The third base that we visited yesterday, was by far the craziest.

Camp Bala Hissar has one mission, to monitor and protect the Aerostat balloon. It looks like a small blimp that hovers over Kabul, and is fixed with high res cameras and surveillance equipment that is operated by civilian defense contractors. This ‘balloon’ helps our troops keep track of possible targets, and allows an overview of the city day and night. I heard that it’s a 25 million dollar balloon! You should see how big the helium tanks are for this thing!!!

This base is built into the side of a mountain in Kabul.  The top of the mountain is protected by Afghan National Army troops, who work hand in hand with the US soldiers.

Let’s just say, they are not used to having a woman around… Especially a woman like me!

The US troops that are in Bala Hissar right now, are half Mass troops and half from Alabama! This place is a cultural melting pot, and it works! They are very isolated fro the other bases, and are completely self contained. They build everything on base themselves, including the basketball court!

The hoop is a perfectly bent piece of rebar! These guys have skills.

The most amazing part of this base, is what it’s named after. Bala Hissar, is a 1000 year old fort that was designed and built by Genghis Kahn, and the ruins of this fort still stand right above the camp! Check out some of these pictures. It’s so amazing here. With the amount of unrest that this area has seen over the last 1000 years, it is unbelievable that these walls still stand! They just don’t build things like this anymore!

We had to take the toursist shot! The views here are unlike anything that I have ever seen!

And even though you are surrounded by beauty, there are still obvious reminders of the destruction that this area has seen over the years!

This is where you would have lived, if you were a high ranking officer in the time of Kahn! Not too bad!

This is a lake bed, that is filled naturally at certain times of the year by runoff from the mountains. This entire area, was designed by Genghis Kahn himself. There is irrigation tunnels, and aqueducts that move the water around the village. And we spent 15 billion on the Big Dig???

And even thought this is a ‘War Zone’ the kids still play like every other kid, in any country in the world.

Here are some more pics of the surrounding area.

Click here for more historical informationn on this amazing area of the world!

Thanks to the guys of Task Force Yankee for a great day!

Yesterday, I had the chance to visit 3 bases around Kabul. Camp Eggers, NKC (New Kabul Complex), and Bala Hassir.

Here are some of the poeple that I met!

CAMP EGGERS!

I took this picture for the Boston Firefighters Local 716, who sponsored the trip! I wanted to make sure that I tracked down the firefighters while I was here!

YUP! There’s a GREEN Monster in Kabul!

AKC

Yeah, WAAF is takaing over Kabul… One ‘jingle bus’ at a time!

There’s a “Perfect Storm” brewing over immigration in the Commonwealth, and the news that Barack Obama’s illegal immigrant uncle got busted in Framingham for a DWI last week is only going to make it worse.

For most of last week, I spoke to callers on the show who were outraged that an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, Nicolas Guaman, struck a Milford man,  Matthew Denice , while he was riding his motorcycle, and dragged him a quarter of mile under his truck, eventually backing over and killing him.  This ass-hat was, of course, hammered at the time, and it was not, shockingly, his first run-in with the law.

The Governor’s office issued a lame statement and Do Very Little Patrick was able to avoid comment, until Friday, when the intrepid John Keller of Channel 4 pressed him on it during an “Irene” press conference.  “Illegal immigration didn’t kill that man, a drunk driver did” was the ingenious answer our Governor chose to give.  Wonder how he would feel it was his family member who was mowed down by a drunk illegal who should have been tossed from the country years ago?

Now we learn that the President’s long lost uncle, Onyango Obama, was arrested in Framingham last Wednesday for nearly running into a cruiser.  When asked if he wanted to make a phone call, he is reported to have, of course, replied “I think I’d like to call the White House”.  Of course, who else would come to the aid of someone who was ordered out of the country years ago but stayed so he could commit crimes?

Is any of this surprising?  Illegals choose Massachusetts because our Governor wants it to be a safe haven.  How safe is it?  Is it surprising that those who have already broken the law by coming here will continue to break it and expect no consequences?  Is it surprising that President’s uncle (and aunt) who were supposed to be deported years ago are still living here, threatening to call the White House when they get yanked over for seeing double?

