Bonnie Raitt's soulful masterpiece
A Review of Bonnie Raitt’s “Souls Alike” (Capitol Records: 2005)
The incomparable Bonnie Raitt has produced an another incomparable masterpiece. “Souls Alike” confirms that she can create cutting edge new art even after decades at the top, while still being able to connect deep into the mainstream.
Long enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bonnie’s shelf full of Grammys has not compromised her commitment to her craft, her adventurism or the creative demands of her raw talent.
There are ballads on this new album that remind us how Bonnie manages to speak to the pop mainstream with an integral clarity of soul and vision. There are others that take us deep into a world of hard blues and experimental jazz. How she pulls it all off is why she’s, well, Bonnie Raitt.
Three ballads are for the ages.
The incomparable Bonnie Raitt has produced an another incomparable masterpiece. “Souls Alike” confirms that she can create cutting edge new art even after decades at the top, while still being able to connect deep into the mainstream.
Long enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bonnie’s shelf full of Grammys has not compromised her commitment to her craft, her adventurism or the creative demands of her raw talent.
There are ballads on this new album that remind us how Bonnie manages to speak to the pop mainstream with an integral clarity of soul and vision. There are others that take us deep into a world of hard blues and experimental jazz. How she pulls it all off is why she’s, well, Bonnie Raitt.
Three ballads are for the ages.
Torture and the “Controversial” Arc of Injustice
Several decades ago, “controversial” subjects in news media included
many issues that are now well beyond controversy. During the first
half of the 1960s, fierce arguments raged in print and on the
airwaves about questions like: Does a black person (a “Negro,” in the
language of the day) have the right to sit at a lunch counter, or
stay at a hotel, the same way that a white person does? Should the
federal government insist on upholding such rights all over the
country?
Some agonizing disputes, in the media and on the ground, came to a climax with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Suddenly, after many decades of struggles against Jim Crow, federal law explicitly barred racial discrimination in public accommodations and employment. After President Lyndon Johnson signed the measure, saying “Let us close the springs of racial poison,” controversy faded about access to restaurants and hotels.
Some agonizing disputes, in the media and on the ground, came to a climax with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Suddenly, after many decades of struggles against Jim Crow, federal law explicitly barred racial discrimination in public accommodations and employment. After President Lyndon Johnson signed the measure, saying “Let us close the springs of racial poison,” controversy faded about access to restaurants and hotels.
Rhetoric and reality in the business of getting rid of black people
Every year or so, some right-winger in America lets fly in public with a ripe salvo of racism, and the liberal watchdogs come tearing out of their kennels, and the neighborhood echoes with the barks and shouts. The right-winger says he didn't mean it, the president "distances himself," and the liberals claim they're shocked beyond all measure. Then, everyday life in racist America resumes its even course.
This past week it's been the turn of that conservative public moraliser, William Bennett. He should have known better than to loose off a hypothetical on his radio show. Announce publicly that "if you wanted to reduce crime, you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down," and many Americans reckon that's no hypothesis, that's a plan waiting to happen.
This past week it's been the turn of that conservative public moraliser, William Bennett. He should have known better than to loose off a hypothetical on his radio show. Announce publicly that "if you wanted to reduce crime, you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down," and many Americans reckon that's no hypothesis, that's a plan waiting to happen.
Bunker Time: Harriet Miers
AUSTIN, Texas -- Uh-oh. Now we are in trouble. Doesn't take much to read the tea leaves on the Harriet Miers nomination. First, it's Bunker Time at the White House. Miers' chief qualification for this job is loyalty to George W. Bush and the team. What the nomination means in larger terms for both law and society is the fifth vote on the court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Aside from that bothersome little matter, the Miers appointment is like that of John Roberts -- could've been worse. Not as bad as Edith Jones, not as bad as Priscilla Owen -- and you should see some of our boy judges from Texas.
