Protest Music 2008

My son interviewed me the other day for a school project. The subject was 'what have you done in your life that you would consider the most meaningful' and my answer was getting active for political change, instead of merely talking about it. He wanted to articulate some of the differences between anti-war activism in the 60's and today. Of course there are a lot of differences; the social and political climate is completely different, as is the fact that the draft is not in effect. But one difference that I noted was the fact that there is not a definite 'protest music' movement like there was in the 60s. There is protest music being made, to be sure, but not a lot of people are hearing it, and many of the big-name artists that are doing protest music are the same ones who were doing it in the 60s, like Neil Young. 

I think that we still haven't found our way as far as real protest is concerned - we are mostly falling back on what we did in the 60s - marches, sit-ins and other forms of civil disobedience. But I have a feeling that the public response to it is not what it was 40 years ago. It is still looked upon as something from the past, an outmoded and dated echo of the 'hippie days'. Something else needs to happen to engage the public, and I don't know what it is yet.

Be that as it may, I'm still hoping for a stronger presence for protest music. When I have time  for a break from regular writing, I want to do some more protest music myself. Someone who has been doing wonderful protest songs for a few years now is my best girlfriend Paula Sorcé. She is someone who started doing this in the 60s and has never looked back, and she's my hero. The core of her band Just-Truckin' originated in the 60s and has re-formed again, and they are a classic Bay Area horn band a la Cold Blood. She has always written about what's important to her in a way that draws you in, with her strong, fierce, soulful vocals, burning horns and driving rhythm section. 

I invite you to check out her latest, 'Trust You'. The video along with it is very cool also.

Her band's website is here if you'd like to hear more of Paula. My girl rocks!

Thank You, Friends!

Well, I went down to the caucus this afternoon, and gave my little speech. There were 16 men and 17 women signed up (although about a quarter of them didn't show up, including my friend Mutant Poodle - I saw your name there, pal!) When I got there, I could see that I was woefully unprepared. The real true-blue Go-Bamas were in full force, along with their fan base. Not only could I see that I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell, since I was there by myself with nary a follower to my name, but I could see that just about everyone there deserved to go a lot more than I did. These are the people who have been there all along, doing the phone-banking and door-to-door canvassing - the real grassroots, nuts-and-bolts work. So I looked at it as an opportunity to practice speaking about politics in public - even if it was for only 30 seconds. It's funny; I've been on stage for over 30 years, and if I'm doing music I am completely comfortable. But take away that crutch and it's a different story.

Thank you all for your kind words of support. As goofy as it sounds, just knowing that y' all had my back was a comfort to me. Even my friends who don't support my candidate support me and I love you for it!

Last-Minute Heads-Up - I'm Running To Be An Obama Delegate!

Hello from Crazy-Land! I have been so completely slammed this week that I forgot to mention that I'm running to be an Obama delegate tomorrow. I'm finishing up the final editing of my book with my editor, and we're planning to be all done by Monday night - then, off it goes to be published! Plus, I'm back at work - I had to write a brand-new curriculum for my 'Keyboards for Singers' class last week - I think it's turning into a book too! And my husband is out of town making his rounds in Nashville, so I've got the kids by myself (although I have to say that this weekend they have been awesome - my big son is taking care of the littles and they're all cleaning the house and are going to have a movie party at home tonight while I'm out at a gig. Oh, yes - did I leave that out? I also have a gig tonight an hour away in Moorpark, which means I'll get home at 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning.

I've never done anything like this before, and I may never again. I signed up for the caucus in January, not thinking much about it, and then this week find that I'm on the ballot and that I actually have to campaign! And give a speech! Only one minute, but a speech nevertheless. So I'll be spending the day split between working on my book and writing a speech and a little bio about me and why I want to be a delegate to make a flyer to hand out to people at the caucus to get them to vote for a nobody.

