Do Endorsements From Musicians Mean Anything When It Comes To Voting?

A reporter from Billboard called the other day to ask if association with musicians who endorse candidates is dangerous. I was right in the middle of putting together our next Blue America contest, which is a benefit for Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the prize being an ultra-rare original Nirvana gold record (Nevermind) before they were really famous. Is the association with Nirvana going to help or hurt Jayapal, who has a strong presence of her own as the author of the new and improved Medicare-for-All bill and as the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Congress. Nope, it won't mean much to voters, even if it gives them the idea that Jayapal is a hipster.

I was in the music business for a long time. Musicians' involvement with candidates is fun and may draw a crowd, but I can't imagine anyone votes for or against a candidate because of an endorsement by a musician-- or any other cultural figure. Can you? Same with political figures. Biden's endorsements by some of the most reactionary, foot-dragging Democrats in Congress might make discerning voters decide to not vote for him. The tune Dianne Feinstein (CA), Doug Jones (AL), Chris Coons (DE), Tom Carper (DE), Stephen Lynch (MA), Lou Correa (CA), Charlie Crist (FL), Vicente Gonzalez (TX), Filemon Vela (TX) is a cacophany of conservatism and corruption. Compare it to the sweet harmonies Bernie endorsers AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashid Tlaib and Ro Khanna are singing.





Anyway, Annie Grayner, reporting for CNN, noted that all the coolest music energy is around Bernie (the coolest candidate): Ariana Grande, Cardi B, Jack White, New Power Generation (Prince's backing band), Killer Mike, Jason Mraz... On the other end of the spectrum, Mayo Pete has been endorsed by a mayonnaise sandwich on white bread and Mandy Moore.

But so far, Sanders is gaining traction in this musical primary.

On Wednesday, two members of indie band Dispatch joined the ranks. Brad Corrigan and Chad Stokes Urmston performed at Sanders' rally in New Hampshire and shared their support.

"It's a real honor to be here" Stokes Urmston told the crowd. "We've been Bernie fans for a long time now and really admire his courage to say what he believes all these years. It's the same thing from 30, 40 years ago, he's been saying the same thing and finally the world caught up to him."

"Let's get behind Bernie with all that we have" Corrigan added.

And ahead of Sanders' joint rally with Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minneapolis on Sunday, New Power Generation, Prince's longtime backing band, announced its endorsement.

"We're really proud to stand with Sen. Bernie Sanders as he attempts to bring America back to the people. It's time for the people to take back the government," said Morris Hayes, the late star's musical director and longest standing band member. "Like the good Senator says, it's not me or him, it's us."

Such support has come as the campaign aims to make live music central to its events, Sanders deputy campaign manager Ari Rabin-Havt said.

"One of the questions Bernie always asks before an event is do we have a band. So we try to have a musical event at every rally because that's something he really believes in" Rabin-Havt told CNN. "For Bernie, political events should be fun, should be cultural and should be entertaining. And it's not just I'm about getting famous musicians to perform. We try to have local musicians of a variety of genres from rap to blue grass to reggae perform."

That was on display last weekend, when Jack White, of the former band White Stripes, opened at Sanders' rally in Detroit, where Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib offered her endorsement to the Vermont senator.

In the middle of his seven-song set, White, performing at his high school alma mater, told the crowd why he backed Sanders.

"Listen, I've never done a political rally before. I'm not really politically affiliated too much. I don't consider myself a member of any party or anything I just listen to the issues" White said. "I want to listen to someone and understand that they're telling me the truth if I trust them. Bernie Sanders is telling the truth, and I really do trust him."

White noted that Sanders' position on abolishing the electoral college is what drew him toward the senator's candidacy. That endorsement came just days after singer Jason Mraz also announced his support for Sanders.

"To me, he's the only candidate who can continue to drain the swamp," Mraz wrote on his website.

...The Sanders campaign, of course, has incorporated other celebrities into their campaign. Actress Susan Sarandon, who supported and campaigned for Sanders in 2016, joined the senator once more on the campaign trail in Iowa over the summer. Rapper Killer Mike and actor and activist Danny Glover, who both endorsed Sanders in 2016, have also repeatedly joined Sanders on the campaign trail this time around. Actor Danny DeVito and John Cusack have also made appearance in support of the senator.

But the sway he holds with musicians continues on. Many have not gone as far as formally endorsing Sanders, but still have suggested an affinity for the politician.

On the day she released a remix of "Good as Hell" with Lizzo, Ariana Grande tweeted the lyric, "baby how u feelin."

Sanders, unprompted and not opting for the obvious lyrical reply ("Good as hell"), said, "Ready to fight for Medicare for All."

Grande retweeted Sanders' response: "screaming."

Lizzo has also shown an appreciation for Sanders. Over the summer, the singer called on her followers not to focus on Sanders' age and think critically about the Democratic presidential candidates.

And of course, rapper Cardi B has continued to show her support for Sanders.

Cardi B filmed a video with Sanders in July to talk about how his agenda will address raising the minimum wage and unemployment. The rapper tweeted earlier that month: "I been reading about Bernie Sanders and I'm really sad how we let him down in 2016."

Sanders returned the compliment.

"What it means is, what Cardi B does, not only is she an enormously popular entertainer, what she is doing is speaking to young people about the important issues that are on their minds and I applaud that very much," Sanders told CNN in July.

In 2006, Blue America persuaded Rickie Lee Jones to join with a couple of the guys from the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher, to record a song, "Have You Had Enough," that was easily turned into customized radio spots and online ads for Democratic challengers like Kirsten Gillibrand and Chris Murphy (both of whom ousted Republican House incumbents that year and are now senators).

It's a shame none of the presidential candidates have persuaded Max Frost to turn his "Adderall" smash into an anti-Trump campaign song. Or, maybe it already is. The video would just need a few image swaps.

The Worst Democraps Who Want To Be President-- Part II, Kirsten Gillibrand

It's been two weeks since we kicked off the series with Tulsi Gabbard, an obscure congresswoman from Hawaii who wants to be president (of the United States). Gillibrand, the junior senator from New York, is slightly better-known. Unfortunately for her, outside of her own state, she is only known as the hateful, manipulative fanatic who got Al Franken's scalp for the #MeTooMovement. But long before people who have now labeled her a "man hater" ever heard of Kirsten Gillibrand, she had proven herself unqualified for any kind of leadership role. In other words, her disgraceful and now widely-recognized, shenanigans around the Franken episode have a context, which, alas, few voters are yet aware of.

When she first got swept into Congress in the 2006 anti-red wave-- she defeated rising GOP star John Sweeney-- who Gillibrand successfully portrayed as a drunken wife-beater, possibly the issue that led her to victory in an R+3 district with a huge GOP registration advantage. The district no longer exists as it did back then but it stretched along the eastern New York border with Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont from the Dutchess County suburbs of NYC up through Rensaeler County east of Albany to as far north as Lake Champlain in Essex County. Sweeney had never had a serious reelection challenge until Gillibrand, with the focused help of the Clintons, destroyed his career. She wound up beating him 125,168 (50.0%) to 110,554 (44.2%).

In 2009, the American Conservative painted a very different picture of Gillibrand than the one I had come to know during the 2006 campaign. She persuaded me-- despite having been the lead defense attorney for Philip Morris in both civil and criminal lawsuits-- that she was a heartfelt progressive. (She claimed she only helped Phillip Morris sell cancer and death so she could have enough money to defend abused women and their children for free. Using abused women and children to advance her career is her #1 trademark; it's what she's known for and what will be on her political tombstone one day.) I admit that I was taken in by her lawyerly guile. "Gillibrand," wrote Michael Dougherty for the American Conservative, "won her upstate New York district by running to the right: she campaigned against amnesty for illegal immigrants, promised to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington, and pledged to protect gun rights. After winning by six points, she joined the conservative-leaning Blue Dog Coalition... In her first term, she voted against McCain-hatched immigration reform, assailed Bush’s bailouts, and received a perfect 100 percent rating from the NRA. She crushed her Republican challenger by 24 points in 2008 and bragged that her voting record was 'one of the most conservative in the state.'" For Blue America she was a lesson learned and we began to reassess our policies of recruitment and candidate support. We had been all in on Gillibrand, even cutting this ad with Rickie Lee Jones and the Squirrel Nut Zippers for her:



In the House, she was a poster child for two things: the NRA and their toxic, murderous agenda, and a really vicious, racist xenophobic campaign against Hispanic-- and, to some extent, Asian-- immigrants. She made her bones among fellow conservatives by breaking theirs-- a real piece of work. An opportunist (they used to call her "Tracy Flick" on Capitol Hill) to her very core-- her goal was to build up her right-wing bona fides by denying drivers licenses to immigrants, by voting to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities and by voting to make English the official language of the U.S.

When Obama appointed Hillary Clinton Secretary of State, Gillibrand was the choice of the corrupt conservative Democratic establishment-- especially the Clintons-- as the replacement. She immediately went back to pretending to be a progressive since she would soon have to win election statewide. Like I said, no moral core whatsoever. No one doubts she could flip back to her conservative self in an instant if it meant advancing her shameful career. Right now-- aside from trying to claw her way onto a national ticket-- she is a sudden big proponent of eschewing corporate PAC money. This from a bribe-taking machine who has sucked down $9,779,939 from the finance sector, more than any sitting senator who hasn't run for president other than Wall Street bagmen Rob Portman (R-OH) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

But what's made her a national figure has been her scurrilous role in the destruction of Al Franken, somewhat reminiscent of the way she utterly destroyed Sweeney-- with a possibly bogus wife-beating charge-- a decade earlier. For her, revving up a war against men has been a calculated stepping stone towards a White House bid. She maneuvered behind the scenes to force Al Franken to resign, something which now seems to have backfired on her.

This morning, reporting for Politico, Natasha Korecki and Laura Nahmias, wrote that the Franken scandal is haunting Gillibrand's (non-existent) 2020 chances. "Today," they wrote, "nearly a year after Gillibrand led the charge in calling for Franken’s resignation, the anger is fresh on the minds of major donors across the country. More than a dozen prominent West Coast, New York and national donors and bundlers-- many of them women-- said they would never again donate to or fundraise for Gillibrand or would only do so if she ended up as the Democratic presidential nominee. Gillibrand has defended her approach by insisting she placed deeply held personal values over party loyalty. But the still-burning resentment among the donor class now confronts Gillibrand as she explores a presidential bid, cutting her off from influential and deep-pocketed contributors and their networks at a time when an expansive 2020 field will compete for their dollars."

[A] major Manhattan-based donor said the episode raised suspicions that it was a craven political move by Gillibrand.

“I thought she was duplicitous,” the donor said. “Once the whole thing happened with Al Franken, it was confirmed 1 billion percent that she’s not to be trusted. I think that she hurt the Democratic Party. I think that she hurt the Senate. I think that what she did for women in politics was dreadful.”

The Franken accusations came in the weeks after a parade of powerful men were toppled by the movement; among them Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Louis C.K. and Garrison Keillor. The wounds over Franken’s ouster were reopened, some Democrats say, during confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, who faced sex misconduct allegations but still took a seat on the Supreme Court.

...Gillibrand has stood her ground, never publicly backing down from the criticism, even when it came from the Democratic Party’s most prolific donor, George Soros. In June, he told the Washington Post he blamed Gillibrand for cornering Franken into resigning, accusing her of doing so “in order to improve her chances,” in 2020.

In August, Gillibrand responded specifically to Soros, telling the Huffington Post in a statement: “If standing up for women who have been wronged makes George Soros mad, that’s on him.”

Gillibrand’s campaign pushed back against the criticism, asserting that the senator did the right thing by speaking up.

I suspect that Bernie wasn't thinking about Gillibrand when he told New York Magazine that he's "not one of those sons of multimillionaires whose parents told them they were going to become president of the United States. I don’t wake up in the morning with any burning desire that I have to be president. If there’s somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I’ll work my ass off to elect him or her. If it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run."

