Ann and Nancy Wilson of the rock group "Heart" infuriated at the use of their '70s rock anthem.
It seems that the Republican National Convention and Presidential hopeful John McCain tried to take America to “heart”, and Heart stated in no uncertain terms that they didn’t want their “heart” stolen. Apparently Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was given the nickname “Sarah Barracuda” whilst a star high school basketball player, referring to Heart’s 1977 rock hit, prompting the RNC to use the song as her theme music at the Republican convention.…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments76 - Ruvy
Jordan,
I've personally discussed quite a few issues with my MP here, including Afghanistan. However, he's a conservative. Being a supporter of the NDP, my party may never find office in Canada, but they will almost always oppose our "mission in Afghanistan." It's pretty well known that the majority of Canadians want our men and women out of there and back home ASAP.
I congratulate you on confronting your MP on the issue in person. That shows more than mere intelligence - it shows a certain amount of moxie as well. Good on you! But if you honestly think the NDP may never find office in Canada, maybe you should jump ship?
I realize that Canadian politics are very different from American politics, and that provincial politics are a whole different ball game from federal politics, etc., etc. and I feel uncomfortable even suggesting something to you. After all, you are the one who would have to live with the consequences of such a decision, not I.
But maybe at times, there is more profit to being in power than in being right?
77 - Jordan Richardson
But if you honestly think the NDP may never find office in Canada, maybe you should jump ship?
I don't believe in jumping ship to a political party I don't believe in simply because there's a better chance of that party winning.
But maybe at times, there is more profit to being in power than in being right?
There is profit in being ethical. Power doesn't matter, in other words, as I'd rather know I stood for what I thought was right than jump ship to a winner.
Shit, that's why I'm still a Vancouver Canucks fan.
:)
78 - Ruvy
There is profit in being ethical. Power doesn't matter, in other words, as I'd rather know I stood for what I thought was right than jump ship to a winner.
I'll not argue with you. You are lucky you have the luxury of the position you take. Canadians are not being drafted to fight, and if you have a child of military age, you can point out to that child that he/she does not to trot down to the induction office to report to a military base.
My sons, by contrast do. It generally influences how you look at politics....
79 - Jet
Jordan: the average American has lost his or her sense of innovation, creativity, and compassion. America used to be a country of inventors and innovators, now it's just a country of consumers.
That's because the big corporations have all gone offshore where they can get those creative and innovative ideas cheaper for pennies on the dollar than here. As for the compassion, that went out the window the moment the religious right purchased Ronald Reagan for bottom dollar (along with Nancy's astrologer) and then put the Republican Party on time payments.
Suddenly blacks were all rap-star criminals, Jews were screwing gentiles out of a buck and no one who wasn't a southern baptist could get into heaven without being born again. Then Anita Bryant and Jerry Falwell started warning the population from their pulpits that fags had started kidnapping little boys, infecting them with AIDS and in a sort of "catch and release" program they returned them onto the streets to infect others.
80 - Jet
All I can hope for is that the Wilson sisters read this and decide to become better citizens...
(sigh)
81 - duane
Heart is probably pissed that they didn't get invited to perform live, instead of the annoying C&W crapola that Reps seem to like so much.
They could have done something like this. If you look carefully, you will see Sarah Palin on keys and tambourine. Versatile? You bet.
82 - Dave Nalle
Lisa, the parsings of Palin's speech you've offered so far are as much a lie as anything she said in the speech. To some extent truth is subjective, and a leftist spin on Palin's speech is no more 'truth' than Palin's spin on reality as presented in the speech.
Dave
83 - Jet
shit happens Duane, shit happens
84 - Jet
Oh dear god I agreed with Dave, someone call an ambulance!
85 - handyguy
Lisa, the parsings of Palin's speech you've offered so far are as much a lie as anything she said in the speech. To some extent truth is subjective, and a leftist spin on Palin's speech is no more 'truth' than Palin's spin on reality as presented in the speech.
Say what?
No need to parse: the speech was an effective collection of one-liners/laugh lines/rabble rousing. But 'truth'? C'mon!
It is pretty shameless for the GOP candidates to keep repeating the distortions/exaggerations from their speeches as they hit the campaign trail: "Bridge to Nowhere, check; Plane on eBay, check; Obama says no to nuclear power, check. All demonstrably untrue, but let's keep repeating them, the rubes won't notice."
