Security was more than tight for the event, but when POTUS is involved, secret service doesn’t fuck around. The usual procedure for these types of events was in order. Dogs trained to sniff out explosives sniffed all media equipment while the rest of us were scanned through metal detectors and examined.

Once in the event, I set up shop interviewing several media outlets. First I spoke with Audrey, a German news producer who was here to examine just how Obama is accepted by an area struck hard by the economy.

The producer had covered Obama from the beginning of his run as candidate to his inauguration and here now as a president whose numbers are slipping. She explained to me that Europeans are still intrigued by Obama and support him, but it really doesn’t what the Europeans think.

Next I spoke to the host of a CBS radio news show who expressed great interest in the event. Mark was there obviously to cover the event but was hopeful to hear what Obama would do next after losing the 60^th Democrat mark in the Senate. Since the loss of the late Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, a seat that has been held by the Dems for the past 50 years will now be handed to the Republicans as the state elected Scott Brown to represent them.

This is a very crushing blow for a president who came to talk about jobs and knows what losing the filibuster blocking 60^th vote means passing the health care bill will be very difficult. But President Obama knows what he is getting into:

“I had no illusions when I took on health care. It was always going to be hard. I knew from the beginning that seven Presidents had tried it and seven Presidents had failed. But I also knew that insurance premiums had more than doubled in the past decade, that out-of-pocket expenses had skyrocketed, that millions more people had lost their insurance, and that it would only get worse.”

A direct correlation can be drawn from health care to jobs, and President Obama can talk to any area of the country that is as bad as Elyria and say the same things. A staggering 10.6 unemployment rate in the area means hard times for everyone and the President was ready to discuss.

Local T.V. stations sent their political correspondents, and Hot Like Sauce got the chance to speak with Tom who is the face of WKYC’s “Between the Lines,” A Sunday morning political talk show. Tom was most interested by the questionnaire portion of the town hall meeting.

“Well he’s speaking to people who obviously are in need of some answers and I know the president is a smart man who can answer them,” Tom said.

After hot knobbing with the media, it came time for President Obama’s grand entrance, and when the president enters the room, nobody sits.

A very warm welcome was given to him by the 1,600 on hand, as the laid back style of the town hall meeting commenced. The President, dressed in a suit without a tie, presented himself as humanly as possible, stating all the things he has done to help the country as we “stared down a second Great Depression.”

Obama stressed in a way that he is not a quick fix and he was elected to a four year term to utilize all the time he has. His dropped approval ratings are really from a problem he can’t deal with at all. The House is the biggest monkey on his back. They back him with a staggering percent and yet can’t get anything accomplished. Obama stated on the matter:

“When you deal with 535 members of Congress, it’s going to be a somewhat ugly process — not necessarily because any individual member of Congress is trying to do something wrong, it’s just they may have different ideas, they have different interests, they’ve got a particular issue of a hospital in their district that they want to see if they can kind of get dealt with and this may be the best vehicle for doing it.  They’re looking out for their constituents a lot of times.”

President Obama took questions for about 45 minutes. Questions that ranged as stupid as ‘may I have a hand shake?’ to a 52-year-old business man from Akron, Ohio, who wanted the chance to create 1,200 jobs, but needed some serious money to do it. The president pledged to put him in touch with some people that can get him the money and also deal with the international patent rights he would need to face.

By the end of the meeting, there was a sense of hope in the room that reminded me of the hope we all felt when Barack was first elected into office. People forget that one man cannot fix an entire country in one year. It takes many people a lot of time and chances to do it, but it would appear we are on a rise once again. Hope is a funny thing though; it can drive a man crazy. At every corner people seem to be against him and all that’s going to led to is failure and as Barack said at the conclusion of his speech:

“I didn’t take this on [health care] to score political points.  I know there are some folks who think if Obama loses, we win.  But you know what?  I think that I win when you win. That’s how I think about it… I want to march forward with you.  I want to work with you. I want to fight for you.  I hope you’re willing to stand by me, even during these tough times, because I believe in a brighter future for America.”

