Behold- The Official Obama Soundtrack…

What a wonderful idea, just when the hurting economy is one of the biggest news stories in the U.S. you can pitch $25-30 of disposable income (depending on whether you want a physical copy or just a download) on this new 18 track compilation (well, new is relative seeing as most of the songs have already been released).

The track listing is as follows:

1. Eternity – Lionel Richie
2. Signed Sealed Delivered – Stevie Wonder
3. Waiting On The World To Change – John Mayer
4. American Prayer – Dave Stewart
5. Battle Cry – Shontelle
6. Make It Better – Los Lonely Boys
7. Pride In The Name Of Love – John Legend
8. I Have A Dream – BeBe Winans
9. Am I All Alone – Suai
10. One Is The Magic # – Jill Scott
11. Love & Hope – Ozomatli
12. Looking East – Jackson Browne
13. Out of Our heads – Sheryl Crow
14. Promised Land – Malik Yusef with Kanye West and Adam Levine of Maroon 5
15. Hold On – Yolanda Adams
16. America The Beautiful – Keb’ Mo’
17. America – Ken Stacey
18. Wide River – Buddy Miller

So there you have it.  When you want to listen some tunes that make you think about change (holding back from making a wisecrack about pocket change) now you have an album just for you.

Because regardless of her qualifications (or lack there of) people are talking about her.

By talking about her, they’re ultimately talking about the Republican ticket which means (in a roundabout way) they’re talking about McCain.  The same McCain who was often seen as getting less than half the press that the photogenic and media savvy Obama was getting.

Just how many people are talking about her now?  Well hell, even world recognized movie critic Roger Ebert has written not one, but two articles on her.

Of course, he has nothing nice to say about her and her Veep Candidacy, but hey, there’s no such thing as bad press right?

Examples?

I think I might be able to explain some of Sarah Palin’s appeal. She’s the “American Idol” candidate. Consider. What defines an “American Idol” finalist? They’re good-looking, work well on television, have a sunny personality, are fierce competitors, and so talented, why, they’re darned near the real thing. There’s a reason “American Idol” gets such high ratings. People identify with the contestants. They think, Hey, that could be me up there on that show!

My problem is, I don’t want to be up there. I don’t want a vice president who is darned near good enough. I want a vice president who is better, wiser, well-traveled, has met world leaders, who three months ago had an opinion on Iraq…

I would also want someone who didn’t make a teeny little sneer when referring to “people who go to the Ivy League.” When I was a teen I dreamed of going to Harvard, but my dad, an electrician, told me, “Boy, we don’t have the money. Thank your lucky stars you were born in Urbana and can go to the University of Illinois right here in town.” So I did, very happily. Although Palin gets laughs when she mentions the “elite” Ivy League, she sure did attend the heck out of college.

Five different schools in six years. What was that about?

All the press she’s getting brings to mind something that we haven’t done around here in a while…

Let’s google the candidates!

Barack Obama got 72,200,000 hits
Joe Biden got 4,700,000 hits

John McCain got 56,900,000 hits
Sarah Palin got 20,600,000 hits

Joe Biden, having been in the Primary race and Senator for 30 some-odd years got roughly a quarter of the hits Palin got.

Palin despite having really only been in the political spotlight for a few weeks now gets a third of the hits of her running mate McCain.  That’s still after McCain has run for President before, and had all the press during the Primaries.

Whether she’s qualified or not, regardless of what you have to say or think about her, Palin is doing her job, and that’s bringing the media back to the Republicans.  Now they just have to hope they make good use of it, rather than crumble under it’s critical gaze.

I get a sense that most voters and pundits are crawling out of their skins with anticipation for Sarah Palin to come out of whatever bunker the G.O.P. is hiding her in.

It’s not just the Democrats and media who want to start their feeding frenzy on the ex-beauty queen Vice Presidential candidate.  The hard-core supporters are starting to bite their nails too.

It’s concerning to me because it sends the message that the McCain campaign has little faith in her ability to carry herself when faced with a media onslaught.  To be an American President requires thick skin.  Just ask Bush.

Palin is literally a heart-beat away from becoming President. That’s never been more true for a VP more than with McCain. (Let’s be realistic here.  The man is 72 years old.)

There are two months left before the general election and two weeks before major debates begin.  Come out, come out wherever you are, Missy.

While we’re waiting for her to come out and play, please enjoy this.

UPDATE:

Palin will sit down with ABC’s Charles Gibson this week for an interview.  My only concern is this:

The interview is a coup for Gibson, who also had the only sit-down with McCain during the Republican National Convention. During that interview, he did not question McCain about Palin’s family, a decision that he fretted about for hours, Gibson said in a Web log posted last week.

Me thinks the McCain campaign has the situation on a VERY short leash.

In a recent poll done by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, roughly half of Americans polled said they’ve had about enough coverage of Prez hopeful Barack Obama, and most everyone said they’d like to know more about McCain.

Well hey, that’s cool America, you want McCain, you’ve got him.  Here’s what McCain’s latest campaign ad has to say-

hmm… It seems McCain likes talking about Obama as much as “the media” does.  Oh, and he also infuriated one of his campaign contributors by including their daughter in that last video.  You might’ve heard of her, her last name is Hilton?  Anyway, the daughter in question has her own campaign ad in response to the attention. 

