Tea Parties are vastly interesting. Many people are very angry and voice this anger. I am listening, quite intently. Yet, I am not hearing much that is making sense.
I decided to look at how to properly have a Tea Party

Tea Party Etiquette

Good manners do matter at any occasion, but a tea party is the perfect occasion to teach everyone about proper etiquette.  Here are a few etiquette rules to pass around to children and friends:
1) When seated at a table, raise only the teacup to drink, not the saucer.  Place the teacup gently back on the saucer.  If you are not seated at a table, simply hold the saucer in your lap with your left hand and raise the teacup with your right hand.  Return the cup to the saucer between sips. See the tea party attendees below are not following the appropriate protocol. Where are your saucers ladies? You are not supposed to hold your teacup with both hands either.



2) Do not make extraneous comments which are not backed up with facts. Sure it is a person's right, in our democracy, to say anything you want, and please do, but if it makes no sense to anyone but you and the rest of the sheep, er, I mean people around you then it is not polite.  Like this guy with the pig nose. Sir, not appropriate attire for a tea party!


3)Take small bites.  Never stuff the whole sandwich or dessert in your mouth even though it seems small enough. Like the gentleman below has obviously stuffed the whole sandwich and many others in his mouth.

 
Also sir President Clinton is no longer in office and I apologize for his harm of you.




4) Do not have signs with a mixture of political and historical figures on it as if they have anything to do with each other in order to disparage someone. An example would be Lenin (not the guy with the Beatles but Vladimir), Hitler (you know him), and Stalin. Lenin and Hitler have nothing to do with one another and Stalin actually had a fight with Hitler called World War II.

5. When you go to a tea party in the United States of America realize that you are in the United States and you are still a citizen in the country you are having your tea party in. The country is still here I just saw it, I am seeing it now out my window. It is still out there. I wonder if this sign should say "I want my country back from a black man?"




6)  Never sip or slurp tea or everything Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or Sean Hannity spills out to you. Read a book instead. Also if they start passing out Kool-Aid RUN!!!!!!!



These are a few tips on appropriate tea party etiquette. There are many others but  these might be a good starting place.

........................

I made the mistake of listening to talk radio yesterday. Sean Hannity is terribly entertaining. If you are a fan I apologize in advance because I can see why he is so popular. His show is like SONIC professional wrestling! Bait and switch does not even begin to explain the misrepresentations he uttered. When someone noted "the bigger the lie the more likely the populace is to believe it" they had their thinking caps on that day.
Here are some brief highlights in the few minutes I listened:

1) The war in ....Afghanistan.... is now Obama's war, which according to Hannity, most Americans don't want! Oh LORD! I thought that was where the terrorists were? How dare our president actually send our nations best in to try and dismantle the infrastructure of the TRUE EVIL DOERS! I have personally heard Hannity say that ....Afghanistan.... was the frontline of the war on terror. How did all that change in less than a year? Forget that our president is actually following the advice of the generals on the ground who tend, last time I checked, to know what is best for combat scenarios, I mean them being generals and all.

2) All of a sudden President Obama is a "....Chicago.... thug" who bullies people like a gangster! Who is he bullying? Dick Cheney. To make this simple let's take it back, way back, to the playground days of elementary school. Somehow I do not envision little Dick being the one getting wedgies or spit dangled in his face by big, mean or little, mean Barack. I think Dick can defend himself. Again how dare the Justice Department do its job for the first time in 8 years. Isn't its main job to disparage federal prosecutors and judges and get them fired?
I think its job is to provide oversight on things like totally ignoring the Geneva Convention. Hannity alleged that this is merely political games, might be, by the Obama administration to play "get back" now they are in power. Here is one Sean. If it smells like poop, looks like poop, then you do not have to taste it to know it is poop. There were some shady things going on that need to be looked into. If there is nothing to them then the system will bear that.

And to top it all off

3) The "Palin administration" in 2012 would be just as vindictive. He said the PALIN ADMINSTRATION! Ok I can see the GOP throwing it all out there for 2012 and trying to regain footing. So to the PALIN ADMINISTRATION that Mr. Hannity is so hopeful I can only say this: Sean if she runs I will personally campaign for her. I can only pray that the GOP nominates Sara Palin as their candidate for president. Please ignore Newt Gingrich and all the others and run PALIN RUN!

