If you think the Ginni Thomas texts are bad, wait until you learn about how Clarence Thomas successfully conspired with four other high-ranking government officials to overturn the result of the 2000 election.
There was a time in the early eighties (tell us about the good old days, Grandpa!) when there were several really good bands going who weren't afraid to make political statements with their music--bands like U2, the Alarm, and this week's band, The Call. It gave a little bit of hope to those of us who feared the Reagan devolution would haunt us for years...and unfortunately still is.
The Call formed in 1980 in Santa Cruz, California (not too terribly far from where I grew up), and after doing my weekly half-assed research, was pleasantly surprised to find they'd had a little longer and more successful career than I would have thought. Over the course of their twenty year career, The Call released eight studio albums, five of which charted. They also released two live albums and four compilations, as well as seven singles. Their song "Let the Day Begin" was used by Al Gore for his 2000 Presidential campaign, and another song, "I Still Believe" was featured in the movie Lost Boys. Sadly, their lead singer and bassist Michael Been passed away from a heart attack in 2010. The remaining members have gotten together for a couple of one off affairs in the last few years and the band released a three LP compilation just last year.
"The Walls Came Down" was released as a single in 1983 from their second albums,Modern Romans.The single would reach #74 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album would chart at #84.
From the start, "The Walls Came Down" injects itself in your veins with its jangly guitars and thumping bass...and it doesn't quit for the next three and a half minutes. Michael Been speaks, sings, and screams with an urgency that conjures the times themselves--while the walls didn't really come down, they fucking should have. I suspect, but wasn't able to verify, that the song has religious overtones (horns blowing, walls coming down, singing of a congregation) which, much like many a gospel influenced pop tune, only adds to its power. The song closes with about a minute of the band providing sing-song lyrics that make you feel as if you're gonna grab your sledgehammer and walk right up to that wall and knock it down yourself--and any time a song can provoke you into action, you know it's a rock solid slice of pop music.
Lyric Sheet: "I don't think there are any Russians/And there ain't no Yanks/Just corporate criminals/Playin' with tanks..."
Hillary Clinton gave a speech at Wellesley recently in which she sounded intelligent, compassionate, incisive, and downright Presidential...and I couldn't help but compare and contrast her to the idiot that got elected, who each and every day looks and sounds more and more like your frumpy, drunk, racist neighbor whose idea of fun is shooting neighborhood dogs with his BB gun.
I'd like to think Americans will learn a lesson from this, but then I remember that George W. Bush beat Al Gore after eight years of peace and more prosperity than this country had known in a generation and I sigh.
Hard to tell if Americans are self-destructive or just utterly clueless--either way, before 2020 gets here we're going to be a lot worse off than if we'd elected a second President Clinton.
So...thirteen years after the fact, Sandra Day O'Connor thinks that maybe the Supreme Court should not have taken on Bush v. Gore because in part it was a highly politicized issue, and in the end, did much damage to the Court's reputation.
You know, it's one thing when a nineteen-year-old, after spending two hours over a toilet puking his innards up, thinks that maybe chugging that fifth of tequila wasn't such a good idea. It's another when a Justice of the United States Supreme Court, someone who gets paid to be prescient, thinks that a decision which ultimately had disastrous effects for millions of Americans perhaps wasn't such a good idea.
The problem is Supreme Court Justices making decisions that are based on the best interests of the republican party, and not on the rule of law.
The average American gets paid just enough so he doesn't quit his job, and works just hard enough so he doesn't get fired.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." Source unknown
Uncle emaycee Wants You For the Coming Class War! Enlist today....
Capitalism: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can exploit his labor, become filthy rich, and keep the poor bastard living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of his life.