For the Colts on the other hand, they are in a position that everyone expected them to be in. Led by MVP Peyton Manning, the Colts’ impressive 20-3 win Saturday over the powerful Baltimore Ravens was a big statement. A defense that had all season just done its job rose to the occasion and held the Ravens to just 270 yards of total offense.

This AFC Championship will be will versus strength. It’s hard to say the Jets really belong there, but they are, and now the biggest X-factor will be rookie quarter back Mark Sanchez. If the Jets D plays at a higher level than they did against San Diego then they will be in a position to win. But Sanchez needs to play at with more purpose then he ever has. For the Colts, Peyton Manning will have to work to get the ball to his receivers around the Jet’s Darrelle Revis. Coach Jim Caldwell will need to have his linemen stay late after practice to study up on the Jets defensive front who could be the key to the game. Indianapolis is a better team in the end and if they play like it, a trip to Miami is as sure as another Peyton Manning commercial.

Brett Favre couldn’t have been more perfect against the Cowboys. Favre showed that not only he ages like wine, but that his best is yet to come. A four touchdown performance against a Dallas defense that came into the game ranked second in points per game (allowing 15.6 ppg) and ninth in yards per game (allowing 316 ypg) showed the strength of the Minnesota offense. Favre flexed all his options, hitting Sidney Rice six times for 141 yards and three touchdowns, Visanthe Shiancoe for a late 11 yard touchdown for his only catch and hit veteran Bernard Berrian three times for 32 yard.

Just like the Colts, the New Orleans Saints hit the 13-0 mark hard and fast. But unlike the Colts who chose to lose, the Saints lost a tough Saturday night game back on Dec. 19 to the Cowboys 24-17. The Saints went on to lose two more games to end the season on a three game skid leading into the playoffs. Some wondered if the Saints would be rusty against an Arizona Cardinals team that just came off an overtime victory over the Green Bay Packers in the highest scoring playoff game in NFL history, 51-45. As a matter of fact, the Saints were the opposite of rusty, bashing the Cardinals for 45 points in the Super Dome.

The Vikings and Saints will match up for the most exciting game of the season. Skill versus skill. Ultimately this game will come down to the quarterbacks. The 40-year-old expertise of Brett Favre or the moxy of Drew Brees. Both with tremendous receivers to throw to, but only one will rise to the occasion.

Super Bowl Picks

The Colts win in style 24-14. The smartest man to play quarterback slowly picks apart the Jets defense.

Vikings edge Saints 34-31. Brett Favre is the best off-season accusation of any team and lifts the Vikings to the big game for the first time since 1977.

In order to understand gonzo journalism, one must first go straight to the source. Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is an American writer/journalist born in Aspen Colorado. Thompson was always a revolutionist, from a young age he took his ambitions to higher level. Dr. Thompson was at the center of attention long before his books and articles fascinated generations of people. As the story goes, in the early 1960’s, Thompson had spoke about running for the sheriff of Aspen. He was never entirely sure he wanted to run, but enough people came to him with hopes he would run. Here is where Thompson got his national attention. The party affiliation he ran under was not a Democrat or Republican. The Aspen Freak Party Uprising (AFPU) was born with Thompson as its poster child. What made the AFPU so different, other than its name, was the basis of power. Thompson had no clue how to be a sheriff so as he put it, “My idea was to become sheriff and then name a sub-sheriff and become a sort of ombudsman and give my salary over to the sheriff, whom I would hire… So the idea was to run, and not become sheriff, but to turn the political process around to the point, to the idea of Freak Power.” Thompson had the attention of the media all over him and although he lost it created quite a stir. Stirring up things is something Thompson would learn to love.

