To A Nation Of Angry Believers His Words Are A Drug, While His Loyal Band Of Thugs Cover Up All His Many Transgressions

Let's end the day-- and launch into Labor Day-- with the best new Sheryl Crow song I've heard in years. My old pal, music critic Michael Snyder, turned me on to this live Zoom version (above) of "In the End" today. He called the song "a powerful reaction to the current state of the world and the nightmarish turn taken by American politics" and noted that "she initially released a scathing animated video to accompany the studio recording of the song, but she expressed concern that it overemphasized the heinous behavior on one side of the aisle, so she replaced it with a re-edit of the 'toon that was a more evenhanded attack on all sides of the divide while still taking square aim at the Orange Ogre on top of the heap." You'll find that after In The End's powerful and compelling lyrics:

There's a fly on the wall, in the house on the hill
Where the king of the world watches TV
And the people all wait for his latest mandate
To a nation of angry believers
Well, his words are a drug, while his loyal band of thugs
Cover up all his many transgressions
The fly, lands on his ear and whispers,
"What's there to fear, as long as you're still the obsession?"
Is it too late to turn back now?
Too late to see the light?
Do you make a vow to Heaven and Hell?
When you wake up at night, do you ask yourself?

In the end
Did you feed them? How'd you treat them?
Is it so hard to love?
In the end
Like you mean it, like you seen it
You get back what you give
In the end

There's a man on the cross with His arms open wide
And a tear that’d quench the world's fires
But His name is a shield to the ones who reveal
Their own power and greed and desire

In the end
Did you need them? How'd you treat them?
Is it so hard to love?
In the end
Like you mean it, like you've seen it
You get back what you give
In the end
In the end

Well you only live once or maybe you live twice
Depending on how well you spent it
You see, karma's a drag, you come back as a rat
[Dodging traps set by your own descendants
Is it too late to turn back now?
Too late to turn around?
You get one chance in this life
You can turn around things or you can close your eyes

In the end
Did you feed them? How'd you treat them?
Is it so hard to love?
In the end
Like you mean it, like you’ve seen it
You get back what you give
In the end
You can hear them, did you feed them?
Is it so hard to love?
In the end
Like you mean it, like you’ve seen it
You get back what you give in the end
(You get back what you give in the end)

In the end
In the end

WAIT! There's More

Andy Ruff is running to represent a southern Indiana swing district that stretches from the suburbs north of Louisville through Bloomington and into the suburbs south of Indianapolis. He sounds like the right kind of populist candidate for the district. Remember, the Democrats couldn't have picked a worse candidate for this area than Hillary and Trump trounced her 61% to 34%. Obama had taken over 40% both times he ran and in 2018 a mediocre Democrat got 43.5% against incumbent Trey Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth is one of the Congress' wealthiest men, an arch-conservative representing his own class. And Tennessee-- which is where he's from.

Ruff, who was elected to the the Bloomington City Council as an at-large member, is a high school science teacher and has worked as an environmental planner for the Monroe County government. He's also a talented songwriter and musician. 

He's making a big noise about how Hollingsworth is a carpetbagger who shouldn't be representing Indiana in Congress. On his website, Ruff wrote that "Trey 'moved' to Indiana in 2016, the same year he and his family spent $4 million buying out the IN-09 Republican Primary. It’s entirely possible, of course, to become an 'adopted' Hoosier, to be as practiced and knowledgeable in our ways and traditions as someone who was born and raised in Southern Indiana. But you have to earn the right to that title. It takes time, and real effort, to immerse yourself in our community and culture. These are things Tennessee Trey has yet to do. To be honest, I don’t think he’s even trying. For instance, recently asked to name his favorite John Mellencamp song, Hollingsworth couldn’t do it! That’s right. The congressman for Indiana’s 9th couldn’t think of a single song by the living rock legend born and raised in this very district. Show me a Hoosier who can’t name ‘Jack and Diane’ or ‘Small Town’ in less than three seconds, and I’ll show you a politician from Tennessee who spends all his time in Washington. As inconsequential as that may sound, it’s just one example of the fact that Trey doesn’t even have a baseline grasp of simple Hoosier knowledge-- and he’s ‘lived here’ for four years now (supposedly). This is essential to understanding his continued misrepresentation of this district. If you’re as appalled as me that Joseph Albert Hollingsworth III has been using our seat in the nation’s capitol to make himself even richer and has the gall to call himself a 'Hoosier' while doing it, I’m asking you to help me send him and his family money back to Tennessee on Election Day."