Trump and the GOP will be spending hundreds of millions of dollars eviscerating anyone the Democrats run in 2020. But Gillibrand would be their easiest target to destroy, since she's laid so much of the groundwork herself. She is the ultimate opportunistic flip-flopper who, even as a VP nominee, would destroy any chance of making Trump a one-term president. This series is about the worst Democratic prospective candidates. I can't imagine one worse than Tracy Flick.

Feel Like Celebrating Puzder And Flynn? Here's A New Rickie Lee Jones Song That Should Help

I had dinner with an old comrade-in-arms last week. You may remember her from this great song she did with the Squirrel Nut Zippers for Blue America candidates. Yep, Rickie Lee Jones, currently of New Orleans. She told me about the video above for a song she and Madeleine Peyroux had recently recorded with producer Larry Klein. I was a fan of the David Essex version but this duet is amazing-- and the video: WOW! These are some pretty provocative images everyone should think about and think about again, especially people who got something out of Helen's post yesterday.

The good news here-- aside from the sheer joy of this song and the video-- is that Rickie and Madeleine will start touring in a few weeks and be on the road for virtually all of March. The tour starts in Montreal on March first. Here are the dates so far:

March 1- Théâtre Maisonneuve, Montreal
March 2- The Wilbur, Boston
March 3- Scottish Rite Auditorium, Collingwood, NJ
March 4- Town Hall, NYC
March 6- Mayo, Morristown, NJ
March 7- Bethesda Blues & Jazz, Bethesda, MD
March 9- Peace Center, Greenville, SC
March 10- Gailard Venter, Charleston
March 11- Capitol, Clearwater, FL
March 12- Variety Playhouse, Atlanta
March 14- Majestic Theatre, Dallas
March 16- Fox Theatre, Tucson
March 17- Arlingtion Theatre, Santa Barbara
March 18- Luckman Fine Arts Center, L.A.
March 19- Jewish Community Center (Kanbar Hall), San Francisco
March 21- Royal Theatre, Victoria, BC
March 22- Neptune, Seattle
March 24- Rococo Theatre, Lincoln, NE
March 25- Paramount Theatre, Aurora, IL
March 26- Northern Lights Theater, Milwaukee
March 28- Ames Center, Burnsville, MN
March 29- Englert Theatre, Iowa City
March 31- One World Theater, Austin
April 1- Heights Theater, Houston
April 7-15- Australia

Apropos of nothing in particular... did you ever hear this Rickie Lee cover of Subterranean Homesick Blues from 2009?

Like Mitch McConnell, Rickie Lee Jones Isn't A Scientist-- But Her Perspective On Energy Isn't Based On Bribes From Big Oil

Yesterday we looked at two perspectives of the issues around Climate Change, one regarding a planet hurtling towards uninhabitability and another, by Jack Hannold, about how current price fluctuations in the oil market will impact supply. Rickie Lee Jones' turn:

The unfortunate thing about states whose economies depend on destroying the land to harvest a natural resource is that the residents will serve the interests of the company with the fury of religion. They don't have to hire anyone, the $15 an hour employee will fight the environmentalist trying to save the local pelican. This guy actually thinks a species of bird matters more than the paychecks and dignity of a few hundred families. It is this complexity that the company exploits. Because down there at the bottom, where pay is low and skills are few, dignity is super, hyper, ubersensitive. I have no problem with harvesting land, and some industry does so without destroying other resources.

Logging sacrifices the infrastructure of a hundred species. Every tree, every forest. When clear cut, the soil is damaged, the entire area must change to an agricultural one. No one asks the thousands and thousands of people if they want to live without forests in order to support this one industry.

We all also battle an ideology that expresses the idea that these maverick men are great Americans, and that someone who fights to save a two thousand year old tree or a little stream by a farm is interfering with the American way. This propaganda is in us, and hard to overcome. But by standing by as it overtakes all common sense, we find we can't buy our own wood; it's too expensive, so we use pressed board containing toxic materials. Oil prices the same worldwide; the idea that oil protects American interests is ludicrous. America protects oil interests, and sacrifices our own young people in order to do it, telling them it's for democracy. It's for capitalism, and, specifically, for one industry and one group of people in that industry. All America serves Haliburton. And, because these industries will destroy anything, any farm, any forest, any ocean, in order to keep us all using oil, we are caught in a web that keeps families barely able to buy the resource they insist we consume. I looked everywhere for an electric Prius in 2001. There were none to be had in Washington. The company did not produce them-- no demand-- the salesman said. The demand is everywhere. Who are you kidding?

Fact is, oil was, or can be, a One-Century event-- the 20th century-- the past, no longer relevant, obsolete. We did not use oil before, we could get by with, comparatively, very little. I understand-- it is the way we bring stability to the world. We come in, take the oil, put in people through elections we control, and maybe inoculate some kids while we're at it. We do not stop the mutilation and stoning of women. We do not stop slave labor of children. We... do the least we can and get the hell out. Why are we still in Afghanistan? The mineral resources and pipeline right-of-way. Thats our democracy, as long as there is oil in the ground people who have jobs around oil will sacrifice everyone one of us in order to keep those jobs. Kill a few cows, who cares? Hey, that village would have died anyway in the next battle.

And these tree huggers, as if loving nature is obsolete. Tree huggers is a term suggesting that, as a nature lover, you don't have a right to a point of view, to a vote. As if it's better to hate a tree than to enjoy it, and want to see it continue. There seem to be human beings whose experience is so different than mine they can stand and give an interview while turkeys are being decapitated in the background. They can talk about their own determination while signing legislation giving up the protection of the land that the first President Roosevelt created with the intent that-- while industry might take it all-- these few pieces of park would remain. How naive, to protect some of the land from industry. She signs that away and the citizens of the state rejoice; they don't have to work and can continue receiving their checks.

While back home people have no health care, yet are compelled to buy car insurance-- then punished when they use it. We live day to day under the dictatorship of a company who owns the 'elected' officials of the democracy that was founded before there was even a railroad. Each president relinquishes a little more of the dignity and stability of the office. Except of course in the case of GW Bush, whose ascendancy to the office was organized criminally. Voter fraud, gangsters, Texans in Florida, missing votes and finally the Supreme Court by one vote, and the entire country has never recovered. The loss of worldwide esteem is just one small fraction of what we lost here at home. We lost hope.