The first account of gonzo journalism came in 1970 when Hunter was covering the Kentucky Derby. Thompson recalled about the event as a missed deadline that would surely be the last thing he would ever write, but as it turned out, people loved to read “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved.” From there on out, gonzo journalism became a sacred topic. Multiple top selling books would stem from its creation, including “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” which would be made into a hit motion picture, “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail of ‘72” and “Hell’s Angels.” A combination of the three and many other books immortalized the shocking mind of Hunter Thompson. For many years Thompson would take to colleges and universities to talk politics to a younger generation. Many accounts were kept of his interviews and finally published in 2009 in the book “Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interview with Hunter S. Thompson.” Written by Christopher Hitchens and edited by late Thompson’s wife Anita. The book is praised by Thompson’s supporters as “A lovingly assembled compendium of brilliance, incentive, and outrageous interviews the legendary Hunter S. Thompson.” As for Hunter himself, he died in 2005 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Thompson was 67 and was “tormented in his final years” wife Anita said. He was found by his son outside of his home in Woody Creek Colorado.

The greatest single piece of gonzo journalism came in 1971 with Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” A book based on Thomson’s trip to Las Vegas for Rolling Stone magazine to cover a motor cycle race. As it would turn out, Thompson went into deep details into his drug use throughout the trip and used his alias as the main character. Raul Duke and Dr. Gonzo were the main characters of the book, modeled off of Hunter as Raul Duke, and his friend Ralph Gleason as Dr. Gonzo. To this day Raul Duke is still listed in Rolling Stone magazine as the managing sports editor and Gleason as the gardening editor, mostly to pay tribute and get a laugh. The story is account of notes sent in by Thompson into the front office in Los Angeles of daily activates. It was picked up as a series that ran in 1970 and then published as a book in 1971. The term gonzo comes from “an old Boston word meaning a little bit crazy and off the wall. Sort of a high crazy. Demented crazy.” Well as history took it, the name stuck as Fear and Loathing hit it big as the face of the counter culture in the 70’s and lead the way through the 80’s too. In the short series that ran, viewer readership was through the roof, which ultimately pushed Thompson into the decision into publishing the book. Big names in Hollywood would see the book as hit at the box office, so Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam took the movie on as his project and directed the movie starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. For journalists everywhere, this was a tremendous look into gonzo journalism, but not the first. In 1980, two other big names in Bill Murray and Peter Boyle played the roles of Hunter Thompson and his traveling companion Lazlo in the film based on Thompson’s book “Where the Buffalo Roam.” Once again a deep look into gonzo journalism was taken, this staring a counter culture all in itself. It was after this string of popular films that gonzo journalism took off. People everywhere were interested in every story Dr. Thompson would write.

With some of the most fueled people marching behind him, Thompson’s word was the real deal. His most famous quote comes from a 1975 meeting with students at UCLA when Thompson said “I wouldn’t recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” This lead to many more interviews with Thompson and gave a louder voice to him and his cult following. His biggest criticism was after all his drug use though. In a 1974 interview with Playboy magazine, when his interviewer asked if he sat down and simply went on a drug rampage to write, Thompson replied to his critics, “No. It’s impossible to write anything down in my mind. Wild Turkey and tobacco are the only drugs I use regularly when I write. But I tend to write at night, so when the wheels slowed down, I occasionally indulged in a little speed- which I deplore and do not advocate.” In what would become a popular piece for the magazine, Thompson had come straight out to say that he did do all the crazy things he said, but he did not advocate them. People became outraged at all the use, but the culture came around to join Thompson. After all, the 70’s were a drug ridden time in American history.

Thompson, in the eyes of the public, was viewed as the leader of the drug culture. To boot he was using gonzo journalism to get his stories out. In a 1978 interview with S.M. Jackson for Commonwealth Times, Thompson let his use of drugs be known again when Jackson asked when the last time he tripped was, Hunter replied, “I’m under the influence of LSD right now and have been for days. I’ve learned to handle it. Drugs are good for me.” After the interviews release, people were again outraged. But Hunter had heard enough about it and decided to embrace his “power” as the face of the counter culture. His primary weapon to tell was of course gonzo journalism. But the use of gonzo to inform took a huge loop in 1972, when a new basis was touched on.

