Tuesday, February 28, 2006

RICKIE LEE JONES DOESN'T LIKE RIGHT-WINGERS, DOESN'T LIKE TURNCOATS... AND DOESN'T LIKE JOE LIEBERMAN

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I can't believe the electricity went down in North-Central L.A. today-- where I live. Like 3 blocks from me, it was all cool, but I've been off line since 3AM. I want to get to work on some follow-up to yesterday's story on how Joe Lieberman and his fundamentalist and hypocritical allies tried to demonize rock'n'roll and youth culture and use it as a way to raise money and to scare voters. I've been hearing back from dozens of artists and managers today and over the course of the next few days I'll share some of the e-mails I've been getting. The very first one came in from one of the most talented singer-songwriters I ever had the honor of working with, Rickie Lee Jones. Rickie is also one of the best-informed artists I've ever talked with, not just intuitively progressive to the core but also right up to the minute on what's going on in the "real world." She dashed off an e-mail about her own impressions of Lieberman within minutes of reading my post. And... here it is:


Lieberman was the first indication that there were actually Republicans in the Democratic Party.  Forgive my naivety, but before the series of betrayals by Lieberman against important progressive legislation... I thought people with his sensibilities, voting for the war, for the Patriot Act, and voting against Medicare benefits for a very severely taxed generation of elderly ill, and against the few ideological stands the so-called left has been willing to brush up against since Bush took office... here were registered Republicans. Herr Lieberman helped me realize there is not much of a fine line left between the middle of the right and the edge of the left. We have moved so far over that even middle America stands perched on one foot, with it's one strand of hair tossed across its frowning face, trying to straighten the coffee in a cup that will forever be leaning far too right to ever feel balanced again. 

No good American can go out into the street today and not turn gray with nausea at the complacency of every single newspaper, financial institution, and influential individual in the conspiracy to keep this unqualified,  uneducated, unelected criminal in office.  Lieberman was an important candidate, and he, above all of them, is a turn coat who helped to nullify the potency of the left.

-Rickie Lee Jones
February 27, 2006


WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE: LIEBERMAN MAY NOT HAVE RLJ, BUT HE DOES HAVE THE GOP!

One of Connecticut's largest newspapers reports today that the Republican Party is talking about endorsing Lieberman in his re-election bid. And why shouldn't they? He votes with them whenever it's important anyway. In fact, one of the fake moderate Republicans in Connecticut, Chris Shays, has already endorsed him (although Lieberman is supposedly campaign a bit for Shays' Democratic opponent, Diane Farrell, who, unlike Lieberman, opposes Bush's occupation of Iraq).

30 Comments:

At 3:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yay Rickie!!!!

 
At 4:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rickie has always been a shining light.

 
At 4:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

ya know..when are regular folks gonna put it on the line like RLJ? What are u prepared to do besides posting..bitching to friends who think like you..showing up on occasion with a sign? R U willing to disrupt your life by commiting a little reasonable resistence that results in your arrest? ..f you are not willing to make a reasonable sacrifice than you don't really believe. It ain't really no big deal.. ask Cindy Sheehan and 1,000's of others who have been arrested/detained in our country in the past three years. In June, with 11 others I will be found guilty in Colorado for blocking an entrance at a recruiting station in Lakewood Colorado last Nov..going to jail ain't nothin'...only filling the jails with resonable people requires at the very least a local bond issue to build bigger jails..Dignity/Compassion/Hey No Blood for Oil/ Bring'em Home NOW ..and don't forget to Dance ..Drew Edmondson (not the OK DA)

 
At 6:28 PM, Blogger FastMovingCloud said...

I've always loved Rickie, but now it's tenfold!

 
At 7:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

2 weeks ago I sent a copy of the Conn voter registration form with the "Republican" political affiliation box checked.

Simply asked him if he would be so kind to fill it out and mail it in.

 
At 7:44 PM, Blogger Eidin said...

I love Rickie Lee Jones. Saw her perform last June and she sang a song that I remember being something like "George Bush is a Bad Man."

Anyway, if you've had time to read some political books this past year, come by and check out the nominees (and vote) for Best Political Book at Nite Swimming.

http://niteswimming.blogspot.com

 
At 9:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good-looking and smart, too!

 
At 9:37 PM, Blogger DownWithTyranny said...