Can democracy function under a thriving economy? Or must the freedom and rights of individuals be sacrificed in order to protect profits.? Is there a New Civil War, for those of us who want to live in a country with less consumption and clean air vs. those who are prepared to sacrifice anything to keep those who are in power in power. It is not only the future we disagree about, we disagree with a basic lifestyle choice. The first choice, to live and let live, and that includes the trees and the pelicans. The second choice, to support the profits of the company, any measure is acceptable. Abandon the rights of anything that is not crucial to that interest. children and pelicans included.

Keeping our people hungry-- hungry for better, or hungry for more, hungry for escape... or just plain hungry-- keeps them willing to work for the evil empire. We have billions of dollars, but it only takes a little bit to save a lot of people. We have to be treated like criminals, or serfs, in order to collect money we are due. SSI for instance. Our money is not accessible to us. And the constant strain makes us turn against each other instead of the government which supports the industry which keeps us slaves. We say hey well we are a lot better off than those slaves, yes? And then solve the problem for our betters ourselves.

A fantastic technique to absolving ones self of the responsibility to the world is to deny that there is a problem. I must confess Republicans stumbled upon this and they do it with great success. They say ' I do not see the wound ' while looking directly at the bleeding, dying animal. In law, you see, the idea is the issue, not the truth. So these lawyers who run the country feel it's totally moral in law to simply deny the problem and argue and see who wins the argument; meanwhile the world moves one revolution closer to annihilation. They act as if they know when and how, and hey are not worried. They scare us with war, take our money to build bombs we don't want, then laugh when we say we are afraid. Afraid of what? Oh yeah, then they remember, yes, yes be afraid. war. They know very well they decide who and where conflict will arise. Meanwhile the Animal, its rivers green, its air poison, its people defeated, is dismissed with those tree hugger 'environmentalists' as being somehow unnecessary to life on earth.

Our right to live among the beauty of the earth is what I take issue with today. As if this is just too quant to consider that a river, it's music, and the bend of the tree to it's surface, does not matter. It matters, matters, it matters. More than your paycheck, more than my right to free speech, more than anything, first and foremost, the planet, the earth, must be protected, cherished, enjoyed.

You cannot behold the spectacle of nature if you are worried about paying your mortgage. Or.. can you? sure you can. People live under the spectre of ruin but we do not hesitate to risk ourselves for the sake of the greater good. I am surprised to see the blatant editing of information to suit the vocation of the local population. I read the news here in Louisiana, see if you don't notice a definite skepticism or simply deletion about, involving information that is against oil policy. I wonder, if these local people had jobs in some other industry, say, music, or ... movies, would they still be inclined to protect the interests of oil to the extent that they allow judges to deny the right to fight arbitrary and questionable arguments against, say, fracking? I have no empathy or sympathy for people who act as if their jobs are more important than anything, anyone else. No, not if they are billionaire CEO's, or loggers, or oil rig workers. We end up working for the devil and then wonder why the waves of our actions cause hell in some other part of the world.

We are engaged in a new civil war. Jesus might have said we must endeavor to protect our neighbors rights first. That's scary, we know our neighbors! But.. If we work for the other guy, we cannot be busy in the business of greed. That makes us unrenderable by the company. They cannot use us if we are not desperate.

Rickie Lee Jones Helped Alan Grayson Win His Primary Today

Rickie Lee Jones has been working on her next album in New Orleans. Over the weekend she took some time off to travel to Orlando to help Alan Grayson turn out the vote for today's primary-- which he won with 75% of the vote. At a musical event in downtown Orlando, Grayson introduced her to his supporters and staff by reading the lyrics to one of his favorite songs from The Evening of my Best Day, her 2003 album. The song (below), "Ugly Man" questions what George W. Bush was doing to America and it was not a sentiment most artists were brave enough to express… at least not for another few years.

He's an ugly man
He always was an ugly man
He grew up to be like his father
An ugly man
And he'll tell you lies
He'll look at you and tell you lies
He grew up to be like his father
Ugly inside

Rickie has described herself as "disillusioned with politics," even cynical but this week she explained why Alan Grayson has been turning that feeling around for her.

Congressman Grayson makes me feel hopeful. His enthusiasm and optimism and can-do attitude is exciting for me to be around. I am supporting him and excited that there's somebody like that in politics still.

Grayson, a big music fan, was delighted he could share her music with his supporters in Orlando. "Rickie Lee Jones," he said "has been an inspiration literally to millions of Americans, judging from her album sales alone. She has been influential for decades, not only with her voice, or her lyrics, but also with her insight into what it means to be a human being. She stood up and called out the Bush regime when very few had the courage to do so. I am honored by her support."

Want To Help Rickie Lee Jones Record Her New Album?

In 2006, Blue America worked with a group of various artists to promote several dozen little known challengers to Republican House incumbents. The video above, which we did for Kirsten Gillibrand in her first run for Congress against powerful, entrenched incumbent John Sweeney, may have helped her win her 53.1- 46.9% victory. She's now a U.S. Senator and someone on the list of future potential national leaders. That same year we did similar videos and songs for John Yarmuth (D-KY) and now Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT). All three have music that was contributed by the key members of the Squirrel Nut Zippers and vocals by the inimitable Rickie Lee Jones.

Most people know Rickie for gold and platinum albums like her eponymous debut, Pirates and Flying Cowboys, for her huge pop smash with Chuck E.'s in Love and for all those Rolling Stone magazine covers. But Rickie the artist has always been a lot more than just a product of shifting commercial whims. And you know all those "Have You Had Enough" songs she did for the Blue America candidates? She charged us exactly zero-- just went into the studio with producer Andy Paley and belted it out a couple of times and said she was happy to do it. I wonder if Senators Gillibrand and Murphy, for example, even know.