Bottom line: I'm running to be an Obama delegate and to have a true progessive voice and vote at the Democratic Convention. The more real committed progressives we get at every level - from bottom to top - in the Democratic Party, the better chance we stand of making a change. As you all know, I'm a big proponent of 'preaching to the choir', because I feel that it's more effective to try to motivate liberals on the sidelines than to try to convert conservatives. We have enough people who believe in progressive values; we're the majority, as a matter of fact. It's getting them involved and active that is our real challenge, but it's a challenge I see as more doable than changing the mind of a conservative. So I am trying to take my own advice and not just talk but do something, and this is a golden opportunity to do just that. This election could prove to be one of the most important Presidential elections ever - literally the difference between war and peace, between economic collapse and the hope of mitigating it; not to mention the judiciary where the remaining judges who are not radical right-wing are now in the most tenuous position imaginable and some will be replaced in the next four years. We cannot allow the judiciary to be hijacked for the next thirty years., which is what will happen if another Republican gets into office.

I have never asked anyone to vote for me before, so it feels really awkward - but if you are a registered Democrat in my congressional district (the 28th CD in California) or you know someone who is, I'd like to ask you to come out to the caucus tomorrow and vote for me. The caucus is being held here:

North Hollywood Recreation Center
11430 Chandler Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601

Here's how you get there.

Caucuses open at 2pm - you must be in line by 3pm in order to receive a ballot to vote. Caucuses are open to registered Democrats who live in that Congressional District.

And you can check out the California Democratic Party website for more information.

Thank you!

What Regular People Are Hearing

(cross-posted at The Smirking Chimp)

Yesterday, I went for my long-overdue hair appointment with the Prince of Peroxide, my friend Eddy James (who is a miracle-worker, I must say - he did not ask me for a plug but I'm giving it anyway!) He asked me how my book was coming and I told him it was in the process of being edited, and then he and I got talking about politics, as we usually do at that point. He's Canadian and his wife is American, but he's a pretty progressive guy for a 'normie' (i.e. someone who isn't up to his tits in the interwebs about politics.)

In public, I don't launch into my tirades unless someone asks me enough times that I can't help myself. We started by talking about the possible SAG/AFTRA strike, and the acrimony between the two unions - disheartening because I belong to both and they've been seeking rapproachment for a while, but it's falling apart at this time. The subject went to unions in general, then the economy. Next came the state of the media, and I started talking about news programming and the fact that since news is now expected to draw ratings like a sitcom or game show, we get more flash and spin and less substance, and how we're losing out as citizens because the people entrusted by the protection of the Constitution to keep us informed have abandoned their responsibility to the public interest. We pretty much concurred that you can't trust the media to tell us the truth.

When we got around to the primary races, the girl who was assisting Eddy, and who up to this point had not made a peep, piped up and said, "Well, Obama wants to take the Pledge of Allegiance out of public schools!"

My jaw dropped.

I had just finished talking about Bush's Rovian dirty campaigning tricks that had been used against both Ann Richards in the race for the Texas governorship and John McCain in 2000 - the 'push-polling' where operatives would call up people and ask them if they would vote for so-and-so if they knew that they had a gay agenda (Richards) or had an illegitimate black child (McCain).

I asked her where she had heard that. She said that someone forwarded her an e-mail.

After explaining where it had come from - that someone took a picture of Obama standing with other candidates without his hand over his heart during the National Anthem, which is not the Pledge of Allegiance ("I was taught by my grandfather that you put your hand over your heart during the pledge, but during the Star Spangled Banner, you sing!" Obama said) - I was struck by the fact that this is how the majority of people in the United States get their information about politics, and about politicians. Since I don't spend a lot of time talking to regular people about the things that I rant about as a blogger and writer, it was a bit of a shock to hear something that to me is a well-known fabrication unworthy of the least bit of consideration regarded as gospel truth by someone else. This girl who works in the salon looks like somewhat of an 'arty' type, as do many people in the hair business. She certainly did not come off as overly conservative. She didn't seem especially interested in politics at all.

But she 'knew' about Obama wanting to take the Pledge of Allegiance out of schools.

This is what we're up against, folks.

This is why I'm going to take opportunties as they come up - not to harangue or harass people with my political worldview, but to try and do my part to put correct information out there whenever I can. It's not the dyed-in-the-wool conservatives I'm trying to reach. Their minds are already made up, and a pesky and unwelcome fact is not going to intrude upon their worldview unless it already fits into their frame of reference. It's the people who have progressive values but not the information to back it up; people who don't understand that what they're hearing isn't necessarily always true, that I want to connect with. And I do believe that most Americans have progressive values. That's why I write this blog; that's why I wrote my book. If I can compete, even in my own limited way, with the misinformation - both deliberate and unintentional - I feel that I have a duty to do that.