Something else I wanted to add.  Since when would it be a bad thing for our President to be a bigger, more recognizable figure than our pop-stars?  I think that having such a high profile would actually be a very good thing, meaning people were at least paying a little more attention to politics than they are to the gossip rags about which superstar celeb got what body part altered when.  The president should be a celebrity, or at least get the same amount of news coverage. 

And if people want to hear more about McCain, tell McCain to talk more about McCain, and less about “he who we’ve heard enough about”.  That’d be a good start.

The Obama world tour that’s been recieving so much media attention in the past week or so, has hit it’s first real glitch, as a visit to wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany was cancelled.  At first the reason for the cancellation was unclear with the Obama camp saying it had something to do with the trip being “inappropriate” as it was funded by the campaign and it would’ve been politicized by the Pentagon.  But just today the military came forward to state that there had been restrictions placed on Obama and possethat only Obama and his travelling buddies from the Senate could enter the facility.  No aides, no press.  So basically, without the ability to play the trip up to the media, the whole thing was scrapped, making Obama’s sincerity seem a little questionable.  But hey, politicians.  When is their sincerity ever not in question?

There have been plenty of movies released in the past few years relating to the wars in the Middle East, from the recently released “Stop Loss” and ”Home of the Brave” for fictional accounts of what war and homecomings carry for our troops, to “Baghdad ER”, “Body of War”, and “No End in Sight” for documentaries ranging from the direct experiences of the men and women of the military, to the policies and backroom dealings that have occured throughout the entirety of the war.

…and people have been avoiding them all like the plague.  Even the ones that recieved positive reviews.

I’m not going to speculate on why these have all pretty much gone unseen, instead I’m going to highlight a few things that are being shown right now that should be viewed.

The first is “Generation Kill”.  A mini-series on HBO based on the book of the same name in which an embedded reporter joins a group of Marines during the initial invasion of Baghdad and documents his experiences.  The book drew some heat on initial release due to the Marines’ outspoken displeasure with their leadership in some instances, but since has been placed as one of the books that “gets” what war is like for the guys on the ground.  The series in being touted as staying close to it’s source material and being fair in it’s depictions of the individuals portrayed in both the book and the show.

The second thing that’s being worked on right now comes courtesy of MTV (who also produced “Stop Loss” which many said was one of the least politicized takes on the war in movies to date) and rapper Kanye West, called “Choose or Lose & Kanye West present: Homecoming”.  The intent of the series is to highlight recently returned vets by sitting down with them and letting them discuss the difficulties faced in returning home.  An extra step being taken in this show is the assistance being given by West and MTV under the name of the Dr. Donda West Foundation (named for West’s recently departed mother) to the vets in the form of student loan repayment, rent coverage, and making up the differences between college costs and the coverage of the G.I. Bill which in certain instances has proven insufficient.

I’ve mocked Kanye West in the past for his lack of internal censor and his outspoken statements (Bush doesn’t care about black people ring a bell?  Not that I’m saying he was wrong, just that his delivery could use some work), but I have to say I think if handled correctly this could be a wonderful program, both to view, and for those it will help.

So there you go, things to watch out for while flipping the channels at home.

So, I was reading the news today- trying to find an article worth writing about… and I just couldn’t do it.

I looked at all the stories which are the same as yesterday’s stories, and likely the same as tomorrow’s stories, and I couldn’t work up the will to tackle another one today.

However, one of my other endeavors outside of this site is writing a poem a day for my next book due out next year.  And in today’s poem, I vented my frustrations at the news, and the world, and all of us- the consumers of media and info-tainment, and I figured I’d go ahead and share it with you here readers.  I promise I’ll return to writing news commentary pieces again tomorrow, but for now, enjoy something a little different…

july 16th poem

I picked up the news today and flipped pages and felt outrages
at the senseless acts of inhumanity that I found myself reading about
want to see what I mean these fiends phonies frauds and mother fuckers
what are they doing?  well let me count it out
1- housing lender fraud
2- wars and disputes over god
3- downsizing of the countries jobs
4- the governing of the government by a brainless slob
5- medical coverage of erectile dysfunction over birth control
6- south american women and children being bought and sold
7- the rich getting richer while the poor get more   poor
8- the buying out and closing down of mom and pop   stores
9- refusing the rights of human rights to humans, right?
10- detainees being sent to other countries to be tortured out of sight
11- our young men and women being sent to die without knowing why
12- the politicians and CEOs and news media all feeding us lies
13- more care being given to young starlets
who are more like modern time harlots
drinking and driving
doing drugs and thriving
on negative press
opening their legs and showing their breasts
reality tv
celeb babies
mindless nonsense
that offends my good sense
breath being wasted on all of this waste
when the wasting of our precious world and lives should be what’s in your face
*breath*
but I understand
I understand that it’s hard to deal
when all you get is a raw deal, I know how it feels
I know how it feels to open the paper wanting to skip straight to the “funny”s
rather than reading about how we’re losing the value of money
I know how it feels to want to check the latest sports scores and stats
rather than reading about the latest shooting that occurred not blocks from where you’re at
I know how it feel to want to check the tv listings to see what’s going to be on tonight
rather than think about another day having to go out and face injustices- it ain’t right
but we have to
we have to let go of our aversion to knowing and embrace knowledge despite ignorance’s bliss
because if we don’t, if we won’t  we will lose all of this.