Rickie moved to New Orleans recently. I just heard from her yesterday. She's raising money for her next recording project on PledgeMusic. There are some amazing items she's selling to get the money for the album, including the original cover art painting for Flying Cowboys and… well you can win a concert at your house! Here's what she wrote on the site:

I thank you in advance for your support, for going with me down this new road.

I think sometimes of the times of Amadeus and the prince or cardinal whose wealth supported him and his work. I’m so much luckier. I have you.

I have been going through boxes that have lain unpacked for decades, and found some treasures. They are treasures to me personally, things I want to share with my fans because I want them to be with people and not in some storage unit.

There are some instruments that we will be adding to the campaign as it goes along ; you can have a great piece of my history and a great guitar. They are all vintage, all played by me, and they all need new homes.

I have two LPs that were test pressings made for me to check EQ, times between songs, so on. These are rare one-of-a-kind things.

There are three dresses made for me for the Flying Cowboys tour. One was worn on the "Flying Cowboys” video. They have been wrapped in tissue for many years. Another was in the lovely program made for the tour. I am selling the dress that I wore in Dr. John’s “Makin Whoopee” video. That dress, my hairstyle, which was a derivative of the Pirates rag wraps, all that stuff we made up and created that went on to become part of the culture. Girls do ringlets now and the “Makin’ Whoopee” thing shows up in a movie or two, and the video was a big success for Dr. John. We won Grammys for Best Jazz Duet. In fact, most of the clothes I am selling can be seen in some media. I’m also offering the beautiful purple velvet hat on the cover of my music publishing book, that was from a live club date during the Flying Cowboys tour.

I love to draw, and have drawn all my life. My work is on the cover of Girl at Her Volcano, my second “half” record on Warner Brothers records. I did one of my backdrops-- a full Bible torn and pasted with the pages of some of my books, this was for the Ghostyhead tour (Jon Pareles described it in his review of the show for the New York Times). I have art for sale , posters , drawings, large and small. I am also offering Christmas cards, a package of 12. I’ve always made my own cards.

Of course there are some big-ticket items. Songwriters and performers , I will talk with you, give you some assignments, help young or not so young, with what I know works for me. I am also available for private concerts. You can request the show you want. Why not?!

Two Videos-- One About Romney And One About McKeon

One of Blue America's earliest forays into electoral campaigning besides raising money for progressives came in 2006 when we got together with Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher from the Squirrel Nut Zippers along with the legendary singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, storied music producer Andy Paley and talented videographer Mike McIntee to come up with an iconic song we were able to use in over a dozen congressional campaigns, "Have You Had Enough?"

This week, the folks behind TheBuckStopsNow.org approached us about working together on a new version of the song. Considering that there isn't a worse Republican up for reelection who's likely to be defeated, we were only too glad to join in. The result is the video you can watch-- and hopefully spread-- up top. And if you'd like to help us get this 30 second clip up on local cable TV, please consider contributing to our I.E. PAC here.

I thought this might be a good time to take another look at why Rickie Lee and the guys from the Squirrel Nut Zippers decided to record the song in the first place. Let's start with the note Rickie Lee sent me, late summer, 2006:

At this point, it might be easy for someone like me to say 'why bother? He got his two terms (albeit illegally), the damage is done, our economy is wrecked, our ecology is three steps backwards, our domestic policy is "every man for himself," and our foreign policy reads something like "how do you say that in English, buster?" Our standing as a military power is forever tainted, and our flag, as a beacon for freedom if only to ourselves, is tattered and sad.' 

So why kick them out now? Because they can still do a lot of damage. Because they deserve to be expelled. Because they have committed crimes far more grievous than the last guy, with his 80% approval rating, whom they scalded, bewildered and ultimately defeated with a relentless media campaign. I mean, looking back, it wasn't Clinton who was defeated. It was us, the Americans who elected him, who stood up to the bullies. So they impeached him because we, the people, just wouldn't go along with what it is-- the destruction of his character by an out of control media who relished each accusation more than each achievement, and with the use of Newscorp media and all their other cronies, simply assassinated him without a bullet. Where is the media now, when there are REAL criminals in office? 

You can hear the voices of the people on the Internet. Where is one echo in the media? Imagine, if a sweet little song rallied the folks to storm their local newspaper or TV station and say "HEY, how about putting our point of view on now?" Except that there would be no one there, since Clear Channel bought up most of the radio stations and has a clear right wing agenda. How about the newspaper? No, Rupert Murdock, an Australian, seems to own most of the American news organizations. No, whatever fear you have of his regime, it cannot stop you from letting Bush know you that are furious with him and his criminal entourage.

Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher are best known as musicians and songwriters for the Squirrel Nut Zippers. But they were the original creative impetus behind the whole "Have You Had Enough?" project. Tom, whose good nature and modesty is so endearing:

The goal, obviously, is for this song to get a lot of attention and air play. We want to use the machine to further our political goal of minimizing, if not annihilating, the comprehensive assault on our institutions of government. Although I can admit to a certain parochial thrill at the attention, it’s far more reassuring to be part of a much larger gestalt. Certainly, by working with such powerhouses as Rickie Lee and Howie Klein, I have stayed true to my operating principle of being the weakest link in the musical chain!
 
And so this song is dedicated to you: the politicians whom we support, who have decided it can and must be done better, the bloggers, who helped me articulate my inchoate rage and frustration and thus informed these lyrics, the selfless volunteers "in the trenches," who do the most important but decidedly unglamorous GOTV work, and the all of those "who hunger and thirst for righteousness' sake," who may have resigned themselves to valid, but ultimately illusory, feelings of despair and powerlessness.
 
Our name is legion, and we have had enough.

The other former Squirrel Nut Zipper and half of Maxwell-Mosher, Ken Mosher, like so many of us, is both hoping for a leader to help us change direction and, simultaneously, taking matters into his own hands in the hope of pushing that along.

I honestly thought back in November of 1988, when I worked for MoPIRG and did volunteer work for the now-defeated Michael Dukakis and the Democratic Party, that things couldn't be worse for our country.

Then in 1997, when the Squirrel Nut Zippers played one of the Clinton Inaugural Balls, I thought that things couldn't be better.

