Monday, November 06, 2006

it is the eve of the election. if i was a man that believed in prayer, i would be praying alot. i would be praying that americans would use their last chance to send a message to the world that we all did not, and do not support our current administration. what we do on tuesday will be more closely watched, considered and debated everywhere outside the united states than it will be here. if we do not send a clear message to our government, and by extension to the world at large, then we will have missed an opportunity of huge proportion. if we do not take back houses of government, then we will in effect be saying (as we did with the bush re-election in '04), that we, the american people, approve of the violent and simplistic way that our government has been behaving. if we do not stop bush cold, if we then elect a more moderate conservative (like mccain) as our next president, we wil have given our approval, consistently, for eight (and then possibly twelve) years and in front of the eyes of the world, throughout this awful and important era. we will have lost many more hearts and minds, including our own. think. vote.

22 comments:

Brian Smith McCallum said...

Word.

Have the morning off tomorrow, before heading to work in the afternoon/evening. Will be chillin' @ the polling place with my demitasse. In the words of Zach de la Rocha, "You are the witness of change / And to counteract /
We gotta take the power back". Can I get a "Hell, yeah!"?

healtopalm said...

well stated!

here in pennsylvania we are (fingers crossed) going to vote out rick santorum, one of the more conservative senators out there. his opponent is ahead in the polls so i just hope the people who said they would vote for casey actually do it.

Tanya said...

a friend just sent this to me; thought I'd pass it along.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm2OXQh3duI&eurl=

Tanya said...

have you seen any of the President's speech today? a bit painful to watch.

Tanya said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tanya said...

oops, I screwed up my comment-sorry.

hey skull- there's a link to the transcript at CNN's site.
Even if he was throwing around expletives, I'm not sure they would be in there!

I don't know if Gates will be better; my mom retired from the military a few years ago and doesn't have anything good to say about either him or Rummy.

Brian Smith McCallum said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Brian Smith McCallum said...

Who said, "Show me a new breed of leader . . ."?

The above quote is my rallying cry for the elections.

Anonymous said...

hi eric

fantastic to see you've gone and done a blog - an informative and intelligent one at that... wouldnt expect anything less from your funky self.

ralph nader's got some interesting crticism on tuesday. interesting to see a perspective outside the republican/democrat majority. but certainly the news on tuesday's results has been very well received this side of the atlantic.

just a couple more things...

super looking forward to your album dude. you're one huge inspiration - just a guitar player usually but i braved lead vocal for the first time on a couple songs i wrote - your voice being my primary inspiration for singing approach, and strangely enough works best for me too.

secondly, my friend works at warners here and got me an advance copy of recent best of jane's cd. liner notes had deconstruction down as 'destruction'. shocking stuff indeed. i let her know my dismay and word got back to the powers that be - apparently the stock was recalled and the misprint corrected.

sweet.

Anonymous said...

well the polls are in eric, relieved? :D

-ea. said...

thanks for the youtube link tanya. i found it surprisingly moving. being reminded of the fact that one of the most beautiful things about the concept of america is that we are still a nation of immigrants with both past and present cultural/racial diversity. something lost in the current christian whitebread climate.

thanks for the nader link rob. interesting stuff. especially the idea of mandatory voting. they do it in australia and somewhere else, i cant remember now?. i didnt know that. probably would never fly here though. we americans would probably hide our laziness and apathy under the umbrella of personal freedom. we like to do that. it is the same strategy i applied to my life as a teenager. having to do anything that i didnt want to do i looked at as an infringement on my freedom to do whatever i want whenever i wanted.

and yes andy i think relief is the right word. i was surprised at how little i otherwise felt. not especially happy and i cant say i even felt much like gloating. i am only relieved that the current administration has had its violent wings clipped.

Anonymous said...

Politically things worked out well.
Thanks for catching this wave, I look forward to the new music. You can count at least one cd sold.

