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Toby Keith is pro-America. And pro-lynching?
In 2002, Keith became a millionaire many times over with the release of “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American.” (Sample lyric: “We’ll put a boot in your ass / It’s the American way.”) Now he’s back with a song called “Beer For My Horses” to expand upon his patriotism:
Grandpappy told my pappy back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he’d done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street
For all the people to see
It reminded me of a band called The Klansmen, featuring Skrewdriver’s Ian Stuart. Stuart, a British white supremacist, made a handful of fairly awful rockabilly albums in the early ’90s under the pseudonym “Jeb Stuart” — the first of which he called Fetch The Rope. From the title track:
Them good old boys they kept their trust despite the rising crime
Clean white robes, good strong ropes, they’re just doing fine
Law and order really died, the Klansmen didn’t flinch
If somebody broke the law he was likely to get lynched
I said, don’t give up hope
Fetch that rope
Which is kind of the same thing. (In fact, I feel dirty having to point it out.) But that’s not all: In a bizarre twist, Keith is stumping for Barack Obama.
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The Boiling Point.
Mikhaela Reid is a political cartoonist whose work has appeared in the L.A. Times, Boston Phoenix, and the Advocate, among others. She’s got an entire collection posted on Flickr that is well worth checking out. Unless you’re a conservative Republican, in which case I can’t really help you.
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Is Colin Powell about to endorse Barack Obama? →
With the term “Obamacon” firmly coined by The New Republic, the Washington Post digs up news that Powell’s “tenuous 13-year relationship with the Republican Party has ended.”
“The Obamacon syndrome is based on hostility to Bush and his administration and on revulsion over today’s Republican Party,” writes Robert Novak. “The danger for McCain is that desire for a therapeutic electoral bloodbath could get out of control.”
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Obama campaign gives in to Muslim-baiting.
At a recent Obama rally in Detroit, two Muslim women were barred from sitting behind the podium — to prevent their hijab headscarves from showing up on TV. “I felt like I was discriminated against by the very person who was supposed to be bringing change,” said Hebba Aref, a 25-year-old lawyer. Somebody needs to be fired. (photo via Jacob K)
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The unexpected rise of the Obamacon. →
As it turns out, many conservatives are switching their traditional Republican allegiances, citing the Iraq war as a transgression of their fundamental ethics. Boston University professor Andrew Bacevich, for one, believes that the war has weakened the potential for domestic conservative reform. “For conservatives, Obama represents a sliver of hope. McCain represents none at all,” he writes in The American Conservative. “The choice turns out to be an easy one.”Link
Jello Biafra and the Politics of Punk. →
I could probably sum up the entirety of my teenage political mind with a handful of lyrics from Bedtime For Democracy, so it’s good to know that Biafra and I still share adult political opinions. For example:
“It’s not as though a President ‘Barack-star’ is going to wave his magic wand and suddenly Iraq is all better. My biggest worry about him is that if he wins, he’s just going to pull off the mask and be the creature of the corporate establishment that his voting record indicates. And a whole generation inspired to get off their asses and participate will become so disillusioned that they don’t vote again.”
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Oprah Winfrey for president. →
In 1984, Winfrey met the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and — alongside Barack Obama — began attending the Trinity United Church of Christ. Unlike Obama, Winfrey left the church at some point in the mid-’90s:
“She was never comfortable with the tone of Wright’s more incendiary sermons, which she knew had the power to damage her standing as America’s favorite daytime talk-show host. ‘Oprah is a businesswoman, first and foremost,’ said one longtime friend. ‘She’s always been aware that her audience is very mainstream, and doing anything to offend them just wouldn’t be smart.’”
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A South Carolina church sign witlessly tries to connect Obama to Osama.
Says dimwit Pastor Roger Byrd, “His name is so close to Osama I have a feeling he might be Islamic, therefore he doesn’t recognize Christ.” Interesting! So which one of Christ’s disciples was named Roger?