MOST CELEBRITIES ARE FOR OBAMA OR HILLARY-- BUT TWO SERIOUS ACTIVISTS ARE ON BOARD WITH EDWARDS: BONNIE RAITT AND JACKSON BROWNE

Last week DWT broke the news that Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt will be teaming up with John Edwards for 5 concerts in Iowa. Today's Des Moines Register made it official. They'll accompany Edwards for two days and play songs at 5 of his campaign stops-- in Davenport, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Grinnell, and Des Moines-- where he plans to discuss how to build a better future for our children.

“John Edwards is a leading voice for change in our country,” said Bonnie. “He's been one of the only strong, effective advocates for ending the war in Iraq and bringing our troops home. And when he talks about creating opportunity, he isn't talking about creating opportunities for corporate CEOs to get ahead, he's talking about making sure regular, hardworking Americans have a fair chance to succeed. He is willing to fight for fairness and equality for all Americans, and for tapping the immense economic and employment opportunities of safe, renewable energy."

“I am proud to support John Edwards,” said Jackson. “We need someone with vision and courage to fix the big problems facing our country. We need to end the war in Iraq and make sure every American has health care. John Edwards knows what it is to have to work hard, and he’ll stand up and fight to make sure everyone in this country has the same chances he’s had.” 

If you're in Iowa, here are the details:

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19TH, 2007
12:00 PM
Davenport North High School-- Auditorium
626 West 53rd Street
Davenport, Iowa

5:00 PM
City High School-- Auditorium
1900 Morningside Drive
Iowa City, Iowa

7:30 PM
Coe College-- Sinclair Auditorium
1220 1st Avenue NE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20TH, 2007
12:15 PM
Grinnell College-- Harris Center Concert Hall
Off of 10th Avenue, between East Street and Park Street
Grinnell, Iowa

5:45 PM
Roosevelt High School-- Auditorium
4419 Center Street
Des Moines, Iowa

UPDATE: RIGHT WING CELEBRITIES KEEP THE CLOSET DOOR SHUT ABOUT THEIR SUPPORT FOR REPUBLICANS

Today's Moonie Times has a throw-away piece about how reactionary celebrities like Kevin Costner, anti-Semite Mel Gibson, Kelsey Grammar, well-known Republican beard Bo Derek, Adam Sandler, Teri Hatcher, Joel Surnow, Robert Duvall, and Chuck Norris are mostly afraid to admit that they support the Party of Greed and Bigotry.

While Democrats enjoy very public support from Hollywood's top actors and musicians, who often hold lavish events for their favorite candidates, Republican supporters in Hollywood try hard to keep their political views quiet.

"They learn very quickly, if they know what's good for them, to donate to the Democratic Party," said Andrew Breitbart, co-author of "Hollywood, Interrupted" [and an outspoken right-wing loon himself]. "If they were to donate to the Republican Party, they would be exposed to career-ending ridicule, period."

Absolutely right; just look what happened to poor Mel Gibson-- all he did was scream neo-nazi epithets about Jews at a police officer arresting him for drunk driving and... he was ridiculed for almost 3 days. The injustice poor far right Republicans have to face in liberal towns like Hollywood; it's a wonder they don't all sell their mansions in Beverly Hills and Malibu and move to a nice suburb in Mississippi. Neither of the two biggest Republican celebrities, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, was mentioned in the story. Apparently even the Moonies have some standards.

BONNIE RAITT AND JACKSON BROWNE CONCERT FOR JOHN EDWARDS IN IOWA?

A few years ago I introduced Howard Dean to the Flying Other Brothers and they schlepped around in the Iowa snow playing concerts at 8 Dean rallies. As it turned out in those caucuses, the Republicans got their way and Insider Democrats got their man (an overly cautious Insider who forgot how to fight back at least a decade before)-- and American and the world wound up with four more years of you know what.

Almost everyone I know is planning on voting for John Edwards in the Democratic primary, myself included. But almost everyone I know is also resigned to Hillary winning both the Democratic nomination and the presidency. John Edwards isn't-- and "almost" includes neither Bonnie Raitt nor Jackson Browne, two tireless campaigners for progressive values and the American way. A few weeks ago Jackson did a concert on behalf of Rep. John Hall. Today we've learned that Jackson, Bonnie and perhaps another well-known actvist/singer will be doing a big concert in Iowa for Edwards' campaign.

Yes, that's Jackson (along with Bryan Adams, Bruce Hornsby and Kim Wilson) backing her up doing my favorite Bonnie Raitt song: