Norton Buffalo (1951-2009)







From the Midnight Blues Society on Facebook :

"It is with a heavy heart to report that Norton Buffalo passed away today, 10/30/09....he was a good human being, with a great musical talent and a big heart...more information about his memorial and this benefit will be forthcoming, for now, our thoughts are for his peace...and his wife and family...R.I.P. Norton"

At Norton's request the benefit will feature. . . Big Mo and Friends, Carlos Reyes and Friends, Tom Rigney and Flambeau and Roy Rogers and The Delta Rhythm Kings. $40 General Admission. Call Bill Anderson toll free 1-877-397-3363 10am to 10pm or send check payable to PPAC c/o Bill Anderson, 6848U Skyway, Paradise CA 95969. Stay at Ponderosa Gardens Motel, 7010 Skyway. Reservations: 1-888-727-3423. They are donating ten rooms for performers!

Norton Buffalo, one of the multi-talented and brilliant harmonica players and well-known singer and songwriter died after battling with lung cancer on October 30, 2009. Norton Buffalo was famous for his strong and expressive performance in harmonium as well regarded as a distinguished and remarkable songwriter, singer, producer and engineer. He was 57 years old at the time of his death.

He was suffering from pneumonia and stage four lung cancer. This brutal stage of cancer had spread to his brain. He had trouble breathing and as he got himself checked, it was diagnosed that he has severe lung cancer.

Oakland born Buffalo started his career from very early age under the guidance of his father, who was also a harmonica player. During his high school education, he performed in a number of bands. In the early 1970s he got fame as a popular San Francisco Bay Area musician and singer. He started playing with different musical groups as Elvin Bis, Clover, and The Moonlighters.

He also performed in numerous films. He gave his appearance for a cameo role in a rock movie, “The Rose” in which he was accompanied by Bette Midler, he played the role harmonica player. “Heaven’s Gate” was his second movie in which he again used to play a cameo role.

He was much an endowed artist and his death is a big loss for music. In 1978, he won a Grammy for his performance as harmonica player at a track of “The Doobie Brothers”

From Norton's own words:

"When I arrived home from Boston, on Sunday night, I was so happy to be home. Our home in Paradise is so beautiful right now with Lisa’s garden going strong and so much wonderful food to eat off our property. Unfortunately, later that evening, I started having some serious coughing spasms that went on for hours. My wife wanted me to go to the hospital that night and I refused. I wanted to relish my first night at home.

First thing Monday morning, Lisa called a local pulmonary specialist and he recommended that I go check into the hospital ER. We headed to the hospital and I am now about to begin my third day here. My pneumonia had gotten worse and there were signs that it was not your average, easy to kill kinda funk. I’ve been poked prodded and had a load of diagnostic tests and procedures. Without going into all the details, lets just say that the doctors have confirmed what I knew all along. I am seriously ill and need to let them use their big guns to get through this bug and onward to good health.

OK, so I thought that pneumonia was a bad bug… but, YIKES! ... Last Wednesday night (Sept 2), I got the word from my doctor, that I had cancer in my lower right lung which has spread around a bit. Technically speaking it’s considered a Stage 4 Adenocarcinoma of the lower right lobe. Thursday I got the results from my MRI, that it is in my brain as well.

So Lisa and I headed up to Montana to see an old friend of hers who is an amazing healer, J.C. Hugh MacKimmie. You can find out more about Doc MacKimmie, or order a book about his life through this site Presence of Angels • A Healer’s Life.

Doc MacKimmie has been working on me for the past couple days and it is amazing to feel the transformation that is happening in my body. I wanted to do this before the Western doctors began trying to pummel my devine body with toxic chemicals and radiation. I am already seeing that my body can change the reality it is facing today and become whole again. I will take this all one day at a time. I feel truly blessed!!!

I am putting all of my energy into healing my body, focusing all of my spirit on divine beauty, love and positive thinking. I, with the grace of God, will rise above and get through this. I am having to take time out for Norton… (something I have not been very good at over the years), and learning the lessons that this twist in the road has to teach me. I truly believe that I will heal. I am not alone. I am so blessed to have my truly amazing angel, Lisa, by my side to help keep me on my path and to care for me… and I have an army of friends, musical brothers and sisters as well as thousands of fans from around the world who are keeping me in their thoughts and prayers as I move into these perilous waters.