When I talk to people like this young girl, what I tell them is check for yourself. Don't take my word for it any more than you would take the word of a forwarded e-mail. But I do tell them that it's important to understand that what you hear from the media and from 'other sources' may be inaccurate, incomplete, or just plain-out lies, and since the media no longer feel any obligation to the public interest, but only to the interests of their shareholders and advertisers, it is now necessary to check and double-check your sources. Otherwise you will be making decisions and casting your vote from an uninformed standpoint - and that has already proved to be deadly.

The idea that we can take everything we hear on faith has come and gone. We must be responsible for our own knowledge as information consumers. If this girl had taken even a minute to Google some different sources, she might not have taken that ridiculous and mendacious e-mail as the basis for her opinion of a candidate - an opinion that could very well influence her vote. And that's what the people who propagate these falsehoods are counting on.

I don't expect anyone to take what I have to say on faith. Please, look up anything you hear me say. And consider the source.

An informed society is a free society. An uninformed society?

Not so much.

Carnival of the Liberals #61 - Better Late Than Never!

My abject apologies go out to everyone who sent in an article, and especially to the esteemed proprietor, the Neural Gourmet, who I enjoyed meeting in DC last November with Americans United for Separation of Church and State (the long name with the short URL!). If it was not for my horrendous computer crash it would have been up yesterday.

So, I would like to belatedly offer up for your perusal and edification the cream of the liberal blogging crop for Carnival of the Liberals #61. I now have more new great blogs to add to the ol' BlogRoll.

Starting us off with a bang is Divided We Stand, with an ode to the departing doughball that is Denny Hastert, "Oh Denny Boy" (appeals to my Irish heart), and what it signifies for the implosion of the Republicans.

Tracee from BlogFabulous makes a point that ought to be front and center of any discussion of the abortion issue - Stop Abortion, Vote Healthcare!

The mighty T of The Republic of T tells it like it is about the 'Ownership Society', or, more correctly, the Society of the Owned, Pt. 1. This is a series, BTW, and one that you should read every installment of.

Are you as sick of the selfish smugness of Objectivists as I am? Matthew Wilder, the Wild Philosopher, undresses Ayn Rand with Philosophically Fucking Humanity.

Although I understand we don't cotton much to 'candidate chatter' around the Carnival, I think my reasonably conservative friend Jon Swift has a word or two worth noting about the way Dems (and many liberal bloggers) are attacking each other and doing Grampa McCain's dirty work for him in Hillary Clinton Supporters at Daily Kos Go On Strike! C'mon, you krazy kids, knock it off, why don'tcha?

Greta Christina, she of the eponymous Blog, is a blogger I didn't know before, but who I will be reading regularly now that I have discovered her. Her post On The Amazingness of Atheists...and Why It's Doomed is thought-provoking and smart.

MBB at Money Blue Book has an informative and pithily-titled post up about Making Fun Of Late Night Infomercials Using Hotties With Assets To Sell Get Rich Schemes. Another blog very much worth visiting, especially in this economic free-fall.

Another blogger that I was fortunate enough to meet in DC with Americans United was the formidable PZ Myers of Pharyngula, a free-thinking evolutionary biologist who is on the front lines of the battle between science and superstition. He was interviewed for the pro-'intelligent design' film Expelled!, featuring the always-scintillating Ben Stein. Since he was rather prominently featured in the movie, he and some family members planned on attending a screening at the local theater. I won't give away the details to those who don't know the story, but Greg Laden, a biological anthropologist and scienceblogger of...wait for it...Greg Laden's Blog, has all the details in PZ Myers Expelled, Gains Sainthood. You'll laugh, you'll cry...no, you'll just laugh. It's that rich.

Charles H. Green of Trust Matters brings us a word to the wise with Great Moments in Self-Regulation: Financial Planners and CFP Board. Any time you hear those magic words 'self-regualtion', hold on to your wallet and run the other way! The fleecing is about to commence.