-ea. said...

skull- biff is on two tracks if i recall correctly. he was great of course. and about general release im not sure. but i am in the process of seeing if i can put together a special cd package as a thank you to all the people who played on the cd. if i can get this done, then we will probably print up a couple hundred extra and make them availabe to folks who want them directly from me or through amazon or something. ill keep you posted here.

Anonymous said...

Hi Eric,

Good to see you posting and blogging as well. Another music question for you; Do you miss playing in a big band in arenas and things like that? Or are you glad not to be doing that at this time?

I pretty much learned to play bass listening to you, the cure and the pixies back in the early 90's. I like how most of jane's best songs were written around the bass line and I took that approach in my band, distant daze. I know you probably don't listen to alot of rock music, but if you want to check out our songs: www.myspace.com/distantdaze

Thank you for writing some of the best bass lines I've ever heard!

Curt

SR said...

Interesting EA. I am not sure that that other countries perceptions about the US is as party driven as it is behavior driven, although I totally agree with the "message" that was sent loud and clear in '04. Sad....very sad, but in turn I hope there are those in other countries that are measured enough to understand that all Americans are not on board with Bush's theocracy. Unfortunately, right now, it doesn't matter, but with the right person in office in '08 it will be those people that offer us some forgiveness and a new beginning.

What we clearly are in desperate need of is another Lincoln, MLK, Churchill, or FDR right now. '08 could possibly be the most important election ever.

SR said...

Interesting EA. I am not sure that that other countries perceptions about the US is as party driven as it is behavior driven, although I totally agree with the "message" that was sent loud and clear in '04. Sad....very sad, but in turn I hope there are those in other countries that are measured enough to understand that all Americans are not on board with Bush's theocracy. Unfortunately, right now, it doesn't matter, but with the right person in office in '08 it will be those people that offer us some forgiveness and a new beginning.

What we clearly are in desperate need of is another Lincoln, MLK, Churchill, or FDR right now. '08 could possibly be the most important election ever.

Be well.

SR said...

Sorry about the double post! It is actually an absence of computer saavy and not megalomania.

-ea. said...

sr- good point. i think you are right. any reasonable person in any country could see that just under half the people here dont buy the bush agenda. but its not the reasonable/thoughtful folk that i am concerned about. those people dont need a big obvious message. but i would like to tell a less well reasoned strata of folks that we dont condone this behavior in as big and bold a way as possible.

yes. '08 will be very interesting.

SR said...

I see your point ea, but those who can see past their anger could be quite helpful in mending the fences. On our end, to the extent that it is incumbent first upon us to send the “message”, it all seems to be simmering right now. Inevitably, there will be a shift from fear driven voting as the singular and all important criteria to a more measured and expansive one. In my lifetime, I have seen the shortsighted, elite promoting, and sometimes evil agendas in wartime followed by a huge shift not just in politics, but in art as well. When all else fails, the search begins again I suppose. I'm ready.

ddz said...

"if i was a man that believed in prayer, i would be praying alot. i would be praying that americans would use their last chance to send a message to the world"

i remember our conversations about politics; they usually consisted in me talking alot.

what was it over the last few years specifically that lit a fire under your ass?

dominic

-ea. said...

dom - generally when we talk about most subjects i would venture that you feel more conviction and belief in your ideas than i. when it comes to politics you are always certainly better informed than i, as well. as for the fire under my ass, people dying in great numbers is the short answer. the first paragraph from the previous post sums: "i think that like most folk (especially american folk) i do not normally consider myself a political person. in more reasonable times i see the battle across the aisle of government being fought by two teams with remarkably similar styles and each representing lobbyist and special interest groups that i know very little about. this battle, in most years, is fought basically to a draw that looks more like kabuki theater than any real exchange of ideas. nothing drastic happens. certainly people dont die at the rate they are dying these days." i hope you are doing alright.

ddz said...

I feel the same way. The daily news is just overwhelming sometimes and the only thing I feellike I can do is talk about it. I'm so happy to have your blog happening. It's great.

I am doing alright. I'm staying in New York for the holidays to finish my graduate school applications, so I won't see you unless you come to NYC. Take good care.