This is the best campaign song I ever heard a candidate do-- the ending disclaimer is hilarious too: "I'm Andy Ruff and I wrote, sang and approved this message." He also played guitar on it. It's so cool; you should listen to it:

Alan Grayson Just Made It Official-- He's Running For The U.S. Senate

Blue America started a Draft Alan Grayson ActBlue page to encourage Florida's most progressive elected official to run for the U.S. Senate seat Marco Rubio is abandoning to run for president or vice-president. Over 440 people contributed. Today, with Grayson's official announcement that he is indeed running for the seat, Blue America launched a new Grayson page, Alan Grayson For U.S. Senate. The short video above, explains eloquently in his own words why he has made this decision and we urge you to watch in through and take it to heart. He starts with the experiences from a sickly childhood spent in a multi-ethnic working class area of the Bronx. Grayson's celebration of American excptionalism doesn't sound like the jingoistic claptrap on the same subject that spews from the mouths of many of his Republican colleages. "People of different races," he explains, "different languages, different religions-- even the food that we ate. And I learned from that that our differences are not something to overcome, or tolerate, but rather something to cherish. The things that make us different are the things that make us special. And with so much in common as human beings, we all deserve equality, dignity and respect."

A successful student and dedicated attorney before going on to become one of the most driven members in Congress on behalf of ordinary working families, Grayson then turned to one of his burning passions: health care:

I was a sick child. I had to go to the hospital four times a week for treatment. Luckily for me, my parents both had good union jobs that provided health coverage to them and to me, even when they were on strike  If not for that, I might not be alive today, and talking to you. That’s why it’s so important to me that everyone, young or old, rich or poor, can see a doctor when he or she is sick.

Where I grew up, you had to work hard just to survive. I’ve met plumbers who could be engineers, truck drivers who could be lawyers, nurses who could be doctors.  And I realized that if they had genuine opportunity, unchained by poverty, prejudice, poor health, poor education or discrimination, then we all would be better off. That’s the real American Dream-- to be all that you can be. And when everyone is better off, then everyone is better off.

In my case, I worked hard, and I received an admission letter from Harvard College when I was just 16 years old. For me, and for others like me, school just meant more hard work. I worked as a janitor, cleaning toilets, and then as a night watchman, on the midnight shift. I made less than four dollars an hour. I learned that the people who do the most unpleasant jobs often get paid the least. But education was my ladder-- up to better jobs, first as a reporter, and then as an economist. Education gave me my chance to be all that I could be, live a better life, and be of greater service to others. That’s why I want every student to be able to afford college, without suffering a lifetime of debt.

He then goes out to lay out his electoral platform-- except its not a platform based just on future promises. It's a platform based on what he's been working on all his life from the time he graduated Harvard right up until he was elected, from a then red district in Orlando as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

And everyone deserves a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. Every job should provide enough money to be part of the middle class-- to own a car, to own a home, to have a pension, to help your children through school, to have paid sick leave so that you can take care of yourself and the ones you love, and be able to see a doctor when you’re sick and get the care that you need to stay alive. As John Mellencamp would say, Ain’t that America?

After I finished school, I founded the Alliance for Aging Research. I was an officer of the Alliance for more than 20 years. We increased funding for research on cures for diseases of old age by more than 500%. I also served as a Director of Florida Senior Programs. Through that work, I recognized that everyone either is a senior, or hopes to be one, one day.

Social Security and Medicare are covenants that we make with each other, from one generation to the next. Many seniors have worked for the benefit of others for forty years or more, but they live in poverty. That isn’t right. Seniors deserve a raise. People shouldn’t have to pay taxes when they pay into Social Security, and then again when Social Security pays out to them. And Medicare must meet every healthcare need, including eye exams, glasses, hearing aids and dental care. Seniors have eyes, ears and teeth, and they are as much a part of good health as any other part of our bodies. Because Medicare excludes dental coverage, for no good reason, my father spent the last two years of his life with a broken front tooth. That wasn’t right.