On the verge of one of the most heated political races in quite some time, Dr. Thompson went to the heads of Rolling Stone and realized something, this may be a music magazine for the youth, but we can turn this into a powerful political system. So he pitched his idea, and the executives loved it. They loved it so much that they put him on the political beat, despite him trying to pawn it off to some other writer. So in 1972, Thompson joined the media to follow the Democratic candidate George McGovern. His notes too were formulated into a book, and it came to be known “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail of ’72.” To this day it is still considered the foremost leader in political journalism by many. The New York Times said about the book “The best account yet published of what it feels like to be out there in the middle of the American political process.” In his notes, Thompson included every bit of detail that came from the day, whether it mattered to the political process of not was irrelevant, the book still got people to understand. Thompson jumps around in the book from being at democratic camps with McGovern to Nixon’s campaign. Thompson was perhaps Nixon’s biggest opponent. The book would shed light into how cynical Richard Nixon really was. While doing an interview with J.P. O’ Rourke for the 25th anniversary for Rolling Stone Hunter spoke about then Attorney General Edwin Meese under Ronald Regan. Hunter said of Meese in the interview, “I believe that Ed Meese- being a person without any honor, a fat bastard, really a congenital cheap pig in the style of and on the level if Richard Nixon- should be locked in a concrete basement with an elk. And the elk should be ram-fed full of acid before he’s put in there” (O’Rourke). Just to show the impact over a decade after Nixon left office, Thompson was still bitter at the process that Nixon put him through. The gonzo got him, and Nixon would stay above him, never actually going after him after his time in office was up. As it would turn out, Hunter Thompson was selected to write Nixon’s obituary in Rolling Stone, the article went something like this;

“If the right people had been in charge of Nixon’s funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning.”

In this day and age with Dr. Gonzo himself has passed and left a legacy rotted with sweet stories of a deprived man who simply thought too little of the world, who is left to carry gonzo on to the next generation? Or the next? As it would seem gonzo is dying, in the sense that no one has taken it up in the new media. Underground sites like Hunter’s blog which is run by his wife do keep accounts and present articles in the same fashion, but in big media, there is little gonzo to be found. To search for a gonzo journalist today would be a lot like finding a Bush supporter in 2008, it is near impossible to find. Some believe that new Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi has the ability and style of a gonzo journalist. He is very familiar with Thompson and his work, seeing as Matt is a political writer for the magazine and has met Thompson before.

In the monthly magazine, Tabbi was given raving credit for his work covering both sides of the race, until leaning towards Obama. His article “Year of the Rat: A 2008 Campaign Diary” got raving reviews from readers. On the Web page for it readers wrote in saying “Taibbi, you’re the only reason I visit this stupid Rolling Stone Web Site with it’s horrible reviews. You could be the next Hunter Thompson. keep up the awesome work!”  Sadly this is the only sign of life in Hunter’s case.

In the thicket of the Vietnam War and President Johnson’s promise to carry on the legacy of President John F. Kennedy to land an American on the moon before the end of the 60’s, rock and roll was captivating young people with its anti war message and blues rhythm. It all started with an English band called The Yardbirds, who at the time were more than just a sensation. The Yardbirds rotated through three different and distinct guitarists who would all make their names immortal in Cleveland. The likes of Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page made their names with the band and all went on have illustrious careers.

But when the last of the three great guitarists left (Jimmy Page) it would put a silence on The Yardbirds who slowly faded into back up guitarists and low charting albums. Page’s entry into a new band in 1968 would spell history and change for the rock and roll world. Originally called the New Yardbirds, the band wanted to strike up a new identity . The start of the most impossible band would come with Led Zeppelin. The shear name of the band was improbable; a balloon made of led would never fly. But the band never flew, they simply kept on rising.

Combining behind Page as lead guitar, Robert Plant on vocals, John Paul Jones on bass, and John Bonham bangin’ the drums. The album self titled Led Zeppelin would make young girls shriek, young men chief, and change the business of rock forever. Stand out tracks on the record include “Dazed and Confused”, “Communication Breakdown”, and the live staple “How Many More Times”. Led Zeppelin would take off from there, gaining popularity boosts throughout the world.

