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Politics : Bush Administration's Media Manipulation--MediaGate? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (5018)	9/16/2005 2:42:02 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9838

Music That Bush Clearly Doesn't Hear by John Nichols Last spring, in an attempt to make President Bush appear to be more of a regular guy, the White House released a list of the tunes the commander in chief was listening to on his iPod. The list featured mostly country, alt-country and blues artists, including John Fogerty, John Hiatt, Alan Jackson, George Jones and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Perhaps the most interesting name on Bush's listening list was that of James McMurtry, the brilliant Austin-based songwriter who used his 2004 live album to poke fun at the president's attempts to fake a Texaser-than-thou accent. McMurtry responded to the news that Bush's playlist included his song "Valley Road" by politely suggesting that the president might not be the most serious listener of his songs, which frequently detail the damage done to Americans by rampaging corporatists and an uncaring government. In case there was any doubt about the differences between George W. Bush's worldview and James McMurtry's, the musician posted a savage critique of the president and his pals, "We Can't Make It Here," on his Web site shortly before last year's election. That song, a haunting reflection on corporate globalization and wars of whim, was the highlight of McMurtry's set last month when he played at Camp Casey, the protest vigil organized outside the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch by Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq. McMurtry did not write the song to cheer on Sheehan's demand that the president meet with her, but it sure sounded as if he had when he sang out its cry for attention to the working poor who have lost their jobs to "free trade" and their children to a war founded on lies. Written in the voice of a textile worker whose job was lost when a factory was shuttered and the production sent overseas, McMurtry closes his opus by asking: Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today No I hate the men sent the jobs away I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams All lily white and squeaky clean They've never known want, they'll never know need Their sh- don't stink and their kids won't bleed Their kids won't bleed in the damn little war And we can't make it here anymore Will work for food Will die for oil Will kill for power and to us the spoils The billionaires get to pay less tax The working poor get to fall through the cracks Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake Let 'em eat sh-, whatever it takes They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps If they can't make it here anymore And that's how it is That's what we got If the president wants to admit it or not You can read it in the paper Read it on the wall Hear it on the wind If you're listening at all Get out of that limo Look us in the eye Call us on the cell phone Tell us all why George Bush refused to look Cindy Sheehan in the eye. And James McMurtry won't be singing at the White House anytime soon. But he will be playing at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Madison's Cafe Montmartre. Don't miss the man whose songs speak more truth about America in five minutes than George W. Bush has in five years. John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times. E-mail: jnichols@madison.com © 2005 The Capital Times