Wisconsin Doubleheader on Sunday Morning!

Rep. Paul Ryan on "Face The Nation" and Gov. Scott Walker on "Fox News Sunday". Two of the R.C. Blog's favorites....

Joe Bonamassa "Dust Bowl" Album To Be Released In March

The world's No. 1 guitarist and blues man Joe Bonamassa is set to release his latest studio album "Dust Bowl" on March 22. You can pre-order the new album by clicking on the album cover link below.

This is Bonamassa’s ninth studio release on his own J&R Adventures label, which he created with longtime manager Roy Weisman. Dust Bowl was produced by Kevin “Caveman” Shirley (Black Crowes, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin) making it their sixth collaboration in five years. Shirley most recently produced Bonamassa’s 2010 release Black Rock, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Blues Chart and #39 on the Top 200.

Dust Bowl was recorded in sessions at Black Rock Studios in Santorini, Greece, Ben’s Studio in Nashville, TN, The Cave in Malibu, CA and The Village in Los Angeles, CA. It combines the gritty, blues-based tones of Bonamassa’s first albums with the fluid, genre-defying sounds he’s mastered in the years since and adds a dash of country from Joe’s collaborations with the best of Nashville including legends Vince Gill and John Hiatt.

“Dust Bowl,” Shirley explains, “is very firmly rooted in the Blues, but definitely explores the outer reaches of the genre and showcases Joe’s amazing virtuosity as he digs deep into his psyche in some lengthy and blistering guitar solos.”

“This is the best album we’ve ever done,” adds Bonamassa. “I’m finding more inspiration in storytelling in my 30s, in writing songs that are about something more profound than ‘my baby left me.’ I like albums that are made with the right intentions and sound organic and a little rough around the edges, like a great band playing live in the room, and that’s what we accomplished with Dust Bowl.”

On the John Hiatt/John Porter-penned “Tennessee Plates,” Hiatt duets with Bonamassa and Vince Gill lends his signature guitar stylings. Gill also plays on “Sweet Rowena,” a song he composed with frequent writing partner Pete Wasner. Arlan Scheirbaum, Beth Hart and Blondie Chaplin play on the Michael Kamen/Tim Curry track “No Love On The Street,” and Glenn Hughes sings on the Paul Rodgers-penned “Heartbreaker.”

The album opens with Bonamassa originals “Slow Train,” an old-style British Blues song, and title track “Dust Bowl,” the album’s first single. “The title track of the album just describes my life. It really fits my voice, it fits me as a solo artist and just has a really nice feel to it.” Other standout originals include “Black Lung Heartache,” “The Last Matador of Bayonne,” and “The Whale That Swallowed Jonah.”

The Madison Disgrace

Column by Larry Kudlow on National Review Online:

The Democratic/government-union days of rage in Madison, Wis., are a disgrace. Paul Ryan calls it Cairo coming to Madison. But the protesters in Egypt were pro-Democracy. The government-union protesters in Madison are anti-democracy. In fact, Democratic legislators are fleeing the state so as not to vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cuts.

The teachers union is going on strike in Milwaukee and elsewhere. They ought to be fired. Think Reagan PATCO in 1981. Think Calvin Coolidge police strike in 1919.

Governor Walker is facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit, and he wants state workers to pay one-half of their pension costs and 12.6 percent of their health benefits. Currently, most state employees pay nothing for their pensions and virtually nothing for their health insurance. That’s an outrage.

Nationwide, state and local government unions have a 45 percent total-compensation advantage over their private-sector counterpart. With high-pay compensation and virtually no benefits co-pay, the politically arrogant unions are bankrupting America — which by some estimates is suffering from $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Exempting police, fire, and state troopers, Governor Walker would end collective bargaining for the rest. Unions could still represent workers, but could not get pay increases above the CPI. Nor could they force employees to pay dues. And in exchange for this, Walker promises no furloughs for layoffs.

So, having lost badly in the last election, the government-union Democrats have taken to the streets. This is a European-style revolt, like those seen in Greece, France, and elsewhere. So it becomes greater than just a fiscal issue. It is becoming a law-and-order issue.

President Obama, who keeps telling us he’s a budget cutter, has taken the side of the public unions. John Boehner correctly rapped Obama’s knuckles for this. If the state of Wisconsin voters elected a Chris Christie-type governor with a Republican legislature, then it is a local states’ rights issue.

Obama should stay out. And Governor Walker should stand tall and stick to his principles. Otherwise, a nationwide revolt of state-government unions will destroy the country as well as its finances.

Wisconsin Govenor Scott Walker Goes After State Public Unions

The RC Blog proudly supported Scott Walker for governor of Wisconsin almost two years ago and predicted that he would quickly become not only a star in the Midwest, but one in the nation.  He has not disappointed.

He rocked Madison with Friday's announcement that the Wisconsin legislature would take up a bill that he supports that disbands the state's public unions and requires state employees to contribute more to pensions and health insurance.  With a vote in the Wisconsin Senate expected today, the WI Democratic members left the state! There are also mass revolts in the streets of Wisconsin.  This all comes on the heels of his decision to send Federal funds for high speed rail from Milwaukee to Madison back to Washington, which roiled Dems nationwide.

Over the past 48 hours, Gov. Walker has been vilified by the press and seems to have taken the title as "Most Hated U.S. Conservative" by the Mainstream Media from Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli.  Thumbs up to Gov. Walker in his attempt to fix the state's budget and put Wisconsin on better footing for the future.  Unions nationwide have been a core component of our nation's fall over the past 25 years.  They have outlived their usefulness.

We continue to support and applaud Governor Walkers efforts.

Heritage Foundation Tribute to Ronald Reagan