Tag Archives: politics

Shorties

Don’t be a sucker. Register to vote.

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This is a reminder that it’s important to register to vote if you haven’t already. It’s not hard to do, and it really does matter. Even if you live in a very “safe” state, the national popular vote determines how big of a mandate the winner has received. You can’t vote if you’re not registered, so please register to vote.

If you’re paying any attention at all, you might have noticed that we are approaching some very dark times in this country. Things are getting more and more weird and ugly and mean. Let’s all do what we can to make it better. Elections matter. Don’t fuck this one up, America.

Main image by Thomas W. Benton. And follow @poljunk on twitter.

Shorties

The Ballad Of October 16th is still relevant and controversial

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I’ve been watching the Ken Burns documentary The Roosevelts: An Intimate History and I’m astonished by how much I didn’t know about that era of American history. One example: a Gallup Poll from early 1939 revealed that 84-85% of American protestants and Catholics “opposed offering sanctuary to European refugees. So did more than one-quarter of American Jews.” This was after the well-reported “Night of Broken Glass” in November of 1938 when Hitler’s goons ransacked Jewish homes, shops, and synagogues through Germany and Austria, killing dozens of Jews and imprisoning thousands more.

I knew that Americans had become isolationist in the wake of World War I, but I had assumed that the so-called Greatest Generation had risen to the occasion when faced with the atrocities of the Nazis. Not so much. It’s shocking to see photos of young American protesters marching with “Make peace with Hitler” signs. FDR reinstated conscription and on October 16, 1940, American men had to register for the draft, and most Americans were not happy about it. Before I watched this episode I had assumed it was just lefty radicals like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger who opposed the war. Their band the Almanac Singers recorded one of my favorite protest songs, “Ballad Of October 16th.”

Oh, Franklin Roosevelt told the people how he felt
We damn near believed what he said
He said, “I hate war and so does Eleanor
But we won’t be safe ’til everybody’s dead.”

Continue reading The Ballad Of October 16th is still relevant and controversial →

Articles

Lift Every Voice And Sing: Election 2012

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We get it: You’re sick of it. You’re sick of all of the ads and the robocalls and people on Facebook telling you to vote. Yep, it’s annoying.

Here’s what’s more annoying: Generations of people have fought for your right to vote. They have died for it. Their kids did not get to see them step off the plane and into welcoming arms. Their spouses did not get to finally have a morning where the doorbell ringing sent them into a panic. Their parents didn’t get to see them grow into the better versions of themselves. They died and they are still dying.

The least you can do is show your thanks by exercising your right to be heard.

And because we at GLONO have never, ever pretended to be objective: Vote Democratic. We know you, we know you have good taste and a good head on your shoulders. Don’t tell us you’ve been hoodwinked by a “severe conservative” who can now magically bring the parties together for “real change on Day One.” We don’t believe it.

  • We KNOW you love your moms and sisters and wives and daughters and want as much opportunity for them as your dads and brothers and husbands and sons enjoy.
  • We know you know gay people and know they are just like you.
  • We know you think it’s crazy that people can buy elections (prove them wrong).
  • We know you don’t really believe people who are sick should also be bankrupt.
  • We know you don’t think teachers and firemen are the source of our sluggish economic recovery.
  • We know that you don’t expect a president—any president—to solve all your problems but can recognize the difference between competent government and an ideology that doesn’t think such a thing is possible.
  • We know you expect more but also know when you’re being sold a bill of goods.

We’ll be live-tweeting later. Get your political fix from the team by following POLJUNK: The National Affairs Desk of Glorious Noise on Twitter: @poljunk

God Bless America.

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David Byrne Explains Why He’s Suing Crist

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Republican Governor Charlie Crist is using a Talking Heads song in an ad for his Senate campaign without permission. So David Byrne is suing his ass. Here’s why:

The general public might also think I simply license the use of my songs to anyone who will pay the going rate, but that’s not true either, as I have never licensed a song for use in an ad. I do license songs to commercial films and TV shows (if they pay the going rate), and to dance companies and student filmmakers mostly for free. But not to ads.

I’m a bit of a throwback that way, as I still believe songs occasionally mean something to people — they obviously mean something personal to the writer, and often to the listener as well. A personal and social meaning is diluted when that same song is used to sell a product (or a politician).

As anachronistic as these ideas seem nowadays, I’m happy there are still some artists who refuse to allow their songs—especially older, established songs—to be used in ads. I know, I know. I’ve heard it all. Ad nauseum. But still. Kudos to the artists who can afford to say no.