Miers, like Bush himself, is classic Texas conservative Establishment, with the addition of Christian fundamentalism. What I mean by fundamentalist is one who believes in both biblical inerrancy and salvation by faith alone.
Aside from that bothersome little matter, the Miers appointment is like that of John Roberts -- could've been worse. Not as bad as Edith Jones, not as bad as Priscilla Owen -- and you should see some of our boy judges from Texas.
Miers, like Bush himself, is classic Texas conservative Establishment, with the addition of Christian fundamentalism. What I mean by fundamentalist is one who believes in both biblical inerrancy and salvation by faith alone.
The big picture
AUSTIN, Texas -- Sometimes it helps to draw back from what's going on, to see if any patterns emerge from the chaos of daily events. In the news biz, attempts to see the Big Picture are known as thumbsuckers and regarded with appropriate contempt.
On the famous other hand, it's also sometimes the only way to see the much bigger stories that seep and creep all around us without anyone ever calling a press conference, or issuing talking points, or having gong-show debate over them.
Everybody and his dog in the political commentating trade now agrees the Bush administration is experiencing hard times -- the going is getting tough, and Bush is getting testy. Bush always gets testy under stress. This is not news.
On the famous other hand, it's also sometimes the only way to see the much bigger stories that seep and creep all around us without anyone ever calling a press conference, or issuing talking points, or having gong-show debate over them.
Everybody and his dog in the political commentating trade now agrees the Bush administration is experiencing hard times -- the going is getting tough, and Bush is getting testy. Bush always gets testy under stress. This is not news.
Why the nomination of Harriet has to be looked at below the radar
You have heard of CAFTA. This is CYAF. Cover Your A** Fast. Bush has nominated someone in his lame duck soon to be scandalized second term whom he thinks will Cover his tail if all his misdeeds regarding torture, unlawful detention, violation of international law and Geneva Conventions, election fraud, and other heinous high crimes comes home to roost in a big constitutional way before the Supreme Court. Half the country hopes like hell it will.
I don't think that the Supreme Court nominee should be someone who is so little qualified and mainly only qualified for her CYAF features and women's intuition.
I don't find that the women is objectionable because she is a woman attorney -- a (cry me a river) hard luck story (as if thousands of others of us didn't have to deal with an ill parent and the financial pressures of a law school education) and a "first" - in a series of breakthroughs for women in ONE CITY in Texas. One City. Dallas. I applaud her for it. However, The greater the victim the better the Supreme Court Justice does not make.
I don't think that the Supreme Court nominee should be someone who is so little qualified and mainly only qualified for her CYAF features and women's intuition.
I don't find that the women is objectionable because she is a woman attorney -- a (cry me a river) hard luck story (as if thousands of others of us didn't have to deal with an ill parent and the financial pressures of a law school education) and a "first" - in a series of breakthroughs for women in ONE CITY in Texas. One City. Dallas. I applaud her for it. However, The greater the victim the better the Supreme Court Justice does not make.
Bill Bennett’s comments emerge from an ideology that is classic white supremacy, Rev. Jesse Jackson says
CHICAGO – The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., Founder and President of the RainbowPUSH Coalition, issued the following statement in response to the inflammatory comments about African Americans made by nationally-syndicated talk show host William Bennett, who was the former Secretary of Education under President Ronald Regan:
Bill Bennett’s statement was a morally degenerate statement that had genocide as its logical conclusion. His statement comes from a philosophy that blacks are a problem. It is an ideology of white supremacy. This is classic supremacy, white Neanderthal supremacy.
The tragedy of Bennett’s comment is that he still influences public policy. He was grappling with a possible solution that was very offensive. Like so many right-wingers, he has been a wolf in sheep’s clothing for a long time. His comments remind us of the derogatory statements made by others: Trent Lott, wishing Strom Thurmond had been president; and Mrs. (Barbara) Bush, saying the evacuees lying on the floor of the Houston Astrodome were better off than they were in New Orleans. These are cultural statements, and they remind all us of the deeply rooted compulsion of racism.”