It’s pretty well known about what songs the band would go on to make from there. Of course there’s “Stairway To Heaven” and “Over The Hills And Far Away” that nearly everyone has heard. “D’yer Mak’er” was the bands shot into the reggae world that the band nailed. It was an over whelming time for the band in the 70’s. From thriving on the charts to rumors of satanically undermining, Zeppelin was in the news everywhere. Tours and albums were almost an every year ordeal, traveling all across the globe; the band was an icon of superstar status.

Like all good things, Led Zeppelin had to end, but it took the death of drummer John Bonham to take the band down. So in 1980, Led Zeppelin would come to be an act for another decade.

Turning to solo careers, Page would go on to release several albums that didn’t turn out great while Plant did the same. Plant stayed a stray from the mic until 2009 when he teamed up with Allison Krause for what would be a well put together album.

Led Zeppelin hasn’t played together on the same stage with the surviving members of the band since December 10, 2007 at London’s 02 Arena. Talk of a reunion has been around for the past several months, but Plant is a no go for it. With out Robert Plant on lead vocals, there is no Led Zeppelin.

So to get to the point, what will never be. What will never be is another band like Zeppelin. Not only were they tremendously talented and lyrically gifted, but they arose at a high point of rock. Since the cycle of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, rock hasn’t been the same. Today’s rock and roll is a struggle to hit it big on the air waves that are controlled by larger corporations with predetermined play lists and play counts.

Single handedly arming rock with the weapons to make an impact again is Detroit native Jack White. The talented guitarist/singer/song writer/drummer/bassist is creating one stocked band after another to save rock. What helps him most is the almost cult following he has started, which is what rock needs most. The rebirth of rock is still in the works, who knows when and where it will happen but the work of Zeppelin will have an impact to keep the popular noise around.

“The right of nature… is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life.”

- Thomas Hobbes

The ideals of governments in the modern political world are in the saddest state the world has ever seen. Across the political realm of the world, governments are no longer a symbol of the people. Turn back the clocks 200 years and the politics of America are of complete dissent.

In 1776, fifty-six rebels of a short minded and inconsiderate mother country signed a document that declared that America would take it upon themselves to not only be free from a tyrannous alien government, but also to form a government that would tax the people of a new and free land. These men were amateurs. Amateurs at breaking away from a country that protected and supplied them while taking advantage of them. Amateurs at coming up with ideas of how a free nation should be ran.

America was an idea. A place where people could seek religious freedom or a leave a life that was no longer fit. To start such a nation, men would have to take the roll of heroes to make this country work. Men like John Adams. Adams may be best known for his lack of work as the first Vice President of the United States, but Adams did so much more as a country man beforehand. The simple lawyer represented the most politically rich area of the country when he said that we need to go to war and face an opponent that is more unified, better equipped, and better trained. Facing a giant, Adams saw the war as the greatest chance to make a country by using men fighting for a cause. Call it a bold move or a political idea, he was right. If we took men to fight for a united cause, we could in turn do something great.

Don’t Tread On Me

Spoiler alert: America wins its independence. So here we are. We’ve started to act like a real country. We have started a war, built an alliance, and accumulated debt. Now all that’s left to do is form an outline for how our government will be used to run the country. Enter: the Articles of Confederation. Probably the weakest form of government ever drawn up, but what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger. It’s true the Articles didn’t cause the demise of the U.S. but how close did they come?

Passed in1777, the document that would rule the land for a mere 12 years, prevented some of the most important roles in the government to have wiggle room. The government couldn’t levy taxes to support itself which is what governments need to use in order to pay for services and protection. The Second Continental Congress passed certain laws to limit the government from being too powerful, fearing a second coming of the situation that America had just left. People demanded something better to be brought upon to make an effective, yet controlled government. The Constitution would meet everyone’s needs and then some.