Talking Heads: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki

Continue reading David Byrne Explains Why He’s Suing Crist →

Links

Did Obama Violate Copyright?

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God Save the Queen, we mean it, manBy now, you’ve all heard that President Obama gave the Queen of England an iPod. Turns out there were 40 songs pre-loaded on it. Showtunes to accompany a coffee table book he also gave her. When I heard about this, the first thing I wondered was whether or not the RIAA was going to go after his ass. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been wondering the same thing: iPods, First Sale, President Obama, and the Queen of England.

In the digital era, however, first sale has been under siege, with copyright owners (and even the Copyright Office) arguing that it has no place in a world where “ownership” has been replaced by “licenses” and hand-to-hand exchanges have been replaced by computer-mediated exchanges that necessarily make copies. But it’s precisely because first sale is central to everyday activities like giving an iPod to a friend, selling a used CD on eBay, or borrowing a DVD from a library, that EFF and others have been fighting for it in case after case.

So, how does President Obama fare in this? It’s nearly impossible to figure out. If he’d simply purchased a “greatest hits” CD of show tunes and given it to the Queen, the first sale doctrine would have taken care of it. But because digital technology is involved here, suddenly it’s a legal quagmire.

The fact that this is such a convoluted issue kinda proves we need to reform copyright law, doesn’t it?

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Ticketmaster/Live Nation vs. Senate Judiciary Committee

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Obama‘s Non-State of the Union wasn’t the only action on Capitol Hill yesterday. Executives from Ticketmaster and Live Nation (formerly Clear Channel) went before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights to discuss their proposed merger. Jim DeRogatis recaps the hearing for the Chicago Sun-Times:

All of the senators voiced strong skepticism about the merger–including traditional foes Orrin Hatch (R-UT, and an amateur recording artist) and Charles Schumer (D-NY, and a Bruce Springsteen fan outraged by Ticketmaster’s handling of the upcoming tour)–and they hurled barbed questions about skyrocketing prices, duplicitous ticket schemes and unfair competition at Ticketmaster head Irving Azoff and Live Nation boss Michael Rapino.

A native of downstate Danville, Azoff stressed his background as a music fan who traveled to Comiskey Park to see the Beatles and who promoted acts such as Dan Fogelberg and REO Speedwagon during his time at the University of Illinois. “This business is in far worse shape than many people realize,” he said, adding that the merger is necessary to save it.

DeRo had also liveblogged the hearing as it took place, so check that out for more details like this gem: “Curiously, when Azoff says the word ‘merger,’ it sounds a lot like ‘murder.'”

Despite the Senators’ apparent outrage, I’m skeptical that anybody’s actually going to stop the merger. The era of Teddy Roosevelt‘s trustbusting was 100 years ago…

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His house is all white!

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Video: Young Jeezy and Jay-Z – “My President is Black” (remix, live on January 18, 2009)

My President is Black, in fact he’s half white
So even in a racist mind he’s half right
Even in these racist times we alright
My President is Black but his house is all white

Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther can walk
Martin Luther walked so Barack Obama can run
Barack Obama ran so all the children can fly
So I’m a spread my wings you can meet me in the sky

Articles

GLONO's Upright Standing Man of the Year 2008

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2008As the brutal Bush years draw to a close we can reflect on how we got where we are. The twists and turns of missteps and outright chicanery can dazzle the most savvy newshounds among us. I mean, who would have written a plot in which the Vice President of the United States was so craven as to plant a story in the New York Times and then refer to that story as evidence for the need to invade a sovereign nation in an act of “preventative” war? It’s preposterous and yet that is exactly what happened. The list goes on and on and continues to grow and it’s hard for mere mortals to keep up, nevermind understand.

Enter: Matt Taibbi.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when Hunter S. Thompson killed himself. I mean, how am I supposed to make sense of such a depraved creature as Don Rumsfeld? How am I to put George W. Bush‘s bumbling management into any sort of modern context? Who am I to distill into plain English the mortgage and loan/credit crunch/economic culture fuck we’re living? I am few, Taibbi is many.

Sure, we had Jon Stewart and (previous Upright Standing Man of the Year winner) Stephen Colbert to shed light on the hypocrisy and lunacy of the last eight years, but they are essentially nice and decent guys. Times like these require savagery and Matt Taibbi is not afraid to call Sarah Palin “a fraud, she’s the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV.” This while the rest of the media was politely accepting her as representation of “middle America” even though they knew too what Taibbi was able to put in print.

Continue reading GLONO's Upright Standing Man of the Year 2008 →