As a lawyer, I filed lawsuits for the benefit of the taxpayers against war profiteers in Iraq. I won the only whistleblower case against those profiteers that ever went to a jury. Taxpayers Against Fraud named me “Lawyer of the Year.” I saw the worst side of war, and I saw how war has so many bombastic promoters-- and how much our country and our soldiers need a champion for peace.

I’ve had so many extraordinary opportunities in life. I was the first President of a company that broke the back of the government monopoly on international long distance calls. It grew into the largest provider of international calls to Hispanics in America, and it trades today on NASDAQ, with over a billion dollars a year in sales. I’ve raised five children, and my heart melts every time my 14-year-old son gives me a hug. I’ve been to very corner of the world, and I learned that we have so much in common: revulsion toward violence, a desire to be in love, respect for privacy and love of all children. But my greatest opportunity has been to serve in Congress, for one reason and one reason only: all the good you can do for people.

In the past two years in Congress, I have written more bills, passed more amendments on the Floor of the House and enacted more of my bills into law than any other Member of the House-- #1, out of 435 of us. Salon magazine labeled me the most effective Member of the House. Because of all the good we have done, more than 100,000 supporters have given their hard-earned money to our campaign. That’s more than any other Democrat in the House. In 2012, and again in 2014, I was the only Member of the House of Representatives who raised most of his campaign funds from small donors-- not lobbyists, or special interests, or millionaires, or multinational corporations. I don’t work for them; I work for you. I am unbought, and unbossed. I own nothing to anyone but the People.

I wake up each day knowing that there are 700,000 people who are counting on me to do something good for them in their lives. Next year, with the voters’ support, that number will be over 19,000,000. I will do my best to help every one of us, whenever we need help. I will work hard to be your representative, your champion and your friend.

Over the years, Alan has been the most beloved Member of Congress by Blue America members and he has been generously supported by our members from his first run for Congress. Helping him get into the U.S. Senate is Blue America's top electoral priority for the 2016 cycle. Chuck Schumer, the de facto head of the DSCC now, grew up in New York City too, but in a solidly middle class family and he went to very non-diverse schools. I know; I was a classmate of his at James Madison in a basically all Jewish section of Brooklyn. Although they both went to Harvard, Schumer had a very different career trajectory, one that led him not into heartfelt service to working families, but into the arms of the Wall Street bankers and Big Business powermongers. His goal is and always has been enhancing his own career first and foremost. He has taken more money in narrowly legalistic bribes from Wall Street-- $21,052,681 since 1990, more than any other political figure in America who has not run for president and nearly double what the most bribed Republicans in Congress have gotten in the same time period, Mitch McConnell ($11,444,704) and John Boehner ($11,239,584). Today Schumer is working much harder than either McConnell or Boehner to keep Grayson out of the Senate. Schumer spends his time planting twisted gossip with simple-minded journalists about supposed Grayson outrages, all of whom have proven without merit. Schumer has promised his Wall Street backers that there would be no more Elizabeth Warrens or Bernie Sanders or Sherrod Browns in the Senate shining spotlights on their malfeasance. Schumer has selected one of the most corrupted "former" Republican bankster shills for the Florida Senate seat instead, so-called "New Dem" Patrick Murphy, a totally unaccomplished, spoiled ne're-do-well who has used his rich Republican father's vast wealth to buy political influence among a group of party boys and girls in Congress who have no basis for understanding the trials and tribulations of the working families whose interests they are supposed to represent.

Before asking for a different committee assignment, Grayson served on the House Financial Services Committee, where he outraged the bankster types and their protectors in government. Both political parties put Members from vulnerable seats on this committee because it is the biggest source of campaign "contributions." Grayson, of course, didn't take in the kind of money Schumer, McConnell or Boehner got. By the time the banksters realized he wasn't going to be a patsy for their plans, they had donated $333,514, a small amount for a member of the committee. Patrick Murphy, on the other hand, takes all of his orders from the Big Banks and carries their water and they are delighted to finance his career. The $1,151,573 in legalistic bribes from Wall Street he has already taken-- one of the most gigantic amounts for any new member in the House-- is expected to more than double as Schumer orchestrates Murphy's Senate primary against Grayson. Now, more than ever, is the time for Blue America members and DWT readers to step up to the plate for Grayson and just say no to the vile Establishment bosses like Schumer and to the Wall Street patsys like Murphy. Once again-- the Alan Grayson for U.S. Senate ActBlue page.