Bill Bennett’s statement was a morally degenerate statement that had genocide as its logical conclusion. His statement comes from a philosophy that blacks are a problem. It is an ideology of white supremacy. This is classic supremacy, white Neanderthal supremacy.
The tragedy of Bennett’s comment is that he still influences public policy. He was grappling with a possible solution that was very offensive. Like so many right-wingers, he has been a wolf in sheep’s clothing for a long time. His comments remind us of the derogatory statements made by others: Trent Lott, wishing Strom Thurmond had been president; and Mrs. (Barbara) Bush, saying the evacuees lying on the floor of the Houston Astrodome were better off than they were in New Orleans. These are cultural statements, and they remind all us of the deeply rooted compulsion of racism.”
Will Harriet Miers vote to overturn Bush’s conspiracy conviction?
An angry groundswell has risen against the appointment of George W. Bush’s personal attorney to the US Supreme Court.
One key question must be asked: as a Justice, would she soon be asked to rule on a conspiracy conviction against her present boss?
In light of the new indictments against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the question may not be so far fetched.
DeLay was originally indicted on charges of violating campaign finance law. His lawyers have quickly raised serious technical challenges.
But now two additional charges have been filed by a second grand jury. Conspiracy is involved, taking things to a whole other level, including the possibility of jail time.
The prospect of “The Hammer” duck-walking in orange polyester to a Texas prison cell may warm progressive hearts everywhere. But there’s a much deeper message here about the case of Valerie Plame.
One key question must be asked: as a Justice, would she soon be asked to rule on a conspiracy conviction against her present boss?
In light of the new indictments against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the question may not be so far fetched.
DeLay was originally indicted on charges of violating campaign finance law. His lawyers have quickly raised serious technical challenges.
But now two additional charges have been filed by a second grand jury. Conspiracy is involved, taking things to a whole other level, including the possibility of jail time.
The prospect of “The Hammer” duck-walking in orange polyester to a Texas prison cell may warm progressive hearts everywhere. But there’s a much deeper message here about the case of Valerie Plame.
Did Bush administration attack peace movement with military grade biological bacteria?
What do we make of the Saturday, October 1 Washington Post headline “Poison Found in Air During Anti-War Protest”?
Washington D.C. Public Health Director Greg A. Pane posed the right question in the Post article, “Why that day? That’s what is not explained.” Pane pointed that it was “just this 24-hour period and none since.”
The Post noted that Pane found “. . . it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the mall was packed with people.”
Puzzling? Indeed. Biohazard sensors detected tularemia bacteria at the mall on Saturday, September 24.
Equally puzzling was an earlier Post report: “Weekend protesters hit travel snags.” The article reported that Amtrak trains from New York City were turned back, cancelled or delayed from heading to the nation’s capitol for the biggest peace demonstration since the Vietnam War era. Also, Metro subway cars coming into the capitol were disrupted by repairs.
Federal officials are still pondering the death of five people on U.S. soil and scores of others who were infected with U.S. military-grade anthrax in the fall of 2001.
Washington D.C. Public Health Director Greg A. Pane posed the right question in the Post article, “Why that day? That’s what is not explained.” Pane pointed that it was “just this 24-hour period and none since.”
The Post noted that Pane found “. . . it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the mall was packed with people.”
Puzzling? Indeed. Biohazard sensors detected tularemia bacteria at the mall on Saturday, September 24.
Equally puzzling was an earlier Post report: “Weekend protesters hit travel snags.” The article reported that Amtrak trains from New York City were turned back, cancelled or delayed from heading to the nation’s capitol for the biggest peace demonstration since the Vietnam War era. Also, Metro subway cars coming into the capitol were disrupted by repairs.
Federal officials are still pondering the death of five people on U.S. soil and scores of others who were infected with U.S. military-grade anthrax in the fall of 2001.