…I could set that up for a bad joke, but instead I’ll just go right into the meat of the matter.

Barack Obama has informed the Republicans through the media that they had better lay off his wife Michelle when the Primaries end and the race for the White House begins, or else… umm… something. Yeah.

Well, I hate to say it, but to quote one of my favorite comic book characters of all time “Sorry Bub”. Welcome to the public arena. Everything you, and those associated with you, do or say in view of the world- will be witnessed and commented upon by everyone, and I mean everyone (hell, probably even me and Ms. Missive).

Besides, it’s not like your campaign hasn’t had a few things to say about another Prez hopeful’s significant other, I mean, granted Bill Clinton is a slightly more public figure having been the President already, and still being a public social and political figure, whos past job makes his public appearances an endorcement from a big wig in the Dem party, as well as from a husband in the case of Hillary, but still, fair is fair.

Cindy McCain hasn’t been completely left out either, as her refusal to disclose tax information as the other candidate’s families have done has stirred a few pots, but isn’t as heavily commented upon as, well, Michelle Obama saying she didn’t used to be proud of her country. But she said it in public, and as any celeb (and let’s be honest, in America politicians are far less scrutinized than the pop diva of the moment) will tell you- what you say and do in public is fair game for the media, and those who can gain from your missteps.

So you have two options, lighten up, toughen up, and learn to take the heat- or lock her up from the public eye until the whole campaign is over.

Your choice.

Here are a few things you’ll take away after watching part 2 of Bush’s War:

• The military planning of the Iraq invasion never seriously took into account the amount of civilian unrest that would follow the ousting of Saddam. 
• Our government actually thought our military would be withdrawn from Iraq by December 2003.  That’s eight months after the initial invasion.
• We put all our eggs in the “weapons of mass destruction basket” and our strategy was shattered when they never materialized.

The series ends at the beginning of the 2006 troop surge. 

Absent from Frontline’s analysis of the Iraq invasion is Gen. Petraeus who spearheaded the new surge plan that helped reinforce our “clear, hold, and build” strategy.  Absent also is the cost of the war in American and international deaths and in economic strain.

The final words are a grim reminder of where we are today after five years of an American presence in Iraq and seven years in Afghanistan.  Are the narrators words a bit too liberal?  Should we be thinking with more optimism?  Watch and read for yourself.

NARRATOR:

Violence is down in Iraq. They are cautiously calling clear, hold and build a success. But at a cost. The troops and reserves are stretched dangerously thin. The military worries how long the surge can be sustained. In his last State of the Union address, George W. Bush made a final plea to history …

PRESIDENT BUSH:

“The mission in Iraq has been difficult and trying for our nation. But it is in the vital interest of the United States that we succeed. We must do the difficult work today so that years form now, people will look back and say that this generation rose to the moment, prevailed in a tough fight, and left behind a more hopeful region and a safer America.”

NARRATOR:

Soon Bush’s war will be handed to someone new.

Frontline ”Bush’s War” part 1 on PBS: 

After watching a majority of the two and a half hour first installment of “Bush’s War” on PBS last night, I asked myself, “Where’s Bush?”. 

He was a mysteriously absent character in the march our nation took towards war with Iraq.  For a series that had devoted itself with great detail and accuracy to document one of our nations biggest blunders, I’m a little disturbed at how blind sided I feel that I’ve misplaced blame.

It’s been easy pointing a finger at Bush all these years.  He’s essentially an educated yokel.  Blunders seem like they come naturally to a character who spoke of the internet in the plural form and confused Austria with Australia.

The truth of the situation (as Frontline reported it) showed Vice President Dick Cheney and (then) Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld throwing their weight around the White House with vicious tenacity.  

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that Bush is blameless.  He still signed his name on documents that (some would argue) illegally gave him power to make decisions that superceed the votes of Congress, the House of Representatives, and ultimately the American public (see: Patriot Act and torture bill of 2006). 

But part one of the series essentially outlined a war that was orchestrated and devised by a close knit group of high powered officials who whispered opinions into the ear of our President.  I suppose this shouldn’t be a surprise.  Bush has long been called a puppet.

Part one left us a week before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.  Up to this point the focus was Afghanistan.  It was clearly determined the attacks of 9/11 were directly linked with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.  Not Iraq. 

Do you hear that people?  9/11 was never directly linked to Iraq.  I’m glad we’ve gotten the air cleared on that one.  I’m tired of arguing otherwise with the less informed.

Tonight we’ll dive right into the invasion of Iraq and the massive bumbles that will ensue.  If you missed part one (or can’t be home to watch part two tonight), PBS is airing the complete 4 1/2 hour series online at PBS.com. If you can only watch one program about the Iraq and Afghanistan war, this would be the one to catch.