WHY IS McCAIN STEALING MUSIC FROM DEMOCRATS? JOHN MELLENCAMP ISN'T FLATTERED

However insecure an overly coifed and prissy candidate may be about his sexuality, injecting that he would "never have a pink house," in the middle of a nationally televised debate about immigration policies, is probably a bad idea. John McCain, who feels nothing but complete scorn and contempt for the small varmint huntin' flip-flopper currently trying to out-Conservative him, has been rubbing it in at live rallies lately by having his campaign crew warm up the audience with John Mellencamp's classic Pink Houses.

Chuckle, chuckle. There's a problem though. Most people who care about John Mellencamp's role in politics are very much aware that he has been an outspoken and heartfelt John Edwards backer, traveling all over Iowa performing at Edwards rallies. Edwards' powerful pro-worker/pro-consumer message dovetails perfectly with what John Mellencamp has been talking about for many years; both are from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Both appeal to hardworking middle Americans looking for a break from the corporate interests McCain has always represented in his Insider political career. Both Mellencamp and Edwards grew up in small towns and Edwards has been using "Small Town" at his rallies for a very long time. He was also using "Our Country," another Mellencamp anthem appropriated by McCain.

It's inconceivable that McCain could have thought that now that Edwards is out of the race, Mellencamp will decide his support will be going to a right-wing corporate shill. Probably he just thought he could get away with stealing the performances and using them to promote his bid to move America in the opposite direction of what the songwriter envisions. Mellencamp isn't having it. He's furious and doesn't understand why someone who is desperately scrambling to establish himself in the eyes of Republican primary voters as a dyed-in-the wool right winger would even want to be associated with a rock star well-known for his very populist ideas. From what I'm hearing, McCain will either stop stealing Mellencamp's music, or the old coot's going to get blasted by sounds he's not going to enjoy hearing from an American culture hero.

WHAT KIND OF A PRESIDENT DO WE WANT-- AN INSIDER AND CORPORATE SHILL OR AN INDEPENDENT OUTSIDER READY TO KICK SOME SERIOUS BUTT?

This morning I was watching a talk show on the BBC and the moderator asked for predictions about the biggest story of 2008-- the U.S. elections. Two of the talking heads thought McCain would win, one Clinton and one Obama. When talking about the Democratic nomination, no one mentioned Edwards; it was all Clinton the Insider who would provide a smooth transition from the Bush years and wouldn't change much and the quasi-"revolutionary" Obama. Do they ever have that wrong-- at least the part about Obama. Democrats in Iowa and Democrats starting to pay attention around the country are noticing that there is only one agent of change running this year: John Edwards. You want more of the same? Vote for Clinton, Obama or any of the pathetic pygmies seeking to personify a third George Bush term. You wanna shake things up a little? Edwards is the one. Insiders are scared shitless of him; his game plan will win in Iowa. Meanwhile an Insider hack like Stuart Rothenberg is already running around like a chicken without a head as Edwards surges and looks more and more like the victor in the first contest-- great news for anyone who actually knows the U.S. must end the war in Iraq.

Democrats must decide whether they want a candidate who is angry and confrontational, and who sees those favoring compromise as traitors (Edwards), or a candidate who presents himself as a uniter (Obama), or a candidate who presents herself as someone who understands the ways of Washington and can get things done (Clinton).

While Clinton and Obama both acknowledge the importance of working with various interests, including Capitol Hill Republicans and the business community, to come up with solutions to key problems, Edwards sounds more and more like the neighborhood bully who plans to dictate what is to be done.

The former North Carolina senator is running a classic populist campaign that would have made William Jennings Bryan (or Ralph Nader) proud. Everything is Corporate America’s fault. But he’s also portraying himself as fighting for the middle class and able to appeal to swing voters and even Republicans in a general election.

...But let’s be very clear: Given the North Carolina Democrat’s rhetoric and agenda, an Edwards Presidency would likely rip the nation apart – even further apart than Bush has torn it.