Now in 2006, we have truly reached a bottom for this country and our international relations. We need leaders to turn this nation around, and to get there, we need all citizens to come out of the woodwork, activate and demand that we change the direction of the country.

Have YOU had enough?

This week an official Romney campaign bus drove around and around in circles blaring it's horn while President Obama spoke to supporters in Cleveland. No one inside the arena could hear the Romney bus honking madly but it sure added to the noise pollution outside. This weekend the DNC is welcoming Romney and his campaign bus to the road-- and warning potential bystanders-- by releasing this video in the states he's about to visit, showing how Willard has thrown middle-class Americans under the bus.



A reminder, please help us get the McKeon clip on TV up in Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Porter Ranch and teh Antelope Valley by contributing what you can at our Independent Expenditure committee.

RICKIE LEE JONES HAS A MESSAGE FOR NANCY PELOSI ABOUT FATHERS AND SONS

Yesterday Robert Parry wrote an essay for ConsortiumNews called G.W. Bush Is A Criminal, Like His Dad.

Watching Attorney General Michael Mukasey evade the obvious fact that waterboarding is torture-- and the reluctance of Democrats to press him-- I was reminded of how the first President Bush got away with an earlier batch of national security crimes.

Indeed, one of the common questions I've been asked over the years is-- if the evidence really does show that the Reagan-Bush crowd was guilty of illegal dealings with Iran, Iraq and the Nicaraguan contras-- why didn't the Democrats hold those Republicans to account?

For people who have posed that question, I would suggest that they watch the Senate Judiciary Committee's Jan. 30 hearing with Mukasey. Everybody in the room knew what the unspoken reality was, but nobody dared say it: George W. Bush authorized torture, which is a crime under U.S. and international law.

However, if the Attorney General-- the highest-ranking law-enforcement officer in the United States-- recognized the obvious, he would have to either commence legal action against President Bush or send a referral to Congress for the initiation of impeachment proceedings.

If such a referral were sent to Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have little choice but to permit the start of impeachment hearings in the House Judiciary Committee. A wide range of Bush's illegal actions would then begin spilling out, provoking a political crisis in the United States.

...on the most sensitive issue to Bush-- his assertion that he possesses unlimited presidential powers that let him violate criminal laws and ignore constitutional protections-- Mukasey was as much in lock step with the administration as his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales.

The failure of Congress do do their constitutional duty in 1992 and 1993 when they found out the Reagan-Bush campaign had contacted the Iranian mullahs directly-- treason-- and orchestrated the "October Surprise" to win the presidential election and help their right wing terrorist goons in Nicaragua, has emboldened Bush II.

A Giuliani ad in the NY Times on December 6, 2007 reminds us-- although he meant it in another context-- that when you let tyrants get away with a little, it only guarantees they will want more:

"The best way you deal with tyrants and terrorists, you stand up to them. You don't back down."

Congress didn't deal with them in the early 90s and look what we've had to deal with because of that. Pelosi is refusing to do her job now. Itr's not funny. Her reprehensible political calculous is part of the coverup and she should be prosecuted for dereliction of duty.

Rickie Lee Jones, on the other hand, has very much done her duty-- and more. Rickie can't put impeachment back on the table but in 2003 she released a song, "Ugly Man," that was a little ahead of its time-- a a LOT ahead of Nancy Pelosi. Rickie is just finishing a string of gigs in the heart of Pelosi's congressional district.

She decided to do two California residencies, one in L.A. and one in San Francisco. Monday she starts in L.A. for a total of four nights at the Echoplex in Silverlake, 1822 Sunset Blvd-- February 4, 11, 18 and 25. She's already done 3 shows at the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco and her last night there is Tuesday (February 5)-- a night California Democrats will make history. I put a little video clip together that makes the point. Enjoy:

RICKIE LEE JONES CALLS OUT SOME DEMOCRATS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT ON THEIR LEADERSHIP CREDENTIALS

I got an angry e-mail early this morning from Rickie Lee Jones. Ostensibly, her e-mail was about the Senate's overturning on Bush's hideous global gag order on women's reproductive rights. But on closer examination it is obvious that Rickie's note wasn't about the gag order itself-- as passionately as she opposes it-- but about the concept of leadership from our putative Democratic... leaders.

Rickie agrees with the Huff Po assessment of the demise of the gag rule, as do most Americans.

The Senate should be applauded for voting to repeal the global gag rule yesterday. The global gag rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, prohibits any foreign non-governmental organization (NGO) that receives USAID funds from performing or providing referrals for abortions, or advocating for laws that increase access to abortion. Indeed, any foreign NGO that is a recipient of USAID money may not even use its own money to support abortion, whether through advocacy, counseling, referrals, or direct services.

The global gag rule has had harmful and widespread effects on women throughout the world. It prevents local NGOs from responding to the potentially devastating effects of unsafe and illegal abortions, leaving organizations unable to provide information to women about how to obtain a safe and legal abortion, or to provide abortions directly to women who may not otherwise be able to afford a safe abortion.

The gag rule even goes as far as prohibiting USAID recipients from advocating against attempts to make abortions laws more restrictive. This is not only bad for women's health, it is also bad for democracy. Curtailing free speech by limiting what organizations can and cannot advocate for, and restricting the information an organization can disseminate, runs counter to the long-held American ideal of the free marketplace of ideas.

So what got Rickie's dander up? Before the Senate voted on HR 2764 (the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008), they voted on a series on amendments. One of a couple offered by extremist loon Sam Brownback, roll call 320, was meant to perpetuate Bush's gag order by preventing contributions to organizations that perform or promote abortion as a method of family planning. Although the Senate's two vehemently anti-choice Democrats, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted with Brownback and the Republicans, the amendment was rejected 41-53, primarily because several Republicans broke ranks and voted with the Democrats including two who are most likely to be defeated next year for their rubber stamp postures of virtually all of Bush's most egregious policies, Susan Collins and Gordon Smith. I might add at this point that several Republicans who ingenuously try passing themselves off as "mainstream" and "moderates" voted with the anti-choice radical extremists, as they always do, such as endangered incumbents up for re-election in '08 Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Norm Coleman (R-MN), John Sununu (R-NH), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domenici (R-NM).