We only hold you accountable in this country if you were born here.  Otherwise, it’s a free ride.  Here’s hoping the “eye” of this Perfect Storm of immigration settles right over the Governor’s mansion in the Berkshires and it’s one he is finally unable to “ride out”.

We spent some time this morning discussing Dr. David Ludwig of Children’s Hospital in Boston, who has written an article suggesting that obese children be removed from their parents homes and placed in foster care.

I should state at the outset that I am not a doctor, however, I am a parent and I think I have some expertise when it comes to this.  How could it ever be a positive for a child to be forcibly removed from their home and placed in a home of strangers so they can lose weight?  Won’t the psychological trauma of being dragged from your bedroom because you are fat be worse than the physiological risk of carrying a few extra pounds?

It’s a fact that it is a health risk to be over-weight.  It’s also a health risk to get a concussion playing football or soccer.  Are we going to send the Parenting Police in to take kids whose parents let them play Pop Warner?  How bout bike riding?  Dangerous activity if you aren’t doing it right.  If you have a kid who spends a ton of time on the computer, we might take him to foster care because of the carpal tunnel risk!

We definitely need to educate some parents about creating a proper diet and exercise routing for their kids.  If a parent can’t find the time, or the energy, to feed their kid healthy meals, they need to be taught how to do it and, maybe, charged with neglect if they are repeatedly failing to help their child get healthy.  But to pull a kid out of a home, at the taxpayer’s expense, and make him or her live with a new family, is just stupid.

For my most recent vacation I took the wife for a tropical paradise getaway to…CLEVELAND!  While this city’s reputation has only mildly improved since its “Mistake On The Lake” days in the 70′s, it actually is a great little city with some great destinations.  Of course, like any city it still has its bad parts.  But as long as you keep your car doors locked and arrange for that hooker through the hotel concierge you should be okay.  The main destination these days is the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, located on the scenic shores of Lake Erie.

The “Rock Hall” is a sprawling complex including a Louvre-like glass pyramid containing multiple levels of multimedia presentations of Inductees, artifacts, interactive audio and video, movie theaters, and the obligatory overpriced cafe and gift shop.  I could have spent hours meticulously pouring over the plethora of Rock history but we were only in Cleveland for one night and the wife wanted to get shit faced and have hotel sex.  The real bummer was not being able to take pictures.  Every time I tried to sneak one a staff member wearing their signifying faux letter jacket with distinctive “flair” would appear out of nowhere and give me the evil eye.  Despite their penchant for enforcing the rules, the staff were otherwise well informed and very helpful.  They were also some of the most colossal music nerds I have ever encountered… so we got along great.  Here are some of the more notable pieces(or what I remember) from the Rock Hall.

• The first thing we encountered was Johnny Cash’s Tour Bus, “Unit One”.  Cash’s “Home” while touring the last two decades of his life.  The Kitchen cubby table was made from wood taken from Cash’s childhood home in Tennessee and his wife June’s compartment was upholstered with sky blue velor.  Her door also had an antique brass plaque that said “Royal Box”, stolen by  Johnny from a theater in England.  June was apparently so thrilled to be sitting in the Queen’s seats that Johnny stole the plaque for his “Queenie”.  This was the first instance to bring me near tears during my visit.  Hey whatever – it’s Johnny Cash!
• In the Lobby they had a couple of the cars from U2′s “Zoo TV” tour hanging from the ceiling along with Phish’s giant Hot Dog with headlights they rode to the stage for the last show at the old Boston Garden.
• The awning from CBGB’s was hanging over the rear exit.  It’s amazing the thing is mostly still in one piece.  It would have been even better if they had moved one of the bathrooms from the legendary club to the Hall but I’m sure those were destroyed for health reasons.
• The whole first level of the hall is dedicated to the people who blazed the trail and created “Rock And Roll”.  Many blues and country artists are recognized as well as people who mixed those forms to create Rockabilly and Soul music.  Seeing Muddy Waters acoustic and electric guitars was thrilling. the sounds he invented on those instruments are still being copied by millions even today.  Also seeing Leadbelly’s acoustic guitar and trying to imagine the places it’s been and the standards he created on it.  Howling Wolf’s Money Case was on display next to his guitar.  The Wolf didn’t trust banks. He kept all his money and valuables in this old battered suitcase which he brought with him everywhere he went, including on stage during performances, so he could keep an eye on it while he was playing.
• They had a montage of early Anti-Rock propaganda films from the 50′s on a continuous loop in the small exhibit dedicated to the subject.  Various priests, elected officials, civic leaders, bad actors and other assholes deriding the new art form for being “Immoral”, “Pornographic”, “Communist”, “Evil”, “the cause of the spread of various venereal diseases”.  Basically all the things that make Rock And Roll fun.
• My second and third instance of nearly busting out crying came seeing one of Dimebag Darrel’s guitars in the disappointingly small Heavy Metal section, and then when I spotted Randy Rhodes polka-dotted Flying-V along with the stage outfit he wore on the last tour before his death.  Both are featured on the cover of the Ozzy Osbourne “Tribute” album.  Whatever,  I was highly emotional after seeing an old TV appearance of Michael Jackson singing “Ben” when he was 10.  It’s just so sad what he did to his face after that. I’m having trouble just typing this.
• I also came close to seeing Duane Allman’s 1959 Les Paul which he used for the recording of “Layla” with Derek And The Dominoes and “Live At The Fillmore East”.  He also carved “Duane” in giant letters on the back with and old fret.  Just to make sure the stoned roadies knew whose it was.
• The small collection of Who artifacts was cool especially the leather fringe outfit Roger Daltry wore for “The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus”.  Quite possibly their finest recorded performance.  I also wondered how many times Keith Moon puked on his platform shoes, also on display.
• It was also cool to see the huge collection of handwritten lyrics they had spread out through the Hall.  They had the bar napkin that Doc Pomus scribbled the first few lyrics on for “Save The Last Dance For Me”.  Jimi Hendrix’s excellent penmanship was showcased on the sheet of Hotel stationary which had the lyrics for “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)”.  And the surprisingly neat writing of Dee Dee Ramone on the back of a piece of cardboard for “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment”.
• Speaking of the Ramones, it was cool to see one of Johnny’s original Mosrite guitars and one of Joey’s signature leather jackets.
• Pink Floyd was featured in a small exhibit dedicated to The Wall with the original marionette school teacher and the Hotel room set with TV, couch, and neon sign where Roger Waters would sing “One Of My Turns”. Eyebrows not included.
• The Featured Exhibit was “Women Who Rock” and contained mostly outfits and costumes various pioneering ladies wore during their careers.  I particularly liked Heart’s Anne and Nancy Wilson’s outfits from the “Dream Boat Annie” album cover and Joan Jett’s outfit from the cover of the “I Love Rock -N- Roll” album.  I always say – I would make love to only one man, and that man is Joan Jett.
• The Beatles Contract Of Dissolution was interesting to me.  It was about 2 inches thick and signed by all four members.  I’m not a Beatles hater but I found this more interesting than the guitars John and Paul wrote “In My Life” with.  The Beatles not only influenced Rock And Roll Music but also the Business of Rock.  Whether you accept it or not, Rock is a business.  You can participate in it or not.  The Beatles were pioneers in making and breaking the band as a company.
• There were other interesting contracts like John Lee Hookers receipt of payment from Chess records minus the booze and suits.  The Rolling Stones “Food Memo” which was mostly liquor and a modest amount I must say by the Stone’s legendary myth.  2 Bottles of Jack, 2 Bottles of  Scotch, a bottle each of vodka, gin, and rum.  A couple cases of red and white wine and a case of Guinness.  There was the Sub Pop recording contract handwritten(in pencil I think) on notebook paper signing up a local Seattle band called Soundgarden.
• Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones Jacket he wore in “The Song Remains The Same” and one of his beautiful custom basses he used on the 77 US tour. Other than a Jimmy Page Les Paul Guitar there wasn’t much Zeppelin stuff.
• The Hot Rod from all of the ZZ Top “Eliminator” videos.  First thing I thought when I saw it was, “You can’t fit three hot chicks and a geeky guy in that.”
• Keith Richard’s love faxes to Marianne Faithful telling her she was the “greatest” and that he will “always love her” and asking where his socks were from their one tryst.  As Keith tells it in his book “Life” he went to sleep with Marianne after hearing her boyfriend Mick Jagger was having an affair with his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg.  After getting it on Mick comes home early and Keith has to jump out of the bedroom window without his socks.  apparently it was a running joke between the two for many years.
• A few rejection letters U2 received in the late 70′s from record labels saying things like, “not quite what we’re looking for” and ”Be assured, we listened to your tape but can’t help you right now.”