Thank you all for your support. I will be setting up a page here on my website that keeps me up to date and allows you to comment. ... meanwhile feel free to drop me a note at the ’‘Fan Club E-Mail” link above. ... I receive all of those letters and would love to hear from you."

Norton actually called me from Montreal, (we talked for almost a half hour), to inform me that he had walking pneumonia, and promised he would "rest up" when he returned from his last gig with Miller in Boston. Norton also told me that while the rest of the crew knew he had been "under the weather", "Miller was the only one that didn't know" (and he chuckled that the secret was kept from Miller).

I was the backstage talent coordinator for this years Blues by the Bay. Norton was scheduled to play Saturday afternoon on Sept. 5th, and I had left a message on his private cell to call me back to finalize some travel arrangements. What a surprise when my cell rang and there on the phone display was the name "Norton Buffalo". After we took care of the "business" part of the conversation, (where Norton informed me of his coughing spells and promised me he would rest up when he got home to Paradise), we then proceeded to talk about all sorts of things---about how much the music industry had change since the seventies, playing throughout the Bay Area with the talent like the Doobie Bros and later with Steve Miller. At some point in our conversation, I told Norton that I had been playing blues harps for more than thirty years and "still sounded like crap", and although playing in front of friends locally, I never thought about performing in front of a crowd. Norton then said, "Kenny, if you liked the sound, who gives a shit what anyone else thinks--you play to your passions first". It was quite inspirational to hear this coming from one of the greatest Harp players to ever grace this planet. We talked some more and then Norton said, "shit Kenny, I bet this call is costing me over 30 cents a minute from up here in Montreal, so I'll give ya a call when I get home and I'll look forward to seeing you when I get to Eureka". Little did either of us know, (at the time), this would be our last conversation. Thank you Norton, for sharing those thirty minutes of your life with me while we became friends. I can't help but think he made thousands of friends this way throughout his shortened life. That's just the way he was. Rest in peace, my friend.

Update: The Doobie Brothers have a tribute up at their site.

Crystal Clear News-Lite

Defining Health Care

Kathleen Sebelius Will Decide the meaning of common medical and health insurance terms such as “hospitalization,” "physician services," “premium,” "prescription drug coverage," “deductible,” and “emergency room care.”

“Giving the secretary the power to define and regulate all products in the exchange, you essentially remove all consumer choice.” Devon Herrick--health economist at the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Forget a Constitutional Challenge

Robert Gibbs said there is no "veracity" to the argument that the U.S. Constitution does not authorize the federal government to force individuals to buy health insurance.

The Congressional Budget Office has said that the federal government has never before in American history forced Americans to purchase any good or service.

Final Stages/Strong-arm Tactics

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference she and her leadership were entering the "final stages" of assembling a health care bill to be voted on this fall. Officials have said the measure would cost $871 billion over a decade, but that total excluded a handful of items not directly related to expanded coverage that would push the total to well over $1 trillion.

Pelosi told reporters a provision eliminating the health insurance industry's exemption from federal antitrust law would be incorporated into the House measure.

Kudlow Rips Barney Frank and Sister Station MSNBC

“Was there a conservative there?” Kudlow asked. “I saw Ralph Nader and Barney Frank. Did MSNBC miss a conservative dissent?”

Kudlow offered this rebuttal to Frank – big government was tried during the Cold War and failed because people yearned for less government and that was its ultimate undoing.

“Well, here’s my response to Congressman Barney Frank: With all due respect to Mr. Frank, who I think is a very smart guy, we tried heavy government control and regulation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,” Kudlow said. “It didn’t work. They rebelled. They wanted economic freedom – the right to keep their own money, the right to start their own businesses, the right to climb the ladder of success in a free economy. That was the revolution.”

Kudlow, the former associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget under former President Reagan explained – free-market policies had a proven track record. The opposite, not so much.

“The Reagan free market – deregulation revolution, with a sound dollar and low tax rates launched a 27-year boom,” Kudlow said. “The Gipper’s policies were copied all around the world.”

