I DIDN'T GET ANY STAR SPANGLED COOKIES AT MY POLLING PLACE BUT I VOTED ANYWAY!

I'm no political analyst. Everybody knows now the Republicans have won the
House. This sort of party resurgence tends to happen every two years.
Welcome to America. That may be why we're such an awesome country: We
depend on the pendulum swinging back and forth. It's like driving cross
country...you drive a couple hours, then you wake the passenger and make
them drive a couple hours. Only in this case the passenger spends billions
of dollars in advertising to win control of the steering wheel.

2008 we took a big step as a country and voted in a black president for the
first time in what has often been a very prejudiced nation. To those on the
Right it was a disappointment. So much so the Tea Party exploded. Fueled
by an underbelly of large bellies and not always the nicest comments
directed at our president, they have knocked out legitimate Republican
candidates and have sparked a huge run to the polls. To those on the Left,
many were upset by Obama's sometimes very Bush-like moves in Afghanistan and
with the "don't-ask-don't-tell" policy. Many went to the Green party this
election cycle. Many stayed home.

So now we'll see a grand transformation with the "party of NO." They are
now going to have to flip from "no we can't" to "yes we can" or "we're gonna
go to Washington and try." They have won their party-turnaround. Now we'll
see if they're going to do everything they've promised. The shoe's on the
other foot. If they blow it, Obama will win reelection faster than you can
say "Palin."

Did we learn any thing from all of this? Yes. Here it its...WE SPEND WAY
TOO MUCH MONEY ON POLITICAL ADS! Honestly, at the end of the day, all they
do is annoy. At the end of the day, if you voted today, you hopefully
scanned the internet for non-partisan data to make your informed choice, and
didn't rely on the commercial that played 80 times during your favorite
show.

I didn't get my star-spangled cookie today, but I did get an interesting
glimpse in to what the next two years will bring. As politically active as
you were today when you went out to cast your vote, please keep it up and
keep the politician's feet to the fire. That's what this country is all
about.

Companies With Their Heads in the Sand

Wow!

Yes, that was about the size of coffee I would need every day to get through my last job. The stress at that place was unimaginable, and every day something completely dysfunctional happened.

From what I've heard, the company is still behaving the same way.

Radio, as I have mentioned in previous blogs, is a dysfunctional business. Not that it should be, it just is. We live in an ever-changing world where technology is constantly being redesigned and pushed forward. Communication is absolutely sacrosanct, yet so many radio people prefer to live in the 1950's. "Oh, don't be ridiculous! Radio will never be threatened by the Internet or satellite radio. Those ipods are just a fad! People will be listening to those little transistors till the end of time!" My last job had the worst communication from its managers. People would write emails but ignore all etiquette and decency.

Here is a little bit of an email I received. I won't name names, but this came from someone who had no power over what I, as a radio performer, was doing. Mind you, I was hired as someone to be a radio performer for the time period of afternoon rush hour. You MUST entertain people during this time period; it is demanded of you. Even on music formats, mornings and afternoons need to be entertaining. Some stations let their nights be entertaining, too. Most keep the midday, from 10am to 3pm, pretty music intensive. My show was music intensive, but when I did speak it was always for less than a minute and always entertaining. Here is a piece of the paragraph-long email:

Yesterday, I heard you trying to imitate a French accent. No more warnings. Keep it straight and play the music.

"Keep it straight." Read: Keep it boring! That's what your radio stations today want from their jocks. Boring. Do you know why I was doing a French accent? I did it for 2 seconds and it was part of a joke! I didn't do my whole show in a French accent. By the way, I am quite good with many accents (you can hear by clicking on the Santa Fe Cafe samples to the right). I can even speak a little French and was coached specifically on French pronunciation. But this is communication in radio: It's only purpose is to treat employees like little spoiled kids that constantly need reprimanding.

Radio has no idea what world it's living in. It thinks it's still in the world of "Mad Men" where discrimination and sexism run amok and employees are made to be kept down. We live in a new world! Radio apparently doesn't know that and has never looked out the window.

The way I was kept down runs totally contrary to how an organization should be run. Even the book Managing For Dummies says in a situation like this, everyone loses! "Your employees lose because you aren’t allowing them to stretch themselves or to show creativity or initiative. Your organization loses the insights that its creative workforce brings with it. Finally, your customers lose because your employees are afraid to provide them with exceptional service. Why should
they if they’re constantly worried that you will punish them for taking
initiative or for pushing the limits of the organization"?

Today's WHAT THE HECK??? Why are companies like this allowed to keep running? You know what, they're not. They're the ones that are filing for bankruptcy. Try as they may to blame the economy or blame Obama for not bailing them out, they're own worse enemy is themselves and their failure to grow with the times. I use radio as an example because it seems the most pronounced in fighting everything it SHOULD be in today's world. The managers and the owners behave like the spoiled children: Not willing to try something new or something that is needed.

If you want your employees to "keep it straight" and keep their noses buried in the past, good luck. Your company will die out in this very different world you refuse to live in. Have fun keeping up. Enjoy the coffee you'll be downing.

2012 Will Be a Very, Very Interesting Year!

That's me with a very cute dog named Madison. She's a Yorkshire Terrier and she loves to attack my round bald head. She must think I'm a mobile doggy toy only when you bite me I don't squeak...I squawk.

So this picture was taken yesterday, the third of July, not too long after I saw online that Sarah Palin is resigning.

Today's WHAT THE HECK?!? Sarah is really preparing for 2012, NOW in 2009? Her term was up next year, but what can 4 years do to make her the first female president of the U.S.A.?

First off, if I was a Republican right now, I'd feel like I did as a Democrat back in 2000 when we really had no main leader in the party. Then I'd be looking at SP and saying...SP? I was really hoping when she first exploded on the scene last year that she'd be a breath of fresh air. Someone that I'd be happy seeing being the next vice president.

People on the right say she was side swiped by the media. Katie Couric was too harsh on her. All the media outlets went after her poor defenseless pregnant daughter. How dare they! It's the media's fault!

I am SOOOOO tired of hearing the media blamed for what really is someone who doesn't know how to carry herself in front of the cameras. Ronald Reagan blew away everyone in 1980 when he took office and began to show both parties that he knew how to work that camera. He knew how to work the media. He was the Great Communicator. In the couple of months before the election that Sarah Palin was in the spotlight she only showed that she has no idea what she's doing in that department.

Who knows, maybe she would have been the best VP we ever had. Maybe our country would be completely out of its financial doldrums right now because of her. She tried her best at the very end by actually showing up on Saturday Night Live to poke fun at herself. However, she could have toured with Madonna, there was no way of stopping the Obama Express.

I will be so interested to see what she does. I have friends like her: Conservative, hard working moms, thick Wisconsin-whatever accents. I think I might like her if I got to know her, but the people behind the scenes of the GOP will take her and mould her and make her into something I unfortunately might despise. I think she's someone who takes direction well. She said she was a maverick, but when she was being moulded by the GOP late last year before the election it was painfully obvious: the clothes, the rhetoric. You could tell when she was lying. This concerns me.

So on this Fourth of July weekend, say a prayer for this country, say a prayer for the people who will vote for president in 2012 (Obama VS Palin?), and say a prayer for all the world's problems that we may have smart cool-headed leaders solving them.

Speaking of heads, I think I've just about wiped all the little dog slobber off of my bald cabeza.