Watch Jon Stewart dissect this, beautifully, on his show from last night. His version of the truth is the one I'll stick to, and he does it in just a few hilarious minutes.
86 - Jet
I still can't look at the woman (especially when she has her hair up) and not think of Karen Walker from "Will and Grace"
If she had the voice McCain would be in real trouble.
87 - handyguy
Are you kidding? If Karen Walker were running for Veep, I'd trip over myself voting for her. 'Specially with the hunky husband and all....
But, Governor, I know Karen Walker. Karen Walker is a friend of mine. And, Governor, you're no Karen Walker!
88 - Jet
Um... have you ever heard the descriptions of Stan Walker?
When they cremated him it took two huge popcorn tins to hold the ashes, and Karen said all of Brocklyn was in a brown out for three days.
89 - handyguy
I guess I got my metaphors mixed a little.
Mr. Walker = so fat they never showed him on camera.
Mr. Palin = very handsome.
90 - Dave Nalle
Handy, I found it surprising and interesting that Stewart avoided addressing the substance of either Thompson's or Palin's speech and basically focused on trivialities instead. Very telling.
Dave
91 - Lisa Solod Warren
Dave, you must be kidding. Read the full text. It will take you longer than five minutes. Then try and even try and be clever.
92 - handyguy
Yes, telling that there was no real substance in Palin's speech to discuss.
Thompson? He got off easy with a funny Foghorn Leghorn joke.
These kind of 'red-meat' convention speeches deserve some simple derision to balance the fawning reactions they were getting elsewhere.
And as for substance: the faux-campaign-bio film about McCain brilliantly documents, in less than four minutes, how awful and complete his sellout has been, from his real maverick days to the things he has been willing to do to get the nomination. Made me want to withdraw some generous things I have said on here recently about McCain.
"Reform" has to be more than a word and an abstraction. In its current usage by the McCain campaign, it comes perilously close to self-parody and cynicism.
93 - Condor
"I, personally, find it egregious that one of the current nominees for veep lied every step of the way during her speech (written by the talking heads of the party) but that afterwards all the media could do was coo and bill. And that it took days for her to be parsed." Lisa
Who writes their own speeches anymore? Lincoln wrote his own and they hold a lasting quality. From what I've read Teddy Roosevelt probably wrote his own. It's interesting that a local morning show here in Tidewater was talking about this just last week.
Obama certainly does not, in fact he hired on Ted Sorenson who not only wrote the famous JFK line "Ask not what your country can do for you....," Additionally Sorenson help with the edits on JFK's Profiles in Courage. USA today noted in an article run by AP that "Sorensen... liberal ideas and poetic turns of phrase became so entwined with Kennedy's that the president called him his 'intellectual blood bank.'"
I hope I just didn't infringe on any copywrite law....
Pat Buchannan has even penned a few speeches for politicians along the way. I wonder if Bill Buckley did as well?
I would love to read speeches written by modern politicians, but even if they are written by professionals they all sound like sound bites... with the exception of Obama, who as I found out earlier in the campaign, has Sorenson employed with those chores.
94 - H.C.
The Wilson sisters don't need the McCain/Palin campaign or the RNC to help their careers -- their legacy in music and rock n' roll history has already been cemented; just because you might not hear them on crappy pop radio doesn't mean their music sucks or is irrelevant. They did a lot for women in a male demoninated world of rock n' roll.
95 - Jet
There you go HC, thank you!
96 - Jet
Glen, what to you think of the copyright fight?
97 - TerreDee
Ruvy, where are you from, that your sons are being drafted? There's no draft in the US.
98 - TerreDee
These incidents show McCain's values. His organization is breaking the law. Flaunting it really, because there are multiple offenses.
Artists have the right to control how their work is copied. That is the meaning of copyright. They can put any kind of licensing stipulation they want. The more valuable the work, the more common it is to control how the work is used. Who, where, when, how many times... all negotiable.
Heart, Jackson Browne, and the others who don't want McCain to use their property have a right to say 'no deal'.
McCain is more of the same old Bush regime. Criminal acts, lies and coverups, pandering, warmongering, tearjerking. Just a bunch of vicious personalities pretending to be good Christians and good Americans.
People who identify with that bunch of Fascists are fear biters who submit to the big dogs, no matter the facts, the law, or the consequences to themselves and all the rest of us.