That according to Kudlow brought into question the validity of Rep. Barney Frank’s argument, since the battle between the two competing philosophies had already been decided.

“So my question – what does Mr. Barney Frank know that virtually the entire rest of the globe doesn’t know?” Kudlow asked. “The battle between democratic entrepreneurial capitalism and statism has already been won by the economic freedom fighters. This Congress is going in the wrong direction. Growth and wealth come from individuals and human action, not the heavy footprint of the state.”

Later in the program, in a segment about the stimulus and whether or not the White House policies were pro-growth that included David Goodfriend, a former Clinton White House staffer, and Steve Forbes, Kudlow reiterated his point about balance. Kudlow also showed he wasn’t just talking the talk, but walking the walk as well by presenting both sides of a debate.

“Look, this is better than that MSNBC show that had two lefties – Barney Frank and the other dope, Ralph Nader,” Kudlow said. “At least we have an equal representation.”

Way to go Larry! I sure hope Fox Business is taking applications.

More perfect 'Union' for Disney

Jerry Bruckheimer is plotting a civil war at Disney, tapping J. Michael Straczynski to adapt 2K Games' "Shattered Union."

In the game, states secede from the U.S. and form their own governments that wage a civil war against each other after Washington, D.C., is wiped out in a nuclear blast and chaos ravages the nation. Players control one of the warring group of states -- the California Commonwealth, Republic of Texas and New England Alliance are three of the six -- or a European peacekeeping unit sent to reunify America.

Could Jerry have been inspired by Orwell's 1984?

Spain Sends Christopher Columbus to Gallows

Columbus Rejects New World---Indians Demand the Shirt Off His Back

Christopher Columbus returned to Spain today after a brief voyage to the western shores and was summarily hanged. Columbus claimed that the Indians had formed an unusual union, Servitude Endeavors of Indigenous Underpinnings, (SEIU), and demanded Columbus surrender 100% of his venture capital before stepping foot on the new shores. Columbus wrote later in his ship's log that the Indians were unusually united in their resolve because there were no secret ballots and suspicious bruises on those that had dissented. Columbus also noted in his log that the Indians had found an ancient scripture titled "Sins of My Fathers", (the scripture mentioned The One as the author throughout) and followed its teachings in the style of Moses’ Ten Commandments, (no other Gods superseded "The One"). "The One" had promised to return to deliver his people from "the sins of capitalism" to a "new direction" called collectivism. This new direction, (the scriptures claimed), was also called hope and change. Columbus also noted in his memoirs the words "you betcha" were crossed out several times in the scripture, indicating there may have been a co-author.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella immediately had Columbus hanged upon his return and the scriptures were said to be burned. No one knew at the time that Columbus had made a copy and had it secretly hidden. Historians later claimed that parts of the scriptures were discovered in Kenya and Hawaii.

After his death, Columbus's sons, Diego and Fernando, took legal action to vindicate their fathers name and accomplishments, but gave up after years of lengthy court cases, known as the pleitos colombinos. Some one mentioned the words tort reform during the trials and was immediately burned at the stake.

DEMOCRATS: YOU DON’T LIKE OUR POLICIES---GO TO JAIL

The liberal left continues its assault on capitalism with their propaganda that individual prosperity is the direct result/cause of the poor and disadvantaged brought about by an unfavorable condition or circumstance. Basing their ideology on the premise that prosperity promotes greed, (and promoting this as a human defect), by their reasoning, we should feel guilty and show remorse for having the propensity to be successful or prosperous, (see “The Story of Stuff”) The current economic conditions are ripe for a takeover of the debate that it is the government’s responsibility to provide for our needs and aspirations to protect the needy. At this point, the Democrat’s class warfare is gaining steam. Every argument is based on fear and crisis supplanted by unknown facts and distortions. By promoting the rhetorical scare tactics, such as “a global warming crisis”,”economic crisis”, and now the “healthcare crisis, the “progressive left” furthers their vindictive mentality of entitlement verses individual responsibility. A free society will not survive when its government has autocratical control over individual choice.

ENTER THE THREAT OF IMPRISONMENT

Not only has this crisis rhetoric taken over the discussion, now your government will implement policy with the threat of fines and imprisonment:

Via Politico--- “Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."

