There’s something I’ve always liked about Ron Reagan, probably that healthy skepticism he always seem to have about the public image of his Mom and Dad as well as their politics. Even when I’ve disagreed with him, the guy’s always carried a sense of decency and fairness.
In the pretty amazing video where he comments on McCain’s VP choice, his Mom’s opinion about Obama and his general feelings about Republican shenanigans, he proves my theory correct.
What interesting things come out when you start digging. Based on her promise to watch out for special needs families in her RNC speech, reporters started looking into the Alaska governor’s record, only to find that she reduced spending on special needs by 62% in the last two years.
So does that mean she’s only now an advocate for special needs when it affects her personally?
Republican VP Nominee Sarah Palin just did Barack Obama a huge favor by insulting community organizers. Aside from the hypocrisy of it - exactly what are faith-based initiatives but community organizations? - there’s the stupidity of pissing off the people who are absolutely the best at getting out the vote. Guess who they’ll be getting out the vote for in November.
The Obama camp responded to the insults in this late night e-mail:
I wasn’t planning on sending you something tonight. But if you saw what I saw from the Republican convention, you know that it demands a response. I saw John McCain’s attack squad of negative, cynical politicians. They lied about Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and they attacked you for being a part of this campaign.
But worst of all — and this deserves to be noted — they insulted the very idea that ordinary people have a role to play in our political process.
You know that despite what John McCain and his attack squad say, everyday people have the power to build something extraordinary when we come together. Make a donation of $5 or more right now to remind them.
Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack’s experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.
Let’s clarify something for them right now.
Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.
And it’s no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.
Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America’s promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it’s happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America.
Hey Kids: I’m back on Big Ideas after a crazy week in Denver. If you haven’t already, check out my Inside/Outside the DNCblog.
Now, back to the future. A woman called me a few minutes ago and asked a question that would have never occurred to me - the kind only another Mom would ask of Gov. Sarah Palin. It’s a simple question, really, but the implications is damaging.
Her question: “If you knew your 17-year old unmarried daughter was pregnant and the world would expose it if you decided to take the Republican VP nomination, why would you say yes?
While the Republicans have thrown the fact that Palin’s daughter, Bristol, is keeping the baby as a sign of moral turpitude, the question remains. From a mother’s point of view, is ambition and serving the party worth the kind of scrutiny that the National Enquirer will put on your precious child? And if ambition does trump family, is that reflective of conservative Christian values?
If I’ve been derelict in blogging lately - and I have - it’s been due to planning for EbonyJet.com’s coverage of the convention.
This will be unprecented coverage by all three Ebony sister publications - Ebony, Jet and of course, EbonyJet.com where we will be covering the blow by blow, wall to wall, gavel to gavel activities both inside and outside the convention.
I’ll be anchoring the coverage with a daily blog of hourly (or more) posts called, appropriately, Inside and Outside the Convention. That blog will try to explain in fine detail exactly what happens at a convention and more importantly, around the convention - protests, parties, politics and the press, with photos, video and more.
Political and investigate reporter Del Walters will be covering the activities on the floor and uncovering news in the delegations.
Our political columnists Monroe Anderson, DeAngelo Starnes and Brian Gilmore will be giving their own twists on the themes behind each convention day and adding some clarity and historical perspective.
Photo Director and award-winning photographer Dudley Brooks will be launching slideshows each day and we’ll feature galleries from Ebony photographer Valerie Goodloe.
We’ve also assembled an international team of filmmakers to give you the world view on Obama from Paris, Berlin and London. Plus much, much more.
Check in and check in often starting Sunday night August 24th. –Eric Easter
OK.OK. So the Americans have been stinking up the joint this year. The men and the women dropped the baton literally and figuratively. That just means you have to jump across the war a bit to find somebody to root for. if you’re smart, you stuck with Jamaica.
Usain Bolt ran the third leg, guaranteeing that Asafa Powell could roll it out for a long lead. Not to spoil things, but the American world record got crushed all to hell.
Back in February, I let you in on a fun moment I had sharing the first of a series of DVDs from the 1970s late night concert TV show, THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, with my little kids. At the time, I promised to review the whole 9-DVD boxed set, but of course I forgot.
The series started with “Million Sellers”, a compilation of “best of” material that was clearly the hook to rope you in. It was a great start - Bowie, Frampton, Doobies - but I’m sad and disappointed to say the series gets progressively worse as the years go on. It leaves me wondering if it’s just a case of poor editing meets the realities of obtaining the rights to good performances or if popular music is actually what got progressively worse between 1971 and the early 80s. I haven’t yet decided.
I bring this all up again not just to keep my promises, but also because it was reported recently that my friend and JPC colleague, Kenard Gibbs, and a group of partners recently bought the rights to Soul Train, and plan to do something very similar on DVD to what the Midnight Special people have done. Those guys should study the Midnight Special model for what not to do with a compilation. Clearly they paid the superstars a bunch to do the initial DVD, but then got stuck in rights negotiations later and rather than ponying up the dough, they proceeded with the likes of Helen Reddy, Olivia Newton John, Neil Sedaka and Peaches & Herb.
