Tuesday, October 21, 2008

An Open Letter to Pete Townshend and Roger Daltry


Dear Pete and Roger:

First let me say that I am a life-long fan, having first rocked out to "Who's Next" as a coming-of-age 12 year old in my room 37 years ago as my mother screamed "turn that noise down," and have been blasting The Who right through to yesterday while banging the "Baba O'Riley" drums on my steering wheel. You guys are rock and roll history. Living legends. Your music transformed a generation. And now, through your music once again, you have an unprecedented opportunity to help change America's political landscape and inspire voters of all generations.

So as we near this historic election just 15 days from now, I implore you to offer the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama the use of your classic "Won't Get Fooled Again." The lyrics could not be more appropriate:

...The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the foe, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the next war


I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!


...Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss


Imagine an Obama commercial that starts off with graphic images of the Iraq war, Guantanamo Prison, Hurricane Katrina, the Wall Street meltdown, unemployment lines, $4.00 gas signs...with a slowly building "Won't Get Fooled Again" underscoring it all. As the song's volume builds to a peak, the ad ends with the infamous image of Sen. John McCain hugging President Bush, as we hear the lyrics "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss,"...as a voiceover then says "John McCain. George Bush. They're one and the same. Don't get fooled again. On November 4th, vote for Barack Obama."

C'mon, whattya say, fellas? Let's put that classic rocker to some awesomely good use these next two weeks.


On another subject......TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE for the November 17 Second Annual Adrienne Shelly Foundation Fundraising Gala at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Join us for a terrific evening of music, comedy and film, with scheduled appearances by Paul Rudd, Jeremy Sisto, Ken Burns, Cheryl Hines, Mary Louise Parker, Kristen Bell, Lili Taylor, Ally Sheedy, Marisa Tomei, Keri Russell, Gina Gershon and others. To learn more about our mission, to make a tax-deductible donation, and to purchase tickets, please visit our website. Every contribution helps preserve Adrienne's legacy, allows us to help others, and creates something positive out of the tragic loss two years ago of an incredibly loving and talented woman.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Mark my words ... it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
-- Joe Biden, October 10, 2008

Joe Biden admits that America's enemies see Obama as WEAK.

Anonymous said...

Every day I just shake my head and think: Please, voters, can't we just move on from the last horrible 8 years? All we see at McCain/Palin rallies is bitter, racist ignorant white people (I am white). I am so sick of their ilk and ashamed of them too.

If McCain/Palin wins, I don't know what will become of our once great country.

Athena Smith said...

"Too bad they are not Americans."

SO WHAT?
Yeats was not American either. Can't we quote him occasionally?

Anonymous said...

I'm sick of the Repubs using religion to hold voters with low information (stupid?).

Anonymous said...

In light of Obama's socialist and Black Liberation Theology connections, I object to the word "revolution" in the lyrics. Not only that, Obama represents and is supported by a large number of black racists which is as frightening as any white racists who live among us.

Sidney Condorcet said...

Idiot at 8:52am,

Biden says nothing about Obama being weak, you damn simpleton. He merely says that the new president will be tested by America's enemies. Does that come as a surprise to you and your ilk?

Kennedy: Cuba
Reagan: Attack on Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983.
Clinton: First attack on World Trade Center.
Bush: 9/11

So were all these Presidents said to be weak merely because, as Biden would have said, they were tested by foreign crisis early in their Administrations? Just more distortions and distractions from McCain and Republicans who are blindly groping for an answer to the $100,000 question: How the fuck can McCain possibly win this election?

Anonymous said...

Sure Athena, we'd love you to remind us of what Yeats said that might be relevant to America, our government and politics.

How about this Yeat's quote:

"All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions." -- applicable to Obama and socialism.

Anonymous said...

Sidney, Sidney, Sidney -- Biden said "HE WILL NEED HELP." A strong, experienced, wise leader would not need Biden's nor anybody else's help.

Therefore, a thinking person would conclude that Biden thinks OBama is weak.

Sidney Condorcet said...