As Richard Conley brilliantly said just a month ago:

"And now the Democrats’ contrived crisis awaits: health care. Madison’s warning in Federalist 63 takes on a particularly eerie prescience “... there are particular moments in public affairs when the people ... misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn.”

Health care “reform” is about to be imposed from above on a skeptical public. No one is theoretically exempt from paying the tab, as key Obama advisers have now made public. Gazing with envy across the Atlantic to the burgeoning welfare systems and “nanny states” of Europe, Democrats are oblivious to those countries’ stagnant economic growth and structural double-digit unemployment, which stem from inept government intervention in the private sector, state-controlled health care and insufferable taxation."

I would make the suggestion that if this government and our President intends to impose fines and jail sentences for those who cannot afford, or chose not to purchase health insurance--by injecting illegal social policy—then the Supreme Court should bring down the full weight of their authority under our constitution that protects us from an overbearing or tyrannical government. This is not communist China Mr. Obama, where policy is written with the threat of imprisonment. I like the idea of a government like Honduras, where its Supreme Court can throw its president out of power when he attempts to circumvent its constitution. Fortunately, we have a recurrent electoral process that is supposed to correct this condemnation.

Why Is Healthcare Reform Failing?---Posted at Hot Air in the Greenroom.

It's Time For Our President To Rise Above This Racial Discourse

The “smoking gun” or the 800 lb. gorilla in the room is that even the president or liberal democrats in every city across the country could not ignore a million plus marching down the streets of D.C. last weekend. Not even the "radical behavior", that the mainstream media selectively sought out can compare with the majority of protesters still frying over this new debt that has more than tripled since the left took control in '06. Hard to believe that it's already been three years since this spending spree began. Couple that with corruption scandals like Acorn pimping another country's children and the sudden interest in the president’s Czars, it's a small wonder the president’s 29 speeches on healthcare are tasting like a watered down cocktail. If the Democrats had any common sense, they would lick there wounds and try to salvage what's left of poor policy decisions that could most likely end the House and Senate control in one full swoop. The Republican Party can thank Ms. Pelosi for setting the table, starting with an omnibus bill fraught with the smell of pork right up to the present legislation where trillions in national debt doesn’t seem to be enough to satisfy these piglets gorging on your tax dollars. While the mainstream media makes a feeble attempt to ignore the wide spread corruption of Acorn, (or as Norah O’Donnell puts it, “entrapment designed to embarrass the president”), the most embarrassing discourse that is coming from the left---and being condoned by a silent President---is the cry that any dissent against the policies enacted is directly related to the color of our President’s skin. The New York Times domestic diva, Maureen Dowd, even suggested that she heard “you lie, boy” when Joe Wilson “broke the decorum” in Obama’s address to Congress. (Note to Ms. Dowd: Joe Wilson’s four sons all joined the military to preserve and protect your right to make these asinine statements without the threat of regression.) Some are suggesting that the President himself is setting back race-relations in this country decades by allowing these ridiculous accusations to be spread by the media and his own subordinates. This tactic was also used effectively during Obama’s campaign run to silence his critics or subvert the vetting process.

How much longer the general voting public will put up with this disgusting charade that “we can’t deal with the president’s agenda because of the color of his skin” is not only wearing thin, the left is basically running out of legitimate arguments to sustain their mission to place this nation in generational debt. The folks in the tea parties did not march on Washington to discuss the skin color of our president, and the president knows this. If he really means to show that his campaign promise of bi-partisan unity is not another slogan void of substance or human dignity, Mr. Obama needs to step up to the plate and put an end to these “calls of racism” to every challenge in his agenda. By his own silence on this issue, he is admitting to the public that they are ignorant and tolerant of this repulsive abomination. This American society, for the most part, has risen above, and looked past the color of a citizen’s skin. It is beneath the office of the President to use this as a tool for any purpose to deny its citizens their constitutional right of redress of grievances. How our President rises above this in the days ahead will shape the character of this office in the 21st century----or, it could set us all back decades. This is not a choice, Mr. President----this is your responsibility to your country and our children that are watching this unfold. Anything less is a complicit admission that you condone these despicable acts.