On Capitol Hill, Edwards’s “us versus them” rhetoric and legislative agenda would almost certainly make an already bitter mood even worse. He would in the blink of an eye unify the GOP and open up divisions in his own party’s ranks. Congressional Republicans would circle the wagons in an effort to stop Edwards’s agenda.

Non-insiders, on the other hand, are starting to see Edwards as the one man who can help America break free of it's shameful Bush past, someone who really will right the wrongs of the past 8 (if not 28 years). Without Ralph Nader 2000 run, George Bush, if remembered at all, would be known as a hapless, sub-mediocre former Texas governor. Today Nader let loose on Clinton for the Bush-lite Insider and representative of a hopelessly corrupt system that she is. He acknowledged that Edwards is the only one fit for the job.

"The issue is corporate power and who controls our political system and it's not who has experience for six years or two years," he said, alluding to an ongoing debate over experience between Clinton and freshman Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

"She has experience in the Senate, and what that experience has meant is going soft on cracking down on corporate crime, fraud, and abuse, soft on cutting tens of millions in corporate subsidies," he continued.

...Nader, a four-time presidential candidate, called Edwards a Democratic "glimmer of hope." He has long criticized Democrats as indistinguishable from Republicans, chiding both parties as slaves to corporate financing and interests.

And Nader isn't the only non-hack to slam back at the Rothenbergs, Clintons, Bushes, Romneys and Obamas. While fake populist Mike Hucksterbee wows credulous Republican rubes with his "Look at this negative ad about that horrible pro-abortion Mormon cultist and lying flip flopper I decided not to air," a real populist who speaks a language millions of ordinary Americans understand has endorsed Edwards. Yesterday John Nichols reported in The Nation why John Mellencamp is in Iowa supporting Edwards-- and why that's more important than the bevy of airheads who back Clinton, Obama, Giuliani and Huckabee.

Edwards "has waged a dramatically different campaign than Obama's feel-good effort. Where Obama has run the softest sort of campaign, Edwards is mounting a edgy, muscular effort that owes more to the memory of Paul Wellstone or the sensibilities of Ralph Nader than to the smooth triangulations of Bill Clinton or the not-so-smooth compromises of John Kerry. Edwards has fought his way back into contention with aggressively populist positions, anti-corporate rhetoric and a campaign that eschews glitz for grit. Necessarily, the former senator from North Carolina opts for a different sort of celebrity than the other contenders."

So it is that Mellencamp will come to Iowa Wednesday to close the Edwards campaign off with a "This Is Our Country" rally at the not-exactly-Hollywood Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines. (In case anyone is missing the point here, they will be distributing the tickets from the United Steelworkers Local 310 hall.)

Where Winfrey brought a big name but little in the way of a track record on the issues that are fundamental to the rural and small-town Iowans who will play a disproportional role in Thursday's caucuses, Mellencamp is more than just another celebrity taking a lap around the policy arena.

For a quarter century, the singer has been in the thick of the fight on behalf of the rural families he immortalized in the video for "Rain on the Scarecrow," his epic song about the farm crisis that buffeted Iowa and neighboring states in the 1980s and never really ended.

Mellencamp has not merely sung about withering small towns and farm foreclosures. As a organizer of Farm Aid, he has brought some of the biggest stars in the world to benefit concerts in Iowa and surrounding states, and he has helped to distribute the money raised at those events to organizations across Iowa.

Farm Aid is nonpartisan. It's not endorsing in this race. But Mellencamp is. The singer, who this year will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but whose music remains vital enough to have earned a 2008 Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, was lobbied for support by other campaigns, especially Clinton's. But he has a long relationship with Edwards. He has an even longer relationship with the issues that Edwards is talking about. Indeed, his credibility is grounded in the recognition that Mellencamp has repeatedly taken career-risking anti-war, anti-racist and anti-poverty stances that other celebrities of his stature tend to avoid.

What matters, of course, is the fact of that credibility -- and the fact that it is so closely tied to the farm and rural issues that have meaning even in the more urbanized regions of Iowa. That is why, if there is an endorsement that is going to have meaning with the people who drive down country roads to attend caucuses on what looks to be a very cold and unforgiving Thursday night, it is likely to be that of the guy who proudly sings that, "I was born in a small town..."