I would like to personally thank Mr. Hannity because at the time I was listening I had a headache and the few minutes of his ludicrous rants damaged my brain just enough to stop my headache. I feel dumber for listening. Thanks Sean!

I'm OUT!

There is an artist who I respect greatly
Have tried to contact many times
I want to cover a song they did
Anyone who knows
SHANNON BATTLE
Please email me or contact me in some way

bigblackhand2@aol.com

Great artist and great song

Thanks in advance for any help given

There are two ways to approach and deliver health care. 1) the wrong way 2) the right way. Money or lack there of does not really enter the picture from this viewpoint. Why is the United State's Health Care system ranked 37th or 36th ? For instance I was in Italy on two occasions and went with a friend to the hospital. They rank #2. There was no one in the waiting room and he was late, walked right in, and was out in about 15 minutes. I asked "How is this so?" He replied "Here people see the doctor when they need to. No worries." Still not sure what that meant totally but what I did observe (to echo some of the others comments) were people treating their food as sacrament, eaten not only as calories but true nourishment, a country who banned any chemical additives to food, no fat people, and the main mode of transportation was walking when it was a reasonable distance. They also treated their midday meal, always as a time where family and friends gathered around a big table with laughter and joy. A two hour affair and a great stress reliever. Our health care crisis, which is what it is, is a many pronged viper. No easy answers but something that cannot wait while we wonder.
When you compare the GDP of the United States, still #1 in the world (according to the World Bank, IMF, and CIA),and another country, lets say Norway, whose GDP ranks #24, there is something sadly amiss.
Again follow the money
Look also for yourself

http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

This is just wrong
There are no other words I have!


RE: NTR....Capt'n Pete found murdered

Foul play suspected in death of WEVL DJ 'Cap'n Pete'
By Jody Callahan (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Memphis homicide detectives are investigating the death of 74-year-old Dee "Cap'n Pete" Henderson, a longtime DJ on WEVL radio, in Southwest Memphis.

While police had not released the name of the victim, WEVL program director Brian Craig confirmed that the victim was Henderson, who hosted a show there for more than two decades.

Henderson was well known for his "Cap'n Pete's Blues Cruise" program on Friday nights.



Police got a call at 9:20 a.m. today from a man who said he had found his grandfather lying in his backyard in the 1000 block of 1040 Fields.

Homicide investigators believe foul play was involved, but the official cause of death had not been determined.

"He's one of our longest running programmers, doing shows since 1982. He's from Clarksdale. He knew the blues first-hand," Craig said. "Just the nicest guy. Just the finest guy in the world. It was his genuineness and realness that made him so beloved on the air."

July 2, 2008
For Immediate Release
Desert Highway Music
5776-D Lindero Cyn Rd. 446
Westlake Village, Ca. 91367
Contact: Dorayn@deserthighwayrecords.com

Desert Highway Music would like to extend an invitation to the inspired music of
Elam McKnight and Bob Bogdal, on July 11th, at Nashville's French Quarter Café.
Elam is a uniquely authentic modern version of the Mississippi blues. He has
wowed audiences as a powerful duo with master harmonica pl,ayer Bob Bogdal at
this years Folk Alliance in Memphis, as well as SXSW in Austin.

Elam McKnight's "Devil Minded Woman" was voted by fans as the Best Blues song
in the Musician's atlas sponsored 7th Annual Independent Music Awards. He was
selected from more than 35,000 fans as top blues song of the year.

Elam and Bob were also chosen as 2008's Solo Duo Representative of the Sonny
Boy Blues Society (Helena, AR) for the International Blues Challenge. This
event is sponsored by the Blues Foundation (Memphis, Tn) and has hundreds of
competitors from around the world. Come enjoy real music, and real Cajun food
at the French Quarter Café, on July 11th.This event is sponsored by Desert
Highway Music. Performances start at 9pm with Shannon Hurley, followed by 3D
at 10pm and Elam and at 11:15.

