DiFranco joins Willie Nelson for September 6 benefit concert in Cleveland. I don't care if the Rolling Stones, U2, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, and the ghosts of Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Buddy Holly all endorse him and agree to perform in my backyard, Kucinich is still a dangerous, opportunistic, reckless, pandering, paleo-populist demagogue who wouldn't have returned to politics after he bankrupted Cleveland if he had been able to find a real job. That would be a pretty good show, though - I wonder if the stage would fit better on the side of the house, the actual backyard, or the level area down by the stream.
- Singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco, the latest artist to support Dennis Kucinich for President, will join Willie Nelson in a concert to benefit the campaign. Ani is a successful, staunchly independent performer — a poet and feminist who launched her own record company, Righteous Babe Records, at the age of 19.
This will be the first time Ani and Willie have appeared together. The concert is set for Cleveland, the hometown of Congressman Kucinich, on Saturday, Sept 6 at the State Theater. Ani will perform solo; Willie with his full band.
Congressman Kucinich said: "Ani DiFranco and Willie Nelson are both socially-engaged artists and it's an honor to have their help in this campaign."
The Willie/Ani concert is one of a series of campaign benefits that begin with Willie Nelson's performance on Labor Day in Des Moines: Monday, Sept. 1 at the Polk County Convention Complex. Details on a third concert in September have not been finalized. Tickets can be purchased through Kucinich for President.
Ani and her record company proudly hail from Buffalo, New York, a rust belt city on the Great Lakes. Kucinich is former mayor of Cleveland who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus and advocates for workers, the environment and civil rights. Of the presidential candidates, he was the first and most vocal opponent of the Iraq War.
And for this he should be vilified.
![Chicago: Live in Concert [Blu-ray] Starring Robert Lamm, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, et al. (Nov 1, 2011)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5198vHFv5UL._AA115_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - Dawn
All is lost, we are doomed, DOOMED I tell you.
2 - mike
"should be villified" for opposing the Iraq war? Perhaps you meant vindicated, although I'm a Dean man myself.
Is this the official start of the "Peace Movement Stabbed Us in the Back" rhetoric? Because I LIVE for that sort of sleazeball stuff. Bring it on, prowars!
3 - Eric Olsen
No, I don't see that coming, it's just another example of his poor judgment.
4 - Natalie Davis
You tell 'em, Mike. Yay, Willie! Yay, Ani! Yay, Kucinich!
5 - Chad Manney
There's nothing dangerous about someone who sides with the people over centralized power.
6 - Dave
Kucinich, the kook who drafted a bill that included a provision to ban space-based mind control satellites? Who wouldn't want a guy like that in the race?
7 - Eric Olsen
Re centralized power: I believe it would take a fair amount of that to place protectionist measures on every significant import, to retract NAFTA, and to create universal health care (which I am not entirely against in principle), etc. Kucinich would seem to be a champion of centralized power.
8 - mike
"Space based mind control satellites"? What is this? A Trekkie convention?
9 - Eric Olsen
Dennis is adamantly opposed to having his mind controlled from outer space - aren't you?
10 - Mark Saleski
having your mind controlled from outer space...isn't that what religion's all about?
11 - Al Barger
Ani DiFranco supports Kucinich? That's it then, boys. Dubya might as well start packing his bags to head back to Texas.
12 - Eric Olsen
Hey, he has to fight his way through that impresive lineup of Democrats before he gets a crack at GWB
13 - Al Barger
Sharpton, Sharpton, he's our man!
14 - Natalie Davis
Thank the goddess Al Stewart lives or I would just have to give up completely on people with that moniker.
15 - Deanne
Ani and Willie are wonderful, down-to-earth people. They care about our country and are not afraid to speak their minds about any issue. Dennis Kucinich is the same way. He understands and stands up for the "little people" in this world, and is not only interested in the rich, like most politicians. Maybe if enough of us "little people" would listen to Ani, Willie, and Dennis, our world would be a much more peaceful one! GO KUCINICH!