Vindication, Of A Sort

Last week, I wrote a post about pro-war and anti-war songs. One of the things I said was:

"...there are a lot of artists much more popular than Darryl Worley who no doubt would be penning anti-war songs were it not for the fact that the company that virtually controls rock and country radio in this country seems to have the nasty habit of blackballing bands that voice any sort of significant dissent..."

Today, while reading Tim Robbins' speech to the National Press Club, I happened upon this:

"A famous rock and roller called me last week to thank me for speaking out against the war only to go on to tell me that he could not speak himself because he fears repercussions from Clear Channel. 'They promote our concert appearances,' he said. 'They own most of the stations that play our music. I can't come out against this war.'"

Score one for me, I guess.

You'll excuse me if I don't feel particularly good about being right on this one, though.

A Question

What's the appropriate sentiment for Passover? I mean, we have "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Easter", but "Happy Passover" doesn't seem quite right...

Holy Shit

Ronald Reagan's kid is harder on Bush than the SCLM.

He even hits the Good Doctor Frist where it hurts:

"Reagan says his family feels particularly alienated from the Republican Party over its opposition to embryonic stem cell research, which could have significant benefit for Alzheimer patients like his father. "Now ignorance is one thing, ignorance can be cured. But many of the Republican leaders opposing this research know better, people like [Senate Majority Leader] Bill Frist, who's a doctor, for God's sake. People like him are blocking it to pander to the 20 percent of their base who are mouth-breathers. And that's unconscionable -- there are lives at stake here. Stem cell research can revolutionize medicine, more than anything since antibiotics."

I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry.


Update: Jim E. points out that Ronald Jr. has always been a liberal. While this is true, I think that it's significant that such harsh words are being thrown at the people who lay claim to the mantle of Reagan by Reagan's son. Beyond that, RR Jr. raises an issue I have always thought should be given a higher profile: the fact that so many Reagan-worshippers are opposed to stem-cell research, the very research that could one day provide a cure for the disease that has afflicted their hero.

I just don't get that.

That's Cute

Mr. Reynolds has started referring to CNN's admission that some stories were spiked to prevent sources from being killed by Hussein's government as "CNN's journalistic Enron Scandal."

That's funny. I missed the part where CNN had massive ties to the Bush administration, screwed everyone involved with the company who wasn't an executive of some sort, and defrauded Californians out of large sums of money.

Onward Christian Soldiers

The BBC:

1645:US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accuses Syria of conducting a chemical weapons test "over the past 12, 15 months".

Link via Atrios, for a different story

Bad Omens

All right, it was bad enough when Rumsfeld was shooting his mouth off (or "taking a 'Damn kids! Get off my lawn!' approach to foreign policy, in the immortal words of John Stewart), but now that the President himself is saying the same kinds of things, I'm starting to get a little nervous.

I think I'm going to start a pool to see how long it takes for at least 40% of the US population to believe that most of the 9/11 hijackers were Syrian.

Come on, July 13-19! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes.

Bailing Out

MyDD points out that Jose Aznar of Spain is no longer being held up as a prominent member of the Iraqi war coalition, and ties this fact to his likely defeat in next month's elections.

While it makes sense that the Bush administration would choose to distance itself from a prominent supporter when that support is about to get said supporter thrown out of office, this raises an interesting question: since we've already established that quite a few people in the UK and Australia are pissed off at their leaders for supporting the war, what happens if Howard and Blair look like they are in imminent danger?

After all, it's easy to ditch Spain, but wouldn't it be a little harder to bail on a member of the vaunted "Anglosphere" without taking significant political heat?

Although, really, it's not a very safe bet to underestimate the brazenness of this administration. After all, they've already started slapping PM Blair around when it comes to reconstruction contracts.

Maybe it wouldn't be that hard after all.

So, come on then, leaders of the world, who wants to be our friend?

Anyone? Anyone?