result of less federal spending. Ask yourself who really benefits from BushCo's policies, which pander to corporations and the wealthy who run them. Hey, if you think you've got enough trickling down to your wallet, good for you! If you're like most folks who actually work for a living, I tend to doubt that you feel like you're better off. If you want to be a moron and vote AGAINST your own wallet/best interests, go ahead. Freedom also means you can be stupid, unfortunately.

Another oldie, this one about Pat Robertson...

A Man Of God, Or A Wackjob?
Televangelist Pat Robertson had this to say about the massive stroke suffered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon...
"The prophet Joel makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who divide my land.... Ariel Sharon was dividing God's land and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the European Union, the United Nations or the United States."

WHAT!!!??? God smote Ariel Sharon? Listen, Patty-boy, God created the whole world and all the people in it, He doesn't give a rat's ass about our property disputes. This is like saying God is worried about if Israel's neighbor puts their fence over Israel's property line. I don't think God cares how we divide it up. I think He DOES care about if we fight over it, or try to kill each other. And Pat, that whole interpreting the Bible literally thing is pretty stupid, don't you think? Most of it is metaphorical, stories written to explain things to simple folk who had no friggin' clue that the Earth wasn't flat, wasn't the center of the Solar System, that eating pork, shrimp and lobster won't kill you, that lepers aren't sinners, and on and on. Science disproves stories told in the Bible almost every day. If you don't believe what science tells us about the world, then stop being a fucking hypocrite, using (gasp!) SCIENCE to beam pictures of your pasty-white face and the sound of your cracker drawl to all those gullible folks who, for some strange reason, believe what you say and send you money. If you're going to insist on taking the Bible literally, how about the part where Jesus (a liberal if ever there was one) told his followers to cast aside their worldly posessions and preach the word? Pat, ready to cast off the expensive suits, mansions, media empire, private jets, shady deals in African diamond mines? Ready to go live in a cave, eat locusts and honey, and walk around, preaching the word? I didn't think so.

I think God must keep you around for entertainment, otherwise He would have smote your sorry hypocritical Bible-thumping ass long ago. And Ariel Sharon? He's got a much better shot at Heaven than you. Remember "Blessed are the peacemakers?" Jesus definitely did not say "Blessed are the fence-building, exclusionary, warmongering profiteers." The Bible told me so, Pat...

Another oldie from the previous blog...

Why I play Yamaha instruments
Some folks just have preferences for a horn that plays a certain way. Some prefer a horn that sounds a certain way. Everybody's different.

As I've gotten older, I've come to realize that, for the majority of my playing, I don't need a horn that'll handle the loudest volume without getting too bright, because I simply don't play in groups that require that. Brightness and lightness are subjective, of course, but even here, many first trombonists are moving to smaller gear, Ralph Sauer comes to mind. Many players love the huge dark sound that players like Alessi and Friedman get, but fail to take into account that their equipment choices are based to a large degree on how loud they have to play in their particular halls. (NY's Fisher Hall is notorious for it's design problems, and Chicago's hall makes the low brass sound softer at the podium than out in the hall.) I'll go so far as to make a prediction- When Joe Alessi gets between 55-60, he'll switch to lighter gear.

As for me, I love a nice rich sound, with a good balance of overtones, and I don't like to fight the horn to get it. So, for me it's Yamaha. Maybe it's not for everyone, but that's ok. I've played on quite a few Bachs, Conns, Edwards, and a few Shires. I suspect that if I were to visit Shires to put a horn together, I'd end up with a horn that was pretty close to my Xeno in sound and response.

Irv Karan (Slidebone.com) and I were talking about horns, and I told him that I consider a trombone to be just a tool, not some mystical combination of tubing and voodoo. Just a tool like a hammer or screwgun. As long as the nails go in straight, the foreman doesn't care if you use a 24 oz. wood handled framing hammer or a 18oz. fiberglass roofing hammer. Just as long as the job gets done right.

I originally posted this on my old blog, back on Nov. 9, 2005, and thought it was worth saving into the new blog. Here goes...

Let's see if I was right...
This past November, after the Shrub got re-appointed, I posted this...

"To all my Republican friends and family- We'll see who was right, when George screws up again. Who's he going to blame it on then? When your state and local taxes go up to offset the federal tax cuts, when your kids get drafted, when he starts a war with Iran or North Korea, when he runs the deficit up another trillion, when gas costs $2.50 or more, when any of that happens, then maybe you'll realize that I was right way back then."

I'm getting worried, the administration has been mentioning places like Iran and Syria more these days, perhaps laying the groundwork for pre-emptive attacks, just like they did in Iraq. The deficit is up, too, from $668.1 billion, to a projection for this year of $780 billion. Yet, he still insists on making his tax cuts permanent, even in wartime! Gas was up to around $3.25 or so, and is back down around $2.65 now. No draft yet, between the stop-loss program and recruiting in poor areas, I guess they're keeping it going so far. An amazing amount of Army officers is choosing not to re-up, so they're increasing incentives for them to stay in. I guess the crappy medical system and low pay isn't enough incentive to stay in and get your self shot or blown up. W is watching his poll numbers slide, from around 50% in Nov. 2004, to an abysmal 35% currently. People are catching on, George! If you STILL support this asshole, you're probably like those kids who put their fingers in their ears and chant, "I can't hear you! Lalalalala..."

I'm predicting that things will start to get lonely around the White House. Rove will get indicted, too, and when the Traitorgate investigation starts sniffing around Cheney, he'll resign for "health reasons." (It's not Plame-gate, exposing a CIA operative makes you a traitor! Call it what it is!) The House will swing back to the Dems in 2006, and then watch that lying sack of shit get impeached for REAL lies that got over 2035 killed so far, not for lying about getting oral sex. BTW, stop blaming things on Clinton, your boy has been in there 5 1/2 years now. He's either had his chance to fix things (a BETTER chance, actually, he has a majority in both houses of Congress!), or he's fucked it up royally on his own. Tune in next year to see how right I was...

Just Trying

...out a new way to post my blog, and add comments, photos, etc. I hope it works!