Over all it was a good experience and well worth the trip to Cleveland.  If you do go set aside a whole day to see everything.  To me, it did feel a little off, having everything neatly organized and clean for tourists to ogle at then buy t-shirts as they exited through the gift shop.  Rock is supposed to be dirty and be able to birth great beauty through chaos.  But that’s my Rock N Roll.  Yours maybe cleaner or dirtier.  I like to think of the moments;  the moment you first saw this band or heard that album, or the moment that band was brilliant or became a shitty mess on stage.  You may have seen a band whose show was the greatest Rock n Roll moment of your life and then they broke up two weeks later and will never be in the Rock Hall of Fame.

I realized that things like the Rock And Roll Hall Of fame were necessary when I heard two girls who looked to be in their 20′s talking behind me in the Blues section That had a big picture off B.B. King with a giant label saying so. The exchange went something like this: ”Hey, there’s that dude we saw on Youtube.  What’s his name….Buddy King?”   I guess they get points for getting it half right and watching either King or Buddy Guy on Youtube.

In the spirit of Rock N Roll and all that is right with Cleveland, here’s a picture of an enormous hot dog to finish this travelogue out classy-like:

Let’s try to figure out why President Obama didn’t release a traditional Easter Statement, like most of his predecessors have.  Does the man hate peeps or something?

In 2007, President Bush said “Let us join together and give thanks to the Almighty for the glory of his grace”.  In 2008, he said “Easter commemorates our Savior’s triumph over sin and we take joy in spending this special time with family and friends”.  On Sunday, it appears President Obama most likely said “what time are we teeing off this afternoon?”

In a country built on judeo-christian values, with a predominately Christian population, there is something odd about ignoring an Easter statement or message.  Is he doing it just to screw with his critics?  Or is he concerned about acknowledging this country’s Christian tradition to the muslims around the world he seems hell-bent on bending over backwards to placate?

I don’t care if the President issues religious holiday statements or not.  But why would he go out of his way to issue statements on all of the major Muslim holidays but ignore Easter?  It’s like Cam Neely thanking everybody but Michael Ryder for that game five win the other night.  Most of this country was celebrating Easter Sunday.  At Church, with family, or chomping at a Honey-Baked Ham, it’s what we were doing.  I’m sorry, but most of us were not observing Hajj, or Eid-ul-Adha, as much as this “citizen of the world” might wish we were.  And, of course, we got full presidential statements for those days.

There’s nothing wrong or offensive with this country’s religious history.  I’m not a religious person but I can appreciate the role it played in the founding and formation of our country.  I’m tired of those who walk around on Easter egg shells, terrified of owning up to what we are.  We are a country that, for the most part, celebrates religious holidays like Christmas and Easter.  There’s nothing wrong with that.

The White House began the traditional Easter Egg Hunt in 1878.  It seems like next year, it ought to be called the Christ Hunt.  Let’s see if we can find what happened to any mention of Jesus when it comes to Easter.  By the way, there was an 8 page statement commemorating Earth day.

Should a state funded website be advising teenagers on how to have an abortion and keep it secret from their parents?  The Boston Herald has an interesting piece on this today and it doesn’t bother me at all.