Obama has an empty soul? Who are you, Bush, now 9:36am? Did you look into Obama's eyes and "see his soul" as your pathetic idol, George Bush said with regard to KGB Putin? You have positively no basis for knowing someone's soul, or lack thereof. You merely spew garbage and are so impressed with yourself that you fail to see that your empty aspersions against Obama and his "empty soul" signify something truly troubling that evidently stirs in your own soul.

Anonymous said...

9:26

In light of you not even know how much of our government is socialist, I am embarassed for you. Please you are just showing that you are a "low information" voter.

Sidney Condorcet said...

Not exactly, 9:41am, a "thinking person" would realize that the United States does not act solely through the President of the United States. He does not "go it alone". Biden was making a case for unification and solidarity. But after 8 long years of Bush and American isolation, I understand if you and your kind consider coordination, unity and strength through alliances to be a sign of weakness.

History is turning a page on your ideology and small-minded politics, my friend. Try to keep up. We're not about to get caught up again in distortions, semantics, and the like.

Anonymous said...

9:41

All presidents need help. Like W was ready to lead.

You are just one of those "low information" voters we keep hearing about. Repubs count on folks like you big time.

Anonymous said...

"Odi profanum vulgus et arceo."--Horace

"I hate the ignorant crowd and keep them at a distance."

Anonymous said...

Sidney, this requires your full attention;

One cannot "see" into another's soul, despite the Bush claim.

One can only judge and evaluate another by his actions and beliefs. The other blogger was implying, based on the Yeats' quote mentioned by Athena, that Obama is an "empty soul" because of his belief in socialism. That, to that blogger, indicates a deficienty in Obama.

He was not mystically "knowing" his soul. And it was a tiny retort to Athen's charge of "SO WHAT?"

Anonymous said...

What Biden said was that Obama would need help. After that, all the rest is interpretation. Yes, the President is not a King, yet, so he will need the Congress to vote and support him. Maybe Biden was saying that we'd better elect Dems to be the majority in Congress.

Maybe Biden was "blowing his own horn" and saying he would be the one to help Obama, so it's "not to worry" if Obama is elected.

Maybe Biden, as subtly as he could, was saying that we'd be wise not to elect as our President, someone who is surely to bring a huge challege if not tragedy a la 9/ll to our country and so we should vote for McCain.

We don't know what Biden was implying in his remarks.

I guess the dispised "ignorant crowd" better put on their "thinking caps."

Sidney Condorcet said...

From 10:14am:"that Obama is an "empty soul" because of his belief in socialism"...

First, belief that Obama is an unqualified socialist is completely ridiculous. He's a socialist for rolling back Bush's tax cuts and setting rates where they were under Clinton? Was Clinton a socialist? He's a socialist because he wants to enact health care reform (mind you that he isn't pushing a single-payer model, which would be deemed more in line with the socialist perspective)? The US Chamber of Commerce (a pro-business conservative leaning body) is also advocating major health care reform in order to make American businesses more competitive globally. Is the Chamber of Commerce now socialist?
Obama does not advocate collective ownership, which is at the very heart of socialism. Rather, Obama is a pretty standard, doctrinaire LIBERAL. It tells you a lot about both the decreasing educational standards in this nation as well as how far right our nation moved under Reagan and Bush that we are led to believe that "liberal" is the exact same thing as "socialist".

Before you do anything, please study political theory to uncover the differences between communism (and for that matter between Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism) and socialism and between socialism and social democrats and between them and liberals and then neo-liberals and conservatives and neo-cons and paleo-conservatives and fascists, etc....You clearly have not a clue and too often Republicans compare a standard liberal to a socialist. (And for that matter, shame on Democrats who routinely compare conservatism with fascism).

Second, why would someone who happens to believe in socialism (not a strain of communism) have an "empty soul?" It seems very presumptious of you to knee-jerkedly state that someone lacks a soul due to their political preferences. There are plenty of arguments to be made against socialism, but a resort to such an absurd and hyperbolic statement w/r/t someone's soul just indicates a lack of intellectual seriousness.

Please, bring better game....

Should I say that Pat Buchanan's paleoconservatism implies that he lacks a liver or a cerebral cortex? Pretty laughable, no?

Anonymous said...

Athena,

I have 2 reasons to say, "Too bad they aren't Americans”. 1. I think it's a great song and would have liked an American to have written it. 2. I think if a the Dem.’s used a song that wasn't written by and American the Repug's would be jumping all over it as proof that the Dem.’s are unpatriotic.