Sakitume, thanks for your comments. I do beg to differ with you on a couple of points you raised. According to ProgressivePunch's analysis of all of his senate votes, Lieberman has fairly abysmal records on some key Democratic positions (even aside from his pro-Bush stand on war and peace): particularly Labor Rights and Corporate subsidies. He votes with the Republicans almost as much as he votes with the Democrats on key, non-procedural issues. As far as being pro-choice and accepting of gay people, you have fallen for his spin. Pro-choice Democrats voted against cutting off debate on Alito. The ONLY way Alito-- a vicious anti-choice activist with an extremist agenda regarding women's rights in general-- could have been stopped would have been for Democrats to filibuster his tragic appointment to the Supreme Court. Lieberman made sure that failed. That is as anti-choice a vote as any Democrat could have taken since Bush took over the White House. And being accepting of gay people is patently absurd. Lieberman is a moralistic prig who looks down on gay people as less than equal. One of the idiotic prohibitions he was pushing for in his attempt to censor music was to treat any implication of homosexuality in a song or video as pornographic so that the materials would not be carried in 70% of retail accounts. He isn't advocating putting gays in concentration camps, of course, but this is 2006 America, not 1940 Germany, and someone who thinks a songwriter who mentions something gay is writing pornography is hardly "accepting of gays."

 
At 12:04 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is so rare to hear a public figure actually, flat-out, no taking into account the opposing talking points, just say what we all know - it floors me every time. Yay Rickie !!! But where are the rest of you???

We all live here. And, no matter how Rove, Luntz, Matalin and Hughes try to frame it, the government/corporate control is so invasive, you can't miss it anymore. And, maybe a lot of America would be fine with that - everyone is busy with their own lives - but they are so incompetent and greedy they are screwing EVERYTHING up.

 
At 2:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The wonderful Ms. Jones -- beautiful, sexy, angelic voice -- now I love her even more! :-)

come have a looky-loo, y'all....

 
At 3:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Write the song, Rickie Lee. We need the song. Put it in words to music for us all to hear and sing to ourselves. Music and words that will stay in my head and help me believe that something can be done, something I can do.

 
At 4:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

thank you for this--keep up the great work.

 
At 4:55 AM, Blogger Shrink Rat said...

I'm an old clinical psych who started his new epiphany by learning about peak oil, then 911, then Illegal war, and you know the litany. Always felt something was wrong about Lieberman from the days he ran with Gore.
But haven't listening to much contemporary music and had no idea who RLJ was/is. So now the question is, which albums should I buy? Cause she tells it straight.
rdw

 
At 5:44 AM, Blogger DownWithTyranny said...

Richard, probably the two classic albums are PIRATES and RICK LEE JONES. But if you're new to Ricky Lee's music, you might just start with THE DUCHESS OF COOLSVILLE, a recently-released best of type collection. A few months ago I brought a 16 year old punk rock musician who had never heard of RLJ to a Rickie Lee concert and he was so impressed that he went out and bought all her CDs and then started learning her songs. (He now performs "Chuck E's in Love.") One more thing-- THE EVENING OF MY BEST DAY has, among other gems, a great song she wrote about Bush called "Ugly Man."

 
At 6:24 AM, Blogger Dave Ramacitti said...

I think it was Gen. Shinseki --- yes, the guy who tried to warn Bush of the mess Iraq would become if he invaded and was rewarded with forced retirement --- who said: "If you don't like change, you'll like irrevelvancy even less." The Democratic Party had better wake up, because each day they're becoming less relevant.

 
At 8:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So now RLJ will have her phones tapped...pffft. I'm going out this weekend and buying all her CDs that I don't already have. Call it the "Dixie Chicks policy." (:>

 
At 8:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rickie's been speaking out against this administration for years. Way back when it wasn't popular.

Her last album The Evening of My Best Day
Had at least three anti-Bush songs
('Ugly Man', 'Little Mysteries' & 'Lap Dog')
You can give them a listen here:
http://www.greatbigisland.com/detail_evening.htm

I always wished the bogs had given her a little more support, 'cause she's one of us!

Check out her site:
http://www.rickieleejones.com/

 
At 8:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Richard, I tend to think of the album with Chuck e's in Love as the classic. & Down with Tyranny, I know quite a few diehard Ricky Lee Jones fans here in Connecticut. If only we could get them to get out and vote.

 
At 9:13 AM, Blogger Wess said...

Quote-
"No good American can go out into the street today and not turn gray with nausea at the complacency of every single newspaper, financial institution, and influential individual in the conspiracy to keep this unqualified, uneducated, unelected criminal in office. Lieberman was an important candidate, and he, above all of them, is a turn coat who helped to nullify the potency of the left."