99 - Jet
I think he's from Mayberry North Carolina TerryDee, but I'm not sure...
100 - Jet
Absofuckinlootly TerreDee!
101 - Lisa Solod Warren
Condor. Pay attention. It is not that she didn't write the speech. It is that the speech was a generic Republican screed written for whomever was the candidate and that the media fell all over themselves (and Clav had an orgasm on the politics page here) saying how great it was. She did a nice job on the delivery; she has a natural talent at "speechifying," and she drove the crowd into a frenzy (I mean who can blame them after listening to John McBoring for the past year?) but the piece was full of lies, lies and damned lies..... which is why I asked you, nicely, to read the evidence.
BTW, Who writes his own speeches these days?
Why, Barack Obama does for one!!!!
102 - Dave Nalle
BTW, Who writes his own speeches these days?
Why, Barack Obama does for one!!!!
No, his speeches are written by Kennedy speechwriter Ted Sorenson.
And the speech was hardly full of lies. Just because you CALL something a lie, that does not in fact change reality, Lisa. You may disagree with the interpretation of facts displayed in the speech, but that doesn't invalidate them. Opinions you disagree with are not lies.
Dave
103 - Silas Kain
Barack writes his own speeches? Well, damn it America, that's the reason we should vote for him! God help us all.
104 - Borat
And AC/DC was used at the RNC as well - the people there are even singing and dancing to it! I thought the GOP thought that was satan's music
105 - Silas Kain
Well, borat, a lot of Conservative, far right men are into AC/DC. Oh, you were talking about the rock band? Never mind.
106 - Lisa Solod Warren
Dave, read SOMETHING for a change. She said Obama had not written any legislation. He has. She said she did not support the Bridge to Nowhere. She did, until she got static. She said she was against earmarks. She wasn't, she was for them; in fact, she was on McCain's shitlist for them, three times. And and on and on and on. It's all there in the parsing of her speech. I don't know why you refuse to even look at her record versus what the Repubs wrote for her. It's shameless, really. Worse than shameless.
"Interpretation of facts," indeed. You are a true Republican. No wonder no one trusts you guys.
And, Obama does write his own speeches.
107 - NR Davis
No, dear Silas, I don't think Borat was referring to the Society of Self-Loathing Gays (aka Log Cabin Republicans).
108 - Silas Kain
I'm a member of the Log Cabin and am hardly self-loathing. Don't even put us all in one boat. We're not mindless queers -- and have an equal sense of social responsibility as any proud member of the ACLU (another organization of which I would be proud to be a member).
109 - NR Davis
No offense meant to you, Silas, and you're right -- in my experience, I have encountered a small minority of LCRs who don't exhibit internalized homo-hatred. However, I always will have doubts about people who support candidates who don't support their basic humanity and equality. And do I continue to believe the LCR is tantamount to the SSLG? Yep. That won't change until their endorsements do. The NRA supporting McCain/Pain? Understandable. LCR doing the shame, er, same? For me, no. YMOV. Peace.
110 - Ruvy
TerreDee at comment #97 was kind enough to ask:
my writer's page here at Blogcritics Magazine, Terredee.
Ruvy, where are you from, that your sons are being drafted? There's no draft in the US.
This is from
Name: Ruvy
Dateline: Ma'alé Levoná, ISRAEL
Articles: 109
First Published: Thursday, November 10, 2005
Last Published: Friday, August 29, 2008
Writer Bio
The writer was born in Brooklyn and lived in Minnesota for a number of years. There he managed restaurants and wrote stories. He moved with his family to Israel where they now reside. He is published by Jewish Indy, as well as by Desicritics.org.
I'm also the editor of the Root and Branch Information Service, sent out of Jerusalem, ISRAEL.
My sons are eligible for military service for three years, and approximately forty years of reserve duty after that, with yearly callups ranging from one week to one month (usually staggered through the year).
In the United States, boys aged 18 have to register with the Selective Service, but there is no conscription in effect at present.
111 - Ruvy
NR,
Wonderful to see you commenting here again! How are you doing?
112 - NR Davis
Back to the issue of political parties using songs inappropriately, I think the choice of "Barracuda" was hilarious (though I understand why Heart would want to keep bad people's hands off of their music, ASCAP be damned). It made the GOPpers look as stupid as they did when Reagan's people used Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA." Meaning matters.
