It's Monday, October 24! Get Up, Stand Up!

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight

That was Bob Marley and Peter Tosh in 1973. It's also the name of a documentary about the relationship between music and politics from the beginnings of the American labor movement to the final days of the criminal Bush regime. The first episode is below. So what about OccupyWall Street? I want to introduce you to Jasiri X, one of the most coherent voices emerging to describe and capture the messages of the movement in real time. One of his songs is embedded in the video above. The state of Utah murdered revered political songwriter Joe Hill for words no less incendiary than Jasiri X's.

You want class war?
We'll give you what you ask for

Jasiri X, a community activist and emcee from Pittsburgh, is probably best known for the brilliant analytical video, What If The Tea Party Was Black? and the hilarious Guess Who parody Republican Women... Stay Away From Me. His genre is hip-hop; his message is universal... well 99% universal.



UPDATE

Oy veh! As every movement for social change in history has ever discovered, it's tough to self police-- but as Lenny Bruce said-- even in the ancient days they had to have rules about certain things. The drummer aren't the real problem here; they sound like they can be reasoned with. It's this self-appointed spokesperson, the nutcase, who nobody can deal with. People have been trying to get the "facilitators" to grapple with her for weeks, but they refuse. "She has just as much right as anyone else..." And the result is that the community board, which is sympathetic to OWS is probably going to vote to kick them out, which is what Bloomberg is waiting for. The "facilitators", in turn, are evidently already talking about how to continue the movement without Occupying Wall Street... All because of this one egomaniac, which their the OWS structure or ethos doesn't provide a way to deal with. Many people have been speculating that she's a plant. And, if so, she's perfect-- all the right cultural signifiers to make her pretty much bulletproof for many in this crowd. If OWS ends because of this... who'll be laughing and who'll be crying?

GOOD NEWS IN KENTUCKY-- GREG FISCHER STEPS UP TO TAKE ON THE TWO REACTIONARIES McCONNELL AND LUNSFORD

Chuck Schumer has a mind like a Republican's; click on his nose

A good friend and ally asked me, after the Brooklyn Lizard Man frightened Andrew Horne out of the race against Mitch McConnell, if I could ever consider getting behind reactionary Bruce Lunsford, the DSCC's fake Democratic hack in the race and, arguably (though not by me) the lesser of two evils.

The last thing in the world I want to do is in any way help further wreck the essense of the real Democratic Party and allow unscrupulous and contemptible insiders like Chuck Schumer and Rahm Emanuel make it into a mere vehicle for the career adancement of creeps like themselves. Schumer and Emanuel want to "win"-- a worthy goal-- but electing Republicans who call themselves, for the sake of career advancement, "Democrats," is not winning, not even close. Earlier today we covered the release of the ranking of members of Congress by the League of Conservation Voters and it was sickening to see putative Democrats like Dan Boren (OK), Nick Lampson (TX) and Jim Marshall (GA) with lower rankings than many Republicans. Last night we covered the scurilous and vicious attacks on Democratic freshmen by the far right Republican front organziation the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and how make believe Democrats Jim Marshall (who has a clear record of voting for the Bush agenda when the chips are down), Zell Miller (apparently released from his rest home after hysterically endorsing George Bush and trashing John Kerry at the last GOP National Convention) and, of course, the always treacherous Joe Lieberman (who is planning to play the Zell Miller role and this years' Republican Convention where he will sear he never saw John McCain pawing any women or wearing any terrorist outfits on all their trips around the world) help run this outfit. A vote for Bruce Lunsford is a vote to put another "Democrat" is a position to use his party affiliation to denigrate Democratic values and Democrats who believe in them. Was anyone surprised when DLC leader Harold Ford was campaigning for rubber stamp Republican Chris Shays in Connecticut a few days ago? That's what these make believe Democrats do. I'd just as soon see McConnell "leading" a shrunken and powerless Republican minority in 2009-- even with the inclusion of Lieberman-- than waste an ounce of effort or a dime of resources on a swine like Schumer's hand-picked Lunsford (apparently not even a resident of Kentucky anymore, according to... Bruce Lunsford).

So wasn't I just delighted when some of my Kentucky friends called the other day after they had gotten back from a barbeque at the home of Greg Fischer, a Louisville native who has decided to make sure Kentucky has a choice between a Democrat and a Republican not between two Republicans. First thing Monday I got on the phone with Greg and found him to be a swell guy with his head on right and with distinctly all-American Democratic ideas about how to approach the problems that plague America, from health care to Iraq. He's running for McConnell's Senate seat and I'm sure we'll be writing more about him soon. Meanwhile, though, I wanted to relate something we talked about that has nothing-- at least nothing directly to do with politics.

I went to college in New York and Greg went to school in Nashville. Each of us, coincidentally, was booking the concerts at our respective schools. We got into a discussion of that and I was babbling on about how I put on concerts with The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Otis Redding, The Dead... and I asked him if there was one show he would pick out that he could say was the one that meant the most to him personally. Not a second of hesitation. Greg put on one of the last Bob Marley live concerts. We shared a Bob Marley moment and then he confided something in me that made me as sure I think he'll be a great senator as when he told me earlier he supports a woman's right to choice 100% and that it's none of the government's business interfere.

What Greg told me was that when he was still dating he would play some Marley for his date and watch her reaction to measure their compatibility prospects. (Apparently it worked out; he and his wife have 4 healthy-looking kids.) His other test was cool too. He would take the date to a Chinese restaurant and see if she would even try to use chopsticks. That's the kind of Democrat we need in the Senate instead of Mitch McConnell! Here, watch a Kentucky blogger giving Chuckie Cheese a hard time on behalf of grassroots Democrats everywhere:




UPDATE: GREG RESPONDS

Greg just got back to me after reading the above. "My life circle moves further toward completion as Bob Marley now becomes a piece of the Senate puzzle... Fyi, the name of the album that Bob Marley and his Wailers were promoting when I put them on in December 1979 was Survival. Enjoy the walk down memory lane.

I love when candidates talk about stuff other than politics. Now Darcy Burner... she makes music clips and sends them to her friends!