French Quarter Café
823 Woodland St.
Nashville, Tn 37206
(615) 227-3100

Let me credit this with the fact that I have not listened to commercial radio for a LONG TIME!
OK
I have heard some people say some disparaging things about John Mayer and I just don't get it. I understand that many "blues purists" are angry because he is getting blues credit and somehow angry that he does not deserve it.
OK
From where I sit this cat has or had nothing to gain from getting into and supporting the blues as he has done. He could have went on his merry way and continued making the same thing he did on his first album, which was one of the last things I remember hearing on Lightning 100 (NASHVILLE) before I left there in 2003.
I wrote him off with the slew of other singer songwriters of the time, post 9-11 boys, and then I dropped out of listening to radio and not because I was affronted, VOLKSWAGON radios are hard to replace!!!!!
And lets face it I am not John Mayer!

But from my side of the house, after actually properly listening to his newer things, due to someone I love loving his pretty self, I considered what he does.
Here is goes:
1) He understands the Blues or he would not still be at the level he is
2) The boy (man-child) can play that guitar
3) Bless Him for making acknowledgment of something that was not "cool" to the general public.

The cat gets it and that is all I have to say about it!

Elam McKnight's "Devil Minded Woman" Voted by Fans as Best Blues Song of 2008

May 21, 2008
For Immediate Release
For More Information Contact:
Desert Highway Music
5776-D Lindero Cyn Rd. 446
Westlake Village, CA 91367
(310) 966-0538
ernest@deserthighwayrecords.com
Elam McKnight:
www.myspace.com/elammcknight
www.sonicbids.com/elammcknight
bigblackhand@aol.com

Elam McKnight's "Devil Minded Woman" was voted by fans as the Best Blues song in the Musician's Atlast sponsored 7th Annual Independent Music Awards. Elam was selected from among thousands of applicants as a finalist by a celebrity panel of judges that included Snoop Dogg, Wynona, Norah Jones, and Tom Waits among others. He was then selected from the more than 35,000 fans who voted as the top blues song of the year. Read below for the official announcement.


Congrats to the 
7th Annual IMA Vox Populi Winners:
THE FANS HAVE SPOKEN: 
7th Annual IMA Vox Populi Winners Announced

There are winners and.there are winners.
Each year, Music Resource Group assembles a panel of esteemed Artist and Industry judges to determine the Winners & Finalists of the Independent Music Awards. Recognizing that ultimately it's the voice/choice of the people that matters most to an artist's career, the IMA Vox Populi poll was added in 2006 to allow music fans to pick their favorites.

This year, over 37,000 votes from around the globe were cast in this year's "people's choice" component of the IMAs for all music, video, art & swag categories. Now the votes are in, tabulated and the winners of the IMA Vox Populi popular vote are...Below is the list of Vox Populi Winners.

IMA VOX POPULI SONG WINNERS:

ALT. COUNTRY: Yarn (NY, USA) "No Future Together"
AMERICANA: Spring Creek Bluegrass Band (CO, USA) "High Up in the Mountains"
BLUES: Elam McKnight (TN, USA) "Devil Minded Woman"
CHILDREN'S MUSIC: Lanny Sherwin (CA, USA) "Stinky Feet"
COUNTRY: Chris Gray (TN, USA) "Stop & Drink It Over"
DANCE/ELECTRONICA: Palanke Soultribe (CA, USA) "Tropic N' Heaven"
FOLK/SINGER-SONGWRITER: Amit Erez (Tel Aviv, Israel) "Postcard"
GOSPEL: Ladd Bogdonoff (CA, USA) "God Will Make a Way"
HARD ROCK/METAL: Plok (Odense, Denmark) "I Do NOT Live in a Condo"
JAZZ: Samson Trinh (VA, USA) "I Can't Believe I'm Addicted To The O.C."
POP/ROCK: The Dollyrots (CA, USA) "Because I'm Awesome"
PUNK: Scott & Aimee (CA, USA) "Miss America"
R&B: Mae Gee (CA, USA) "Can't Let Go"
RAP/ HIP-HOP: Animate Objects (IL, USA) "El Dorado"
SOCIAL ACTION: Dean Murray (Levin, New Zealand) "Gas is Gone"

Ok here it goes:
Little boy and his grandfather are sitting together in a Baptist church service. The minister gets going on a really Fire and Brimstone thing. He starts yelling and hollering and refers to a Biblical passage " and it says in the holy book that you are but dust. Nothing but dust! You are nothing but dust!"
The little boy leans over to his grandfather and asks
"Grandaddy what is BUTT DUST?"

End of Joke