I don't think I'm anywhere near in the same league as The Who, but if you listen to the 3 songs I wrote since 2003 I think you will connect with the message. You can listen to them here.

http://www.isound.com/tom_sanders_band

Anonymous said...

Barack Obama . . .

will ultimately prove to be the same as the old boss.


Sorry, but Brzezinski as Obama's foreign policy adviser has been terrorizing for 30+ years; same as the old boss.

Obama will not challenge the illegal, (and ultimate reason why the economy is failing), Federal Reserve; same as the old boss.

Hate to say it, but picking the lesser of two evils plays right into the game of international bankers/corporatists/media owners who, ultimately are pushing both democratic and republic candidates only, completely smothering any other opinion.

SAME AS THE OLD BOSS.


Also, is Obama a natural born citizen of these united states?

OBAMACRIMES dot COM

Anonymous said...

I agree. Their song should be used...but not for either candidate...I think what the lyrics imply(wisely)is as Brian(Monty Python) said to the multitudes: "YOU DON'T NEED TO FOLLOW ANYBODY"

Anonymous said...

Even if Obama were born in Kenya as the lawsuit claims, wouldn't he still be an American citizen because his mother was a USA citizen? Can't find answer. I thought all birth certificates were on file and for all to see. Why can't anyone see Obama's?

Anonymous said...

Sidney,

In the talk to Joe the Plumber Obama said how his tax plan was DIFFERENT from Clintons.

And by the way, in general, you are far too literal-minded to be taken seriously.

Sidney Condorcet said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

It is the voters for Obama who are willing to be fooled again! Obama is just as much a tool of the financial elite as the Republicans are. If you want to really vote for change, vote socialist. My advice to Townshend and Daltry is NOT to allow the Obama campaign corrupt their song!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, Lawsuit filed with HI state supreme court to produce Obama COLB by Oct. 22nd. State Supreme Court has not thrown it out to date.

* Neither have the PA, UT, WA lawsuits been thrown out. (Just a fun fact.)

Obama's grandmother suddenly sick and worth a visit from "THE ONE". Obama clears schedule to be with Grandma, however Michelle and kids are not going to be with, perhaps, dying Grandma.

That's some major cosmic serendipity wouldn't ya say??

What awaits Obama?

Anonymous said...

It is no wonder that Joe Biden thinks "JOBS" is a three letter word, he thinks Franklin Roosevelt went on television from the White House after the stock market crashed in 1929, and he thinks Obama is ready to be President. Joe Biden has scabs in his brain!

"Newly released medical records from vice presidential candidate Joe Biden do not include the results of any recent brain scans, which some experts consider necessary to assess whether the senator is at risk for a repeat of the brain aneurysms that nearly killed him 20 years ago."

Anonymous said...

Oh dear, so the Dems have some great candidates. One that has a personality disorder and the other one with a history of brain aneurysms.

Who needs that kind of trouble?

Anonymous said...

You are fooling yourself. Obama is another puppet on the stage. Do you really know who he is to bare your soul, to believe that this is not yet another illusion delusion?
I would look at Phil Bergs suit, Obama and DNC readily admit he was born in Kenya thereby making his bid for 'president' null and void.
Why do you people fall for the same con? It is truly amazing to behold. The Demonrats and repukelicons are different wings on the same bird.
If you want 'change' take the plunge of truth and vote third party otherwise it will be the same old crap over and over. Obama is another criminal shill along with his ' brother' Insane McCain. Wake up!!!!!

tes said...

Funny thing is CSI uses that song!

I came to work one day and one of the 20-something guys came in and said he heard the CSI Miami theme song on the radio!

all hope is lost...

mister shabbadoo said...

First, I doubt you're a long-time Who fan if you spell Roger Daltrey's last name "Daltry". Second, "Won't Get Fooled Again" isn't an appropriate political song for anyone. Its message is 100% cynical: that no matter WHO gets elected, nothing will change. I don't think that's the message Barack Obama would like to get out to voters.
Better Who songs for the Obama campaign:
"Join Together"
"The Relay"
"Anyway Anyhow Anywhere"