But Rickie's beef wasn't about the ones who voted pro or con. It was about the ones who didn't bother voting on something this crucial. We have come to expect John McCain to not be in the Senate to vote on anything, no matter how important. His floundering presidential campaign requires that his head be up the ass of one wealthy contributor or another at all times, so he's never in the Senate anymore. But the Democrats usually do make it back from the campaign trail to vote of the most important issues. But not this time. No Hillary, no Obama. Rickie:

Did you know that two of our candidates for presidency in the Senate, the two great white hopes, (black or not), the great Democratic hopes... neither voted on the recent so called gag order on Sept. 6?

I personally am appalled that these so-called Democratic candidates, even at this stage of the game, echo the same old political non commitment to democratic ideals. I would like to know what popularity contest they think they won by not supporting this long fought battle to overcome one of Bush's fascist policies. I understand you scratch my back I'll vote for yours... I know this is sacrificed for that, but a bill as important as this deserved-- required-- our two leading Democratic candidates' support, not their careful silence. I want them to explain to us why they did not vote. 

When it came to the final passage of HR 2764, which Bush promises to veto, it passed overwhelmingly and even the two anti-choice Democrats, Casey and Nelson, voted for it. In fact, it has a veto-proof majority 82-12. Only the worst of the worst die-hard radicals-- kooks and loons like Brownback, Chamberliss, Cornyn, Inhofe, and Graham-- voted no. But Hillary and Obama (as well as Biden and McCain)? Out campaigning... to demonstrate, no doubt, their leadership and commitment to values and principles.
 

RICKIE LEE JONES: WHAT HAPPENS AFTER UGLY MAN?

Although Rickie Lee Jones has earned lots of gold and platinum awards for her music and graced the covers of countless magazines, many political activists know her, or have recently become reacquainted with her, because of the song she did with Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher, "Have You Had Enough?", used in the campaigns that helped elect a diverse array of progressive candidates, from congressmen and women-elect Jerry McNerney (CA-11), John Hall (NY-19), Chris Carney (PA-10), Patrick Murphy (PA-08), Chris Murphy (CT-05), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-20), Joe Sestak (PA-07), to local candidates like Scott Randolph in Orlando, Florida.

Today Rickie Lee talks about a post-"Ugly Man" America and wishes everyone a happy and well-deserved Thanksgiving:



What a great month this has been, for those of us who fought so hard to overturn this government, it must be a sweet time indeed.  I am thinking of Howie Klein, who networked everyone he knew or heard of to participate in articles, recordings, protests, performances, speeches... as well as KPFK DJ Michael Slate, who hounded me to be here in anti-Bush demonstrations for the past four years.

I must confess that for my part I had lost faith, become politically agnostic as Lee Cantelon put it,  and withdrew. I saw my democratic representatives move so far right in their ambiguous campaigns that I could no longer keep my balance in the middle. Suddenly, standing tough, I was part of the new radical left, which was not radical at all. I was not part of any clandestine thought of overtaking the government and feeding it to communists, socialists, or anarchists of any sort. I was part of the radical thought that wanted to protect the money elderly people had paid all their lives for their own old age, to keep all children in preschools and in grade schools and middle schools that provided at least the same curriculum we had enjoyed-- music, art, PE-- in class sizes manageable and safe,   in schools no food company could invade, nor political or religious institution could influence. I hoped to see a trend toward inclusive, common sense ideology and away from religious dogma of the sort manufactured in tent revival meetings and Southern Baptist armories, where the Christian soldiers doctrine makes them the sole bearers of the light of god, and all others must fall in their path,  never mind that obscure part of the bible that says God is a loving God, or the theme that suggest Christians might be a people who follow the tenants of forgiveness which would lead to an assumption of humility, tolerance, and good manners. Instead these people are best characterized as ignorant, intolerant and very scary. 

We can never forget who they are, and how they can suddenly rise and take from us a political institution we fight hard to keep, both spiritually and intellectually, and take for granted, by our collective apathy. They took the country away for a very, very scary eight years. The president installed himself, a war was created, oil fields installed, bad people dominated our good idea. Now that our own officials are in, let us be sure we drive them hard before us, to do what we sent them there to do: to restore and retain the America we have enjoyed since the revolution of the 1960's.   

President Clinton, for all his personal faults, was a golden boy of that kind of thought, and I for one was proud that no matter how many campaigns of maligning against him the people stood fast and kept him in office-- all those people that we, from the left and the once middle, thought were too uninformed to know better. They do know better. Remember folks, they did not vote for Bush any more than we did. He was selected and inserted. 

I wanted to tell you that, for my part, I have met the best of my country as we bobbled in a sea of fascist propaganda. I would send out a gurgling cry 'anyone remember how it was last year' and far in the distance "hey, who are these assholes who have stolen our country??"    

"That's how I feel," and I knew that this is how revolutions are grown, from the ground up. You cannot ever squash out peoples' memory. You can send out all the propaganda in the world and rewrite it so it looks a different way, discredit, rewire. But people know what they experienced. We knew the values and freedoms we grew up with had been absconded, and we sensed the pure evil that seemed to loom behind this impostor. I had spent my life maintaining the mantra 'music and politics are not my bag, baby.'  But suddenly they were. I wondered how my heroes could remain so subtle, so silent. Truly. Springsteen? Neil Young? Where the heck were they all in 2002, 2003? 

When I first performed "Ugly Man" in 2002, I was booed simultaneously to being applauded-- and this concert was in the heart of the left, San Francisco. "Hey people," I chided, "free speech...  remember?" But there was an audible gasp as they realized I was talking about GW Bush. To me, it was a pivotal moment. No one was speaking out. They were getting fired, they were being ostracized. It was a bad, bad time in our social history. "Revolution, everywhere that you're not looking... revolution." I was defying the government with that line. Don't think I wasn't a little bit nervous; I was. Hard to imagine now. 

But imagine it. They are still poised to take folks away, under the Patriot Act, for anti-American activity. It is a law. They can use it as they like. They did do a lot of damage, and it needs to be undone.