The Good Times Are Killing Me

By the time the Constitution was passed people demanded their rights be spelled out for everyone. The first ten amendments, better known as the Bill of Rights, did what no other form of democratic government could do. Thanks to this, we all have the rights that many countries resent us for. Freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of religion are perhaps the greatest rights that anyone has been granted by their government. This was all done by men who had no idea what they were doing, other than knowing they had to take action. Together they formed an institution for how we would live our lives today.

It couldn’t have been aneasy thing to set up. A few years after a bloody war, people wanted security and rights to know that they would be taken care of. So essentially what the Constitution did was reassure people that we are on our own and better off. The creative party that would be would give power to three branches, the legislative, judicial, and executive (headed by one man). The one man selected for the job would be none other than a war hero who had gotten the country to this point in history. The obvious leadership qualities echoed dimly as George Washington took the first Presidential Oath of Office.

From there on out strides towards history would be made. Instances like Marbury v. Madison that set up judicial review and Hamilton’s case for a national bank; ordinary people took on the rolls of extraordinary men.

Bulls On Parade

Conceptual American government went on to see its triumphs and tragedies. We have seen the likes of four term presidents to the assassination of presidents. We watched as an American stepped foot on soil of a foreign planet and saw men die trying to get there. But the likelihood of seeing what we all have seen today, is something that the forefathers of this country would weep over. President Washington in his farewell speech from office warned people of what the damage could be if political parties took over. Over 200 years ago, Washington predicted a problem of today.

The controversy of health care reform is the talk of towns everywhere. Just the idea of formulating an affordable and effective way to cover all Americans is something that many just aren’t ready for. We came out in record numbers to vote for a leader in Barack Obama to show us the way to feeling safe again. Safe that none of us have to worry; if I get sick tomorrow, can I get help getting better? Safety in once again being able to buy goods and services that come from this country. Safety in the job market, with staggering numbers of people unemployed in this country, we really haven’t had the ability to spend money on non-essential things. People, we are hurting ourselves and finally no one is left to blame but ourselves.

Perhaps the biggest problem lies within the breeding of our political system. Kids with predominately rich backgrounds are being brought up to face a world that is pre-cut for them through greed and angst. Congressmen, they are elected to serve the people. In the biggest sense of the word, they are the closest to people as you can get in Washington. They are ex-school teachers or lawyers who see a problem and think ‘Hey I can fix that!’ but in short, they can’t. Senators are the worst of them all in the house. The upper house that is, where they stay and accept their lobbyist paychecks to fund their next campaign. Nothing can be done about this because there are two types of Senators. There are the ones who do nothing and the ones who work for money to run and only worry about the next campaign. It is quite possible in my eyes, that the men elected in the senate are looking at this bill are forgetting their constituents and saying fuck you, I get health care, may you should have graduated from one of our pristine universities that will put you into debt for the rest of your life.

What I am trying to say here is that it’s no longer about the people; it’s about the money and sex scandals and the next term. What’s sickening is we are doing nothing about it. Think back to the 60’s and 70’s, the drug culture and the Vietnam War. People back then protested when they knew something this wrong was going on, but today with our involvement in a war that is questionable with our involvement, little outcry on the scale of the Vietnam War has been done.

In Mexico, new legislation has recently been passed that allows for citizens to carry a personal amount of marijuana on them with no penalty. Granted the drug corrupted system in Mexico where jails are overcrowded to drug related offenses is cause for some of this. In this 3^rd world country to our south, they have managed to get past the religious views and get a final pass on gay marriage.

This Is Your Life And It’s Ending One Minute At A Time

So where do our problems in America lie? Is it the government and the whores that make it run? Wait, no, it has to be the rest of the world, right? Wrong. The biggest problem in America—other than the men running it feel they are seasoned and know what to expect but they really are just as lost as all of us—is there is no counter culture calling the shots in the underground. Ask Tyler Durden and he’ll say:

“Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not… fuck with us.”

The counter culture makes the news, they are the ones who make the perfect world of congressmen and senators go round, yet we aren’t playing the cards we’ve been dealt. If we had half the mind of revolution in this country, do you think we’d be better off?

“Your anger is a gift.”
- Zack de la Rocha