Ani DiFranco Added to Kucinich Benefit

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.

The tawdry facts are here:

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.