If you check our Blue America site here at DWT you'll see that we're concentrating our efforts on House and Senate seats again this year. To me the most important races looming, the ones I plan to concentrate on for the next couple of months are Democratic primaries that pit agents of change against insider hacks-- like agent of change Donna Edwards vs hack Al Wynn in Maryland, agent of change John Laesch vs a Blue Dog hack named Foster in Illinois, and agent of change Mark Pera vs hack Dan Lipinski. Those are the races we urge our readers to contribute to this month. But... if any of our readers happen to live in Iowa or New Hampshire, please think carefully about doing the right thing and voting for John Edwards.


UPDATE: THE AGONIST ENDORSEMENT

Very much worth careful consideration for everyone in Iowa tomorrow. Also very worth paying attention to is Jane's on the scene coverage at FDL for the next few days. That's where I'm turning to for the straight story, not to the shallow hacks at CNN or the Washington Post.

IT'S UNCOMFORTABLE WHEN RACISM & BIGOTRY GET UNCOVERED-- BUT IGNORING THE PROBLEMS IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR A CURE-- MELLENCAMP'S "JENA" HAS SOME NON-FANS

Last week DWT presented listeners with the first opportunity to hear John Mellencamp's powerful new song, "Jena." Now it's available on YouTube and people are starting to see it all over the world-- much to the despair of the white Jena power structure. Take a look:



The images are very strong and very disturbing-- and not exactly what southern conservatives and racists want the world to see. Jena Mayor Murphy R. McMillin called Mellencamp's video inflammatory, "so inflammatory, so defamatory, that a line has been crossed and enough is enough."

Enough was enough in 1865. It is no wonder that a society which has failed to take the Civil War to heart would be angry about Mellencamp's condemnation of racism and bigotry.


UPDATE: KKK MEMBERS WON'T BE BUYING ANY MELLENCAMP T-SHIRTS EITHER

The Chicago Tribune reported a couple weeks ago that the KKK and other white supremacist groups had come to Jena-- and that the mayor-- the one who thought Mellencamp's song was "over the line"-- didn't have any problem with that. Support from all the regular kooks and nuts, from David Duke to the guy with no teeth at the gas station, started flooding in.

First a neo-Nazi Web site posted the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the six black teenagers and their families at the center of the Jena 6 case and urged followers to find them and "drag them out of the house," prompting an investigation by the FBI.

Then the leader of a white supremacist group in Mississippi published interviews that he conducted with the mayor of Jena and the white teenager who was attacked and beaten, allegedly by the six black youths. In those interviews, the mayor, Murphy McMillin, praised efforts by pro-white groups to organize counterdemonstrations; the teenager, Justin Barker, urged white readers to "realize what is going on, speak up and speak their mind."

Mellencamp's newest musical critic has been on the same note since then, insisting, rather incredulously, that portraying Jena as racist is unfair. When interviewed by a proudly racist group from Mississippi, Mayor McMillin said, " I am not endorsing any demonstrations, but I do appreciate what you are trying to do. Your moral support means a lot."

JOHN MELLANCAMP DOES AN INTENSE NEW SONG ABOUT ANOTHER SMALL TOWN IN AMERICA

You might be sick of hearing me urging John Mellencamp to run for governor of Indiana. But the schlemiel in there now just gets worse and worse... and John keeps getting better and better. John has been in the studio working on a new album, still untitled, with T Bone Burnett and it's due out soon... maybe in January (once he makes a new record deal with some company).

Lately he's been busy performing for wounded Iraq war vets-- like all Democrats and progressives he hates them-- and last month he performed his all-American classic, "Small Town," at the opening game of the NFL Season (between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints), 3 nights before the annual Farm Aid benefit he does with Willie Nelson. Many of his most inspired songs are patriotic in the finest sense of the word, celebrating the inclusiveness and unity that brings people together, like his Woody Guthrie-like "This Is Our Country".

In August he recorded the song "Jena," as soon as he heard what was going on in that small town. He wanted to get it out even before the album was released. Here it is (click to watch the video):
"Jena," a powerful and healing song of redemption.