Well, that's it for my first edition of Carnival of the Liberals. Many thanks to all the bloggers who sent posts. See you on the merry-go-round!

Back Up. Back Up. Back Up.

It has taken me an entire day of troubleshooting, and finally completely erasing the drive and reinstalling the OS and restoring in order to get my laptop (with my whole life on it) working again.

Can I tell you how glad I am that I had made a complete backup of my drive the day before?

I've always known that you're supposed to back up, but I'm ashamed to say that for years and years I always put it off till 'later'. I've been unbelievably fortunate in that I've never had the kind of crash where losing everything was an option. When I put Leopard on my laptop, it has a great little backup program called Time Machine and I actually only started using it a month ago.

I will continue to make regular backups from now on. Religiously.

Carnival of the Liberals

Will be up as soon as possible - I have had a massive crash after an update, so please bear with me.

I Got Mine - A Conservative Worldview

(cross-posted at The Smirking Chimp)

My kids are big fans of the 'Blue Collar Comedy Tour', and especially of Larry the Cable Guy, a comedian so conservative that he named his daughter Reagan (I kid you not.) They have Tivo'ed several of the shows and so I hear a lot of it from the living room. Most of the time I tune it out, but one bit of Larry the Cable Guy's caught my attention. He was extolling the virtues of Wal-Mart, and deriding liberals who don't like Wal-Mart because they pay their employees so little. His advice to those weenies who don't like how employees are treated at Wal-Mart is - "Don't work at Wal-Mart!"

Those four words (or five, depending on whether Wal-Mart is one word or two) sum up the basic precepts of conservative philosophy.

You'll hear conservatives say, "If you don't want to work at Wal-Mart, then get an education and work hard and you won't have to." Pull yourself up by your bootstraps; put your nose to the grindstone; have some self-discipline. The old 'personal responsibility' routine.

What that does not address is the question, "If I don't work there, then who else should be working there?"

In other words, a job that pays so little that a full-time worker is still below the poverty line and is eligible for welfare is fine and dandy - as long as it's not me working there?

That's the essence of the conservative worldview: as long as I've got mine, I don't care if you have yours. The idea of everyone pursuing his or her own self-interest, then by the invisible hand, the self-interest of all will be maximized, or in the parlance of the Eighties, "Greed is good!" - is the one-size-fits-all answer to poverty, to injustice, to inequality. But what it boils down to in real life is "I've got mine." The idea that every person that works full-time is due enough compensation to support themselves, let alone a family, doesn't even enter into the calculation. It's okay for other people to be underpaid, overworked, taken advantage of. All that matters is - it's not me.

This is why conservatism just plain doesn't work - at least for the kind of society we say we want as Americans. There has to be some kind of consideration for more than just 'me and mine'. The place we're at right now - teetering on the brink of an economic collapse that could easily become a depression, embroiled in a grotesque, bloody occupation with no end in sight, pretending to be 'liberators' with no concern as to whether the country we're occupying wants us there or not, with a Vice-President who doesn't care how many Americans object to the war (apparently the two-thirds of Americans who say it's not worth fighting are merely exhibiting 'fluctuations in opinion', like toddlers who don't like apple juice today, but loved it yesterday), with the largest divide between rich and poor since the robber barons of the Gilded Age - is a place that conservatism, with its selfish, childish and short-sighted "I got mine" has brought us to.

And eventually, my conservative friends, even you may find yourself holding the short end of the stick. You may end up being the one treading water while someone else roars away to safety in the speedboat, oblivious to your cries for help. The policy of "I got mine" only leads to fewer and fewer people who have "got theirs" and more and more people who get next to nothing. Sooner or later, you'll be one of the latter. It's just a matter of time.

If you don't object to the mistreatment of your brother or sister, what will happen when it's your turn? Maybe you'll end up competing with Larry the Cable Guy for that swell greeter job at Wal-Mart.

How uniquely American.

From The Horse's Mouth: Read Adam Smith Online

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, from which the 'Invisible Hand' line comes, is online and you can read it for free here. It is also searchable.

Here is a site that has many Adam Smith quotes.

Enjoy.