The website is mariatalks.com, where “Maria” and her friends answer questions and offer advice on contraception, safe sex and abortion.  Whether the far, far right likes it or not, abortion is legal and teenagers have the right to seek that procedure if they so desire.  Massachusetts’ law requires those under 18 to get approval of one parent or a judge if they wish to have an abortion.  Critics of the website say “Maria” is encouraging teenagers to avoid speaking to the parents and go directly to court.

While I hope that parents and kids would be able to discuss the issue and come to the best decision for all involved, I am sure you can’t count on it in a lot of cases.  Do we really want teenagers making an uniformed decision that leads to another kid brought into the world with no one to care for him/her?

Taxpayers are contributing $100,000 to the website through a DPH grant.  To me, it’s money well spent.  How much does this state spend a year on kids who were brought into the world by parents who couldn’t care less about them?

I almost jumped up and knocked my chins into to my dip cup when I saw Senator Harry Reid say that Congress would consider holding hearings into the Quran burning incident at the Florida church of Pastor Terry Jones on “Face the Nation” yesterday.

Never mind the massive waste of time and money, what could Congress possibly learn from examining the actions of one mentally deranged, self aggrandizing Pastor and his flock of phonies?

As a texter to the show said today “where was Harry Reid when it came to investigating the Westboro Baptist Church and the disgusting action they take at military funerals”?

Free speech is often times painful.  It’s the N-word.  It’s sexist.  It’s racist.  It’s writing a book about how to diddle kids and putting it on-line.  It’s burning the American Flag and our presidents in effigy. And it most certainly is burning books.  As much as you want to punch the guy in the face, he has a right to do it.  And we really do have to defend his right.

The burning has apparently led to at least 20 deaths in Afghanistan.  That is awful and it should remind Harry Reid that the people that will commit these crimes are not your average religious person.  They are fanatics.  They believe that killing in the name of their god is justified.  We don’t need to hold Congressional hearings to stop a wacko Florida pastor from burning the Quran-we need to seek out the fanatics, in any religion, who use their faith to justify murder.

When the military tells us that those actions are putting our troops in harm’s way, it should make us pause.  And we, as fellow Americans, should do whatever we can to discourage this ass hat from doing it ever again.  But, as painful as it might be, we have to stand up for his right to be a moron.

Breaking news from Abercrombie and Fitch: If your 7 year old daughter wants to strut the beach this summer looking more endowed in the chest area than she really is, she will now have to resort back to the old, tried and true “Kleenex” stuffing method.
Wilting under the pressure, and probably tired of everyone looking at them like they are diddlers, company officials announced via Facebook today that they will no longer sell “Padded Push Up” bikini tops for girls as young as seven. The company acknowledges that they are more appropriate for girls who are 12 and older.
Thank god. Can you imagine the problems a bunch of top heavy pre-teens could cause at the local beach this summer? My 11 year old son wouldn’t be able to focus on skim boarding up at Ocean Park.
Abercrombie doesn’t explain on Facebook how an entire company of adults somehow came to the conclusion that padded bikini tops for grammar school kids was an epic idea. It had to pass through more than one person right? I’m all for big breasts, don’t get me wrong, I just tend to think we ought to keep them on the adult ladies, or guys like me who haven’t been on the treadmill lately.
Should there be a law about provocative clothing? Or should there be a law about parents who allow, or encourage, their kids to dress like sluts? Abercrombie wouldn’t make this stuff if some manic beauty queen mom wasn’t buying for their princess.
You can’t control what a private business wants to sell. You can ask the question though about when a company has crossed the line. When you are presenting seven year olds with the opportunity to make their boobs look big, are you not encouraging kiddie porn like behavior? Or at the very least, embarrassing a bunch of normal people just trying to have fun at the beach.

The Foo Fighters played a surprise gig at the 300 capacity Velvet Jones Club in Santa Barabara, CA last Friday.  They played the entire new album, which is due out in the Spring, and a set of older favorites.  I did an interview with Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins in 2008 and they were throwing around the idea of doing an album of all new stuff live.  Dave talked about recording surprise gigs and releasing the best stuff.  The new album is already done, but I hope they still pursue that idea.  They are a great live band.  Below is a video of a new song called “These Days” from the Velvet Jones show.