BUSH, KAINE, SAM'S OPEN MIND... AND SOME GREAT FREE MUSIC

I don't really know Sam. I think I sent him some Green Day records when he was a kid. His mom and dad, Rachel and Scott, had an early synthpunk band, The Units, I signed to my indie label in 1979 (415 Records). They live in Brooklyn now and Sam is 16. Last night he told his boo-ing parents to shut the hell up so he could keep an open mind while Bush gave his state of the union talk.

I like open minds so when Scott e-mailed me that information I wrote back and asked him what Sam's analysis was after he had heard the speech. "I think what disturbed him most was Bush's smug arrogance. He commented on how Bush didn't seem to care that half the room remained seated, or that they silently (for the most part) disapproved. The thing he (Sam) said that surprised me most though, was actually about the Democratic response. He said that the Democratic speaker, Gov. Kaine, seemed like a good example of how not all Christians (like Bush) are bad. He was impressed by the fact that Kaine talked about helping others in a selfless kind of way... that government should be about service to the community, not the pursuit of world domination."

I bolded that last part because it what made me want to introduce you to Sam and The Units and write this today. (By the way, before I forget, Rachel and Scott just did an awesome, new, very relevant version of one of their early 80s hits, "RightMan" and the only place you can hear it-- other than on Tangra Mega Rock in Sofia-- is right here.) I was one of the bloggers who was angry that "The Democrats" (whatever the hell that means) chose Kaine to deliver the Democratic response to Bush. Like other progressives, I was pissed that "we" had chosen a middle of the road southern pol who seems to agree with Bush on too many things for our comfort. Is he even against the war? Doe she favor impeaching Bush? He's signing a disgraceful, viciously homophobic bill for a referendum on a constitutional amendment that severely discriminates against gay men and women in Virginia. He doesn't favor a woman's right to choice. I was so angry. Why didn't "we" pick Jack Murtha? Or someone who would passionately point out all Bush's lies-- like Barbara Boxer or Russ Feingold?

Well, I guess we didn't because the people who picked Kaine had people like Sam in mind, not people like me. That isn't such a bad idea, either! Today's WASHINGTON POST has an excellent analysis by Glenn Kessler of Bush's speech that ferrets out many of his idiotic distortions and bullshit, "Assertions on Spying, Jobs and Spending Invite Debate". It's mostly the most glaring lies and obvious inconsistencies, like "For instance, Bush strongly suggested that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks could have been prevented if the phone calls of two hijackers had been monitored under the program. This echoes an assertion made earlier this year by Vice President Cheney. But the Sept. 11 commission and congressional investigators said the government had compiled significant information on the two suspects before the attacks and that bureaucratic problems -- not a lack of information -- were the main reasons for the security breakdown. The FBI did not even know where the two suspects lived and missed numerous opportunities to track them down in the 20 months before the attacks."

But what's really worth reading is Tim Kaine's speech. Here's the full transcript. This is what someone with an open mind got to listen to after Bush's bullshit.