Yes We Can Lyrics

You have to admit, these are some beautiful words:  

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores
and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized;
women who reached for the ballots;
a President who chose the moon as our new frontier;
and a King who took us to the mountain-top and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
(yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…)

read the rest

Obama Wins Grammy for Hope

That’s right, he won for the audio recording of The Audacity of Hope, which, by the way, is an insightful book into the world of politics. Hope is a good thing.

What’s on Your Secret Playlist?

The New York Times asks: What’s on your secret playlist?

Of course, the question is: What do you listen to when no one is around to laugh? Here are some of the songs that people listed. Some good stuff there — Eddie Money, the Bee Gees, Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel,” Super Freak. 

Some of mine: songs by Bread, Juke Box Hero by Foreigner, Gordon Lightfoot, Brandy by Looking Glass, Instant Karma by John Lennon, Do Ya by ELO, Peter, Paul and Mary, Ventura Highway by America, Kid Rock, love Meatloaf. The list goes on and on.

One of my favorite musicians, John Frusciante, plays his secret songs at every Red Hot Chili Peppers performance. He steps up to the mic and belts out a solo of How Deep is Your Love, I Feel Love by disco queen Donna Summer or some other song you wouldn’t expect from a rocker type. That’s actually how I discovered him as a solo artist. He played Cosmic Dancer from T Rex at a Chili Peppers show. It was gorgeous.

Surfers Save Trestles

Every once in a while the tree huggers or ocean lovers win.  

Various organizations banded together and stopped a toll road from running through the San Onofre Park and saved trestles, a favorite surf spot.

Save Trestles, Save San Onofre

This from WildCoast:

HISTORIC VICTORY FOR THE COAST: COASTAL COMMISSION REJECTS THE TOLL ROAD THOUSANDS TURN OUT TO DEFEND SAN ONOFRE STATE BEACH PARK

It was called the “Highway to Hell.”

Others called it the “The Road to Destruction.”

Most of us just called it “THE NIGHTMARE OF SAN ONOFRE.”

The proposed 241 private toll road that would have destroyed 60% of San Onofre State Beach Park was the subject of a hearing at the meeting of the California Coastal Commission yesterday at Wyland Hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

More than 3,500 people rallied to defend the park in the single largest pro-coastal rally in the history of California for what we are calling the “Woodstock of the Save Our Coast movement.”

Included in the crowd were surfing world superstars, Greg and Rusty Long, Evan Slater, CJ and Damien Hobgood, Peter Townend and international surfing ambassador Shaun Thomson who all turned out to support the park.

In the end the Coastal Commission–amazed by the record-breaking turnout by people of all ages, colors, and economic backgrounds many of whom hung out for 17 hours to defend our California State Parks–voted to reject the toll-road 8-2.

Can you say Historic?

WiLDCOAST was honored to have been involved in the Save San Onofre Coalition.

We are however, in are in awe of our partners at the Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Endangered Habitats League and countless other organizations for doing such an awesome job of building a movement to defend San Onofre.

We are also thankful to all of your who came to the meeting and responded to our requests to send letters, call and send emails. We were so proud of our grom squad team members present from Coronado Middle School, Mar Vista Middle School and Mar Vista High School and other schools throughouto San Diego County who were able to attend and defend the coast.

So from all of us here at WiLDCOAST we thank all of you and remind you that dreams do come true.

The WiLDCOAST TEAM

Newport Beach

The Onion’s Super Tuesday Coverage

You gotta love the Onion. Its satirical coverage is worthy given all this mumbo jumbo about delegates and superdelegates and math that no one seems to be able to compute. Just when does a superdelegate exert his or her super powers?
Is this a superdelegate?

Quentin Blake

You may not know the name but Quentin illustrated all of Roald Dahl’s books. We have all of them at my house, Matilda, BFG, Willy Wonka and Esio Trot. His drawings are complete whimsy.

Quentin’s explains how to illustrate a book.

Red Squirrel Gray Squirrel

It’s red squirrel vs. gray squirrel in England, where the two critters are fighting over limited food. The red squirrel is a native and the imported gray squirrel is being dubbed the obnoxious American.

Choosing Between two Candidates

www.selectacandidate.org

Not sold on a candidate yet? Well make up your mind with Select a Candidate. Just answer a few questions about your stand on issues and it matches your answers to the candidates who are most aligned with your beliefs.

It also gives you a better understanding of where your candidate stands on various issues.

You can put the Select the Candidate widget, by American Public Media, on your own site.

Superbowl Quiet

I’m one of those weirdos who just found out yesterday who was playing in the Superbowl that happens to be on Sunday. What I like about the Superbowl is the quiet. You can go and drive around town and not see a soul.