Now that we have the House and Senate, and the freedoms we love are again employed (I noticed the UCLA students were in the street last week demonstrating) we must be sure to stoke and protect the machine that provides these freedoms.  We must protect the democratic candidates that love to see the freedoms of the constitution employed by the people, and work to protect the social atmosphere that allows them to exist.

We must drive these newly elected officials back toward the left and restore the middle of the road to its' rightfully place-- the middle of the road-- and out of the margins that it was driven into when the media voices, controlled by the right, used the word 'left ' like McCarthy once used the word 'communist.' We must not let the dust settle to the right. When humanity allows it's compass to be pounded into pretending north is not north, fascism is not fascism but patriotism, we lose our direction for future generations. Let us endeavor to restore our country to its pre-Bush common sense, at least, and move quickly to pass legislation to protect the rights of the those things that have been trampled by the big business policies of this administration. Our grandchildren, our grandparents, our grand ideas. I am so proud. I just can't believe it. Congratulations to everyone who worked and read and spoke out loud-- this is a good month, and it's worth celebrating this Thanksgiving. 

rickie lee jones
and the furnitureforthepeople.com
collective.

HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH? A SONG FOR CHANGE

I was so revolted by the election-- legitimate election, no less-- of Richard Nixon that I left the country and lived overseas for nearly 7 years. Nor was I overjoyed by the advent if Ronald Reagan, not by a long shot and, frankly, I always recognized Bill Clinton as merely an infinitely more benevolent version of the same corporate tyranny that Republicans inflict on us. But not Reagan, certainly not Clinton or Bush the First, and not even Nixon (who drove me out of the country I love!) are as steeped in the kind of utter reprehensibility like the current monstrosity in the White House. I do believe no president in the history of our nation comes close to the sheer destructiveness to the national cohesion as Bush and the crew of miscreants around him. Look, if you've read Down With Tyranny you would have probably figured out I feel this way. But what's it got to do with a song that I neither wrote nor performed on?

I don't want to go down without a fight. And if we don't stand up and fight we are surely going down. Fuming and ranting to like-minded blog readers has been cathartic and rewarding in many ways-- and I like to think I played a little roll in helping uncover the Republican Culture of Corruption, at least in terms of Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Jerry Lewis. And the community DWT has formed with Firedoglake and Crooks and Liars in the shape of Blue America is barreling towards the $150,000 mark (mostly in small donations) for our list of progressive candidates. But blogging still didn't seem nearly enough in light of the depravity the Bush Regime has dragged our country through.

Today is the official "release" of a song, "Have You Had Enough," that came together very organically. Before you read the rest of this, just click here and listen to a version of the song we did on behalf of Coleen Rowley.

I hope you enjoyed it. Helping bring all the people who worked on it together-- the musicians Rickie Lee Jones, Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher, Andy Paley (producer), Mike at the pressing plant, Alisse Kingsley (publicist), Bob Divney (ace promotion man), Adam Fox (graphic artist), Irwing Ornelas (MySpace designer), Jane Hamsher, Christy Hardin Smith, Pachacutec, John Amato (my Blue America partners), all the folks at Firedoglake and Down With Tyranny with great ideas and suggestions that helped turn a flicker into something real... well, it made me feel like I was actually striking a blow for freedom for the country I came back to over 25 years ago-- and with a far greater appreciation for it's character, warts and all, than I had before I left.

Every Saturday at 2 PM (Eastern time), members of the Firedoglake, Music For America and DownWithTyranny communities get together for a live blog session with a progressive candidate at Blue America. On June 24th our guest was Larry Kissell, a grassroots, populist Democrat running against the ultimate rubber stamp bozo, Republican incumbent Robin Hayes. You can check out the archive of the session here.

That day over 50 members of our communities contributed around $1,500 to Larry's campaign. The first couple dozen donors "won" Eric Clapton CDs, which I mailed out on Monday morning. A week later I got an e-mail from a community member, Tommy Yum, who identified himself as Tom Maxwell, formerly of the late, great Squirrel Nut Zippers. Tom, a North Carolinian excited about Kissell's candidacy, wanted to thank me for the Eric Clapton CD and also offer his help. This led to a discussion that went on for a week or so during which we decided that he would adapt one of his SNZ hits, "Put A Lid On It" (recognizable from the 1999 Superbowl) as a campaign song for our Blue America candidates.

Tom and his partner Ken Mosher, another former Squirrel Nut Zipper, worked on the lyrics and the 3 of us started exchanging files and e-mails every day. I loved the dynamic process and how enthusiastic and cooperative these two guys were. Before they totally finished the lyrics they asked me what I thought about finding a woman singer to trade off lines with them. Judging from the music it only took me one second-- literally-- to come up with the perfect singer: a friend who I worked with when I ran Reprise and who is a very dedicated political activist and savvy idealist, Rickie Lee Jones. Rickie was on tour at the time but we communicated by e-mail and she loved the 45 second file I sent her and agreed to do it.

After that I called producer/musician Andy Paley, an old friend. I thought of Andy because I had been so impressed with his production work on similar music for the Dick Tracy movie soundtrack on which he produced artists as diverse as Madonna, k.d. lang and Ice-T. We were doing this whole project with absolutely no money at all and Andy, like everyone else involved, was happy to help out and even got Dusty Wakeman at Mad Dog Studios to let us use his awesome and historic facility gratis.

A few days after she got back to L.A. from her tour, Rickie Lee drove over to Mad Dog. Basically she nailed it on one take. Everyone's jaw just dropped! She did a few more takes for good measure but Rickie's voice was just made for this song! The next day Tom and Ken had mixed it and sent it to me. We want to get it out to as many people as possible and, of course, we want everyone to enjoy and share the music for free. We're going to start a political action committee so we can raise some dough to make 30 second radio spots with this music for our candidates. If you want to send a check-- and even $5.00 will help-- you can make it out to Blue America and send it to P.O. Box 27201, Los Angeles, CA 90027. As soon as we get all the paperwork done with the FEC we'll get an Act Blue Page up for online donations. Meanwhile, enjoy the music and send it to everyone you know. You can download it right here.