Chicago White Sox Festivities

Cross-posted at The Metal Pundit

This photo was taken using my camera phone this morning at the parade. I was standing in front of the Chicago Board of Trade building, on Jackson and LaSalle. You can see the bus carrying some White Sox players. I think this one had Ozzie Guillen on the front of the bus.

This is a pic of closer Bobby Jenks as he exited Midway Airport yesterday. As you can see, I was there too. I was standing right on the corner of 63rd and Central, where the guys had to turn. I was able to see Paul Konerko, Mark Buerhle, Aaron Rowand, Tadahito Iguchi, Carl Everett, Jose Contreras, A.J. Pierzynski, and Ozzie Guillen. Yeah, this close!

This picture was taken by the media. It almost looks like it's snowing! However, the white stuff is confetti and shredded paper thrown down from the upper floors of the surrounding buildings.

Oh how sweet it is? I attended the parade this morning honoring the best fucking baseball team of 2005, my Chicago White Sox! Witnessing the guys pass by was truly amazing, giving me goosebumps and invoking a feeling of nostalgia. I mean, these guys made me love baseball, a sport I hated only 5 years ago. I began supporting these guys ever since, being heartbroken when they lost in 2000 in the Division Series, up to this special moment. I vehemently followed them this season, ever since the first game. Although I knew this team was special, I never thought they would go all the way. Let's just hope the guys (especially Paul Konerko) come back next year to do it again! Ozzie! Ozzie! Ozzie!

Greetings from The Metal Pundit

First off, I would like to thank BigNewsDay for inviting me to this wonderful blog. I am honored to be the first contributor here. I know you will be a powerful ally and friend as our blogs, hopefully, flourish into viable sources of political/musical punditry.

I go by the name "Lefty Metalhead", which describes both my political ideology and musical taste. I live in the south side of Chicago (Go White Sox!), which a traditional Democratic city with a rich following of heavy metal. I started my blog, The Metal Pundit, in June of this year for the purpose of linking heavy metal to politics. I think it is important for the metal community to understand the political discourse existing in this country. Furthermore, metal fans must realize that they can have an impact on political discourse, since metal's aggressive nature provides the environment for progressive social change. I will not say that The Metal Pundit embraces objectivity. It is clearly a liberal blog, but I admit I don't always have the best ideas or correct opinions on issues or events. Hence, the power of the blogosphere! Our thoughts can be challenged. We can be engaged by other minds, forcing us to rethink our reasoning, logic, assumptions, and preconceptions. This same principle applies to music. We can share our thoughts on our favorite bands, albums, or songs. We can become exposed to music we never thought existed. But why a political/heavy metal blog?

Well, I just graduated college, earning my Bachelor's degree in Political Science. I have loved politics since high school. I am intrigued by our nation's political system, how it is exploited, and how it still manages to work well-enough to keep us moving. I have loved heavy metal since I was 10 years old, when I first saw Metallica's "One" video on MTV. The year was 1993, years after the video was made (that was the year my family could finally afford cable). I found myself discussing both subjects vociferously with friends and family. I studied the blogosphere in one of my final classes in college, so I learned its potential. I now feel it is time to get my thoughts out there.

Luckily, I have met awesome people such as BigNewsDay, who understand political discourse extremely well, and happen to like heavy metal as well. I look forward to sharing my thoughts with everyone lucky-enough to join this blog. Let this be the beginning of a compelling community of conscious citizens.

BigNewsDay told me that I inspired this blog. I'm flattered by that comment, and must say that he has inspired me to keep going! Thanks.

Tom DeLay

Many people do not understand the reasons why Tom DeLay is under indictment. I will attempt to provide a brief history into this subject.

Before the 2002 Texas congressional elections, Tom DeLay accepted contributions to his political action committee in D.C. from corporations. He then filtered that money to the GOP, who then forwarded these funds to various republican state congressional candidates. In the State of Texas, it is illegal for political candidates to accept campaign contributions from corporations. After the GOP retained control of the Texas congress (and added to the majority), they were handed a state redistricting plan from DeLay. The redistricting plan carved the state up in a way that would take many democratic districts and hand them over to the GOP after the following election. This would dramatically alter the state's representation in D.C. The democrats in the state congress refused to accept the republican hijacking of the U.S. Congress, so they piled into a private jet and flew to Oklahoma before they were scheduled to vote on the redistricting plan. In a statement by the Texas Democrats, they explain why they left the state:

"We did not choose our path, Tom Delay did. We are ready to stand on the House floor and work day and night to deal with real issues facing Texas families. At a time when we are told there is no time to deal with school finance, and when we must still resolve issues like the state budget crisis and insurance reform, the fact that an outrageous partisan power grab sits atop the House calendar is unconscionable."

Once DeLay found out what the Dems were doing, he began making phone calls to the DHS, the FAA, and the Texas DPS. A representative from the FAA assisted DeLay with tracking the Dems down in Oklahoma. By the way, it is against federal law to use federal executive departments for political gains. The Dems finally had to give in and allow a vote.

So what we have now is DeLay and his lawyer condemning the prosecutor and the judge, instead of discussing the actual issues. Today DeLay's lawyer actually demanded a new judge to hear the case, because the sitting judge once donated money to MoveOn.org, who is selling DeLay mug shot t-shirts. Well, if the judge was selling mug shot t-shirts, they may have a valid argument, but the judge is not selling t-shirts and come to find out, MoveOn.org is not selling t-shirts. Did the DeLay camp fabricate this statement? These people need to be in jail!

BigNewsDay

Don't mess with the HTML too much

I've learned my first valuable lesson in dealing with Blogger. Do not try to edit the HTML too much or you'll destroy your Blog Site. Please be patient I am starting from scratch.