BRILLIANT!! Well said Nicki! ... You should be very proud of yourself girl and please don't let any detracters seter you.
Once again...Well Done!

 
At 9:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

POP POP goes my heart!
If you want to welcome RLJ into your heart - Naked Songs is a nice way to leave the porch light on.

RLJ , making me laugh and cry since
79

 
At 9:34 AM, Blogger Bob Harrison said...

I've certainly changed my opinion of Liberman in the last few months. I didn't realize what he was from the MSM but once I started reading the blogs the "scales fell from my eyes."

 
At 12:31 PM, Blogger mainefem said...

I've been a major Rickie Lee Jones fan for *decades* (literally); and so is my daughter.

We feminists gotta stick together!

Go purchase some of Rickie's works, why dontcha?

http://tinyurl.com/eql8b

 
At 1:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Run, Rickie, Run! Your lyrix tell all! Your the best!

 
At 6:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"The Lieberman of 1965"???? Jeeze, he couldn't have been in politics that long. Could he?

 
At 12:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rickie has bared her political soul ever since the current administration took office in 2000, in the press (consider her lengthy interview published in The Guardian), as well as in her music. She has dared to say what she felt, and put her thoughts (brilliant science-politics) into her songs, as is evident in the magnificent political thesis, "Evening of My Best Day." Few artists have been as articulate as Rickie Lee Jones concerning the present malaise. She reminds of Kafka, in this regard, expressing her views wherever there is place or room, be it print, radio, or her art form (contemporary music).

 
At 11:55 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are comparing Joe Lieberman with Nazi's? Guys, stop and think about that for a second. I am a liberal but your rants aren't really even ideological, they just shallow and ignorant.

Disagree with him on the war but NARAL has consistently given him 90% ratings and he pushed for gay rights as Ct. AG - and that was 20 years ago. And he is a vocal proponent of stem cell research.

Liberal hate-mongering is just as pathetic as Conservative hate mongering. You sound like Pat Robertson.

 
At 1:00 PM, Blogger DownWithTyranny said...

I'll assume you're accusing some group of people of comparing Lieberman to Nazis because Rickie Lee used "Herr" instead of "Mr" and maybe she had that in mind. I'm not sure but Germany has a long, long history besides the decade the nazis were in power. But be that as it may, I suppose people do-- unfairly or not, get judged by the company they keep. (Personally I just compare Bush to Hitler... it's just a pure emotional loathing for absolure evil; can't control it. I try.) As far as the NARAL stuff, let me suggest you read Jane's really excellent piece in The Huffington Post last week, which deals really well with the shifty way Lieberman has dealt with woman's issues. As for his "support" of gay rights, he's a bigot who tried to get albums banned from being sold-- an artistic death sentence a market-based economy-- if the songwriter included even one line dealing with homosexuality.

Drop by any time but try to not attack the other bloggers if you can.

 
At 4:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Disagree with him on the war but NARAL has consistently given him 90% ratings and he pushed for gay rights as Ct. AG - and that was 20 years ago. And he is a vocal proponent of stem cell research. "

Pardon me Mr. Liberal anonymous,
but I am very angry. You are accusing people here of extremism. Noone said Nazi. You did. People here are simply stating the facts. If it's punctuated with neocon, liar hypocrite, opportunist, so be it. I know I need to blow off steam.

NARAL asked us prochoice constituents to *thank* Lieberman for voting against the filibuster. And Chaffee as well. NARAL ratings are worth zilch, zero, nothing, nada. I suggest you look at what CT NOW has to say about Lieberman. He's nominally prochoice & only when it suits him.
He courts & he courts. He said he would *lead,* yes, lead the Alito filibuster. Then Lieberman sent us constituents a smug letter as to why he didn't support the Alito filibuster. Don't think he'll stab anyone else in the back. A liar is a liar is liar. Vocal advocate of stem cells? Yeah, unless the republican leadership says otherwise. His record as AG means nothing since he got to D.C. Or you can keep fooling yourself & have your own epiphany when it matters to you later on.

 
At 5:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

And if a woman near and dear to you dies by coathanger in South Dakota or Mississippi, don't say noone warned you. You can thank Joe & Chaffee for supplying the swing vote against the Alito filibuster that has set off a chain of legislation in various states guaranteed to make sure women carry a rapist's baby, or a person with cystic fibrosis or any other illness dies an excruciating and senseless death. I rest my case. I'm actually listening to Rikcie right now.

 
At 11:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You all can check out Rickie's political community site at :

http://www.furnitureforthepeople.com

 

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