I get a chuckle when the Pretenders tune plays on the Limbaugh show now; all royalties paid every time that snippet of "My City Was Gone" entertains his sycophantic neocon faithful go to PETA. LOL!
BTW, I believe the royalties for the music used in venues is paid for by the venue's ASCAP payments, which covers any and all contractors, including the RNC and DNC. Jackson Browne's lawsuit may clear up the matter. But turnabout is fair play -- the DNC used a Brooks and Dunn tune (fully paid for), and I know at least one member of the country duo is an ardent right-winger.
113 - Jet
Re: Borat 104-That's only if it's played backwards. Most adults don't know how to play a CD backwards so they assume it's safe.
114 - Silas Kain
However, I always will have doubts about people who support candidates who don't support their basic humanity and equality.
I understand, NR. To me the heart of the GOP is less government and more individuality. The Far Right has bought and paid for the party of Lincoln and many of us are not happy. Within the GOP, the Far Christian Right is our enemy and nobody has the balls to stand up to them and dismantle their cross. That's where I have difficulty in embracing a McCain candidacy. After everything they did to him and his family in 2000, I would have had more respect for him had he spit in Falwell's face and bitch slapped James Dobson back to Hell. In my mind there is no difference between a bleeding heart Liberal and a member of Pat Robertson's congregation. Both sides blindly espouse their point of view forgetting the bigger picture. Unwilling to yield or invent compromise, they sling out fertilizer faster than a Yokohama made crop duster and most of us fall for it year in and year out.
115 - Jet
Silas 105-Toe tapping music? Let's see how many people get that reference.
116 - Dave Nalle
Maybe the RNC should stick with the Grateful Dead since two of the surviving members are Republicans.
Dave
117 - NR Davis
Hello, dear friend. Hanging in, cancer free for the moment (cross those fingers), life goes on. How are you and your family doing? I think about you guys often. You're sounding pretty angry these days (which I understand)... fighting the uphill battle is maddening, especially when it seems no one gets what you're trying to tell them. Being neither Democrat nor Republican, I feel that way a lot. Best thing about being so sick for so long is that I had to focus on something that didn't involve politics and re-discovered cookies. Hugs to your boys; my son, now 12, is soooo tall. And a Democrat, heavy sigh. :)
118 - Jet
Lisa 106-This is a recorded announcement-"A man hears (reads) what he wan't to hear and disregards the rest"
119 - Silas Kain
Jet, #115, girlfriend I caught that!
120 - Jet
TerreDee, Ruvy tells that to everyone to impress them; he really just runs a gas station/gun shop in Mayberry North Carolina. He's got a really heavy southern accent and a hunting dog named Temple.
121 - Jet
NR... welcome! Palin's been in the NRA since childhood, she hopes to follow in Cheney's footsteps and shoot a friend in the face after she makes VP... In fact I think she's hoping to take the world record for a VP while in office.
122 - Jet
Rumor has it she's gunning for the Wilson Sisters.
123 - Jet
Dave Nalle 116: from what I understand them hippies are so old that they think that when someone mentions their old neighborhood they're supposed to hate someone named Ashbury.
124 - Jet
NR-Your son's a Democrat?!? Congrats, now THAT'S the proper way to raise kids!
125 - Ruvy
Jet,
I asked you the questions I did about the Democrats using "East Side, West Side" in 1928 and "Happy Days Are Here Again" from 1932 to 1992 for a reason other than exposing the fact that you are really 87 years old and have been fixing that photo from 1960 to fool us all (you can put your teeth back in the glass now, grampa).
I asked you because the Democrats' use of these two songs made history, resuscitating an old Irish immigrant tune about New York, and using an ironic song about the Depression to rouse the party that would attempt to bring the United States out of one.
Nobody except Heart is going to care about or remember the Republicans' use of "Barracuda" come February 2009 unless John McCain keels over and Governor Palin becomes President Palin.
But the two songs I mentioned above are history and part of American history because of their use by the Democratic Party. Does anybody remember or really care what tune Bill Clinton used instead of "Happy Days Are Here Again?" I know, you love music, and can rattle it off by heart. But I love music too, and while I can sorta hum the tune, I don't remember the name. "Happy Days Are Here Again" will always mean the Democratic party to me, on the other hand.
Think about that....
You may have points of law on your side in your assertions, Jet - but "the law is an ass".
Ruvy,
Attorney at Equity
Ma'ale Levona, Israel