But as I said, we remember the great stuff, but there was whole bunch of crap music in that period on the Top 40 lists. So then the play by play:
REO Speedwagon, Keep on Loving You: A harmless enough song from a harmless enough band. The music version of a dinner at TGI Fridays.
Hall & Oates,Kiss on My List: I’ve always thought Hall & Oates to be better songwriters than performers. Covers of their music I find to be much better than the original (see She’s Gone by Tavares). This performance (lip-synced by the way) doesn’t help heir case. A tie with “Maneater” for my least favorite song by these guys.
America, Sister Golden Hair: A lame song but catchy. Always kind of a downer in quality compared to their amazing song , Tin Man. Brings back good memories though.
Olivia Newton-John, Magic: Lordy, I hate this song for so many reasons. Just the worst sort of disco-era, spandex and leg warmer-wearing pablum imaginable. The main memory this brings back is being 18 and watching a scrambled version of the movie “Emmanuelle” on a paid-UHF channel called Super TV. The channel played this and Hot Chocolate’s “I Believe in Miracles” to scramble the audio. Sucked then, sucks worse now. Pretty girl, though.
Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show, When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman: I never quite understood the cat with the eye patch, but at least these guys put on an energetic performance. OK tune. Doesn’t float my boat but generally inoffensive.
Ambrosia, Biggest Part of Me: Is that who made this song? Oddly enough, this is the song I gave Hall & Oates the most credit for. It’s more Hall & Oates than Hall & Oates. They get much dap for this. A great tune. Bad styling for the band, but great tune.
Syreeta & Billy Preston: With You I’m Born Again: Not what I expected from The Midnight Special. I’m still in the rock/pop mindset so this is a surprise. A love song, but this one always made me sad for some reason. Am I mistaken that Syreeta was Stevie Wonder’s wife at the time? She kinda disappeared after this.
The Brothers Johnson, Stomp: Outside of Olivia Newton John, perhaps the rock bottom worst performance on the set. First it’s lip-synced. Who in the hell wants to see “Thunder Thumbs” Louis Johnson , one of the best bassist ever, fake playing the bass. And whoa, guys - spandex? Purple boots? Shoulder pads? Oh, the horror.
Frankie Valli & The Commodores, Grease: Who dreamed up this awful combination? Probably my least favorite song of all time from my least favorite movie. Lionel’s here in full horse- face drag. Why the long face, Lionel? (Sorry, couldn’t resist). Interesting though to see how free Black men were with their movements back then. Performers now would not even think of putting their arms above their head to dance. Have to credit where credit is due, the Commodores make the best of what they can with a crap tune.
Christopher Cross,Sailing: Chris got a whole lot of flack because his so-called “sappy” song and the album it was on beat out Pink Floyd’s The Wall for that 1980’s Grammy, but I’ll be damned if this song has not stood the test of time. In fact, Chris Cross got all four top Grammies - Song, Album, Record and Producer. It’s a beautiful, simple song and completely does not need a video. Everyone can put his or her own images to it and escape for a bit. That’s what a great song should do. His performance? Meh. But then again not exactly a song to stage-dive to.
Joan Armatrading, Me Myself I: Take this however you want, but I’ve always thought that while I have occasionally enjoyed her music, Joan Armatrading’s look and performance style were so completely out of sync with her sound that I just could never get with her. She’s the Burt Bachrach of rock, an infinitely better writer than performer. As opposed to say, Grace Jones, who created a whole aesthetic around her music. Or these days, Janelle Monae, whose music is very similar. This performance just cements that feeling.
So the Obama campaign just released its list of speakers for Wednesday night of the Democratic Convention, the day on which the Vice Presidential Nominee traditionally speaks.
People who look at such things generally try to determine the VP pick based on who’s NOT speaking and when they’re speaking. So what does Obama do? He puts everybody on the short list for VP on the stage at one time. From the release:
Governor Bill Richardson and Senators Evan Bayh, Joe Biden and Jay Rockefeller will echo Obama’s call for a new direction in national security and outline his policies and plans to secure America’s future.
Now, who’s not on the speaker’s list? Tim Kaine. But conventional wisdom also says that because Mark Warner, the former VA governor is the Tuesday night keynoter, Obama would never pick another VA governor as a running mate. Which is pretty true.
What’s amazing when legends like Issac Hayes die is not how old they were but how young. Hayes dies Sunday at age 65. Counting back, that would have made him in his early twenties at the height of his musical prowess, which, given the impact of his early music on the direction of soul, is an amazing fact.
There are many great young songwriters in te history of music, of course, but each has to be put within the context of what music styles came before them, and how innovative their own stylings were given what they had to work with. Prince was and is innovative, but was also clearly an outgrowth of James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Funkadelic, Joni Mitchell.
But Hayes and the rest of his Stax cohorts changed the game, twisting R&B and blues in a new direction. He was also the godfather of the modern soundtrack, breaking the genre open for popular artists instead of just formal composers and arrangers. Too bad a whole generation only have memories of him as “Chef” on South Park, though even that was pretty revolutionary.