An all white jury hides the executioner’s face
Is this how we are, me and you?
Everyone needs to know their place
And here we thought this blackbird was hidden in the flue
 
Oh oh oh Jena
Oh oh oh Jena
Oh oh oh Jena
Take your nooses down
 
So what becomes of boys that cannot think straight
Particularly those with paper bag skin
Yes sir no sir wipe that smile off your face
We’ve got our rules here and you’ve got to fit in
 
Oh oh oh Jena
Oh oh oh Jena
Oh oh oh Jena
Take your nooses down
 
Hey some way sanity will prevail
But no one knows when that day will come
A shot in the dark, well it might find its way
To the hearts of those who hold the keys to kingdom come
 
Oh oh oh Jena
Oh oh oh Jena
Oh oh oh Jena
Take your nooses down
 
Oh oh oh Jena
Oh oh oh Jena
Oh oh oh Jena
Take your nooses down

It'll be up on YouTube soon.

JOHN MELLENCAMP-- SUPPORTING THE TROOPS, NOT THE BUSH REGIME WARMONGERS AND NOT THE WAR

John Mellencamp didn't play "Texas Bandido" or "Rodeo Clown," two songs he wrote about George Bush, a few nights ago at a concert he did for 200 wounded veterans and their families at Walter Reed Hospital. He did a sweaty 14 song set featuring bipartisan crowd pleasers like "Jack & Diane," "Hurts So Good," "Small Town," and "Little Pink Houses." According to the Washington Post "one can apparently appreciate Mellencamp's music even while disagreeing with his personal politics-- just as it's possible for the singer to support the soldiers while opposing the war they're fighting." The Post writer doesn't mention how he ascertained that the wounded men disagree with Mellencamp's "personal politics." But it's the Post, where an Establishment hack like David Broder is honored and esteemed as though he were a real journalist.

Mellencamp has been an outspoken populist-oriented opponent of Bush's worst excesses. He talks about and he writes songs about it. I doubt any of the tunes from Freedom's Road are on Bush's iPod with "My Sharona." It would have been great, however, if whoever loads the iPod would have stuck the whole album on it since the hidden last track, "Rodeo Clown," pans Bush mercilessly. "I didn't want to write about blame," Mellencamp explained to a journalist asking him about it. "With freedom comes certain responsibilities. You can't put Lady Liberty in a position by herself. To be above reproach she has to live up to certain ideals or the rest of us are screwed. I said it in 'Rodeo Clown.' It's always the same. It's rich guys making young kids fight their battles."

His concert at Walter Reed shows how very straight-forward it can be to support the young men and women fighting on behalf of the U.S.-- our troops-- while not supporting the war or the warmongers like Cheney and Bush. In fact, Mellencamp said it himself: "You can support the troops and not support the wa. If I can entertain these kids and get the people watching to think about who's making sacrifices for their country, well, mission accomplished."

If you missed Mellencamp on MSNBC's countdown, here's a 5 minute piece during which he explains what he did and why.

If you haven't heard John lately, here's a video always worth watching:

THIS IS OUR COUNTRY-- JOHN MELLENCAMP HAS A NEW SONG FOR A POST-BUSH ERA

In the last couple of weeks I've written some stories about Neil Young's next album, LIVING WITH WAR. You've probably learned by now that Neil and Reprise Records have decided to stream, the album, free of charge, starting next week (April 28) at NeilYoung.com, preceding the release of the physical album (which they are rushing out into the market as fast as they can; best guestimate: mid-May). Meanwhile more lyrics are made available everyday at NeilYoung.com/

Today I noticed that Neil had put up the words to one of my favorite songs on the album, "Lookin' For A Leader," a very positive and forward-looking track that will certainly give Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Colin Powell supporters pause for thought. I like the healing quality of the way Neil put the song together and, Lord knows, after all the divisiveness of this chicken-without-a-head Bush Regime, healing is exactly what we need. Judging by the scores of vicious, and mostly unprintable, comments I've had about "Let's Impeach The President" from Bush deadenders, that isn't a song that will heal the divisiveness Karl Rove has so carefully and effectively crafted. "Lookin' For A Leader," though, could help move the country into the right head space.

But Neil isn't the only high-profile, respected artist writing songs along these lines. A few weeks ago I mentioned that Neil's pals The Dixie Chicks are back with a great new song "Not Ready To Make Nice". Artists young and old have been looking at what the Bush Regime has been up, feeling revulsion and expressing that revulsion in songs. Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT has joined the ranks of one of the best selling albums of all times, not just in the U.S., but everywhere in the free-ish world. Bruce Springsteeen fans know about his deep and on-going concerns and about his latest endeavors in this direction. The other day I watched a live acoustic video from Pink and in the introduction she mentions that her new song, "Dear Mr. President," is "one of the most important songs I've ever written." Watch it here. Flea, the beloved Red Hot Chili Peppers bass player wrote a great e-mail to Atrios that I suggest everyone read.

Now a few weeks ago I did a little story about how singer/songwriter/painter/social activist John Mellencamp was rumored to be thinking about tossing his hat into electoral politics. A mutual friend called me and told me that Mellencamp got a chuckle about the idea but that it's not true. He's not running for governor of Indiana or for any other office. End of story. But certainly not the end of Mellencamp's social activism.

If you were lucky enough to have seen any of the shows on his recent concert tour, "The Words and Music Tour," you know he started every show with a song that has never appeared on any of his albums, a song he wrote recently-- and will probably record in the future-- called "This Is Our Country." It's the kind of song that will help bind together that which has been so violently torn asunder by Bush, Cheney, Rove and the vicious partisan and self-serving brutes that make up the bandit Regime that has gotten its hands-- through hook and crook-- on the levers of power in America.

I can stand beside
Things I think are right
And I can stand beside
The idea of stand and fight
And I do believe
There’s a dream for everyone
This is our country
From the east coast
To the west coast
Down the Dixie Highway
Back home
This is our country

There's room enough here
For science to live
And there's room enough here
For religion to forgive
And try to understand
The other people of this world
This is our country
From the east coast
To the west coast
Down the Dixie Highway
Back home
This is our country
 
That poverty could be
Just another ugly thing
And bigotry could be
Seen only as obscene
And the ones that run this land
Will help the poor and common man
This is our country
From the east coast
To the west coast
Down the Dixie Highway
Back home
This is our country
 
The dream will never leave
And some day it will come true
And it’s up to me and you
To do the best that we can do
And let the voice of freedom
Sing out through this land
This is our country
From the east coast
To the west coast
Down the Dixie Highway
Back home
This is our country

Another Hollywood librul for Fox and the Republican Noise Machine to swiftboat? Hardly. They can try all they like but John Mellencamp was born, raised and still lives with his family in Indiana. He's a blue collar rocker who puts his money where his mouth is, not just with Farm Aid, but on a day-to-day basis.

In April, in the middle of his tour, he played the brand new repulsively-named "U.S. Cellular Coliseum" in Bloomington, Illinois. Working men and women from the Central Illinois Organizing Project contacted him before the tour to let him know about their effort to get city workers a "living wage."
The organization, which covers 12 central Illinois counties, calculates a living wage as the hourly wage necessary to maintain a standard one-bedroom apartment where the rent does not exceed 30% of a person's income. The living wage for Bloomington is around $9.58 per hour, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. (The Coliseum workers are paid $6.75/hour.)

I guess an alternative is that Republicans can continue to turn a blind eye on "illegal immigrants" to swamp the country's labor markets so their greed-obsessed financial backers can continue to deny the whole concept of a "living wage."

Mellencamp's response to the workers? "It's only right that working people in this country earn a living wage. It's just basic to the value system that is part of being an American," said Mellencamp, who met personally with some of the workers before he went on stage and then dedicated "Jackie Brown" to them, telling the audience "We need to help each other as much as we can." If Barack Obama and other Beltway Democrats are having trouble figuring out what Democratic values are, they should ask Mellencamp-- and anyone else who doesn't make a career out of partisan politics.

Note on the art: Everyone I've shown Mellencamp's lyrics to has had a great reaction, although, of course, no two responses are identical. Adam, our Art Director, may have been a little drunk, but he got to work immediately putting his powerful feelings to work to express how he felt about Mellencamp's song. Sophie and Sadie both think he went a little over the top but they've never gotten past "Jack and Diane" and "Pink Houses" being played for hours on end by Sophie's son the school teacher.